The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-12-14
CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER
RuRAL SCHOOLS URGED
BY Lane Who Says 22,ooo,-
600 School Boys and Girls
Are Greatest Resource.

AI6 0fedleSl n6SOuFCe.
WASHINGTON. Dec. I'm his
forthcoming annual report Secretary
Lane suggests the need for national
campaign for a better rural school.
He speaks Of Young America, our a.
100000 school boys and girls as the
chief resource Of the nation. and asks
Are we doing all possible to devel-
op this resourse?" His report con-
tinues:
II there is any one Of our institu-
tons In which the American people
take undisguised pride and OF which
they feel justified in boasting, Il is
the public school system, for this is
1.-The greatest Of American inventions
and the most successful social enter
prise yet undertaken by any people.
The United States maintainsa bureau
Of education In this department,
which, upon small appropriation,
collects as best it can the figures and
facts which most inadequately tell the
story Of the growth and use Of this
most brilliantly conceived piece Of
governmental machinery.
Not Indifferent.
The American people are not In
different to their schools. Quite
otherwise. They pay for their sup
port almost as much as they do for
the support of the entire federal gov
eminent; in round numbers, three
quarters OF billion dollars a year,
which keeps an army Of 500 teachers
at work. Education Is indeed our
foremost industry, from whatever
~ MI M ~ IA raUo rdaH vat
1 am assured that It has made less
progress than any Of our other indus
tries during the last thirty years.
With all the marvellous record Of what
the mind Of the quick people may
produce to make life happier and pa
ture more serviceable, how little can
be shown as our contribution to the
methods Of Improving the mind and
skill of the young! We have gone to
Europe-to Italy, Switzerland. Ger
many and Denmark chiefly-for the
new methods with which we have ex-
pertinent, and japan has found way
to instruct through the eyes and
hands that will make these very prac-
teal people still more distinguished:
Yet here and there under rare lead
ershlp may be found in this country
the most striking proofs Of what can
be done to tie our schools to our life. I
The hope is eventually to make the
school what 1t should be, and easily Z
may be made to be. the very heart Of ,
the COMMUNICATED club and CO.
operative center. as well as school.
Nothing Visionary.
There would seem to be nothing \
visionary in such hope. To effect
this evolution there is needed pri-
marily leadership, and this the gov-iE
eminent must give II 1t is to realize Y
its desire for a people who are both
skilled and happy. The spirit Of ourAI
people is against a paternal govern
ment. We do not take with kindness
an authority that is mandatory. There 4
is sound belief that people who
make their own way are In the end
ripper and Of stronger fiber tnan those
who accept what is not the result OF
common determination. But this spir-
it OF intense individualism does not
make us Independent of or ndtfferent
to useful methods and helpful stand
ards. And it is these that we can re-
veal. It is these that we should find
and place in service, rather than force
the disconnected schools OF the lano
to feel their way out or "muddle
through" We may not command,
but we may Show how" This is de- /
mocracy's substitute for absolutism
in the effort to secure efficiency. For
such policy Of .helpfulness there. is
abundant precedent, not only in the
action Of Congress in making minor
appropriations for the work Of the
bureau Of education on precisely
these lines, but in the activities Of
other departments. The country Is
dotted with experimental farm which
prove soil values and the farmer Of
today is learning from the govern
ment how great and all embracing 4
must be the knowledge necessary to
the carrying on Of this work, for he
must know Of chemistry, mechanics,
markets and finance. transportation
and a world Of things which his faith
err or grandfather would have laughed
al, as the frills, of a doctrinaire educa-
ton, notwithstanding the early ex-
ample Of the wise and manysided
farmer, who was the third president
Of this country.
4 have said in previous report
that the bureau of education should
elLu0I fUS duVl1SllSO vi tRob9 ~ SSlAO0o
high purpose. I believe the latter to
be the wise, in fact the necessary,
course. There is a real use for It.
AS in the bureau Of mines. we seek
to save the lives Of miners by edu-
eating them in the use Of explosives
and life-saving apparatus and by In
tructing operators in safe methods
of building their vast underground
workshops, so II would erect the rbu-
reau Of education into a bureau Of ed
ucational methods and standards, in
which would be gathered the ripe
fruit Of all educational experiments. I
upon which the schools Of the coun-
try could draw. This issa wide coun-
try, and there Is need fora national
clearing house where can be centered
and exchanged the results or the most
remote experiments.
WhyfNot a Rural School Campaign.
There Is no Disgusting the fact that |
we have "a most difficult problem In |
the United States-andI cannot be-
4 49, ; : !,