, 1901-12-21

ty the census of 1890 when there were
416 colleges all told in the United
States. and all but 1O1 of these were
under the control of some religious de-
nomination.
However, the year 1887 marks a new
era, and is the turning point in the his
tory of education in this country. Two
events occurred in that ear which
have had no little influence in shaping
our educational policy, and both have
e influential in bringing the state
more prominently into the work OF ed
%ucation. The one event occurred IN
Massachusetts, when she adopted Hor-
ace Mann's plan for a state depart
ment OF education and appointed him
as her first state superintendent. thus
organizing for the first time a state
public school system, and the other oc-
Cured in Michigan when in the very
year she attained to statehood she at
| the same time solved the problem of
higher education for America by found
ing the first state university. | repeat
that these two events make the year
| 1887 the most memorable in history of
| American education. For by these two
events our educational policy has been
definitely determined. And as the re-
suit, today, our common schools are
organized into a state system n are
on state support n under state sl
pervision in every state in the union;
while again all the states west of the
Mississippi river land all the others
that have come to statehood since
| 1897 have followed the model of Mich
igan university and each has it's own
state university for higher education
and as properly a part Of its public
school system.
The western states have had this ad-
vantage over the older states of the
east, we have beer able to profit from
their experience. For example the sys
tenn of higher education in Michigan
is far better organized and more eco
nomically administered than in Ohio.
For while there are at present 35 col
leges in Ohio, there is practically only
one in Michigan. And that magnif-
cent University of Michigan with her
appeal to state pride is accomplishing
more for that state today than all
those 50 s%quabbling sectarian institu-
tons are doing for Ohio at ten times
the cost. The United States have four
times as many colleges and universe
ties as Germany. and it costs several
times as much to u them. but the lat
ter has more students n more pro-
fessors than the former. The state
university has been a strong unifying
power in the states west of the Mis-
sissippi and has stopped very largely
the foolish multiplication of colleges.
For the state university Is made a reg
ular part of the system of public in
struction-the common or district
schools preparing for the high schools
THE high schools preparing for the
university-each a link in the chain
to bind the people to intelligent and
patriotic citizenship.
Wyoming has only fallen in line
with all the rest Of the sisterhood of
states in adopting IN organized public
school system after the model Of Mas
sachusetts: and by establishing a state
university after the example of Michi-
gan she is only doing what all the 9th
err western states have done. Never
| theless it means a good deal for us to
be in line with the American traditions.
The time has gone by in this state
when any patriotic citizen objects to
state support and supervision OF the
public schools. They are rather look
ed upon today as Indispensable and as
the chief defense Of our democracy.
1T Is hard indeed to tell what would
have become of this country without
them, with the immigrants pouring In
at the rate of a million a year. But
our free schools have been open to
their children and have taught them
the English language n the three
RS and trained them into intelligent
and law-abiding citizens. Henry Ward
Beecher used to say that the public
schools are our national stomach by
means of which our foreign population
is assimilated and made American.
When in Washington last month l was
invited into the home Of Elwood Mead
where l spent an evening. In CONVEX
sation with his small boy, Tom, I ask
ed him if he had come to know any of
the Roosevelt boys and he replied yes,
that he and one of them were in the
same school together. A Wyoming
boy and a son of the president going
to school together! This is what ev-
erywhere our system of common
schools is doing. They are the great
social leveler inc are keeping the
country democratic. Sixteen million
pupils are annually attending the pub
lie schools in the United States, COM
ing from all sorts of homes, the rich
and the poor reciting the same lessons
and playing the same games together.
asked little Tom Mead If he thought
he could throw young Teddy junior,
and he said he didn't know, hut he
seemed to me to be perfectly ready
and willing to try it.
Higher education remains today as
the only debatable portion of the prob
lem of public education. / know that
the statistician has found that only
one out of 1875 of these boys and girls
in our public schools ever enters a high
school and that only one in 500 ever
goes to college. And hence, there are
those who take the ground that public
maintenance of higher education is all
wrong, for they argue that only a few
can or will avail themselves of its adj
vantages and therefore the many are
burden9i for their sake. But they for
get that exactly the same argument
may be used against our Law courts.
Not many people have lawsuits, but
all of us help to maintain the courts.
And we may say the same thing re-
garding almost any other activity of
the government.
We Justify state primary education
on the grounds that the state requires
of all the: duties of citizenship; we
ahould iuStify afato uuiyorattioa On the