Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-01
SCHOOL HISTORIES.

are having heaps of trouble over
teaching the children of the rising
generation the facts about the great
world war. In several OF these
countries they have had to elimi-
nate from the school histories all
mention of the war because the
parents of the children have so
many conflicting theories about
the causes of the war and even the
facts of the conflict. Even the
most cautious cancellations are
denounced by some part of the
population as lies, and a distortion
of history. If people cannot agree
about the bare historical facts of
the world war three years after it
is finished it is not very likely
that we can get the truth about
wars that are a century old. There
is no doubt that a great deal that
appears in our school histories is
not the truth, but a colored and
distorted version Of the truth. We
noted in an eastern newspaper the
other day a statement to the effect
that the New York board OF edu-
cation had condemned one school
history, presumably in use in some
of the schools, because it said that
Thomas Jefferson was "a demagog,
a liar and an atheist" We have no
doubt that the author of that his
tory could quote plenty of author
ity from leading men of Jeffer-
sons time to back up that state
ment. He could do the same for
Washington, Jackson, or Lincoln,
not to mention Grant and Woodrow
Wilson. Perhaps the charges
brought by contemporary opponents
of these great men would not be
precisely and exactly the same. But
in substance each was charged with
being a very bad ma actuated by
the meanest and vilest motives
during his lifetime.
School histories as a rule are
not made to teach the children the
historical truth about the subjects
they embrace. They are made to
sell, and in order to get adopted by
school boards they must be careful
not to offend the majority view
about facts and personages of the
past. Real historians can afford to
state what they believe to be the
facts because they cater to a critic
al audience, but they could hardly
hope to get such history into
school textbooks, at least in regard
to disputed facts in modern his
tory. Perhaps they could get by
with a critical history of Greece,
or Rome, or Egypt, especially if
they steered clear of religion as it
affects christianity.
Judge Taft remarked the other
day in his speech in presenting the
Lincoln monument that one great
secret of the power of this great
man was the fact that he gas a
common man, born of common par
ents, educated through association
with common men, and possessed of
common virtues, which enabled him
to understand the common people
and know their thoughts. their
feelings and their virtues. This is
not the exact words used by Judge
Taft, but it expresses the germ of
his idea. All great men have CON-
mon clay in their composition. If
it were not so they would not have
achieved greatness, in most cases.
Few men are born with transcend
ent greatness. They achieve it. 1t
is a characteristic of human nature,
and not a bad one at that, to for
get the weaknesses and faults of
great men after their death, and
to exaggerate and emphasize their
virtues. On the other hand if they
become famous for their. vices the
same principle applies. These are
exaggerated after their death and
any virtues they may have had are
forgotten. We have often wonder
ed if Nero had not some good
points about his character that
might have been dug up if some
historian had access to all the in
formation about him that could
have been CLEANED by contemporary
Investigation. Few men are all
bad OF all good. Perhaps none are
just pure white or pure black.
All history is perhaps mislead-
ing. With the best intent in the
world to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth,
about past events the historian
e;rde n. farfe distorted nv the