Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1886-07-16
THE LIMIT or sr4rE EDUCATION.


gonian, which to our mind is exactly
in harmony with the spirit of American
institutions, barring one point and that
is West Points trained scldiery. Our
experience as we'll as information
gained by reading, does not favor even
Il trained soldiery. This state educa-
ton theory of such high grade is ar
istocratic in its tendency, and in con.
fiict with the public school system.
state education, in its primal pur-
pose, is not for the sake of the man, it
is for the sake of the state. With the
individual man the state has no con
cern, except SO far as seeing to it that
he has the elementary education which
enables him to discharge those duties
and obligations which are involved in
defence of the life of the state. A tax
is therefore levied on the property of
all, that every chill may have such ed
ucation as will enable it to understand
and perform at the proper time the
political duties of the citizen, in so far
as not to be a hindrance to or a burden
upon the public veal To this extent
chIldlesS men of course -are-as-,i ,iuatly
tnxed as men with children. since it
belongs to the fundamental common
veal just as much as the maintenance
of an army, the exaction of military
service, the pecuniary contributions
for the support of courts and legisla-
lures, and a man might as logically
refuse to pay for courts and legisla.
lures, because he never ,had a case in
court, as to refuse to pay for common
schools, because he never had child.
This also answers why we tax the ma
tien for West Point; because it is one
Of the fundamental necessities of a
state to have a trained soldiery for de-
fence. But it is not fundamental
necessity Of the state that every boy
rich or poor, shall receive higher ed
ucatlon at the cost of taxing the many
for the few. 1t may be we'll for many
boys, though not necessarily for all,
that they should be highly educated in
books, but this is no reason why the
state should tax itself for this end any
more than, because it is better to be
rich than miserablv poor, that the
state should tax itself to put money
Ill every poor mans purse.
The state under Republican form
Of government, in distinction from
paternal despotism, governs best when
it governs least, and the reason why
America grows and developes more
grandly than Europe is that the state
does not attempt to usurp the func-
tion of society and social forces among
men. The pernicious doctrine is
taught too much that the satisfaction
Of the diverse and manifold aspirations
of the individual, and not the funda-
mental necessities of the commonwealth
is properly within the function and
scope of the state. This doctrine is
taught with the Interpretation that we
demand of congress or of state legisla-
lures appropriations of money and land
for system of education that is not
needed for the simple purpose of edu-
eating child in such way and man.
ner as suficss for securing, so far as
education can do, the grand features
of good citizenship. Some educators
seem to argue that the fact that the
child is capable of education is proof of
the obligations of the state to educate;
that under this view the child that leans
toward music should be musicallv ed
ucated at the public expense, and so on
in regard to every specific faculty OF
facility of requirement. THIS vicious
doctrine means that the whole pro |
perty of the country should be taxed |
not merely to make good citizens, but
expert mechanics, engineers, lawyers
and physicians; which is "monkeying'
with the money of the many for the
culture of the few. The state is con
cerned that the citizen be taught to
read so that he may acquire knowledge;
that he may write so that he can COM
municate with his fellows; that he can
compute; it is concerned that he have
all that fundamental knowledge that
lifts the multitude, not the few, to the
level of efficient citizenship, but the
state is not at all concerned with the
question whether the citizen becomes a
lawyer, a doctor or a clergyman
This sort of salvation through higher
education must be left for the individ
ual to work out for himself; it is not
within the obligation or duty of the
state. The founders of our govern
ment believed that the state was bound
to afford its citizens such education as
would protect them against fraud in
their busines, relations, and enable
them to understand the fundamental
of the laws, religion and po-
itical system under which they lived,
and that for this purpose the common
English branches were suough; that the
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