The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-06-19

There is no question that more Wit
ally affects the welfare of the stat,
than the education Of its children. TIL,
state owes an obligation to pcsterit!
no less pronounced than that which
the parent owes his child. If free gov
eminent is to survive and this magnif
cent fabric of popular government
which the fathers erected on Ameri
can soil and dedicated forever to lib
erty, is to endure and fulfill it's high
mission it must have an educated and
enlightened citizenship. This gener.
alton owes duty to the succeeding
| generations which it should not shirk
and which it cannot shirk without
endangering the very fabric of the
government. The best guarantee Of
the permanence of our institutions is
an educated citizenship. This can be
obtained only by public schools. In
no other way can the State insure the
education of it's citizens than by pro-
yiding the means for their education,
schools which will be opened to and
patronized by all classes alike. There
is no institution so we'll calculated to
instill the principles which should
guide and direct the citizens of free
government as the public school.
Whatever promotes and advances the
cause of popular education is there
fore to be encouraged by the state;
whatever discourages the general ed
ucation of the masses or tends to i'm
pair the support and efficiency of the
public schools is to be destroyed. For
the citizen who opposes the education
of the children of this generation is
not a patriot and should certainly be I
classed with the "undesirables," if a /
harsher term even is not deserved. I
Until 1873 this state did not have a I
public school system deserving of that
term, or appellation. Until the pas
sage of the act of that year the state
had really never had a public school
system as we understand the term to-
lay Early legislation which sought
% provide for free schools had been
atally defective because it, uninten-
ionally doubtless, but neverthe-
ess quite effectively raised the
lass barrier. To attend a
rec school before the civil war was a
eproach to the child and its parents.
UGH institutions were looked upon as
ublic charities and the pupils as the
ecipients of the states charity. But
1 1873 dawned upon the law makers
hat the state owed duty to its chill
rem, to posterity that could only be
ischarged by the education of the q
lture citizens: that the free school
as the children's right and not a
narity. From the hour that these =
rinciples, which now none will dis y
ute, became accepted as the proper 81
,undation of all public school effort u
e history of our public school sys-
m dates u
These general propositions, will, it OF
ay safely be assumed, be accepted q
true and being accepted by all as OF
rrect there are those who hope by ne
,pealing to the friends of the public la
hools and to that pride which every al
,nnessean feels in their progress in To-
is state during the past third Of is
injury to create sentiment for an qu
stitution which is the very opposite
the schools in its influence upon the la
izenship. Because the schools have nj
most from the beginning of the sys- in
n enioved revenue from the sa- an
m the argument is now advanced in'
II the extinction of the liquor traffic at
Tennessee win seriously impair the wa
cheney of the public schools wa
those who argue from this stand. los
mt are ignorant of the history of las
.ir state or else deliberately attempt FRO
deceive in order to perpetuate the sta
1uitious saloon. As matter OF
I the school has advanced In Ten ito
see at the cost of the saloon. The l9o
gress of our public schools has ish