New-York tribune., 1922-11-12
Butler w riteson
Legion Aim in
Education w eek.
President of Columbia Says
Ii Should BE Time for
Understanding American
Id G ais of Training
Harding to Call Nation
Governors of States and
Mayors of Cries Also
to Issue ProcIamations

Education week, set by the American
Legion for national observance Decern-
Der 8 to 8, is the subject of special
article written for the American Le-
gion by Nicholas Murray Butler, presi-
dent of Columbia University. John J.
Tigert, United States Commission Of
Education, and the National Education
Association are cooperating with the
Americanisn Commission Of the Le-
gion to make the week success. Presi
dent Harding will issue a national
proclaim alton, which will be followed
by proclamations from Governors and
Mayors
Education week should be a time
for strengthening our understanding
of the foundations of American edu-
cation" DR.. Butler says in the article,
which follows:
Prom the beginning the interest in
education of the founders and makers
of America has been unique. Harvard
College was established in Massachu-
setts Bay only sixteen years after the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. The
common school quickly grew up in New
England and spread over the whole
United States as g typical American
institution. Horace Mann and Henry
Barnard put new life and higher ideals
into the American school system near
ly a century ago. The ordinance for
the government Of the Northwest Ter
ritory, made in 1877, out OF which terri
tory so many of the middle Western
states have been carved, contained ex
press provision for the support and
development of public education. Long
ago it became established public law
that an American state, or subdivision
thereof. might maintain by public tax
any type of instruction that it saw fit,
however advanced. This principle
underlies the public high schools and
the unsupported universities and
technical schools.
Incentives to Education
"It is American doctrine, fortunately.
that while education is q proper state
function it is in no sense state monop-
| oily. Schools, colleges and universities
flourish and are encouraged to flourish in
! the field of liberty as well as in the
field Of government. The former
are not supper ed by public tax, al
though frequently their property useo
dir ,tiy for education is exempt froEs
taxation. This is the states way OF
encouraging private initiative to de
velop educational institutions in the field
combination of tax supported schools, col
leges and universities. every public in er
est is met, while provision may readily
be mnde for every shade of opinion and
belief. In this way the American
people keep their educational system,
free, elastic and adaptable to their
every need and avoid the hard and fast
government made and government reg
ulated educational systems of CONT
mental Europe.
every American who understands
! the fundamental principles which an
derlie American education and justify
| the faith OF the American people in ii
will resist all attempts to break down
| those principles, to substitute Federal
control or central regulation for local
initiative, to displace elasticity for
rigidity or to compel conformity in
Prussian fashion instead of upholding
| liberty in American fashion.
! From one point Of view the faith Of
/ the American people in education is
| sublime, while in another it is pathetic.
1t is sublime in that it shows the
American people at their best, in the
| full expression of their faith in the
progress o m0nkind, in their uns' AXE
able confidence in the power of intelh-
! renee and disciplined character. Their
aith is pathetic in that schools, col
lepes and universities, do what they
will, fall so far short of Their own
/ ideals and of what the American people
have q right to expect of ITEM.
What Schools Must Have
Education Week should be tins
for re-eXamining the foundations of
American eduction, for Increasing our
understanding of those foundations. FOR
strengthening our confidence in them.
and for resolving to do ali in our power
to make our schools, both higher and
| lower, better able to justify the ma
| tion's faith in them and t cir influence.
Schools, colleges and universities cam
not be made by money, but only by
personalities. They must live, and the
economic basis of schools and of the
teaching procession must be sufficiently
broad, sufficiently stable and ample
eno"gh to invite and to retain the con
secratea service of the highest type of
Americon men and women.
Judged by the standards of history
i democracy is still an experiment. In
it's short lie it has accomplished mar.
yels, but its steady march has developed
many and grave difficulties. Let me re-
peat sentence which / first wrote
years ago: The difficulties of denaoc,
4 racy are the opportunities of eduea,
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