The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-05
DEMOCRACY RULED BYDEMAND PEOPLE
 HUGHES ASSERTS
Secretary of State Urges De- veIopment of Mental and Spiritual Powers, Before
 N. E. A. Convention
By Associated Press

Boston. July 1.-The blessing oi democracy will flow only insofar as 1t represents the rule of an intelll- gent and cultured people," Secretary Hughes declared in a paper on the Aims in American Education" read here tonight before the National Educational association.
 "The American idea" tho secretary said, "and 1t must be maintained if we are to mitigate disappointme ent and unrest, is the ideal of equal edu- cational opportunity, not merely for the purpose of enabling one to know how to earn & living and to fit into an economic status more or less and aspiration and to the develop ment of mental and spiritual powers"
 Facilities Increase
 The increased demand for educa- tional opportunities and the extraor- dinary effects to suppy new facilities. particularly for higher education. were increasing. MT. Hughes said, but he added that there was apparent much confusion with respect to the standards and aims of education" Vocational training, the teaching of the means to earn a livelihood, ho said, would be taken care of, but he added:
 Democracy cannot live on bread alone. It Is not enough that one shall be able to earn living, or a good living. This is the foundation, but not the structure. What is need ed is to have life more abundantiy."
 It was important, Mir. Hughes con- tinued, that the door of hope be kept open" by maintaining opportunities of general education, thus giving to those who start amid the direct necessities and with slender ad- vantages the chance to rise." This Is of especial importance to our working people," he continued, 'who are not to be viewed as mere economic units, but as our co-labor- CTS in the great enterprise of human progress"
 As to educational standards, he said:
 Dicipline Necessary Tt Is impossible to provide a system of general education and ignore the need of dicipiine. The sentimentalists are just as dangerous as the materialists. Life is not a pastime and democracy is not a holi- uay excursion. It needs men trained to think.
 "The sentimentalists must not be allowed to ruin us by dissipatin the energy that should be harnessed for our varied needs"
 The true object of education was to give training which will enable one to make the most--that is. the best-of one's self" Mir. Hughes said adding:
 We must realize that the founda- ton should be laid In few studies Of the highest value. in self -discip- line. This means self denial, hard work, the inspiration of teachers with vision, and an appreciation U, the obligations of citizenship in de. mocracy.
 In elementary schools this mean, training which insists. at whatever cost lon the mastery by the student of the subject before him--on accu. racy, the lack of which. I regret tc say, Is now conspicuous In students of all grades
 In high schools and academies, he said. 1t meant that we should stor | scattering" in the present "bewilder. ing and unsuccessful attempt al appropriateness"
 A few fundamentals, substantia studies, thoroughly mastered should be substituted. he said, ad ding:
 | T am one of those who believe 1T the classification and mathematical machinery, and I do not think tha' we have found any satisfactory sub. stitute for them. But the importanr | point is the insistence upon thor oughness.
 vagrancy Encouraged
 Mir. Hughes held that too much hat been done in colleges to encourag, Intellectual vagrancy," 50 that [ college education outside the tech nichaf schools. may mean lime ol nothing"
 We have given too scant atten tion to the demands of training fol