The Wichita daily eagle., 1901-06-15
A QUESTION HE DOESN'T ANSWER.

IN an article entitled Impressions Of America" in the
Of the Nineteenth Century, Frederic
Harrison after speaking Of the signs Of wonderful and con
stantly increasing prosperity which he behed every
hand in the United States says:
Of course for the American citizen and the thoughtful
visitor the real problem is whether this prosperity
this boundess future of theirs rests upon equal expan-
sion in the social Intellectual moral sphere. They
would be bold critics should maintain it. and few
thinking the United States without qualfca-
tons misgivngs tie universal diffusion edu-
cation the energy which is thrown wealth
lavshed it from sources public private no doubt
exist Universities, richly endowed exist by Scores
colleges by hundreds in part Of the Union
schools training colleges technical schools laboratories
poytechnics and libraries with every thriving
The impression left my mind is that the whole
educational machinery be at least tenfold
United Kingdom That open to women must be at least
twentyfold greater than with us rapidly
ing meet that Of men, both numbers in quality.
Nor resist the impression that the education all
grades is less peruncory amateursh and than is
often experience home The libraries labora-
tories, and gymnasa Of the universities
colleges are models equipment and organization
The "pious founder has long died Europe He is
alive America and seems to possess some magic source
OF inexhaustible munifcence
Libraries, Of course not learning; museums and
laboratories not knowledge; much less is an enormous
reading public literature And however much libraries
may be crowded with readers however spacious lavish
the mOunngs technical Schools though
millions Of arouate and womeA can pass the seventh
standard Of board school the question the fruit OF all
this remains to be answered passing visitor to the
United States forms his Impression to the bulk and
diffusion Of the Instruments of education; is in no
better position than any else to measure the product
The sight of such apparatus of education
mand for education that emphatcay by both sexes
must create profound impression The Cooper Institute
Of New York the earliest Of these popular endow
mens st managed and developed by three generations Of
the family from It's venerable founder Jeremy Ben
than Of New York. is typical example peoples pal
ace where science art and literature are offered absolutely
free to ali corners what the result? Few Amer-
pretend that with ali the immense diffusion of ele
mentary knowledge Of science in United States the
higher science quite that Europe Of scholar
ship in the technical sense of the word in spite Of the vast
numbers OF graduates the same thing nav be said And
Dretends that American literature rivals that Of
France in its finer forms-or indeed that Of England
The reason for that is not obscure and 1t is hardly
covered by the ordinary suggestion that the American
people absorbed in the pursuit OF gain and material
improvement However much this may react on the in
telecua world the numbers Of the American people are
great that numerically not proportionately those
who devoted science art and literature are NJ least
many they are in England. The vast DEVELOPMENT
OF material interests rather stimulus 70 the pursuit Of
science than hindrance as the vast multiplication 81
books is stimulus authorship But why suppose that
general interest in practical science oonduoes to hieh
scientific culture that millions Of readers tend to foster
taste in letere The contrary result would be nat
nraL Practical mechanics the same thing Is scen
tfe genius And the wider the reading public becomes
the lower is The average az literary culture