The Portland daily press., 1883-02-02
OUR SCHOOLS.
AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY.
"Y's" Solution of vexed Problem.
To the Eeiiton os.hA pnAsA.

lected-rights that editors have.
do not complain in particular of the Port
land School system. For Portland teachers ]
have an admiration that approaches tho vergs
OF indiscreet enthusiasm. They do their work
well. They are faithful servants-often more
faithful to their masters interests than to their
own. My quarrel is with the task they are sci
to do--the task put upon Joseph's kin-making
bricks without straw. The proverb reads
"When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses
comes" Moses is overdue.
Let us look at this question from a practical
view-p oint-the viewpoint of a practical poll.
tician, if you wish, or of q successful merchant
or mechanic,-and consider the reasons OF
prejudces that make men complain of our
modern school system-especially of our high
school system Uneducated and uncultured
men are not jealous-they may be envious-of
men of letters. They look up to book learning
with superstitious awe. But the shrewder OF
them scorp the ''smatterer"-the weed that our
high-schools house under glass with the pub
lished intent and promise [uidc catalogues and
committee reports] to turn out perfect flower
in the Autumn. They often give us proms-
ing blossom. occasionally good grain.
Some good fun-and some very poor-has
been poked at an old Pennsylvania politician
because Of the contempt he once expressed for
what he termed Literary fellers," Simon
| Cameron's opinions are seldom approvingly
| quoted and this one is no exception to the
rule set up by the general consent of his coun-
| trymsn. It is the custom to condemn him
without hearing. Indeed, 30 we'll has he
been abused that one is tempted to take up the
| argument in his behalf merely from a sense of
fair play. His own State seeks to make him
| scapeeoal, and strives to persuade us that her
political corruption, notorious for years, is due
entirely to him. Remembering some other
sons of Pennsylvania, past and resent, we may
well doubt the Justice of sending Simon Came
ron into the wilderness, loaded with the politi-
cal sins of his State ana her people, He is,
however, SO unheroic figure that few, except
the men of his own clan, will care to lock
shields in his defense.
But his saying about ''literary felers' am
inclined to condtionally accept. 1t is said that
the Senatorial snecr was at Lowell, and men of
that class. In that case 1t was simply silly. ]
apprebend, however. that it was meant for the
mob of gentlemen who write with more or less
ease, and who hold that the chief object of
mans existence is to add to the ever uultiply-
ing mass OF print-men who, for the most part
have no message to deliver, who are not bur-
deDed with the word that mast De said, and
whose only gift is facility for saying things of
little consequence In pleasant way. Their
assumption is that the knowledge of books il
the only knowledge worth striving for, that
hookmen possess about all the useful learning
that is to be had, and that their right to guide
and rule is as indisputable as the divine right
OF kings was once held to be-that they too are
the L Ird's amounted; anointed by the oil of the
student lamp. If we accept this view we are
forced to the conclusion that all boys should be-
come bookmen;--that is the lesson which our
schools are teaching, and our little men of
learning DINING with dsmnable iteration into
the ears of the people. Small wonder that the
men who are really doing the work of the
world, who are making our rulers and cur laws.
who are sailing our ships and running our
railroads, aud directing our workshops, whose
hands are at the pillow and the loom and the
anvil, and who know what little part books
play in the active labor of life, smile at the
conceit of the literary fellers' and scornfully
point at the yawning chasm between their
boasts and their achievements! These working
men, these practical men are prompt to recoe-
nize genius. None quicker than they to doff
the nat at manifestation of power in any
form! But when they see the gef-sufflcieney
the arrogance. and the utter steriity of the lii
tie fellows whose sum of all knowledge is the
| printed page and whose idea of the millennium
| is the conversion of the whole world into q
| class In reading and writing taught bv the no.
| D,unculi, it is scarcely to be wondered at if
their impatient scorn sads them to join in the
Cameronan condemnation of the ssliterary ell
Ier." Their common sense, their knowledge of
| AFFAIRS, teaches them that bOok-learninq is but
small part of the business of life and that its
| cultivation should be restricted to few while
| the many turn their attention to the other de-
| partmsnts of knowledge and endeavor that i'm
| Fortunately call for laborers They feel that
0kU of nm 4 hatG IL.
| soundness of Judgment, that know ledge of
men, that swiftDess to execute and capacity to
| command, are of more worth than is acquain-
| lance with the studies taught in the schools
| The weakness of the class Simon Cameron
| condemns is that II does not look upon knowl-
| edge OF bucks simply as useful means to
| great end but regards that knowledge as the
end itself, and regards other pursuits as inferi-
| or and trivial. 1t duly wonders how a man
| can go into politics forgetting that politics is
the science of organizing and administering So
| ciety); how man can go into trade forgetting
that trade is the carrier of civilization as we'll
| as of merchandise, and that men from the four
| quarters of the earth clasp hands over its coun
| ters); how man can pass his time in hunting
or boating or riding forgetting that physical
| exercise is his natural state and free air the
| grateful food for his lungs);-they wonder why
| man should do these things when he might
be idling away his time reading; and they con-
| temptuonsly look upon him as an inferior sort
of animal 1t is not because he does not act
| his part manfully, working if need be to in
| crease the worlds comfort and happiness and
passing his leisure in ministerDg to his own,
| that they complain, but because he doesn't
| spoil his eyes over print, and spend his time in
| writing unnecessary books or quoting from vol
| umes of repute, good or bad. They are given
over to bi bliolatry and they degrade it to e.
| ticism. They merit similar reprosch to that
| the Catholic controversalists so often bring
| against the Protestants,-Gha we forget the
/ living God and pay our worship to the Bible.
| They cling to the letter that kills and ignore
| the spirit that gives life; for they forget that
printing has these merits only, that 1t enables
| one to record facts or theories or fancies, to
| multiply the record, and to distribute it at
/ small cost; that the object of the record is to
| freshen mems memories, to quicken their
! thoughts, to enliven their fancies, to increase
| their useful knowledge; and that these things
| are only of worth as they are exercised for the
| good of mankind. When reading ceases to ac-
| complish these ends it becomes merely an
| amusement, beneficial or harmful as the case
| may be-benefioial when affording needful rec
reation, harmful when distractipg mems atten-
tention from the work at their hands. At its
best it is but one of many Instruments at our
| use, and limited in its application.
Our biblomanacs hold it to be the only in
| strument or, in their less arrogant moments.
| an indispensable one to all. They forget that
| many people learn more by observation than
| by reading, and can put their eyes to a better
purpose than bending them on printed page.
Did the Literary fellerS' content themselves
with their own dissatisfaction no one could
reasonably object. II is we'll to have enthusi-
asms-and it is yell to keep them within
bounds. 1t is well that some sharply perceiy G
the evils of accumulation of property and those
abuses which the possession of power brings
about. 1t is we'll that others have strong re-
gard for chartered rights and vested privileges
The sharp jealousy of the two keeps the bal.
ance But it will be lad day when either
wins uDquestioned supremacy 1t is well that
some believe the mathematics the noblest of all
sciences. But il will be bad when all mankind
goes to work adding up columns of figures oil
drawing geometrical diagrams In the sand. II
is well that some hold the study of astronomy
to be the worthie t study that can engage the
attention of man. But it will be bad when al
turn to star-gazng and neglect the earth under
their feet. 1t is well that some should insis
| upon the Importance of book-learning. 1t will
be bad when all agree to find their only knowl
edge there.
Ny quarrel with the literary fellers" is MOI
so much on account of their errors and one-sd
edness as that they are jealous propagandist'
and are, apparently, making their proselytes
We are fast getting to be a nation of scribblers
Instead of doing the work of the world we are
| describing how it has been done or arguing al
to the methods in which 1t ought to be done
We have fallen upon the days when the labor
ers are few, though many hands are needed fo
the ripening harvest. We are devoting our