Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1911-12-13


upon it Of seeking out by your high.
distinction those gifted individuals
who are to lead mankind Alright in
this life here on earth; that it is for
you to arrange for the production Of
the situation wherein, as the words
Of one Of the greatest Of you express
it, "Aristocracy, through a dominant
upper class, educates the lower
classes to be socially useful, to be
contented, or resigned"
FAR FROM THE PEOPLE
You are shut in here, far from the
power and influence and control Of
the great world that pulses and
throbs about you. By ages-old and
Legendary practise and custom, the
people are kept far from you with
their disturbing views and leveling
tendencies. The people elect the gov
ernor, the governor appoints the re-.
gents, the regents select the officials
and the officials determine and up
hold the spirit Of the university.
All around about you you might
see, if you looked and could under
stand great, free, sovereign peo-
pie arising in their might and throw
ing off the shackles Of custom, and
Of the past, wiping away as swiftly
as they can the last vestiges Of arts
tocratic and kingly rule and wrest-
ing into their own hands again the
governing power assumed and held
by others. You might hear, if you
turned your heads and listened and
could understand, the ringing call Of
the people for freedom and power,
in the battle cries Of Initiative, Ref
erendum and Recall. You might
know, if you looked and listened and
could understand, that your archaic
notion Of an aristocratic leadership
for a free people is the especial
abomination of this country at the
present time and the lessons Of Ore
gon, Wisconsin and California would
teach you that the idea Of a govern
ing aristocracy is utterly and alb
solutely discredited in the minds Of
an overwhelming majority Of the
people and is ever receding faster
and faster into the land Of vanished
things that never come again. j
SPIRIT FATAL TO USEFULNESS
And this obsession Of the univer-
sity and its spirit, like all false doc
trines stoutly maintained, has been
fatal to your usefulness to the peo-
pie and destructive Of all hope Of the
boasted Service" which you repeat
again and again as the object Of the
university. You have during forty
years Of almost unexampled material
prosperity and advancement, had
given into your charge, almost en-
tirely uncontrolled, the destinies Of
education in the State Of Minnesota
and, so utterly inadequate to the high
responsibility have you shown your
selves, that our educational activi-
ties, despite our magnificent educa-
tional endowment and the millions in
taxes lavished upon the work, have
become and are a scandal Of inef-
ficiency and an almost intolerable
burden upon the people and the pu-
pills throughout the state and the
people, searching out for themselves
leaders as they struggle out from in
under the burden the incompetency
and Indifference Of the university has
permitted to rest upon them, are
now engaged in a confused and des-
perate effort to remedy the evils that
surround the educational system and
to put it on a par with the advance
ment that marks other lines Of hui
man accomplishment. ...s
|PITIABLE CONDITION OF THE
/ SCHOOLS
There can be no question as to
! the pitiable condition Of the schools.
From pupils and parents, teach
ers and school officials, come the
grave complaints and urgent calls
for reformatory effort. The courses
Of study are loaded down with use
less lumber, useless for every other
purpose except the university pur-
pose Of sitting out the unwilling, or
unable, or inefficient and saving the
minute residum from the university
classes. The public schools are said
by one prominent educator to BE-
''Not altogether bad, only inadequate
limited, one-sided, incompetent, in.
sufficient; that more than half tn,
pupils in the large cities are behint
grade; that in one large city schools
less than ten per cent Of the pupil:
are up to grade. A. late report o:
the state superintendent says tina
seventy per cent Of the pupils IN Min
nesota schools are insists.
We have with us always now al
immense army Of 100000 pupils q
the way in Minnesota and with NOR
4 Al whin and snnr honor marLe q III