The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-11
FLAGSON THESCHOOL.
Our System of Education the
Bulwark of the Republic.
IrRoADs OF THE CHURCHES.
John Jay Thinks Patriotism Should BE
Harrison's Decoration Day Address.

President Harrison said, on Decoration
day MAY 80, 1917 at Philadelphia, in
abiding to our country's flag: 81 have
recently returned from an extended tour
of the states, and nothing so impressed
and refreshed me as the universal display
of the banner of beauty and glory. 1t
waved over every school-house; and it
was in the hands of the school children"
The president could not have named an
Institution more justly dear to the Amer
lean people than the public school, nor a
suggestion of graver import to the nation
than that the national banner, with all
that it represents, should sacredlv protect
the district school-house in every part of
our broad land, as the national bulwark,
where the children of the republic are to
be taught the history and principles of
their fathers, and prepared 10 defeat the
efforts of our enemies at home and abroad.
to undermine the common schools, and by
connecting church and state, to crush our
civil and religions freedom.
Nor could the president have touched
upon topic on which the national senti-
lnent has been so clear and so unanimous
that the politicians of both of the great
parties have been compelled to rivalry in
the d.stinctness and solemnity of their
pledges.
In our centennial year (1S76l the Repub-
lican national convention said at Cincin-
natl on June Is. 1.-THE public school system
Of the several states is the bulwark of the
American republic, and with a view to its
security and permanence we recommend
an amendment to the constitution of the
United States, forbidding the application
Of any public funds or property for the
benefit of any schools or institutions under
sectarian control"
In the same year the Democratic ma
tional convention at s. Louis, June %. de-
dzed, as if recalling Jefferson's rever-
enrs for the first constitutional amend
nent, as erecting a wall of partition be-
tween church and state" said: We here
do reaffirm our faith in the the total separ-
alton of church and state for the sake alike
Of civil and religious freedom 1t then
alluded to the public schools switch
the Democratic party has cherished from
their foundation, and is resolved to main
tain. without prejudice, or preference for
any creed, class or sect, and without
largesses from the treasury to any," These
are pledges which both Republicans ana
y.
The influence of our public school svs-
tenn upon the national character has not
been unnoticed in Europe. A royal En-
glish commission attributed the superior
efficiency of American workmen to their
primary education; the Westminster Reuiew
january, 1887. page 81, dwelt upon 1.-THE
eoftening influence exercised upon the
manners of the rougher children by the
net xrff fl,a oh of 81 II -
and these two features of intelligent eff
cheney and social prestige strengthen the
convictions of our more intelligent immi-
grants. mindful of their children's well
fare, that schools upon the old European
model will not answer in America.
The scope of the elementary instruction
which should be given in the public
schools seems to expand with the intelli-
gent study and experience of our skilled
educationalists. and the importance now
given by the most practical and thought
full Investigators to the improved methods
in the study of history as preparation
for the duties of citizens points to the
thought that of all the lessons to be thor
oughly taught by the public schools, an
enlightened patriotism, based upon the
history and institutions of the republic, is
easily the first in its bearings upon the
usefulness of the pupil and the prosperity
Of the nation.
The simple curriculum of our public
schools should, in the judgment of our
most judicious experts, include an ele-
mentary training under teachers fitted by
nature and education fo- their most noble
task that will develop the faculties, men,
tai, moral and physical; the power of OBJ
servation, of judgment, of learning and
Imagination, besides educating in an easy
and elementary. but still effective way, the
capacity of the hand, the eye, the ear and
the tongue
The proper education of these last, as we
can readily understand, gently stimulates
the BRAIN and affects also the moral char
acter, by teaching an appreciation of ac-
curacy and professional truth. eliciting q
love of truth for truths sake. and tend
Ing 10 the quick and skilled observation,
which, with the advance of engineering
and electric science, becomes daily more
essential for the detection of danger and
the prevention of accident Quick, ac-
curate thought" says Professor Egleston,
"and the power of expressing it with pen
and pencil, is the way to the preservation
of life and the invention of the most APP
proved appliances. -
And the learned professor of Columbia
expressed also q wish to which the entire
nation should respond in remembering the
first Napolen's historic order, Let draw
ing be taught in every school in France
an order TO which France owes its artistic
pre-eminence-when he said of our repub-
lie that every child should learn to draw
as soon as It can draw a pencil"
But the grand characteristic of our re-
public. which gives 10 patriotism in our
elementary education a chief pre-em-
inence. is the fact that every native-born
American and every naturalized foreigner
Is a sovereign citizen charged with kingly
duties. This gives a special importance 10
that part of education which concerns the
relation of the citizen TO the state; a rela-
ton even closer than that in the DAYS of
our Dutch and Huguenot. our English,
Swedish and German colonists, who were
pfominent in establishing the public
schools, whose historic growth TO the
American affords a study of such profound
interest.
The earliest of these schools in Europe
seems to have been established by the
Dutch-that remarkable branch of the
Anglo-Saxon family, of whom Taine says,
referring to 1909: "In culture and in
struction, as well as in the art of organiza-
ton OF government, the Dutch are two
centuries ahead of the rest of Europe"
Motley calls them 1.-The most energetic and
quick-witted people in the world" Hallam
and Macaulay. speaking of Holland. write
OF its pre-eminent learning and excellence
and Professor Thorold Rogers, of Oxford.
said: Il hold that the revolt of the
Netherlands and the success of Holland is
the beginning of modern political science
and of modern civilization. To the true
lovers of liberty Holland is the holy land
OF modern Europe. and should be held
sacred ~
However great the influence of Holland