St. Paul daily globe., 1885-07-06
THE NATIONS NEED.
Rev. DR.. Dana breaches a Fourth of July
Sermon at Plymouth OOngre-
gatiOnal Church.
Like Peter Expounder, He Indulges in
Some Sober Reflections on the
National Holiday.
The Increasing Wealth of the Coun-
try n Menace as Well as
Good Indication.
The Call for Better Education and
Manual Training in Our
Schools Discussed.

Rev. M. NEG. Dana, d. D., pastor of the
plymouth Congregational church, delivered
patrlotc sermon last evening in reference
TO the national holiday. Dr. Dana said:
Inc day Just past, celebrated after the
1ashlOn peculiar to Americans. NAV well
Deget IN all classes of our citizens some seri-
Gus rehectiOns. While we have so much to
be thankful for. and not little to augment
our national pride, We have also much to
excite sober thought. We have lessons vet
to learn that will condition our future. and
duties to perform that will test both our in
telligence and patriotism. We are all ant
to become so engrosSed in our private affairs
as to feebly realize our relations to the COM
munity and nation. Thence it follows that
to the prosperous everything looks promis-
ing, and they grow blind to the cautiOnary
signals they need to observe. To the
unfortunate signs of impending peril
and approaching disaster are appar-
ent, and they become prophets
of evil. Men inStinctivel Judge
of the drift of affairs by the impressions
made upon them by the things which are
nearest them, or by the welfare of the cause
in which they are interested. AS is their
zone of life and labor, so are apt to be their
predictions and opinions.
Jun NAIlONAL -ANNlN EhSAR1
is fitting time at which to pause and take
the bearings of the nation, note whittier it
IS drifting and whether or no there is real
and general progress in those elements
which contribute to national virtue and
prosperity. Our proneneSs is to grow un-
ObServant of, if not Indifferent to, the ten
denotes of things around us. The average
citizen concerns himself very little about
such a seeming intangible matter as social
drift. Our tendency is towards an excess
i've individualism. Hence comes about that
neglect of public affairs, becoming more and
more noticeable in this country. Men think
il they take care of their own business the
government will take care of itself. ignOr-
ing that grand, grave fact that every man is
himself part of the government. If he
OmitS any civic duty he Injuries the state. If
he withdTawS from his personal privileges
and obligations as a citizen, he harms him
self as well as his body polite. A man
stands not for himself, alone, but as con-
stitutiOnal element in the state, he repre-
sents influences and responsibilities that he
cannot disOwn without violating faith with
his fellow citizens.
THE INCREASE OF WEALTH
is something phenomenal in this country.
While often spoken of as q proof of our
growing prosperity, it may be just the re-
verse. The accumulation of increased for
tunes, now seen on every hand, is itself not
a healthy sign. For that only tends to
widen the abyss between rich and poor, be-
tween the capitalist and wage-eaner.
Distribution of wealth, rather than its ac-
emulation, is the desirable and safe thing,
This country owned in 1850 S43, 642, ,OO0,-
900. which is S376, 900, 900 more than the
Of INr-ar nit Ill,
nation OH the globe. And yet the astOnish-
ing fact about this is that S27, ,4S2, 600. 900
have been accumulated in the two decades
closing with 1850, an increase without a
parallel in history. Furthermore, the ratio
of increase between 1870 and 1880 was 80
per cent. per capita, and that with an I'M
Drecedented growth of population. Yet
during this same period the wealth of Europe
suffered an actual decrease of per cent
per head. Were these conditions to con-
tinue, at no far distant day the United
States would become wealthier than all
Europe. If this be quoted, as it will be in
many quarters, as a sign OF prosperity never
before equaled, so may 1t be one of menace.
For great wealth contains mighty pOSSibili-
ties for good or evil. There is really such
a thing, as Matthew Arnold well termed, as
'being too beaStly prosperous" IT ma
terial growth be more rapid and vigorous
than the moral and the intellectual. its in
tuence is brutaliZing and corrupting.
Henry George says Stand he speaks for an
eyer-enlarging constituency, so long as all
the increased wealth which modern prog
reSs brings, goes but to build up great
fortunes to increase luxury and make
sharper the contrast between the
house of Have and the house of Want,
progress is not real, and cannot be perma-
nent." The wealth that multiples the sue
cesSOrS of Dives, and at the same rate the
successors of Lazarus, is a wealth which
brings only fOrebodingS of the direst
danger, inequalities increasing, the poverty
OF the poorest growing worse, and the
struggle to live harder. What will be the
popular estimate of the growing wealth
which permits, if it does not directly occa-
sion this state of things?
THE NEED OF SCHOOLS.
Proud as we have been of our public
school system, it is by no means reaching
as completely the youth of our land as it
should. With all our schools and expendi-
lures for the same, we had, according to
the last census, 5000, 900 children of school
age attending no schools, so that despite
our splendid system the ranks of ilIiteracy
are constantly being replenished. In addi-
tiOn to these, we had 1904, 1862 $iliterate
adults, representing, because of their con-
ditlOn, a loss TO themselves as well as to
the country of S210, 600, 600. This is a sum
twice as large as is annually expended for
public education in the United States. 1t
is grave problem to know how this great
army of youth is to be reached and brought
under the influence of the common schools.
Compulsory education may become
national provision, where the
school fund is inadequate, may be required
in the interests of intelligence. We GER
tainly cannot pronounce as needless the
plan for congress to appropriate $50, 900, 900
in aid of education, for that sum would be
only One-hah the amount necessary to pro-
vide schools and teachers for the nOn-at-
tending children to-day in our land. If.
moreover. it be true that 96 per cent. OF
could be exterminated by uni
verSal compulsory education, then it would
be as matter of economy the wiSest thing
for the nation to aid in providing at once
facilities for those now out of
school.
But while intelligence, such as a common
school education secures, is indispensable
for republic, it is also true that there is a
steady drift in our country towards
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.
AHeduH III Europe tHlS II now part or the
school system, and as the result, growing
taste for skilled labor is cultivated, and the
youth are brought up to understand some
branch Of practical handiwork. In this
country the demand for manual training is
making itself felt, and in many of the cities
it has become part of the school system
One acknowledged benefit is that it DESTROYS
the vulgar prejudice against work, and
teaches the youth thatWhich NAV ulfimatelv
become the means of his securing a livelihood |
The trade schools in New York, the man
ual training introduced in the Boston
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