The Cordova daily times., 1922-08-07
MONDAY, AUGUST z, 1922
AMERICAN BOOKS FOR AMERICAN
 SCHOOLS

Those who would contribute to the friend ly feeling between the United States and Great Britain do their cause no good when they at tempt to belittle the exploits of our Revolu- tionarv heroes, seek to minimize that struggle and the War of 1872 in the public mind, or hold out hopes that this country will be re- united to Great Britain The American peo- ple are grateful for what the British did in the World war, and there is every reason why the close associations of that period should de- velop into mutual understandings in the fu- ture for the good of the two nations and of the world But the realization of that desire IS not dependent in any way upon the rewriting of the early history of the United States or upon the siencing of the brilliant stories of American achievement with which that pc riod is replete.
 Unfortunately there have been and are cer- tain influences at work in England that seek to make public opinion in this country re- captive to the suggestion that the two nations should eventually constitute "Brtish-Am erican JTnion." The biographer of the late Cecil Rhodes states that the first draft of Rhodes will directed the endowment of a secret society having for it's object, among other thinos, "the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire.' That original idea of Rhodes was never carried out, but we have instead the Rhodes Scholarship Fund under which American voun@ men are given instruc- ton in Oxford University. It is doubtful Ii four years of teaching under such influences gives the student any better education than hn world have received in our own universi ties, but the effect of a course under those auspices is not calculated to increase the fer vor of his American patriotism. The late An drew Carnegie once uttered the following: ''l say that as sure as the sun in the heaven once shone unon Britons and Americans united, so surely is if one morning to rise. shine uDOn and greet again the Re United States, The Brit ish-American Union."
 Lord Northcliffe does not openly preach the reunion of the two nations. but he urges the spread of the British American gospel to such an extent that if his ideas were followed out they would inevitably lead to the eXtinc- ton of American independence. In an "Am- orican Tssue' of the London Times of July 4, 1919, this eminent British editor suggested the following methods for application to our coun- try: "To mobilize the press, the church,, the stage and the cinema; press into active ser ice the whole educational systems and root the spirit of good will in the homes, the uni versailles, public and high schools, and pri- mary schools. It should also provide for sub sidizing the best men to write books and ar ticles on special subjects, to be published in cheap editions or distributed free. New books should be added particularly in the private schools. Histories and textbooks should be revised-the end in view being that the pub lie Gin the United States) may subconscious ly absorb the fundamentals of complete mu- tual understandings
 Powerful influences of that sort have had the desired effect. There is we'll l-defined movement in the United States to introduce textbooks, especially histories, into our schools that will give the rising generation an en- tirely new idea of the circumstances surround