The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-03-06
THE DYING CENTURY
PASSED in REVIEW
ONE HUNDRED YEARS PROG
Rrss IN EDUCATION.
American. School System, Originally
Misunderstood and Even Resisted,
Comes to Be Regarded as the Re-
public's Best Growth.
From the Chicago Times.derald.

publ1c'S Best 0rOWtns
From the Chicago Times-Herald.
With an invested school fund of near
~ $l20,O0O, 900, a public school attend
ance Of 15,OOO,v00 pupils, and a total Of
nearly 425,0OO teachers, the United
States has marked the century for uni
versal education as no other country
has done. And If this were not enough
the enthusiast might point to the 472
universities and colleges Of the coun-
try. with their 1850 professors, 100000
students. and n total investment of
more than $SOO,OOo,00O. Almost one
fourth Of the school children Of the
world are in American schools, and IL
one institution Of government IN the
United States is unassailable In the
presence Of an American 1t Is the
system Of public schools. Touching up
on this national characteristic. FRANCIS
Adams, secretary Of the National Edu-
cation league. writing In 1873, says,
with British wonderment:
THAT which impresses me most with
regard to America is the grasp which
the schools have upon the sympathy
and intelligence of the people. Those
of the cities are the lions of America.
An intelligent foreigner, and also-as 1t
would appear from recent criticisms
the unintelligent foreigner who visits
the states, into whatever town he goes
is taken to the schools as the first OBJ
ject of interest. Among public pues-
tions education occupies foremost place,
and of all topics 1t is that upon which
the American speaker is most ready
am willing to enlarge. Public intelli-
gence mas recognized the fact that the
highest and best interests Of the ma
tion are indissolubly bound up with the
question. Thus every American feels
not only personal but patriotic In
terest in the welfare of the schools.
.wing to this popular feeling their Or
ganization possesses a spring ana force
and energy which are in strong con-
trast with the sluggish instincts of the
parochial system. 1t is vast
proprietary scheme in which every citi-
zen has share.
ADJuNcTs FROM THE SCHOOL.
AS an additional fact pointing to the
public school as an institution may be
cited the 25S public and private nor
NAL schools Of the United States.
which graduate more than 1000 trained
teachers every year.
When the century was very young
education for the masses was a serious
topic in several countries. Bavaria,
Prussia and Switzerland were agitating
it and compelling attendance upon
public schools. The new government
Of the United States had received the
impulse from the early colonies, es-
pecially Massachusetts,. But the COM
mon school education of the first quar-
ter Of the century was vastly different
to what it is at this end of 1t. The
'three RS" literally formed the curri-
culum Of the schools. In 1885 Horace
Mann. in New England, began the
agitation Of the subject Of education.
In the following year the national ad-
ministration cleared the country of
the debts contracted by the war Of the
revolution and through the Louisiana
purchase. A considerable surplus re-
mained in the national treasury and
this was parceled out among the states
in proportion to their representation
in congress. This, in some states, was
the foundation Of the public school
funds of today.
STATES AND SCHOOL FUNDS.
Eight states in the Union have no
public school funds. They are Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont. Massachu-
setts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina and Georgia. AS COM
pared with these. there are Illinois with
a fund of $1,OO0,00O, Missouri with $780,
100000. Kansas with $4,000 900, ana
Texas with $7.OO0.O00. The national gov
ernment's "school section" specifica-
tiOn in the .'Iblic lands of the West is
a monument to it's appreciation of the
public sc'Ool. Through this the six
teenth section in every township of
thirty-six sections becomes the prop
erty of the state. to be disposed Of to
the credit Of the permanent school
fund. Ohio was the first state to re-
ceive such a grant, and that in 1903.
All Of the newer western states have
prof1ted by this gift Of school lands,
and in their acceptances Of the public
schoors necessity have escaped some
OF the disturbing questions that came
with the establishment of the first free
schools. One Of the governors of Vir-
ginia has been quoted as thanking God
that the free school had not come to
his state. In many sections of the
frowned upon as charitable exberi-
ments, while the first attempts at COM
pulsory attendance on these school
We're denounced as out Of harmony
with American institutions and the first
index Of a dangerous Capitalization Of
the future. Today. as some one has
put it, the public avails itself as freely
Of the free school as 1t does Of a free
bridge on highway, and in addition
to compulsory attendance on the pub
lie schools most states have passed
laws prohibiting the employment of
children under a certain grammar
school age.
SCHOOLS OFFENSIvELY FREE.
Francis Adams. who has paid such a
high tribute to the public schools of
the United States, has drawn COM
parison with the British free schools,
In which he says that the eleemosyn-
lry character of the British free school
ID never allowed to lapse in the minds
Of either parent or pupil, and this, he