Morris tribune., 1891-01-21

0uoOA ihOiOAy uPOa oho AAoo@AAo SNAS,
but upon the virtue of the people; but
looking at it from the standpoint OF
intellectually merely, it is evident that
in form of government where the ap-
peal upon public men and public mea-
sures is made to the ballot of the in
dividual citizen, if that citizen is igno-
rant the ballot will be ignorantly cast.
1t may be true that the ballot
Executes a freeman's will
AS lightning does the will OF God,
but it executes the will of a Ounce with
equal facility. Inasmuch as the power
of ultimate decision ON all public ques-
tions is thus thrown into the hands of
the citizen, it is not merely matter OF
duty, but matter of necessity and
public safety to see that the citizen is
educated up to such point that he
can use this power inteligently. This
means at least the capacity to read un-
derstandingly the literature of current
public questions. If his attainments
are below this, the citizen is not likely
to act Intelligent on public matters.
He does, of necessity, become the fol
lower of some one else. He is COM
PEELED to trust men to decide for him
what he should be able to decide for
himself. He ceases to be, in any prop
er sense, coordinate part of the gov
ernment, and, by virtue of his necessa-
ry dependence on others, loses part OF
his freedom under the forms of liberty.
In this way few men attain power by
doing the thinking for great masses OF
men, and, if the process is carried toe
far, it results in plutocracy of intel
lect and energy, gradually developing
into plutocracy Of wealth.
Is it, Or is it not, fact that oul
young people are being educated up tc
the standard of reading and thinking
people, or do they, as rule, leave
school with a knowledge of the rudi-
mentary instruments of analysis-the
three R's-an too meagre to pursue
the independent investigation of any
question? We complain about the in
fuence of demagogues, and, very oft
ten, justly SO; but as long as there are
masses of ignorant men, SO long will
there be demagogues to mislead and
milionaires to buy. The greatest hope
of this country lies in the education
of its people. In fact, there is little
hope without it. Between the infu-
ence of overgrown wealth on the one
hand, and ignorant prejudice on the
other, the just, thoughtful and intel
igent elements of society stand almost
helpless -
"Turn to page 81 of the report o1
the United States commissioner of ed
ucation for 1861, and there will be
found a table showing, for each state
and territory, the number of pupils III
average daily attendance to each 1O(
of enrolment, and on this table Min.
nesota stands 49.17-the lowest on the
list excepting Alaska-the average fol
the whole country being 64.13. Su
perintsndent Kiehle thinks this is due
| largely to the practice of making a
very full enrolment in this state for
the purpose of drawing apportion-
ment. 1t is well that the fact can be
explained in some way, for, standing
unexplained, it does little credit to
Minnesota. 1t is a somewhat redeem
ing feature that there are Ia states and
territories below Minnesota in number
of pupils in average daily attendance
to each 100 Of population between 6
and Ia years of age, but nevertheless
Minnesota stands in this respect 57.62
as against 67.32 for the whole coun-
try"
In Otter Tail county, last year, the
school term averaged 81 months, with
total enrolment of 9,754. Of this
number only 3,579, or 400 per cent. at
tended three months or more during
the year, 1912, or % per cent. failed to
| attend, even for the short period of 30
days.
In our county of Stevens about 65
per cent. of the pupils between the
| ages of 8 and 16, enrolled for the year
ending July 81, 1890, attended school
three months or more This is better
showing than that of some of the other
counties of the state, but it is not what
it should be. Even here in our city,
where there is not that excuse for non
| attendance of children at school that
there is in the country, the number
that attend regularly is much smaller
than it ought to be. Too many chill
dren who ought to be at school are on
the streets, idling away their time and
growing up in ignorance. In the coun-
try many Of our farmers need the help
of those children who are old enough
to assist in farm work, and conse-
quently they are not allowed to attend
school as regularly as the welfare of
the children demand. During the
summer and autumn many children
are engaged in herding cattle, when
they ought to be in school. But we
suppose this state of things will re-
main unchanged until we have more
pastures enclosed by fence. Here is
something, however, that parents at