The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-06-14
A DEADLY THRUST AT HIGH SCHOOLS.

will 90 down to postereity with It's memory
blackened by the GROWING nfamy OF havins
made deadly thrust at the cause of popular
education in this state, Senate bill No. 81
rushed through in the closing hours Of III,
session, is an enactment worthy only of the
dark ages, The pride and glory of Prussia i:
her public schools. Even the poorest of hel
population receive what IN other countries is
called classical education. our people arc
surprised, on becoming acquainted with emf.
grants from that country, that even those in
the poorest circumstances in apecunlary point
Of view are educated equal to men who among
us pass for scholars and though strangers TO
our language, customs and institutions, they
soon push themselves forward and take place
among our foremost citizens
New England, for the same reason, has
made herself nearly master of the country.
The influence of her excellent free schools, high
schools and colleges pervades every quarter Of
our land, Recall the names of the great schol.
ans, ClCrgymcn, lawyers, politicians and states
men Of the north, south, east and west, and in
nine cases out Of ten the foundation Of their
emincnce was laid in some high school among
the bleak hills of New England Our litera-
turc, our laws, ourpolitical economy, theology
and philosophy are pervaded all through with
German and New England ideas On account
Of their wide sway the people Of the West are
made the hcwers of wood and drawers Of vat
er to the east.
And the shrewd New Englanders and Md.
die state men who have migrated to and are
filing up the west see this. Travel anywhere
in Minnesota Wisconsin, Nebraska and Kan.
sas, wherever you encounter emigrants from
Germany or the east the first public building
one sees going up, even before the church or
court house, is the school house. Unhappily
a large proportion Of the early immigration
into Illinois was from a different quarter
from the wilds of West Virginia, from the
mountains Of Tennessee and the sandhllls of
North Carolina. Unfortunately for the cause
OF popular education in Illinois, She has her
Egypt, and Egypt being shrouded in darkness
herself is jealous of the light OF intelligence
shining elsewhere, II is to that darkness and
jealousy and the low order Of demagoguery 1t
generates, combined with a certain meanness
stinginess and bigotry that pervade all com.
munites, that Illinois is now indebted for the
humiliation and degradation that threaten her
from the effects Of Senate Bill 81
The bill in question, as most of our readers
are already aware, places it IN the power Of any
80 voters in township in which high school
has been established to submit the question ev.
cry year to vote of the people whether the
high school shall be continued The first eff
feet Of the measure is to unsette the whole
high school business \ good high school is
necessarily the growth Of some years. First
it takes time to effect proper organization
then to get up proper buildings; then TO col
lect library, suitable apparatus, &c. There
are few townships that can afford TO enter up.
on the undertaking of building up high
school with the uncertainties that are thrown
around ii by this infamous bill 81.
Again, there are many towns IN which thous-
ands of dollars have been expended to estab.
lish first class high school, but into which
some big IRON mining or railroad corporation
has elected Il large shifting population, and
such huge corporations having no interest in
schools and being obliged to pay heavy taxes
for their support can easily turn out their ar.
my of Iaborers to the polls and vote down the
high schools
Most high schools, though controlled by
single towns, depend largely for support on
outside pupils. No such pupils will enter up.
on the high school course with the ever-pres.
ent danger that the school may be abolished
When the course is but halt completed.
The whole movement is conceived, in the
first place IN the stinginess and greed Of a
here and there "a wealthy individual, and more
largely Of overgrown heartless corporations :;
and secondly in the interest of private schools
and seminarios of the Squeers order or OF bi.
goted sectarians.
No man understands the drift ofthe measure
better than Gov Culom or must in his heart
have more thoroughly dispised it. His COW.
ardce is all the more blamablc aud conspicu.
GUS in not daring to take the responsibility to
veto It,