Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-05-24
Carnegie's Gift to Scotland.
Boston Herald

Boston Herald
The gift of Sl0,000,000 to the Scotch
universities by Andrew Carnegie, with
the avowed purpose of making the higher
education free to every boy in Scotland
who has the ambition and energy to
secure it, is not only the largest of all
his benefactions yet made, but also the
grandest In its purpose and scope.
Nothing can be imagined more likely to
secure and perpetuate the already his
torical glory of his native land in general
intelligence and the high intellectual
achievements of Its sturdy sons. 1t
makes the Scotch universities a part of
the public school system of the country,
as, indeed, they were already in a sub
stantial degree.
1t confirms and makes real the splen-
did ideal of a national educational system
which was conceived and Initiated bv
stout John Knox three and half CEN
turtles ago. HIS scheme comprehended
primary schools, secondary schools and
colleges, all to be supported by public
taxation, all to be free, with compulsory
education for all as far as they were able
to advance. The plan in essential features
was the precursor of that afterwards cs-
tabished here in Massachusetts. rather
more than less comprehensive and oblig-
atory. 1t has been steadfastly, if not
regularly, developed toward realization
ever since his time. The public schools
of Scotland have always been far in adj
vance of those of England, They have
been public schools in a true sense, and
education has been practically universal,
while advanced and the highest educa-
ton has been made easy of attainment
by all classes of the population. This
accounts for the general intellectual
activity and ability of the Scotch, eulo-
gized by Macaulay and many others. 1t
was DR.. Lyon Playfair. we believe, who
said few years ago substantially this I:
Every son of Scotch peasant knows
that the university is just over the hill
open to receive him. Readers of The
Bonnie Briar Bush have been lately in
structed in the reality of the fact.
We recall that when the British Parla-
ment had under consideration the bill for
making large government grant in aid
of general education, which in England
was inadequately supported, Scotch
writer in one of the English magazines,
the Nineteenth Century, If our memory
serves, declared that Scotland, unlike
England, needed no aid for its primary
and secondary schools, and that Scot
lands share in the grant would not be
used to lessen the burden of taxation for
these schools, which the people Willingly
and proudly sustained; but 1t would be
used to enable the universities to reduce
their tuition charges, already low. so
that still more of the peasant youth of
the land might receive the highest educa-
ton they could be induced to aspire to.
In this discreet, patriotic disposition
Mr.. Carnegle's magnificent gift is made
to complete the decentralization of the
Scotch universities and make advanced
education as free to the humblest as is
the primary education given in the
schools of the coast, the moors and the
mountains of that land of frugalitv and
intelligence. Nothing that he could have
done would serve more effectually to
maintain and eXalt the prosperity, con-
tentment and distinction of the Scotch
people, and endear him to future genera
lions of his race in every condition of life.
The canny Scotch are not much affected
by the dreadful bugbear of overeducating
the lower classes, of which much is
heard in England, and less, but shame
United States. They believe that educa-
ton is power. that their happiness and
influence as people is promoted by the
diffusion among all of the best culture to
which they can attain. Their leaders
have never preached the doctrine that
for the poor ignorance is bliss and to them
learning should be dispensed in due
measure according to the present lot in
life of those who hunger for it, lest they
become Discontinued with the inferior
station in which they were born, and re-
fuse to live by honest industry. In
nothing else has more illogical unwisdom
been deduced from exceptional instances
than in the matter Of general education.
Mr.. Carnegie's gift is the characteristic
act of a true Scotchman. 1t has racial
flavor. None the less, it is exemplary to
the rich men of every nation.