Little Falls herald., 1914-02-27


for the primary system.
If the state efficiency commission
were to be judged by its tentative
recommendation that the board of le.
gents become the state board of edu-
cation, the first thing to do in the in
terest of efficiency would be to abolish
tho efficiency commission. There never
was a more absurd and preposterous
suggestion than to put the state g
educational system IN charge. Of the
regents. The university is out of
proportion now in its relation to the
educational system, and such a change
as proposed, and placing executive
authority in the hands of the president
of the university j intly with the
superintendent Of public instruction,
would be monstrous blunder. What
is needed is general educational
board to which the university should
be subject as well as the other parts
of the states educational system. The
motion, growing in some quarters, That
the university should be regarded as
an independent principality within
the boundaries of the commonwealth is
a mistaken one. It is doing a great
and wonderful work, but so also are
she normal schools, the high schools,
and the smaller schools. There are
lot Of very able and representative
men on the efficiency commission, and
cut Of the conflict of opinion will
doubtless come something Of value to
the state, although it would seem that
the commission sht uld put itself in
possession Of all the facts to be as
certained before establishing conclu-
sions, nor should it adopt the formulas
of theorists no to justify themselves
win have to make the facts bend to
suit their theories. Systems Of state
administration ought to be judged by
their results. There is no other ade-
quate test. IF certain system has
produced the results desired, system
founded on guess should not take its
place. Much of what has 50 far been
published must be regarded as vaguely
tentative, put forth to get an ex-
preston Of opinion only, and certainly
could not be regarded as the mature
conclusions of so able a body Of rep
resentative citizens.
The Public calls the Burnett bill
yeactionary bill, and it is right. In
their great desire to-. limit the supply
OF labor, the labor organizations which
have helped to pass this bill have also
helped certain extreme nativistic and
pseudo-religious elements, the direct
descendents of the AAnow-Nothings of
the days before the Civil war. The
arguments used now, except that they
are used against different racial ele-
meats, are the same as used then, and
if the legislation then urged had been
adopted, many who are strong for re.
strietion now, would be in some other
land, for their fathers could never
have been admitted to this country.
! Legislation keeping out the Irish and
the Germans was. strongly advocated,
and abuse Of every description shower
ed On them. The epithets heard then
are being heard again. In 1889,
seventy-tive years ago, the Louisiana
Native American Association issued,
an address, which is fair sample of
the Know-N Nothing Literature of the
years before the Civil war. This ad-
dress says the immigration of the time
rs composed of the outcast, the offal of
society, the pauper and the vagrant,
and that it must be stopped, in order
to save 'our hallowed institutions. -
The immigrants were held then, as
they are now, responsible for all the
evils Of the time. The degeneracy of
politics was due, it was sad then, as
it is now, to the foreign-born voter.
James Bryce, surely an impartial OBJ
server says in the second volume Of
his American Commonwealth:
The immigrants are not SO largely
responsible for the faults of American
1 politics as a stranger might be led, by
fhe language Of many Americans, to
suppose. There is disposition to use
them, and especially the Irish, much
~ M the cat is used in the kitchen, to
i account for the broken plates and food
4 which disappears =.
There is Of course nothing so diff
cult to contend with as racial preiu-
dise. 1t is always child of misinfor-
nation and ignorance, of lack #
knowledge and inability to see an
other 3 point of view. That the Grim
insl, the defective, the mentally and
physically unfit, should not enter is
granted, and there may also be argu-
I Inent against the admission of stock
ethnically different, as the Mongo1ian.
And that would seem enough to safe
{ guard the country. .s5s:g, IA:
81. Press bureaus are excellent. things,
Esd often educate the public as to
eandidates and measures in a profit
1ble way. It is to be expected that in
trying to help candidate, the matter
Hllven out for publication will be that
hich will glorify him, and imparti-
llity is not particularly condd dered.
hen commissions appointed fol. the
.p1rpose Of suggesting reforms or i'm