The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-16
EDUCATION IN THE
 UNITED STATES
Present System Began With
 Founding of Nation
WAGES ARE LOW
Federal Government Has Given Lands Valued at $3oo,ooo,o 900 for Edu cationaI Purposes-Great
 Work of Night Schools.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

This is commencement month in /e United States, and our great army of school children and college students is ready for the joys of vacation. The word army, when used in connection with American school children, is not an ex- travagance of speech. We have in our common schools almost as many pupils as there are people in Spain New York City alone has 6000O0 school children, which is equal to the entire population of d South American republic like Paraguay. There are 25,OO0 school children in one New York district a half-mile square ever 20 per cent of the population of the United States Is in our common schools, while in Russia the number 's just a trhe oyer per cent Our growth in educational matters is shown by the fact that in 1900 the average entire school ing for an American child was only eighty-two days-now it is nearly 1,1d5 days We go in for education to the eX- tent that our common schools alone cost Us several million dollars day during each entire school year.
 The average American ferventlYs em- braces his rights as a free citizen of great republic, and he knows that the surest road to personal and national inde- pendence lies through education. With Daniel Webster, he recognizes education as "a wise and liberal system of police, by which property and life and the peace of society are secured" He may not be fla mliar with Kent, but he has q like be lief that "the parent who sends his son into the world uneducated defrauds the community of a useful citizen, and be- queaths to 1t nuisance" He knows that good citizen is one who reads, ob- serves, weighs, discusses and thereby proves his ability to share in the govern Ing influences of his country.
 He knows that the productive capacity of a citizen is always in direct ratio 10 his training, and that from 10000 Hitter ates the jails and penitentiaries draw eight times as many criminals as from 10,000 who can read and write. " he Is poor man this average American will deny himself much to send his children to school. He may sometimes get distorted ideas about it's powers. but he is eager to get it's advantages. If he is rich and of philanthropic turn of mind he gives to schools colleges and libraries with liberality that has dazzled foreign on- lockers, giving in the past thirty-four years oyer $400 000, ,000 If he is only an immigrant, citizen hq embryo, he can aften be seen interviewing the nearest school teacher in regard to the advan- tages for his children before he has found lodging or unpacked his bundles.
 Germany's belief in popular education came it is said, as a result of the Napo- leonic wars France dates hers from the disaster of 1871, but the United States points to no sanguinary fields nor nd- tional humiliation as the beginning of hers. It came with the laying of the na- tion's corner stone, and has been ad- hered to with Anglo-SaXon tenacity ever since, prompted by the belief that in uni versal intelligence lies the first principle of democracy. The handful of settlers at Jamestown, when they were the only English colony in the new world, laid plans and levied taxes for the support of a grammar school. Hampton Virginia, claims to have the first free school estab- lshed in America.
 The present popular system of educa- ton was born in. New York and the New England states The early Dutch and Puritan settlers came from countries that were strong for popular education and taught that ignorance was a project of that old deluder, Satan" The Dutch West India company installed Adam Roe landson as instructor to the youth of New Amsterdam in 1883. In 1885 Boston voted a school fund, and Salem, Plymouth and Cambridge all established free schools De- fore 1850. By 1888 New Jersey had per- manent school fund Penn's charter re- quired the government of his colony to erect and aid schools, and early in her history Connecticut reported that ''one- fourth of the annual revenue of this col- ony Is laid out in maintaining free schools for the education of our children
 While the general system of education is under state control, the national gov ernment plays no unmportant part. It has no authority but unbounded influence. The bureau of education was created un- der the department of the interior in 1867, and has since been a great clearing house for educational matters relating to this and other countries. Thousands of voluntary contributors send In valuable information which tireless men and wom- en collect verify, and tabulate ready for distribution among the people of this and other lands.
 As early as 17S7 the national govern ment began giving lands for educational uses. In the new states carved from the Northwest Territory the government re- served the sixteenth section in every township for educational fund. Two years later two other townships were added for a university, and In 1s4s the