The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1904-07-22
OF GERMAN j 7 / "A:
WHAT HAS MADE A GREAT Ma
TON OF GERMANY.
SCHOOLS AND THE ARMY
Letter from Prof. Amos w. Patten, Of
Northwestern University, Evans
ton, ILL.,, Now Travelling in
European Countries.

ANVIL III" 0sIoAA OAAveASAty, GVdAS-
ton, ILL.,, Now Travelling in
European Countries.
Berlin, Germany.-The greatness of
the German people is due to the fact
That the drill master has been working
away on this people for something like
200 years or more. Frederick William
l. of Brandenburg, though at the head
OF a petty province, could boast of the
finest army in Europe. 1t was made
the magnificent machine it was only
by the most memorable education and
drill conceivable. This monarch car
ried this policy into everything in his
realm, ruling with a rod of iron. His
son, Frederick, brought up under this
system, though fouting some of his
fathers notions, brought his renowned
military system to even greater eff
cheney, and as tactician, as well as
military leader, challenged the admir-
alton of the world. When the same
Frederick, at the conclusion of his
wars, settled down to reorganize his
kingdom, he set about building an ed
ucational system, and called to his aid
the foremost men of the age. Won Zed-
litz was made minister of public wor-
ship and education, and he, in 1888, in
vited Frederick August Wolf to Halle.
This marked a great era from which
the classical schools of Germany
awoke to new life, and since the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century
oil
intellectual progress upon them Prus-
STA was the scene of VOLTS labors, and
1t is Prussia that has taken the lead in
educational matters. In 1903 the
great William Won Humboldt was
placed at the head of the department
of education. The reforms he inaugu-
rated substantially stamped the Prps-
sian schools with those characteristics
which they maintain to the present
time.
The Germans are trained people.
The schOolmaster and the drillmaster
are the powers behind the throne. The
school and the army are the two great
factors in this efficient training
While militarism is to be deplored, yet
the army in some respects has had d
beneficial influence upon the youth of
the nation. Every young man is
obliged to spend three years in the
army. Think of such a system in its
effects upon the young men! Take a
young fellow and place him three
years under such an education. Teach
him order, cleanliness, system, obedi-
Doc oil ho hoy
a school and notice the result. Many
a fellow apparently worthless has
come out of his three years drill thor
oughly Strengthened up, and with a
higher ambition. Let the schoolmas-
ter and the drillmaster train nation
and there are built up those qualities
which render it capable of almost any,
thing In the great crises of the ma
tional life.
German education rests upon the
conviction that the veal of the state
depends upon the individual citizen
The ignorant citizen is a menace to
social health and order. If there is to
be good commonwealth there must
be good citizens. The only way to
stop having rascals is to stop raising
them. The Germans insist on building
their citizenship by sending everybody
to school and keeping him there dur
ing the most plastic period of his life
from six to IA. Woe to the parent
who proposes to buck against this re-
quirement. The municipal education
committee would address a summons
to him that a comparison of the school
rolls OF their district with the NUM-
cipal list of children Of school age
showed his son not to be at school, and
requiring him, in consequence, to ap-
pear before the municipal COMMITTEES
at place and time named and there
satisfy them either that his son did at
tend some public school, or that-if
privately taught-he was taught by
duly trained and certificated teachers
On the back of the summons he would
find printed the penal articles of the
school law sentencing him to fine if
he failed to satisfy the municipal COM
mittee, and if he failed to pay the fine,
or was found second time offending,
to Imprisonment.
AS consequence the average cit
eracy" is higher in Germany than in
any other European power; indeed,
than any people in the world
Any person, to enter professional
life, must present q certificate that he
has passed through the school system
and has been trained also professional
ly at the university. No minister,
lawyer, physician, dentist, teacher can
enter upon his work without such
preparation. To enter certain kinds of
business the young man must present
certificate of certain maturity in his
studies. Cheap degrees from foreign
schools are an abomination in the
sight of the Germans. They know all
about the diploma shops" in Ameri-
ca where degrees may be bought. This
tends to discredit all degrees from,
American schools ONLY last Anril tho