The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-11-15
HOW AMERICA HAS PROFITED

HOW AMERICA HAS PROFITED
Hamilton W. Mabie, writing in the
current North American Review on
American Opportunities and Educa-
tion, ''notes the great advantage which
the American people have over other
nations in the matter of education.
Unlike other modern peoples, The says,
we began with a great accumulation
of educational results and forces. 1t
was not matter of experiment for we
took advantage of the centuries of
work of other peoples. Universities
came late with other nations. With
us they were among the first institu-
tions to be founded. In fact Ameri-
can settlements were to large extent
founded by university bred men. So
they turned to the needs Of. the
country from an educational stand
point, at an early day. So we find that
the college is older than our national
life, and but little younger than our
colonial life. Here in doubtless lies
one of the greatest forces of advance
ment in our national life Mr.. Mabie
further points out that in the building
of our nation, no country ever made
such free use of the experiences of
other countries as did the fathers of
the republic in the original organiza-
tion. The political system which they
brought into existence was based upon
the ripe experience of the whole world
prior to 1776, and he points out that if
CONGRATULATIONS of the Declaration of
Independence could be traced back to
their sources we should find that many
of the old nations back even to Judea
and Egypt made contri buttons there
to. And further that the Declaration
of independence and the constitution
as well contain the purest and most
condensed material of political wis
dom, first formulated in declaration
and then into working system of
government which men ever had the
opportunity of organizing into new
system at single stroke. No wonder,
in view of this, that we have made
such advancement and progress in the
way of education, commerce, indus
trial and other lines as to amaze the
world, for no other nation ever had
such start upon such foundation.
Further, Mr.. Mabie says: 'No
other people ever owed SO much to it's
predecessors and to humanity at large
as ourselves; the Greek, the Roman,
the Jew, the Frenchman, the Dutch
man and the Englishman have all
worked, thought, suffered, legislated
and acted for our benefit, and we
have entered into the benefits of their
labors. Other countries began at the
foundation and shaped their syste ms
under the pressure of the tremendous
experience of national life; we quietly
built upon foundations which others
had laid for us. We are what we are
in our political structure and charac-
ter because we have taken our politi-
Cal ideas from the life of the race and
we had the freest and widest ma
tional education because we have had
, the opportunity of going to school to
all the older races. We are what we
are as nation largely because we
have taken our political education
from the experience of the entire race,
and we have had the freest and widest
national education because we have
come SO late into history that we have
been able to take advantage of all that
has gone before. What the value of
these large relationships is, comes out
very clearly when we look at the course
of vital education in the past. That
education has been dependent solely on
the intercourse of man with man; the
isolated and detached man could go
but very little way in his training
no matter how vigorous his will or
how fine his intellectual equipment, he
OSSo4 10 iColh III a SO way Ouly
when he touched his fellow
Nothing could be more true than
this. In nutshell the great progress
America has made, is due as Mr..
Mabie has said to the application
America has made to all that was best
in an educational and governmental
way from all the nations and peoples
of the past, and also in the fact that
while bringing men still more closely
together and making them more and
more dependent upon each other, it
has also preserved their individuality
and SO made them stronger and better
able to cope in the affairs of life.
The normal board of control case is
now before the supreme court, argu-