The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-07-09
T. a. Sears. Business Manager

the head Of this department. It calls for no
great expenditure Of money and involves a con
solidatiOn of the educational activities of several
departments now existing. In fact, it would be
a measure of economy. It has no chance of pas
sage at this session Of congress, we are told. In
fact, it has encountered considerable opposition
as most good legislation does.
1t proposes investigation and report To educa-
tors in the several states of the problems that
confront them, and not control, as the Estates,
rights" men suspect. Originally it contemplated
a considerable appropriation to be devoted to the
elimination of i~lliteracy in the backward states
but that feature was cut on account of the gen.
eral desire for economy and tax reduction. AS
modified, we see no reason in the world why there
should be opposition to the bill, but there is plenty
of it.
Some of the opposition comes from men of the
type of Colonel Blease of South Carolina. who IS
at once an extreme conservative and an extreme
states rights man, a prOhibionist, and a general
demagogue. He is opposed to the educational
bill because he thinks education is a bad thing for
the common people and makes them lazy and I'm
willing to work. Work to his limited intelligence
means blowing and seeding and manual labor. He
does not think a doctor, or a lawyer, or a preacher
or any white collar man does any work-real
work. That is also the view Of many ignorant
men who preach from soap boxes as well as on
the floor Of the United States senate. The North
Carolina News and Observer plucks a tail feather
from this egOtistic rooster as follows:
Senator Blease still holds to the archaic doc
trine of feudal days. When a person gets a So
called education Blease said recently in the sen
ate, he won't work. When a good cotton hand
gets a smattering of an education, he has got to
be a preacher with a long-taiIed coat and a beaver
hat, or a doctor or something, and he won't work.
when South CarOlinians read that statement
by the man who rattles around in the seat once
filled by John C.. Calhoun, Wade Hampton and
Benjamin Tillman, they would have blushed for
their state except for the fact that they have
blushed so often they no longer are capable OF
it. They only pray for the day when they car
retire hin from the senate"
AS the North Carolina newspaper remarks, this
doctrine of the evil effect of education is a feudaI
doctrine. 1t was once common enough. The
father of Abraham Lincoln was bitterly opposed
to his going to school because it would ruin hin
for work. He could not read or write himself anC
truly believed that even such primary education
was an evil thing for his son. Fortunately, Abra,
ham Lincoln had a step-mOther whose intelligence
surpassed that of his father, and to her i~nsistenct
that he must go to school we owe the Creates
president of the United States and a worlC
hero. + = = +
But not all opposition to the educational bill
comes from reactiOnary minds like that of Senator
Blease. Some are opposed to it on constitutions
grounds. AS one senator recently remarked, NJ
progressive reforms were ever adopted by con
gress without an cutlery being raised against then
on account of their alleged uncOnstitutionality.
Those who are backing the Reed-Curtis educa
tiOnal bill, while conceding that it has no chanc
at this session, expect to win out at the shor
session that begins next December and end
March 4. The business man has a Representative
in the cabinet. The working man has such
special representative in the cabinet. The farme
has one also. So has the army and the navy. !
seems to us entirely suitable and proper tina
education should also have such a special repre-
sentative, and we hope the bill can go throug
at the next session of congress.
If women's clothes keep on shrinking in extent, befol
long dress designers VIII have to give up their calm