The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-09-15

The Washington School Board Is wax
Ing up to the fact that the pupils OF it,
schools are trying to bite off more than
they can chew. Reading. thinking people
have known this for a long time. It Is
true Of all the big public schools OF the
country. A public school is primarily for
The education of poor children who cannot
get an education any other way. Read
ing. writing, and arithmetic" are the
fhree things the average man and woman
wants to be ma ster of. These are the three
khings that children get less Of in public
schools than anything else. They learn
how to dissect hy's wing, to analyze a
Browning poem. to distinguish between the
endogens and exogens. They can tell you
the effect of tobacco on the human system
lmost of the boys by experience with
cigarettes), and they are taught high art
with chalk and charcoal, and they can
easily distinguish between high G and
B fat, but they can't spell the commonest
words, fall down on common division or
simple fractions, and don't know enough
about geography or history of the United
States to be able to tell where the Little
Big Horn is, or what happened there, or
at Crown Point, which they couldn't 10
cate in month Of Sundays.
A poet said long time ago. "the time
has gone Ger when a man may in all
things be ALL" In this busy-got- to-get-
wants to know how to write, spell, figure
and read. He wants to be well enough
grounded In grammar to give his nouns
q speaking acquaintance with his verbs,
and he needs to be we'll grounded in ele-
mentary geography, History of his coun-
try must, or should be-, his dear famil-
lar, because the man of the present day is
. politician, and without history and
knowledge of his country and what it has
hone he cannot tell why he is a party man.
With this splendid grounding, the man
who has a spark of the progressive in
him will take up his specialty-farming, it
may be; finance, possibly; electricity, civil
engineering, what-not-and perfect him
pelf tn his chosen calling. For real, gen.
arous education he will read and digest
khe newspapers, and later he will travel.
All the same, he will try to do but one
thing, and he will do that we'll, if he is q
Puccessfui man.
=. Why on earth does the boy who has to
be blacksmith, and who knows it, want
TO spend precious hours in running
scales" or tearing dog-fennel blossom to
bits, or learning to use a typewriter?
II, In the years to come, he has a soul
eboye blacksmithing. which Is altogether
an honorable calling, the latent talent In
him will come to the surface. and he will
profit by it. But why condemn him to
studies which his soul loathes, and which
mean murdered time and no more, when
eThat the youth wants and needs is a good,
sturdy foundation in simple elementary
studies?
As was stated in The National Tribune
last week, the Civil Service Commission
was going to try to play havoc with the
State organizations in Washington. The
premiership of these organizations is made
mp very largely of men and women who
are in oniciai life and Government employ.
They band together for social enjoyment
and for political purposes, and politics
cuts more ice than anything else. The
Kentucky organization is political, pure
and simple, and does not scruple to say
eo Some of it's members who are of the
fhn-skinned kind and who are afraid to
EVink unless the chief of the bureau tells
them they may, laid the matter before the
Commission and was very gravely in
Formed that under the rules no Gov
eminent employee from Kentucky could
belong to the club, as it was political, and
the employees would be assessed.
Some Of the Kentuckians are going to
leave the club, but most of them will stand
TO their guns, and intend to fight it out.
Nhey say that Government empIoye does
not give up either his religion or his poll
tics when he becomes Government en-
pioye any more than does a member Of
congress or the Cabinet, or the chief Of
the bureau in which he is employed. The
idea that a man must forget his duty to
his country and its Flag when he becomes
one of the pieces Of that eountry's ma
chinery is obnoxious to any live man or
woman. Politics puts him into place, then
NJ hU Rhn ha L. a. Al
(which he climbs to living? There is GO
Ing to be fun before the Civil Service
Commission gets through with its prose-
cution and persecution of Government en-
ployes who are perfectly willing to help
elect good man to the Presidency, be he
Republican or Democrat.
Something doing up in Montana! In
deed there Is. Senator Clark's son, Will
liam A. Clark, jr., is credited with a de-
Pire to come to Congress as a Representa-
live in the lower House from Montana.
Montana is causing the Republican cam
Paign managers to have symptoms of heart
Failure, anyhow. Joe Dixon, the present
Republican Representative, only got to
Congress by small plurality; now with
Toung Clark with his "bar'ls'' turns loose.
there Is no telling what will happen. Ex-
senator Carter wants to come back to the
Senate. and he is pretty smooth sort of
poiticidn, SD IL may De tnat he can hold
Montana level, but 1t looks "toss and toss"
gust now, SO the wise guys think.
Mrs. Laura s. III. Cooke. wife of for
mer Governor Henry d. Cooke. Of the
:. Territory Of the District of Columbia, died
at Atlantic City last week and was
brought back to Washington to be laid be-
side her husband in Oak Hill Cemetery.
1t might be truthfully said that Mrs.
Roosevelt looks better on horseback than
anywhere else. "She certainly do sit a
horse beautiful" and she seems not to be
at all afraid. She usually wears a very
short and extremely plain black cloth
habit and a black "chimneypot" hat. The
side saddle which Mrs. Roosevelt uses is
plain and unornamented. She has never
adopted the fad Of riding astride, and has
never permitted any of the girls to ride
that way. The whole family Is devoted
to horseback riding.
Some people are born fools. and some
people are fools for lack of sense, possibly
q distinction without a difference. bnt
what of an advertising man who would
propose to use the statuary in the parks
In Washington for bill-boards? To what
class should he be assigned, or must a new
Family OF fools be started? 1t is an actual
fact, however, that an advertising man
na re -