The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-06-03
Education and Public Sentiment.

The greatest power the world
has ever known is that OF public
sentiment. Against it armies
are powerless, tyrants are as
wax. 1t is the power that enacts,
enforces, creates, destroys, builds
and tears down empires, it is the
essential condition to everlast-
ing reform. All the great prob
lens that have arisen since the
world began have been solved by
an awakened public sentiment,
and the great problems confront
ing the United States today must
be solved by it. No temporary
organization no matter how good
or strong its purpose, if unsup-
porter by public sentiment, can
or will produce any lasting eff
feet. No frenzied effort on the
part of the few can ever right
the wrongs of the many. Reform
must be brought about, not
through political parties, but
through an awakened public SEN
timent.
Liberty has always come about
through public sentiment. 1t has
emancipated slave, elevated
women, and overthrown despots.
1t. wrote every clause in our great
Cons titution, inspired every sem
timent in the Declaration of In
dependence.
But public sentiment may be
as great a power for evil as for
good, and the greatest crimes in
the annals of time may be traced
to it. While it was public senti-
ment that made the name of Lin
coin revered throughout our
great land, it was also public sem
timent that martyred the lowly
John Brown. While it was public
sentiment that struck the shack
les from millions of black slaves,
it is. also public sentiment that
permits the brutal lynching of in
nocent negroes in the South, Ca
disgrace to the whole nation.) 1t
has not been unjust laws or mer-
CHESS tyrants that have made
martyrs of the worlds greatest
reformers, it has been frenzied
public sentiment. What it was
which crucihed even the lowly
Nazarene.
The question is, then, how to
raise this sentiment to a positive
power for good. Before this can
be done there are many great in
fluences to overcome.
In the last few years millions
OF aliens have been pouring into
our land. Having no knowledge
OF our government, knowing
nothing of our country, becom-
ing the prey of INSCRIPTIONS
men, they are most dangerous
menace to our nation. Victor
Hugo said that an invasion OF
armies could be resisted, an in
vasion of ideas never. With as
much truth can it be said that
an invasion of ignorant aliens
cannot be long withstood unles;
steps are taken to implant prog
ressive ideas in their minds.
Another evil that must be over
come is the rule of the politicaI
boss. Politics today is not in the
hands of the people, but of few
party leaders, who have all the
power, and use it, not for the
good of the people, but for their
own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. This is a
condition that IS so un-Americar
and un-Democratic as to threaten
the very foundations of our gov
eminent. And this is a state Of
affairs that cannot be bettered BY
any temporary wave of indigna.
ton or reform. 1t can only BIZ
bettered by an intelligent public
sentiment, pervading alike the
high and the low, the classes ant
the masses.
The only way to create intelli-
gent public sentiment is to create
intelligent people, and the only
way to create intelligent peoplS
is to have universal education
throughout the whole land.
In the countries from which
our alien citizens came, there was
no need of universal education
1t requires no knowledge of gov.
eminent to live in land whers
all is controlled by the few, anc
the only duty of the citizen is tc
pay taxes. But in land like ours
where all are politically equal
the ignorant man armed with the
ballot is menace to his own lib
critics as we'll as ours. Controlled
by corrupt political bosses, hi
may tear down, rather than builc
UP, destroy rather than create
There is only one means of trans
forming this great power into {
positive influence for good. 1t i:
impossible to curtail the suffrag,
and keep to the spirit of democ
racy. 1t is unwise to allow a mar
to vote who cannot even write
his own name. 1t is idle to de
pend upon the educational power
OF the ballot. Universal educa
ton must prevail, or we must
submit to the mis-managemen,
of political bosses and tn, rule O
demagogues.
A common school education fol
every one is an essential o
American citizenship. Common
sense demands it, the perpetuitN
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