The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-24
Defenses of the Republic.

Announcer MOSely COMMISSION HAS
come from England. This time Mr..
Mosely's commissioners are studying
American education. The first thing
to surprise them about the American
public schools was their democracy.
In Washington, for instance, they
tin attending the public schools, and
nobody seemed to think there was any
thing extraordinary in the fact.
The democracy in the public schools
Is one of their most valuable features
and is in itself quite enough to put all
true Americans on guard against every
attempt to undermine the public
school system. Nothing is so objec-
tionable in a republic as hard and fast
class lines. Indeed, a genuine repub-
lie cannot survive if it's people be
rigidly divided into classes. That is
one reason why in a republic educa-
ton is properly a public function. It
is as much the right Of the state to
educate its children as to maintain an
army-both are necessary to self de-
Tense. .-I-. -
It is hard for any boy or girl to go
thru the public schools without coming
out more or less tinged with de-
mocracy, no matter how snobbish the
home environment may be. The rich
mans son parts with a good deal Of his
self-importance when he finds that one
poor boy is his superior in intellect
and another in athletics. Nowhere
does ability SO promptly command re-
spect as among boys, nowhere does
real worth count for so much.
The Outlook expresses the fear that
there Is to be revival in this country
Of the school controversy which is now
arousing such a bitter controversy in
France and England. In the former
| country, the republic, convinced that
| the influences of religious organiza-
lions were undermining the govern
| ment, thru the schools, has accom-
plished at last the absolute seculariza-
ton Of public education. In England
the new educational act gives the es-
tablished church a dominating control
of public education. 4 To attempt to re-
vive this long settled question in
! America would, indeed, provoke bit
| ter and futile controversy. Nothing is
more certain than that the vast ma
jority Of the American people will in
sist on non-sectarian public instruc-
ton. f. 1t is the right of the state to
provide education for all the children.
It is equally the right of parents to
spend money to educate their children
privately. But if they elect to do so,
they can not hope to escape taxation
for public schools. Neither can the
state permit public moneys spent in
education to be the means Of inculcat-
ing any particular religious doctrine.
That is why it is so difficult to give re-
ligious instruction, in the schools.
The public school which knows not
religious sects is a powerful social
agent in keeping down sectarian
prejudice and hatred. So long as the
children Of all the people mingle to-
gether in the public schools there is
little danger that the churches of the
United States will ever become cen
tiers Of internal dissension and hotbeds
4 of intolerance. ~ ,.<I.<
| We believe that the moment the
public is convinced that an attack is
organizing on the public schools, there
will be such an outburst of indigna-
ton that the attack will prove as futile
as it will be unwise.