Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-11

Under the Forms of Law"
To the Editor of the Globe
The following paper from the pen of Rev.
J. X. Mclean, of Oakland, California, is the
very best expose Of the High school contro-
versy which have ever seen. You will be
doing valuable service to the public by find
ing room forit in your columns. The paper
was read before the General Association of the
Congregationalst Church of California, Oc-
tober 9, 1880, and was given to the public at
the request OF the Association, as the express
sion of the solemn and deliberate Judgment
of these churches CITIZEN.
The Rec. j. X. McLean's Paper.
In the statement of this theme two things
are Intentionally implied: First, that there
| should be education by the State; second, that
there should be some carefully placed limita-
ton set to such State education.
AS to the first point named this paper will
raise no question. It is freely granted that
State education is, within bounds, necessity
to the public welfare. The only question to be
raised relates to the second point-the limita-
lions which should be placed upon State
education.
THE PROPER LIMITATIONS OF STATE EDUCA-
TION.
On that point the ground here taken is that
State education should be limited, certainly to
achat IS Enolcn as cOmmon-schOoI instruction;
possibly to the three elementary branches
reading, acritimg and arithmetic.
These are the keys to knowledge. The State
| possesses the right, and upon it devolves the
duty, to see that these keys shall be placed,
either by the parent, or, in default of his
attending to it, by the State itself, in the hands
of every child by the time the child arrives at
| ten years OF age.
BY State, in this paper, is meant, of course,
| the republican State-our own State Of Cali
| fornia, and the sister States of our American
Union
The discussion will not take in the abstract
right OF States to educate-their right irrespec
tive of the peculiar form of government had
by them. he question will not be raised
here at all, what possible rights government
like Prussia may have In the direction of edu-
cation; or like Russia and Japan. All that is
wholly foreign to the present purpose.
That purpose is simply to enquire, how far
Sotte constituted like the States of our
american Republic has the right to go, and is
| called togo , in the matter of educating.
No farther than to the extent already indica-
cated-the extent of imparting the elementary
branches, reading, writing, and the ability to
use the fundamental rules or processes of
| arithmetic; with possibly such other studies
| included as to make up what is commonly
known as cOmmon-schoOl education.
THE TRUE REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES OF GOV.
ERNMENT.
| That the limit should be drawn here, will
| appear by considering the fundamental idea on
which our Republic as whole, and each indie.
pendent State as severality, is based. That
| idea is to confde to the individual the largest
possible freedom, or in other words, to do for
him mOfHIDp 1Bbiph bp dO fin. b1,0epIf
| In this respect our government differs .es-
sentially from all such governments as those
| named moment ago; from all monarchies,
whether absolute or limited. They stand in
the parental idea; with them the State stands
largely in the parental attitude, it cares for
| its citizens as children.
Our Republican State sharply repudiates that
| idea; it is an aggregation of equal individuals,
of equal self-governing men.
| The individual parts with only so much of
his absolute personal right as seems necessary
to be given up for public safety and defense.
The government deals with him, all through,
from beginning to end, not on the ground of
his personal good, but on the ground of the
| common good it seeks, and limits itself to
seeking, the well being of the State as such
and not of individuals as SUCH
| Now, for our republican State to carry the
business of educating beyond the elementary
| branches, is for it to throw itself utterly out
| of line with any and all of its undertakings.
The ground on which it may properly go SO
far will be presently noticed. But for the
| present, let us give attention to the fact that
when our State goes into the business of edu-
| eating to the extent of the college, the uni
versity or even the High school, it at once
violently throws itself out of parallel with any
| other work it undertakes to do, and so comes
| into antagonism with the fundamental idea on
which it is based.
| The State does not, for example, undertake,
to any extent, to feed it's citizens; to provide
them with either bread, clothing, or work. 1t
| does not, except in a rudimentary sense, I'M
| or religious culture. 1t does not, in a word,
undertake, upon any other plane, nor with
| regard to any other interest whatsoever, to do
| for the individual what it undertakes to do in
| the matter of education.
| 1t levies taxes to build roads, but only be-
cause in no other way can roads be built; to
| carry on war, only because in such way can
| the public defense be secured; to keep order in
| city streets, because only in such way can the
streets be kept safe for public use. In all
these matters, the republican State limits it.
| self to those things which are (first) of i'm
| perative public necessity, and which (second)
| can be provided only by public means.
THE STATE VIOLATES THIS PRINCIPLE IN UN-
DERTAKING TO PROVIDE HIGHER INsTRUC-
| TON.
But now, the instant it steps into the field of
education, the State assumes an utterly differ
| ent attitude; and one utterly out of analogy
with, and antagonistic to, its former self-re-
| straints in any and all other directions. Here
| it jumps over, at once, into the province or
attitude of paternal government, and begins to
treat the citizen as child, and to bestow upon
him great and expensive benefits for his per-
sonal good.
This clearly and severely violates the funda-
mental republican State idea.
The State should limit itself in the field of
education as 1T does in all the other fields it
| occupies. 1t may provide, and it ought 10
| provide, elementary teaching for those who
would not otherwise get it; but only on the
same ground on which it provides bread, and
| clothing, and shelter, and medicine, for those
| who would not otherwise get them. A total
ignoramus is public nuisance, a perambula-
tory nuisance, a cess-pool on wheels or legs.
| The State may cleanse or abate this nuisance
| just as it does other nuisances. The State
| may compel every man to keep his back yard
| wholesome, lest it poison the neighbors. 1t
| may, on like grounds, compel every man to
give his child the keys to knowledge, lest he
poison the neighborhood.
But, to go beyond this is just as foreign to
the genius of our republican Institutions, as it