The Coolidge examiner., 1936-01-03

He organized the first anti-savery society and
made the first protest to congress against negro
slavery. (The title page Of the constitution of
this society is reproduced above)
He was the originator of the idea of a League
of Nations and the first to advocate a policy OF
legal condemnation and punishment of a nation
which commits aggressive warfare.
Not all of Franklns contributions to his coun-
trymen and to the world however, strictly
utilitarian Many of them were cultural and in
these he exhibited the greatest versatility. He
was one of our first song-writers, writing among
others Sailor Song" The Mother Country"
My Plain Country JOAN" and Fair Venus
Calls" He was a leader in the musical world
of his time wrote on musical harmony and
played on several musical instruments, including
the harp, the guitar, the violin and the harmonic
or glassychOrd which he invented This consist
ed of series of graduated glass bowls, pierced
by spindle and revOlved by a foot treadle.
bThe music was produced by holding the fingers
against the mostened glass.
Franklin conceived and organized the Junto,
the forerunner of all the service clubs (such as
Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and Civitan) of today.
Out of this grew the American Philosophical So
ciety, Americas first organization of scientists.
He was the first American economist. He was
the first president of the Society for Political
Inquiries of Philadelphia the first society in the
United States interested in promoting the study
of political economy.
He conceived and established in Philadelphia
the first successful circulating library, the fore
runner of those have today He devised
reformed alphabet which was based upon simpli-
fed phonetic spelling.
Franklin was instrumental in founding the Col
lege of Pennsylvania, which later became the
first real university" He originated the cleo
tive system of college studies also the so-called
group system" He was the first to recommend
the teaching of modern languages, the first to
advocate training in agriculture and in the arts
and sciences and the first to prescribe athletics
as an adjunct to a college education
Benjamin Franklin was the first real American
newspaper man and as such contributed many
"trsts" to the profession of journalism. He
established the first foreign-language newspaper
in America (the Philadelphia Zetung). He made
the first attempt in a colonial paper to illustrate
a news event by engraving a crude type-metal
map of the siege of LOuisburg during the war
with France. He was the first American car
tOOnist and two of his cartoons especially
noteworthy. One was the snake device with its
motto of Join or Die" an appeal for unity
among the colonies in resisting the French and
Indians. Later it was put to good as a SIM
liar appeal to the colonies in the Revolution.
The other his "Brttania Reduced" which
| was lDlenueu 10 lnllIence BRUSH pQDnc SenIl-
ment in favor of the American colonies and
point out to Great Britain the sad condition
which would result if her harsh policy toward
her American children was continued.
Nor are these "frsts' all that can be credited
to Benjamin Franklin for, as the Encyclopaedia
Britannica says: "a summary of 50 versatile a
genius is impossible" But they are enough to
indicate how apt is the suggestion that he should
be regarded as first in the homes of his coun-
| trymen."
Western Newspaper Union