Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-08-21
Education by Government.

tional Educational Association, al
Elmira, have given some indications
of u disposition to beg aid of the Gen
eral Government in behalf Of local
schools and colleges, it is safe to infer
that the flower Of this system, the pro
posed National University, has been
nipped in the bud by President Eliot's
report upon the scheme. The search
ING review of the two bills introduced
in Congress, looking to the establish
mcnt ofsuch a University, is thorough
" conclusive of the worthlessness of
the plan that has had four years of
desultory development. Indeed, Prof.
Hoyt seems to have labored to COM
bine all the worst features of the civil
service with errors of college admins,
tration in this cumbrous and imprac-
ticable scheme of Il National Univer-
sity. But it is not with faults of de-
tail, which may be corrected, that the
public now has to do. The funda-
mental idea of national school is an
error; and in maintaining that we
can neither establish nor conduct such
an institution without denying the
principle Of local self government and
seIfdevelopment, President Eliot has
struck at the very root of 4 growing
evil. AS he shows, a National Uni.
yel'sity is the direct sequence of So
called protection to individual domes
tic interests, Of subsidies to steamship
companies, of land grants to railroads
and Of endowments to agricultural
schools and, as he also points out, it
leads naturally to an established Ma
tlonal Church and toa patriarchal,
"Grace Of God, Government.
Such cheek to the centralizino
tendency is most welcome. The hab
it of running to the Federal Govern
ment for help has become alarmingly
prevalent. 1t is no longer single
manufacturer Of macoroni or Of hunt
inc that asks the nation to set him up
in business; but fla State builds u
canal it besieges Congress for aid to-
warp its local improvement, if a Gov
crnor is to elected the Administration
must decide the question Of candidacy,
and if money is tight in Wall street it
is to the Secretary Of the Treasury
that bulls and bears appeal to save
them from loss. The evil influence
has entered into the educational sys-
tenn Of the country through the ap-
Precipitation for Agricultural Colleges,
such only IN name, whose inetliciency
and narrow and sectional character
DR. McCosh so strongly denounced be.
fore this Association. But even the
clear-mindcd President of Princeton
College, while seeing the failure Of the
Government in attempting to subsdize
special schools, yet has a plan of his
own by which tie Government shall
"educate the people," apparently un-
conscious that interference from Wash
ington in any way must lead to de-
moralization. 1t is only 10y keeping
our schools and colleges in local con-
troll that they can be made truly ma
tional in character and in influence, or
can have healthy growth. What
President Eliot proudly calls the "old
Massachusetts method" is that alone
which "breeds 1ree-men'; and the
more thoroughly this theory prevails
in the National Educational Associa-
ton, the more valuable will be the aid
extended by that representative body
of educators to the people in the con-
test against Capitalization in govern
ment.--B0$tOn Post.