Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-10-09
An English View of America.

An English View OF america.
Scores of people assembled In Chi
cago, Tuesday, September %. who |
listened to a scholarly and stirring |
address by the Rev. DR.. A III. FAIR |
BARN of Oxford, England, who said
that it was easier for an Englishman
to criticise American institutions by
bringing his England to America
than to study this country from the
standpoint of a resident. ''Yet,"
said he, at is a greater distance in
every measure but that of miles from
New England to Chicago than from
old to New England" Continuing
In magnificent tribute to the potent
forces which New England has con-
tributed to American life. he credited
the land of Plymouth rock and Bun
ker hill with the fashionlng of Amer
lean educational systems, ideas, and
men, and likewise with a chief part
of the glory which the country bears
in the eyes of the world across the
ocean as nation of intelligence and
advancing culture.
New England bore Emerson" he
said, "who is only Jonathan Edwards
with the dogmatism left out; Holmes,
who makes the whole world laugh
with his wit; Lowell, the sharp critic,
yet the genial and well-loved man;
Eliot Norton, to whom it had been
left to vindicate Carlyle against his
English defamers, who is too brilliant
ly inaccurate to be anywhere correct
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a queen
among women in her efforts for hui
man freedom; Whittier, one of the
gentlest and most beautiful of all
Webster, Garrison, Phillips, and
Sumner. The genius of such New
Englanders redeems your country
from the reputation of being money
loving and sordidly money grasping.' y
The sanctity of a free and untram-
meled common-school system formed
the burden of Principal Fairbairn's
discourse. It must be, he urged, alb
solutely separated from the domino
: ton of sect, calamity which Eng
p land knows by sad experience. A
free school means free and a great
state. The modern immigrant does
|. not come to America because he loves
her free institutions, but from sheer
n want and dire distress. He Is otter
d here with antipathies to this govern
g ment, and is rarely of the noblest or
der or finest quality. ''Take him a:
he is you must" said the speaker
'and make him with free schools 6
% support instead of a menace to thu
= state. Then don't let the fancy takt
a hold of you that to make money is ;
greater purpose than to organize ;
great state. That is what is the mat
I ter with your municipal governments
~ IL ,-,1 al
Ie crossed III their personal affairs and
t. leave law making and law enforcing
d to a lot of incapable, unprincipleC
n men, and these better men say, a
indeed 1 have heard them say: s
F. know that the city government is cor
rupt and dishonest, but l don't car
e so long as I can make more money il
" day than they can take from me il
le a year. Let US have men of homo
. and high principle making our laws:
DR.. Fairbairn contrasted Englisl
q and American institutions of educa
ton not to the discredit of the latter
He said that the English system wa
y more formal and iron-clad in its re
n quirements and courses, without
= particle more of the true spirit [
IL learning. Oxford and Cambridg
Ie have sunk long ago." he said, mot /
I'd learned ease but in unlearned indo
IN ence. Englishmen look upon you
western universities with an amuse
and unbelieving air, but 1 haI
y known men who would have don
ly honor TO Berlin or Oxford to go
is the west and teach with an almo
n divine fire and zeal in colleges littl
y. better than dug-outs." He believe
oI that the shady groves and magnificl
IS temples of CLASSIC Oxford's six Gel
Or turtles were not so essential to tt
Sc spread of the highest learning as
spirit Imbued through and throug
IL with the dignity of education and tt
On beauty of all knowledge. He consit
n cred the educational problem in En-;
"a land and America different becaul
:, of the different circumstances of Il
IL two countries. I'm England"
ne said, rural regions which half ce
fury ago were filed with people a
now depopulated, while the cities
ar London in particular-have grow
% beyond all precedence. In Americ
on the contrary, the population b
ne scattered to all the corners of 20
lis land"