Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-09-18
CLOTHING and
FOOD CREATION.
WORTHYObJECT
State Commissioner DR.. E.
A. Bryan Points Out the
Value of Labor to Educa-
ton.

er Is as Important as
Higher Education Charge
of Mercenary and Grasp
ing Unfair.
That the activity Of those who
create food and clothes, who store
away supplies and build homes. are
being educated and are to be COM
mended Is the opinion of DR.. E. A.
Bryan. state commissioner of educa-
ton. In an article given out for pub
lication he points out that the beset-
ting sin Of the educated man is his
disbelief in any kind of education
tainted with labor. This is all wrong,
In the opinion Of Idaho's new COM
missioner OF education. His artfc.e Is
as follows:
Herbert Spencer was. II anything, a
utilitarian--a believer in education by
means OF use Of Acknowledgment even
he could not refrain from a cynical
stab at the kinds OF human activity
which "replenish the TIL and fill the
larders
The easily besettfns sin OF tho edu-
Gated man is his disbelief In any
kind Of education If It has anywhere
about 4 tho tatnt Of useful labor. The
production Of wealth seems TO him to
be q low. II not An actually degener-
stinS activity. Because some human
beings. pit1fulfy enough. struggle for
mere animal existence-that Is to say
the food, clothes and shelter which
are necessary to keep soul and body
together-it IL assumed that all who
busy themselves in the production of
these commodities and others which
administer to the comfort and pleasure
of mankind are engaged in low gain
fur occupations and therefore are
worthy of indifference II not contempt.
A cynical view OF the activity of the
race is almost inevitable in such cases,
for there are things in which nearly
the entire race except those who are
doing worse or doing nothing, are and
must be engaged.
DOCTRINE is WRONG.
1T has been the misfortune of the lit
crary regime in education. lasting four
or five centuries, to instill into the
minds of the learned this doctrine.
Belle lettres. as the scholar loved to
call the learning of the day. was in
deed a beautiful occupation for the
mind OF man, language and the form
Of language in themselves being the
chief end Of study.
Philosophy, which toe often was a
mere dexterous fencing with words
mere sophistry-found a large place IN
the occupation of the scholar Then
men lived and died in the happy con-
seriousness of their own superiority over
The masses of mankind, without having
created even enough to supply their
own bodily wants or to have added to
the welfare Of the men of their own
day--or any day. They remind one of
the collector of curious, happy that no
one else in the world possesses the
useless trumpery that he possesses.
once followed an undertaken through
his museum of articles, each connected
with a death tragedy-the pistol with
which the suicide shot himself, the
rope with which a negro had been
lynched, the false hair from the head
of a woman who had jumped to her
destruction from q moving train, the
axe with which a brute had slain his
wife and innocent children, the bottle
with remnant of poison which a wife
had given to her husband, the dirk
with which an Italian had run amuck
his comrades. and so on ad infinitum.
And the undertaken was prouder of
this gruesome collection than he was
Of his very useful function TO society
in the burial of its dead. No one else
in the world had so large or SO grue-
some q collection as he.
LEARNING HAPPILY BURIED.
Il will not say that the years which
scholars have spent in trying to unfold
the pagan mythologies have been
wholly bad. l will not say that the
sophists or their later imitators were
inexcusable. for they might have bust
ed themselves with worse things. But
| will say that vast amount of the
learning" of the past five centuries is
happily buried SO deep that not even a
faint ordor therefrom may reach the
surface of this living earth. And / will
say further that the meanest man that
merely toiled from morning till night
to make the earth bring forth enough
food to keep the living tissues of his
body performing their normal func-
tions was doing better than they.
1.-THE primal activity of mankind in
creating food is no mean thing. When
man adds to this the creation of
clothes to protect and preserve his
body he has advanced at least one
step. When he has begun to store
supplies against the day OF need he is
a higher being than before. When he
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