Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-06-22
IN THE SCHOOLS AT LEAST
DEMOCRACY is A REALITY
n Graduation Days Children often
Appear to See Farther and Clearer
Than Thelr Elders


DBOPLE with tired minds and those in
fected with the modern disease of cyni-
cisn, and all the over sophisticated folk who
have concluded that there is little good in
humanity and nothing but black devlment
In the accomplished order of human affairs,
ought to 20 occasionally to the graduation
ceremonials in the public schools.
An escape from Bedlam that can be an
interlude to remember, a vivid experience
in the light of fundamental truths
Youth always is in ways miraculous
There are times when 1t seems to hold all
true wisdom and to be alone capable of
fully understanding the things that really
matter In this life. 1t has no fears, no
doubts, no hatreds.
What does youth know that the elders have
forgotten? Something Of Importance.
surely. For In the printed rosters of the
school classes that are now going singing
out into the world Of affairs are names
reminiscent of almost every habitabc land,
every national tradition and every race. and
those who bear them have achieved unity of
feeling, unity of aim.
Among themselves in n small bright world
where democracy has assumed its truest
form they have accomplished something
which Governments still find impossible.
They move together in generous and friendly
association.
The old countries are only few genera
tions behind many Of them. Yet in classes
like that which was graduated Monday eve
ming from the South Philadelphia High School
for Girls you can find no lingering trace Of
the racial and religious bigotries, Of the
natural antipathy," Of the insane dislikes
and suspicious that divide the larger world
The cultivation and encouragement of such
things are left to the kings and the rlCnipo-
tentiaries, the ambassadors and ministers Of
state of this queerly organized world-men
far less wise in essentials. seemingly than
the children Of the public schools.
Changes that have been brought about in
the tone and color of graduation days show
clearly that the will to progress and n habit
of frank and rational criticism and inquiry
are inherent in the schools and even in tho
lively and curious minds of those who study
in them. The pose and artifciality of older
graduation days are vanishing.
There are few long and agonized and
suffering decamations any more. Fewer
and fewer grow the woeful limitations of
Daniel Webster. Brutus and Cassius have
gone altogether from commencement pro-
grams. The schools have left Congress to be
the last great unapproachablr stronghold of
the sounding and hollow metaphor.
The children of today turn curious eyes
upon their contemporaries and they can
discuss significant events Of the hour with
naturalness and tranquility. They are
doing il now in all the schools. And some
sort of wisdom of the heart-a quality that
often is trampled under and buried under the
doubts and surmises of progressive expert
ence and the higher education-leads them
10 take one another for granted. TO be gen
erous and believing and TO make among
themselves the best uses Of the traits and
talents because Of which the great nations
cannot find peace or security or hope Of
escape from successive conflicts.
There is something beautifully rational.
something supremPly wise. in the unwritten
laws by which children live in their schools
Faith has not been educated out of them
They take things and people at their face
value and they can be amazingly shrewd in
their instructive assessments.
Well to the front in the graduating class
at the South Philadelphia High School was
Marian Anderson young Negro girl. OBJ
viousy heroine of sorts to her associates.
At the appointed moment Marian walked to
the footlights turned upon the audience a
smile of gentle and perfect friendlness and
lifted her eyes and flung out, in a moving
little song, a voice that was glorious, n
voice of gold. 1t was not Marian's voice
the audience to skip beat. 1t was the
voice of a race that. moro than any other
in the world. has found in music comfort
and consolation. Il mode Of intimate expires
sion. a sure relief in a wilderness Of sorrows.
A wistful voice it was. for all its power and
beauty. and it was clear that Marian's asso-
Cates loved her for it.
Irish and English. Russian and Pole,
French and German, Armenian and Greek
all contributed tN that bright company Of
American schoolgirls. and they all sang to-
gether in a way that made you think of the
lights and winds of April in open fields.
Alike they felt. Alike they talked. Even
accents had been ironed out.
The wrath. the madness. the bigotries, the
manufactured dolusions that torment man
kind had no place in the scheme of their
relationships Going away, you instin"-
tivcly felt like lifting your hat at the
thought Of them and of their teachers and
Of youth at large. And you had to feel
again that the public schools Of the United
States are. with all their defects, one Of tho
great wonders NJ tho world.