Okolona messenger., 1909-07-14

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No country on the globe even four centuries after its dis
coyery, so pre-emnently the land Of opportunity A
country that can celebrate ercenenaries comparative
proG,sion and where October II made legal holiday
in several states canonzng the achievements OF Coum-
bus might well be expected to be approaching the zenith
OF its possibilities.
To he sure there are aticians who figure that in an
other hundred years there will be nearly billion and
half of people here and that there will be person to
every sixteen square miles Of surface, including all the
waste places and swamp lands But notwithstanding
these statistical eremaids, America remains today the
country of luminous goals the undeveoped colorado ot
opportunity Its material wealth has been depleted only
as great store OF essened by the spending OF
few pennies Its agricultural possibilities have hardly
been hined at The surface Of the ground has hardly
been scratched Our history has been repIee with mar
velous stories OF attained by those whose begin
nings were the humbest and whose handcaps were the
heaviest The volume of that Aladn-ike narrative still
has many untitled pages and every day chap
ter written
Only at election time and the Chautauqua circuit are
the doors Of opportunity closed and dark predictions made
one were to take the view expressed by too many OF
the speakers these pessmsc occasions, everything IS
going to the bow-yows predatory wealth has every body
by the throat the country swarmng with octopi OF un-
parallel avarice and oil unexamped erocIy; nobody has
any chance to get anywhere to be anything save the
pampered scons of souless con Even the public schools
one is to believe of the speakers at the recent
National Educational Association teaching something
like two million boys how TO become president instead OF
preparing them for the factory the store and the NINE the
carpenters bench aed the brick masons rowe The most
ardent frentI he plhc school system OF the United
States will not deny that there respects IN Which
the system might be improved but the fact remains that
the Improvement is going all the time and that IN the
man by very large majority the public school system OF
this country is doing magnihcenty the great work Tor
which it has been established doing il IN manner which
has challenged the admiration Of the educational world
In the public schools perhaps nsstenty and more
effectively than anywhere else in this country the boys
and girls are being taught the fundamental democracy
which our institutions based is to conceive
circumstances where goal may be held out unwsely to
those who running the universal race Tor IN
the nature Of things only nhnitesmal traction OF the
citizens Of the republic hope to get within ofhca
sight of the White House 1t is therefore ndulglng IN
forcefu epgram rather than stating facts with the serious
ness which the occasion demands say that the public
school system of the United States teaching boys how
to become president 1t is teaching them all the unda.
mentas of education which the keystone IN the arch OF
environment opportunity and personality. 1t is placing
their feet on the highway giving each the opportuni-
ty which the other enjoys fair field and favor. 1t is
insIing into their minds the very OF our nstlu-
tons-equaliy of opportunity The great evolutionary
laws OF human nature and human character OF intellectual
capacity of political history of all the things which mold
destnes and decide and contests begins where the
public school system leaves off. 1t is fault OF the sys-
tenn if holds out to every boy the shining history Of the
past In intoxicating the ethics ot democracy and the great
lessons Of equal opportunity plus individual capably the
pbc school system is discharging its full obligation to
the pupil no matter how high the goal 10 which points
BY way Of incentive pointing the moral which adorns
the tale Of this marvellous American history Of
Nothing could be more unfortunate than the injection OF
class destiny that bliehtng faasn of sociology which
the socialists call class consciousness, into the public
school system by teaching that boy rise above his
class and that some elect and predestined, while
the vast majority doomed remain within the prison
pen Of class environment All this IS not inconsistent
with practical equipment for specific calngs but the son
Of the artisan can be taught vital lesson along
with his manual training. than that he may become pres
dent Of the United States. than artisans son
has become Our orators often led away by the en-
husasm Of the rhetocian and the ardor Of the epgram
The most eminent Of them are examples Of the alacy o
their pess mistc criticism Tor they that America is
the land Of opportunity and in the public schools OF the
country they were taught that depended largely on them
selves how high they might rise.