Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-02
War May
BY EDWARD MARSHALL.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

most careful constructive thinkers
The war itself has emphasized the
value OF tho school in an extraordi-
nary way.
IL was the fact that the best edu-
Gated young men OF Britain made the
best fighting men unquestionably CAL
though ] never have seen this state
ment made elsewhere) which put the
amazing Fisher bin through parla-
meht with rush at n time when the
appropriation of such vast sums for
anything other than the prosecution
OF the war seemed too much for the
father of the splendid legislation even
TO hope for
In France there is almost as great.
an impulse toward perfecsmg plans
for the development Of tho average
human being.
In Italy, at the time Of tho great
break, when the Austrlans were flow
ing over the boundary and the nation
was in state OF dismay, Il cabinet
minister and Il professor met in my
hotol to discuss ways and means of
getting certain supplies from the
United states, which at that time
had not declared war on Austria and
therefore was not working fully with
Italy, and almost Immediately the
discussion was shifted to considera-
tton of Italian education for the
masses, Both men realized that Aus
tro-German propa uganda had been able
to do its work because italy had had
no comprehensive plan OF public edu-
cation in the past.
X
Il *
In other words, tho one thing which
the war has emphasized in the minds
of the whole worlds thinkers has
been the need for education newly eff
fectual newly democratic, newly in
ternationally comprehensive.
The one man in the United States
who has given to this matter the
most earnest thought, ] was informed
by various people whom / consulted
with regard to the situation, is Mich
oiaS Murray Butler, president or Co
lunbia University, which, probably,
may be regarded as the most demo-
cratic as 1t is the largest university i'll
All the world. and in it's student
body. embraces men and women OF
practically all the worlds original
nationalities, which, it seems TO the
best thinkers / can find, links the
American mass with the American
At present.
at is certain that education must
be reconstructed to meet new na-
tional and international conditions,
Mr.. Butler said yesterday. perhaps
this educational reconstruction is the
most far-rea ching Of the new prob
lens with which the world Is faced.
The solution of other problems will
have quicker and more obvious re-
suits. but the solution of this one VIII
make more durable and more in
huential contribution to the new
world order than any other.
I'm an inarticulate way the world
seems already to DO realizing and con-
sidering this fact, for the relation OF
national education to national ideals
and national etiiciencies has been
very much in the minds of men since
the war began, sharpening them ana
driving them to unaccustomed re-
Elections.
Germany was able TO show tho
world extraordinary results from a
highly organized and wholly undem-
ocratic SYSTEM of education which
had been bent to the purpose Of pro-
viding an abundant and subservient
lower class, an equally subaervient
and an efficient middle class and II
dominant and technically trained up
per class.
German science and German scholar
ship had lost that disinterestedness
which once had been SO marked. They
had been brought to heel in the serv-
ice Of the military and autocratic
ideals of policy of world domino
ton. We may well leave to the Ger
man people tho contemplation OF
the results of that folly. with the
full assurance chat the next genera
ton will reconstruct the entire Ger
man educational system in order to
and place in ii for the expression or
those popular needs and democratic
tendencies which class and oligarchi-
cal system In this generation so care
fully have excluded.
y .
~ Il n
AT many points the German cdu-
cational system produced excellent
results, worthy Of imitation in other
lands. but these were sporadic and
not general, and were quite over
Swallowed IN Importance by the wrong
spirit and false ideals at the founda-
ton Of the whole educational under
taking 1t will be long time be-
fore the German universities, fSr ,ex-
ample, can hope to be as attractive
to advanced and ambitious students
from other lands as they were to
young Americans and Engllshmen
forty to sixty years ago.
i,{a ~ n q with pfartlfnu