Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-28
EDUCATION. OF THE CITIZEN.
A Comprehensive Paper From the Pen of
Elmer II. Capen, d. D., President of
Tufts College-Publio Opinion More
Potent Than the VIII of Princes.


There never was q time when citizenship
meant so much as it does to-day. Not only in
| the United States, but throughout the world,
| men are rising up to a more complete sense OF
| their manhood. The prerogatives of favored
| individuals and classes are suffering abridg-
| meut year by year. Public opinion, even in the
| Old World monarchies, is rapidly becoming
more potent than the will or princes and what
| is most significant. every member of the body
| polite has share in making this opinion In
| our own country the emancipation is almost
complete. By. the principles on which our
| Government is founded and by the form of
| the Government itself, the responsibility of
| affairs is wholly in the hands of the people.
| This is a tremendous responsibility because it
| involves not only the privilege of the individ-
| ual citizen, but his protection IN life and lib
| er.y, and the conditions of his industrial sue
| cess.
| How, then, we ask. shall he be fitted for such
| a responsibility? There is but one answer. Ed
ucation is the essential thing. Without that
there can be no full AID intelligent discharge
of the duties of citizenship. Many of the States
| of the Union, recognizing this fact. have made
| education compulsory and it will be happy
| day for the Republic when it shall be made
| compulsory in all the States. When say edu-
| cation however, do not mean necessarily any
| education. 1t is possible to conceive of educa-
| tion being of such sort and quality as to be
| worse than no education. For example, a man
! may be educated in foreign tongue, unable to
| understand or speak the common language of
the land. Or he may be educated in ideas and
| principles that are foreign, incongruous and
| unsuIted to those that prevail in the land, and
| that constitute the very genius of its instiIu-
| tions. Such education obviously is delusive
and dangerous
The Purpose of Education.
What, then, shall the education be in Its pur-
pose and content7
Primarily, of course. education is of the in
| tellect. Its real object should be to sharpen,
| strengthen and lllumine the mental power. We
| are quite likely to judge of the quality of a
| Government by the men it produces. 1t is not
| enough that they should be brave and able. but
| We want them to have the power to meet en-
! ergencies. to exhibit breadth of view and to
| nave steadfastness of purpose. The French
| Revolution was not without men of keeness and
| power But they were undIsciplined. Ideas ran
| away with them. Education with US, therefore,
to fulfil its functions, should seek first of all,
| to produce strong faculties, to bring out the
intellectual manhood of the individual 1t is
| al[important that our citizens should have the
| power TO discrlmate truth. They must be as
| far as possible fortified against accepting the
| cheap plausibilities of the demagogue or the
| political mountebank. National characteristics.
| to be sure, count for good deal in matter of
| this sort.
Germans, the Scotch the English, that exhibit
| this trait of intellectual grasp and steadfast-
| ness OF purpose in marked degree. 1t should
Hollow, therefore, tnat nation that is COM
poslte largely of these ingredients, as ours is,
| ought to be marked by the same high quality.
| have no doubt we have predetermlnation
that way. Still we need to cultivate sedulOusly
the power not only to see truth, but to see it in
| its relations, and to exercise that selfcontrol,
springing from high ethical conceptions. that
Will give us patience in bringing truth to its
| SOVerelOQtV. This should
derlying purpose of our education.
The Other Important Feature.
But the content of education is equally i'm
| portant. There are a few things that must 60
to the making up of the sum total of teaching,
not SO much perhaps in the way of furnishing
| specific information, though that is not to be
| wholly overlooked, as by way OF supplying
| motive to the citizen. At the outset it is very
| important that the principle that underlies all
| social problems should be specially disclosed.
| Unless the citizen can be made to recognize the
| unlIy OF the race. how may we expect him to
| manifest any breadth of vision when measures
| are presented that appear to cut the orbit of
| his individual and private interest? How may
we expect him to show a catholicity of spirit
| when his own opinions are called in question?
| How may we look for him to rise above narrow
| ness, or bigotry, or provincialism? Ours is q
| great country, not only in extent of territory,
but in compexty and variety of interest.
| Points Of view differ. Conventional standards
! differ. Not unfrequsntly the aims of life, and
| even moral conceptions, differ Yet we are one
| nation and have the same grand destiny to
| work out, destiny that involves the welfare of
| the American citizen, and presents the prospect
of beneticence and freedom to all the world.
In like manner the conditions of industrial
| and social progress, at least in their elements.
| should be set forth in the instruction that IS
| given to our youth. They should be taught
| what labor is and what it signifies in its rela-
| tions to all the movements that constitutes the
| wealth and prosperity of States. Let them
| know that it IS the foundation and beginning
| of the wealth. both for the individual and the
| nation; that it is impossible to have prosperity
| or even the comforts OF life without it.
| Correction of Crude Notions
This will 60 far to correct many of the crude
notions that now prevail owing to the wide
| contrasts between the very rich and the very
| poor. AS soon as they know that these things
are not the result of individual caprice. nor yet
the product of unequal legislation, but the re-
| suit of law, founded in the nature of man and
| the constitution of things, they will set to
| work by intelligent means to coerce the evils
| that spring from msconception and false ap-
| plication of economical principles.
| Furthermore, there should be an effort to i'm
| part the ideas that furnish the foundation for
social order and the framework of government
| This is very important now that the right of
| government, and even the legitimacy of every
| kind OF social organism, is called in question.
| We ought to recur to first principles, as our
fathers did, then we MAY learn that what sta tes-
men have called the 'sOcial compact" is not the
| mere artificial contriyance for gaining political
! ends, but form of organic life that derives its
| sanction from God himself. To this end 1t is
| not necessary TO have systematic course in
the schools on the Constitution of the United
| States. Much of that sort of teaching is time
wasted Ground the pupils in fundamental
| truth and they will make the application of it
| later. Edward Burke said: THE study laid in
the American colleges made them, f'the
Colonists) augur misgovernment from a
distance and snif the approach of tyranny in
every tainted breeze" 1t was really the po-
| litical writings of Locke and his contemporaries
| that had formed the minds of Samuel and John
| Adams. We need that sort of instruction to-
| day to give the citizen q true notion of the
| function of the State.
The Incuication OF Patriotism.
But, above all, there should be the specific
inculcation of patriotism This is something
| that is native to the mind. BY some strange
| law of being, the spot where we were born is
| tho dearest in all the world. We instinctively
| put our country into the foreground of our af-
| fections. Somehow the heart leaps and thrills
at the sight of the flag that is the national en-
| blem. Being national impulse, therefore, pa
| triotism should be cultivated And now there
| are those who IN 4lntaln that the effect of this
! is narrowing; that we ought to have just as
| much regard for other nations as for our own;
| that the people of other natioualities being
| children of the same Father. are Just as prec-
| ious as we are, and their interests should be
lust as dear to the interests of fellow citl-
zens
| Yes the human race is ono brotherhood, and
| 1t should be our aim to secure, by every posi-
| BILE means the ameioration and exatation of
| humanity. Bnt We work best for general ends
through specific instrumentalities. Oftentimes
| the highest conception of humanity comes
| through that manifestation we have In the ma