Evening star., 1923-06-12
Text Book Revision Not Field for
Politicians.

History text books may or may not
deserve the criticism which Is oeing
directed against them recently-that
is question on which American
editorial opinion divides. But there
is general agreement that, however
serious the need for critical examina-
tion of current school texts, it is not
a field in which politicians may prop
erly lead. Accordingly the report Oh
an investigation of the histories III
u.e in New York city made to Mayor
HvIan by David Hirshfield, an ofhclai
of the municipal government Is
scored even by those editors who see
ample room for objection to some
phases of present methods or teach-
ing American history.
As a result of his Investigations
Mr., Hirshfield finds that eight spes
Gifted texts are are sbnuld bnrh%1re'af he FED to
the furnace" In view OF the 1act
that a case can undoubtedly be mace
ont against some school histories the
cleveland Plain Dealer regrets tnal
"Mr. Hishfeld weakens his case py
his unwarranted deductions ne
standing of the historians he ATTACKS
"is far better than his own" the New
yorlr Evening World remarks, and
in answer to his charge OF pro-
British the paper con1enos tna.
"Hirshfield is even more ant-Brltish,
and has grown up in school or
nolitics that has thrived on the capt.
talization of anti English Irishism.
The I-tica Press thinks "it may amuse
Americans TO learn that Htrshneld
condemns the work OF historlans IKE
DR.. Albert Bushnell Hart and Or. =.
n Van Tyne, but they are hardly
raadv te turn the writing of these
hooks over to the Sullivan Social club
or the East Side Benevolent Associa-
ton"
alone in his stand. the Bunaio news
noints out. for out in California
similar mania has hit some of the
officiaIs. and in the Pennsylvania
legislature resolution has been
nassed demanding that school texts
be examined for historical heresies
the News complains. Instead of
leaving history to educators who are
renuted TO know something about IT,
the politicians are arrogatlng 10
themselves the right to determine
what texts shall and what texts shall
of historians are historians. says the
Boston Herald. land we may safely
denend on them to check up one an
other, not always too gently" But.
unfortunately, the New York Herald.
reminds us, while scholarship may
have the facts. politics mas the EN-
nhasis." and the Hirshf1eld report, the
Mobile Register thinks, is another
nhase of the movement in America
70 ALLEVIATE the two great English
speaking nations and discourage CO.
operation"
of the report, however editors find
subject matter. The Pittsburgh Sun
f1nds that 1t is open to discount
chiefly because he lays his case upon
a false premise. That premise is that
the text books current before the war
presented American history truly and
as II should be taught. On the other
hand the Jersey City Journal thinks
that Hirshfeld makes out strong
case against the eight histories" in
dispute, and the Boston Transcript
asserts that
"If it is true that text books regu-
larry used in any American school
teach such nonsense as that In Eng
onias prior to 1875 there was no in
Justice or oppression, and that the
colonies declared their independence
merely because they were unwilling
to pay their fair share of the cost of
their own defense, we certainly owe
thanks to Mr.. Hirshfield for exposing
the business"
Further, the Harrisburg Telegraph
finds that holding American patriots
up to ridicule and belittling certain
achievements of revolutionary heroes
appear to have been the amusement
Of q few compilers OF history text
bookA" Fiction of the Parson