The San Francisco call., 1899-07-15

THE address delivered to the teachers at Los
Angeles by DR.. w. T. Harris United States
Commissioner of Education, very interest
ing and eloquent and artfu presentation OF certain
views so fundamentally wrong, that 1t IS pity SO
much excellence in composition and delivery was
wasted in an effort to make wrong seem right
Throughout it was persistent suggestion that we
can do with our Subject" races and peoples Just
what the Gar has done with Poland and is doing
with Finland and the Kaiser doing with Asace and
Lorraine Mr. Harris said that in view OF the tact that
other nations are dividing up the world, the people
think it our duty to show what can do IN that line
He thought the United States uplltt whole ma
tons and that we should not build a Chinese wall
around our liberties but should force our c1vl1za-
ton the civilization of the printed page, upon such
colonies as come to u.s. and it is absurd to say that
we will tyrannize over those incapable or setgoVern-
ment
1t is difficult to keep ones patience IN reading such
utterances from professor and doctor OF laws sup
posed by the position he holds, to be the leader Oh
his guild in the Union.
There is but one line of cleavage which civilization
follows and that is the line of physical necessity
That necessity exists in the temperate zone, where
it has been the mother of invention, and by inven-
ton civilization progresses The civilization OF the
temperate zone be domesticated IN the torr1d
zone That civilization, which has so multiplied by
art the means of existence where life is struggle
against the resistance of nature, as to make possible
the enormous modern increase in the temperate zone
nations if transferred with all its inventions to the
tropics would be nearly destructive OF HE as 1t IS
here promotive OF it.
All of the things permanent IN CIVILIZATION IN gov
eminent in institutions, are due to the energy OF
man and not TO the bounty of nature AS we ap-
proach the equator the energy of man declines, and
nature compliments its lack by her spontaneous
bounty which supports existence with but little
effort.
To talk about forcing the civilization Of one zone
upon the other is the equivalent OF forcing the bear to
eat straw like the OK and the to eat meat like the
bear
The tropics have their civilization, suited to the
environment, and after ages OF effort no other has
been forced upon them, unless mongrelized as TO
lose its distinctive features
All knowledge all learning all artificial application
of invention and discovery, is for one purpose and
no other That purpose is enlargement OF the provi
sions and betterment of the conditions upon which
human life depends. These conditions respond pri-
marily TO hunger, thirst and nakedness Food,
drink and shelter must be had and the supply must
be instant and constant. All human devices are
planted in these primal necessities and their blooming
into art and science has never been and will be,
except their root planted in these first necessities Of
existence.
Enough has been said to show that civilization is
natural evolution; that its form and measure are
determined by environment which fixes the neces-
sites they must supply that where these necessities,
arising in the resistance Of nature may be overcome
by human energy civilization is the highest; where
natural resistance is nsurmountab1e, as beyond the
Arctic Circle civilization is the lowest and where
nature offers the least resistance in the tropics its
form is determined by environment and differs as
widely from that of the temperate do the
races Of the two zones.
After all that Huxley, Darwin, Draper, Andrew D.
White, Herbert Spencer and others have written it
seems strange that all these things have to be said
over again to the National Commissioner of Educa-
ton. 1t would that he might have given his
views of the possibility of pushing education in the
tropics without unnecessarily mixing education with
the institutions which mark our civilization Educa-
tion general and common exists under institutions
widely different from ours. If writing and reading its
language and having knowledge of fundamental
mathematics determine the literacy OF people, the
Chinese superiors, but we have doubt that
DR.. Harris would object if they should, therefore,
claim the right force their civilization upon u.s. As
DR.. Harris strayed still further from his proper
datum line he plunged into worse errors. He secuted
the idea that rule of subjects whom decide to
be incapable of selfgovernment will be tyrannical
He should know that no yoke can be laid by one man
upon another without that others consent so softly
as not to gall That fact has made the history of the
world. It was the dynamic force that has exploded
and scattered all empires from Babylon to Spain It
is the terror Of England whose day will come as
doom has come to all her predecessors in that path,
and will come to all who follow her therein
DENUDiNG THE MOUNTAINS.