Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-06-07

the entire class had places on the floor, tho
president, upon the part of the teachers, salut-
ed the class and bid them farewell.
Rev. DR.. Fiske, of Chicago offered prayer
and the ceremonies were concluded.
THE ALUM DINNER.
At 8 o'clock in the afternoon the Alumi as
sembled at the Nicollet House for the purpose
of partaking of the annual dinner. 1t was an
elegant affair." and one that will long be re-
membered by those who participated therein.
Among the notable speeches of the dinner was
that Of Hon. D. Burt, State Superintendent
Public Instruction, who was called out on the
following sentiment:
The education of the masses. He builds
surely and for aye who lays the foundations
broad and Deep
Mr.. Burt remarked that if he must speak he
was glad to be called up on q sentiment free
from anything cabalistic or abstruse. He un-
derstood the utterance of the president to mean
that to educate the masses is to lay broad and
deep foundations for permanent general sys-
TEN of public instruction, including schools
for higher learning.
This fact was not recognized in ancient
and medieval times. The Parias of In
dia, the Helots of Sparta, the Plebs of Rome
the villains of the feudal ages and the serfs of
modern Europe, were classes which it was not
thought worth while to educate. The so-calIed
universities of Greece were not conducted in
the interest of the masses. Their aim was
military rather than the culture of the people
at large. Boys who entered the schools of
Athens were required to be gymnasts of strong
muscle, devoted to the service of the State.
The schools of Sparta were designed to educate
not all the youth of the country, but only
few for service that would increase the military
power Of the government.
The universities of England did not originate
! as schools for the people. Connected, in their
inception, with the dominant church of the
| age, they mainly educated ecclesiastics and
few, privileged by wealth or high position.
They were agents for maintaining nobility and
class distinctions, un-American in character.
Popular ignorance lived and toiled under the
very shadows Of Oxford and Cambridge fact
| that never be possible of the
University of Minnesota, the doors of
which, from the very first, have been open to
| the yeomanry of the State-to every son of
| labor who has heart and energy to enter-no
| matter how coarse the texture of his coat or
how hard his hands with honest toll. Such in
origin were many of our most successful alum
nj, and of such shall the strength and the glory
| of our university ever consist.
But the education of the masses is
modern idea. 1t was not attempted
in Scandinavian schools previously to
the present century. The peoples schools
| of Germany recent effort in this direc-
ton. 1t is not yet ten years since England
|
original thirteen States had public school sys-
TENS until some time after they were admitted
| into the Union. The free school codes of some
States more recently admitted, do not antedate
| the late war. This question of edncoting the
masses is therefore somewhat problematical.
Can the problem be solved? Can we here in
| Minnesota educate in general the children
of our diverse nationality into the knowledge
and virtue necessary to successful citizenship:
Our department of public instruction is
hopefully at work on the assumption that a
practical solution of this problem of popular
and the only agent for attaining the desired
solution. What is called the voluntary princi-
pie can never establish and support schools
that can gather in and educate the
masses. # this were possible anywhere
EnyanS + m nave onod iee hoveve a0n9 n 1870
that the parochial schools and the charity
schools of London, all told, had failed to
gather in l80 600 children of proper age to be
in school. 1t is significant fact that loo, 600
of these children were brought into the free
government schools of that city in three years,
under the free school act of 1870. Parochial
schools in Minnesota even less efficient as
agents for general education. We do not in
tend to disparage private institutions of learn
ing, when we affirm that the State could never
safely leave to them the work of popular edu.
cation.
Our early educational history affords very
instructive lesson on this subject. During six
years of our territorial existence, from 1852 tc
1857 inclusive, the legislative assembly incor
porated two select schools, two colleges, three
; Institutes six seminares, seven academies anC
nine universities, twenty-ninc in ala grand
constellation of luminaries in higher learning
: grand, however, only III conception
for most of them never took visible forms
and of the few that did come into being, most
soon passed from weak and ,precarious ,ex
istence to the place where wild dreams 60 wher
the dreamer awakes And why was this? Be
cause as projected institutions for higher learn
ing they had no foundation in the educationa
wants Of the people. They were devised al
attractive and profitable features of cities thai
bad been projected on paper and the!
, have gone to be higher institutions
of learning somewhere in the sublime altitude
to which vanishing fantasies ascend if there b.
such region. The lesson taught by thes
=. something like twenty-five unrealised univer
sites, and colleges, and academies, incorpora
ted in brains from which they never came fortl
to local habitations, is, that higher schools o
2 learning cannot exist and thrive in the absence
of good lower schools. To attempt to build VI
2 colleges and universities where there n
r schools for the masses is to attempt the cree
ton of palaces upon the clouds.
In the management of our university let u
+ never forget this fact. IT, as Alumni of thi
2 institution, you would see her have brillian
: future, remember that her foundation mus
ever be the common schools of the State. He
success and her glory must result from a goo
degree of elementary education in the masses
8 In whatever profession or pursuit you ma
3 hereafter find yourselves support and defen
e our common schools. So you build 70
f your honored Alma Mater surely and for aye.
PRESIDENTS RECEPTION.
Last evening the annual reception was he'll
at Prof. Folwells residence on the East side
: The spacious rooms were crowded with a bril-
e liant assembly, and all enjoyed thcmselve
y highly.
/ And thus ends the fifth commencement.