Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-07-02
POLITICS AND EDUCATION.
Congressman Hartholdt Urges Political
Instruction in Schools

instruction in Schools.
New York, June 30-Representative
Richard Bartholdt, of Missouri, spoke
to the national German-Americatl
teachers convention here today on the
subject of political Education" Con-
gresham Bartholdt said that all were
agreed that the brains Of our school
children should not be weighed down
with unnecessary ballast, but in de-
termining the question of what was
necessary and what was not great mis-
takes were made. There might be too
much Of good thing, and there might
also be too little, he said, and from our
present course Of study he could cite
examples If both. AS an Illustration
he pointed to the instruction of physi-
ology, which he denounced as objec-
tionable because of its tendency to
subvert scientific facts for purpose.
To be unobjectionable, he said, hygien-
ic instruction should never go beyond
an effort to warn from excuses of all
kinds.
On the other hand, the speaker char
acterized the lack of political educa-
ton in our public schools as a sin of
ISAAAASSASAs 49A a AlloARc4SuSp 40 SekASA,
where the first duty is to obey, instruc-
ton as to the rights and duties of cit
izenshlp might not be essential, but in
republic such instruction was an in
d1spensable necessity because the well
fare of the country depended upon an
intelligent exercise of the franchise.
AS a means of it's self preservation it
was the duty of a democratic state to
equip the prospective citizen with the
intellectual means to vote intelligently
All our political Ills could easily be
traced to a lack of political enlight
eminent. The press was doing much
as an educational factor, but the real
work of instructing our youths as to
ment and the extent and value of our
inherited liberty should begin at
school, so that each graduate as he en-
tiers life may thoroughly understand
what he owes the state and what the
state owes him.
| LAS an evidence of what he termed
the gross ignorance with respect to the
simplest political truths, the speaker
referred to the astounding spread OF
prohibition. If the masses Of the peo-
pie, he said, were conscious of the ex-
istence of those halienable individual
rights, which even majorities must re-
spect as inviolable, prohibition could
never have made any Roadway at all
To be sure, in order to enable us to live
in peaceful communities, individuals
had to give up part of their natura
rights, but such Remuneration, even II
despotic states, would never be ex.
tended to actions which were neither
wrong nor immoral in themselves, ant
which would not interfere with the
rights Of our neighbors. Whenever
this we'll defined line was transgressed
either by legislatures or majorities, lib.
erty was deprived of its essence ane
remained only in name. The conse.
quence would be that one thing wa.
being regulated by law today, another
thing tomorrow, and thus violence wa.
done to the very foundation of tn,
state, whose collapse would be only {
question of time.
In conclusion the speaker argued
that 1t was an easy matter to enlightel
our youths on those simple questions
and it was high time for our teacher
to fill this gaping void in our course o
study in the interest of Of an intelli
gent progress and of the perpetuity o
our free institutions. "The German
schoolmaster," he exclaimed, "has wol
the Franco German war. May the flu
ture historian record the fact that tn
German-American teacher has save,
our democratic liberty"