Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-07-25
ICoNlMUSIcArEp.
Hard Times and Public Schools.

OOMMU NICAlED.
Hard Times and Public Schools.
I once head prominent man make
a statement, that, in my opinion,
should be voiced from the Atlantic to
the Pacific ocean. 1t was to the effect
that the cause of the prevailing distress
in this country was traceable as much
to the general education of the people
as to unrestricted immigration. No
trder ssertion was ever made. He
might have gone farther and added
with quite as much truth, that the gen.
e-al education Of the masses, by public
schools and academies, had far more to
do with the financial distress now pre-
vailing, than any other one cause, and
why ?
When-one pauses for a moment to
consider the branch of education
taught at the present time, in nearly
every high school and academy in the
land, he will readily see that the public
school education of to-day is practically
the same as the university education of
few years ago, and he wonders from
where on earth the ordinary, common
every day laborer such as the hod-car-
rier, bricklayer, plasterer, carpenter
painter, blacksmith, ETC., ETC., halls
And so wondering, he must eventually
arrive at the inevitable conclusion that
the hue and cry of the rising generation
for "congenial" employment is, in reali-
ty, the death knel of American indus
try and honest, profitable labor.
Take, for instance, the career of the
ordinary laboring man who resides in
the city within reach of our public
schools. His son is first placed in the
ward school from there he goes to the
high school whc"e he receives an edu-
cation beftting the offspring OF royalty.
He becomes skilled in mathematics,
studies calculus, is proficient in survey
ing and astronomy. He can take Latin
and Greek. The field is open to gram
mer, rhetoric, literature and history.
Then, if he choose, philosophy, geology,
zoology and botany, followed, may be,
by French and German, ethics and per-
haps chemistry, and so on to the end Of
the chapter. Thus he scars away TO
the Olympian heights of learning, far
beyond his humble surroundings at
home. He brealbes an atmosphere
which inloXicates and bewilders and so,
when he closes the school room door
beh nd him and fac the world he feels
that he must rush away to where, in
his befuddled mind, fame, fortune and
glory alike aw.it his coming. The
humble trade of the carpenter who
earns his bread by honest toll, hath no
charms for him he has been educat-
ed far beyond ii he has listened
to the siren song waited to him from
the crowded marts of trade and COM
merce aud whicl to him at least, is
';fame's eternal camping ground" The
deceptive mirage OF glories outlines
dreamed of, ever fading in the distance,
allures him on, maybe to greatness, but
most likely to oblivion and obscurity.
He detesfs the very thought of seeking
his old home and settling down TO work
laying of bricks or driving nails and the
chances are he could not drive nail
half as straight as might the average
woman. Likely as not he has forgot
ten the price of potatoes and could not
tell Jack plane from cold chisel. Ii
his father follows the trade of shoe
maker, he ridicules the thought that he
was ever meant to take his fathers
place. No, it's not that kind of a bench
for which he thinks he was designed.
He rather dreams of 4 suming judicial
robes and occupying the bench in the
capacity of a dispenser of justice, where
he can look wise, draw $4,000 a year
srd do nothing. Perhaps he is q
farmers son and was raised on the ialm
unril he was old enough to go to school.
As boy on the farm he was useful.
But now his idea is that he was cut out
for politician and lawyer and des-
tined TO shine before the court and on
the stump and SO, instead of sticking TO
the farm and stuff ng hay in a NOW or
bundles OF oates into the thresher and
finding himself AT eventide oflife when
the shadows are lengthening into dark
uess surrounded with abundance of
the fruits OF his labor, loved and re-
spected by his neighbors, with manly
sous growing up around him TO follow
in his footsteps, ne prefers the more
''congenial' employment of the poiti-
cal arena, and while he may bring UP
in Congress, he is about as liable to
wind up by ballot hox stufiing
and find the penitentiary awaiting
him. where he can end his days in the
work of stutfing pegs into the soles of
shoes by means Of a hammer and awl
Aud so it goes and our cities increase
with great rapidity while mountains,
rich in precious metals, remain un-
touched: the rushing waters of vast
rivers, with power to turn thousands OF
wheels of manufactures, sweep silently,
UNDECIDED, to the sea, and vast terri
tories of agricultural lands which, with
labor and cultivation, might be made to
bring forth wealth in abundance, are
covered with wild vegetationaud lnhabi-
It'd by rabbits and prairie dogs. Foreign
labor rushes in from other lands offering
fewer advantages than ours, and takes
the place deserted by the native born
who, endowed with the higher educa-
ton furnished by our present public
school system, feels that he is destined
for some lottier sphere and when, out
stripped in the race, discouraged and
disheartened by failure in occupations
and professions already over crowded,
ne seeks the level from whence he
sprung; like the wandering mariner
who returns after many years and finds
! ~ J,op,a Of his childhood filla5 Wit n