Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-07-13
The Observer.

We frequently these days encounter
the phrase 'civic decadence," but the
very fact that we use that and similar
phrases is in reality reason for hope
and encouragement So longias people
are thoroughly in slavery TO an evil,
they are not troubled by it and do not
raise alarming cries about it nor call it
hard names. When community is
really so corrupt that it is contented
in its corruption, the outlook is not en-
couraging. Why is corrupt and
knows it and writhes under this know
ledge the outlook for its redemption is
more encouraging.
The lack of civic virtue is manifest in
two classes: First there are the Corrupt
politicians who see in public Office an
opportunity for private graft and who,
like tie late chief of Tammany Hall,
are orking for their own pockets all
I. Cime. The other class comprises
the great body of citizens who are so
absorbed in private business that they
have no serious concern for public af-
fairs. A few years ago some wealthy
business men in one of our large cities
openly took the position that they
could better afford to be plundered by
corrupt public servants than to sacri-
flee additional opportunities for money
making by devoting part of their time
to the interests of good politics. 1t
would be hard to say which OF these
two classes is the more lacking in civic
virtue. The trouble with each is that
it is individualistic and selfish. The
representative ofo ach looks upon the
interests of the body polite as some
thing different from and external to
his own individual interest We can
readily understand how such a feeling
and view should exist under a despotic
government. 4 typical despot re-
CARDS his power and authority as his
own individual possession to be use d
by him for his own personal advan.
tage. The subjects Of such despoU,
accustomed only to submit and obey,
know nothing of Il power and respon-
sibility inherent in themselves. Why is
it that the free born sons of our Am
erican democracy fall so readily into
a habit of mind and spirit that belongs
rather to such countries as Russia and
Turkey?
An endeavor to assign a philosophic-
al reason for this condition has been
made by Mr.. Wilson L. Gill, of the
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Ac-
cording to his view, the robust civic
virtue which marked the early decades
of national history was begotten and
nourished in the home life of our peo-
pie There was then q gen eral inde-
pendence of spirit, ''a wholesome fear
lesSness of tho1ght. an impatience of
anything that was fundamentally un-
Just. moral stamina and courage that
made men dare all for the defence of
the principles of justice, equity and the
essential rights of man, He noticed
also ''the general recognition on the
part of the individual that the nation
had certain claims upon him; that
there were duties encumbent upon all
true friends of republican institutions
that could not rightly be ignored or
shifted to others shoulders"
Since then, owing to great indus
trial changes, the home as an institute
of independence and civic virtue, has
| ceased to exist for large proportion
| of our population. 1t was hoped that
| the demands of the new conditions
might be met through the develop
| ment of a system of public education.
Popular education, however, has failed
in number of vital particulars. For
one thing, and it is with this that we
are chiefly concerned, the management
| of the school has been based wholly
upon a monarchical as opposed to a
| democratic system and spirit. How
ever wise and equitable the discipline
may be in the school room, the fact re-
mains that so far as the pupils are con-
cerned the teacher is an autocrat
pure and simple. The pupils learn
nothing in selfeovernment; their
whole duty in relation to the govern
ment of the school is simply to yield
unquestioning obedience to the exter-
nal authority of the teacher. Such a
training is admirably adapted to the
future subjects of a monarchy; but is it
adapted to the future citizens of re-
public? The pupils are trained to be
ruled, not to bear part in ruling;
they are trained to be subjects, not to
be members of sovereign democracy
they are trained to implicit and ire
| sponsible submission, not to share in
the burden of authority and respon-
sibility. What then more natural than
that pupils 80 trained should go to
swell the ranks of those who look up
| on public administration as a matter
wholly external to end beyond them
selves, and who submit passively, as
by inbred instinct, to any form of cor
rupt public service?