The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-04-24
The Press as an Educator

st. Louis is fortunate in her Superin-
tendent of Schools. The name of DIR. w.
L. Harris is associated in the minds of
most well educated Americans with adj
ministrative qualities of rare order and
discriminative power such as few men
enjoy, and which in his position is inval-
liable. The opinions of such man, re-
speeding educational influence, carry
weight of authority that does not attach
to the views of a less critical observer,
even though they be expressed with
greater eloquence or more oracular as
sumption. In recent lecture before the
Maryland Institute, DR.. Harris handled
an important question and fruitful
theme, 1.-The Press and the School as
Educators" and he treated it, not as one
who had prejudices to crafty or theories
to establish; but rather as patient and
honest investigator, giving actual results
of intelligent thought and observation.
Through the press, he said, "the infu-
ences for education of the home, the
school, of society, of the State and of the
church are brought simultaneously to
bear. Each individual man is brought
into accord with the rest of mankind
Personal rule and will are adjusted to the
universal rule and will. The experience
of each man is communicated so that
each may have the experience of all.
Through the press people develop sympa-
thy and interest beyond their neigh
borhood and locality. Social life
is benefited. The newspaper realizes the
mythical wishing-cap and seven-leagued
boots. Through it the life of the indi-
vidual becomes mixed up with that of
corporations and societies and institu-
tons. The elements of local peculiari-
ties are fast being eliminated in the gem
eral tendency toward common ideal
standard of humanity We do not
know whether Wendell Phillips would
take issue with this estimate, but proba-
| bly, he would. He admits that the press
has power, but he grieves because 1T
seems to him to belittle the great ques-
tons of life-by inviting the world to
laugh where he thinks it ought to scold,
no doubt. We are willing to let one
opinion stand against the other.
The press is the great disseminator of
ideas. 1t is the leaven of society that
tends more than any other influence to
give it unity and homogeneity. 1t does
away largely with local distinctions and
provincial eccentricities. There was a
time, when the almanac was about the
only periodical that entered country
homes, when the rural visitor could be
detected in town, not alone by his
dress and speech, but by his gen.
eral wonder at all that passed be-
fore his vision and trickled into his
mind. He stood more or less dazed by
a revelation for which he was UMPIRE
pared, and he betrayed the fact in his
manner. The daily newspapers had
changed all this. Some may say that
railroads and telegraphs are the forces
that have helped most to fuse society,
but we cannot admit it, except so far as
they have enlarged the field of the news
paper and made it possible for every
country merchant, every farmer and
every mechanic to keep himself in daily
communication with the great world Of
facts and ideas. When a man, little
one side the great centers of society, COM
merce and politics comes into contempla-
ton of the life that distinguishes them,
it is merely prophecy fulfilled. He is
pleased because he realizes what he has
been taught to expect, but he is no
longer overwhelmed. As DIR. Harris has
said, in the newspaper the humblest
man has access to the best society, be-
comes familiar with the walks and talks
of the wisest men, and becomes in time
wise himself" Where newspapers are
most abundant, most enterprising and
most untrammelled, there public opinion
is sure to be the most intelligent. When
we talk about the blessings of our edu-
cational system, let us give due credit to
the newspapers as well as the free
schools. Boston Post