The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-07-01

fectIy studied the contents of the bills
as not to know what was his disappro-
val of them; another class finds its
spokesman in a distinguished and ex-
perienced educator who compliments
the Governor by saying that it must
have been God Himself who put it into
his heart to withhold from the bills his
approval.
We pass over as beneath the dignity
of a serious situation certain lima
tured criticisms originating in person
al antipathy to the Governor, such as
that of a certain rather waspishly dis
posed afternoon paper, which wove
out of series of pure hypothesis the
declared conviction that Mr.. SulZer
vetoed McKees bills as a means of
furnishing Mckee for his rumored re-
fusal to support the Statewide Prima-
ries bill.
Unfair Criticism Of SuIzer as Mische-
vious as 1t Is Vicious.
An example of a process not unu-
sual with lame or prejudiced intelli-
gence, that of starting with a conclu-
sion and then accommodating or extern
porizing material enough to give to
the conclusions a show of respectable
ity-a process as mischievous as it is
logically vicious.
The most serious aspect of the mat
ter is not the approval or the disap-
prevail of the bills in question, but the
diversity and contrariety of judgment
passed upon the Governors action, as
already adverted to, and which is in
Itself a guarantee of the wisdom of his
proposal to appoint an educational
commission.
Chaos is not improved by being
stirred, but by having some construc-
tive intelligence set to work upon it.
If, as is charged, such proposal is
Inconsistent with the doctrine of home
rule, so are the Mckee bills inconsis-
tent with the doctrine of home rule,
tact not dwelt upon, however, by those
who impugn the same Inconsistency
when detected in the Governor.
At that point there may be interpo-
lated a single pertinent remark that
there are certain questions which,
while of local application, have a
scope which in their fundamental fea-
lures are not limited to locality.
The matter of sanitary precautions
Is one of such questions. The matter
Of common school education is anoth-
er of such questions.
A State is an organized whole, not
merely an accumulation of individual
lied and unrelated townships, and
matters fundamental to the interests
of the organized whole should receive
Just such treatment as the Governors
proposal for a commission will secure
to it.
Only such commission should be
composed of educational experts, men
built on broad lines and personally ex-
perienced in matters of educational
training.
The mere fact of being an Assem-
blyman or even Senator affords no
guarantee of such qualifications.
instruction a Profession as Much as Is
Law or Ministry.
Assuming that the men gathered at
the state house are ftted to enact in
omics-a fact which many are dispos-
to question-it cannot be concluded,
but rather the reverse, that they would
be anything more than mere tinkerers
when exercising such faculties as they
may be credited with upon questions
of school discipline.
Instruction is as much a profession
as law, medicine or the ministry.
Even if man can do one thing well,
extraordinarily we'll, there is nothing
in that fact going to show that he can
do well, or do at ALL another altogeth-
er different thing.
| would not accept the opinion of the
Senate or the Assembly upon matters
of teaching any more than l would up
on matters of preaching.
1t has been confidently asserted
l do not know how accurately-that
the same holds as regards the Board
of Education as at present constituted
Education is a science, and if, as
is constantly asserted, we are not
getting nearly as much out of our
schools in the way of training as we
are putting into them in the way of
money, it is in part because their
methods are SO largely determined by
people who are amateurish and sophie
moric in their appreciation of the
principles involved.
Governor Sulzer Should Be Commend.
ed and Supported
On all accounts. therefore, the Gov
ernor is to be cordially commended
and warmly supported in his idea of
an educational commission, constitut-
ed of men who are large, experienced
and practical in their acquaintance
with the principles involved; and in
his plan of leaving the present school
situation without further interference
until some thorough and Scientifically
digested scheme of school manage.
ment and school discipline shall have
been arrived at.