Year: 1875

ti0n.


Perhaps the most important service that
can be rendered by the guides Of public
thought consists ia pointing out the subjects
on which it ought to be exercised There il
no truer measure Of the sagacity of a states-
man than the sureness Of Judgment with
which he selects the problems which ought
to be solved while he is in power 1t has
been said that the principal attribute of
statesman is to understand his epoch
that is, to possess quick and
clear discernment of the chief needs
of his time, Some political questions are
frivolous; some, though important may be
wisely postponed some VIII settle them
selves by the mere progress OF events, If let
alone some are so related to given period
that great opportunity is lost if they are
not presented and decided at a particular
stage in the tide of affairs. The great test of
sas4city is the ability to see what are the
really important subjects which deserve i'm
mediate attention, and a statesman who
possesses this capacity leads public
opinion and is not compelled to follow





kind of leadership must not fail in discrimi-
nation, as we fear President Grant is doing
by hurrying into the foreground ill-timed or
irrelevant questions, like Cuba and the pub
lie schools.


His attempt to make the school question a
leading issue in our politics is particularly
maladroit We do not dispute the sound
L.. Il.
schools is one of the main pillars of our free
institutions. A vast majority of the Ameri-
can people believe this as firmly as the
President and they are not likely to
change their opinion there is no present
necessity for bringing this question into
politics. The common schools are safe for
period extending far beyond his official, and
even his natural, life. 1t may be true enough
that the priesthood of one of our many
ligious denominations do not look with favor
on our common school system, but it is
equally true that an increasing portion Of
the laity of the same denomination send
their children to these schools, and the prac-
tice is certain to grow in proportion as our
immigrant population become more and
more Americanized. The only thing
that can arrest this tendency is
appeals to religious prejudice, which may
unite and consolidate the Catholics by in
creasing the influence of the clergy over the
laity. If bigoted agitators will let this ques-
ton alone the public schools will quietly
win their way to popularity, even among
the Catholics, in virtue Of their merits and
excellence and their superiority to parochial
schools President Grant would therefore
be making mistake, even if the common
school system were within the province of
national politics. But his mistake is greater
in view of the fact that the national
government has nothing to do with
the subject The common schools are Gre
ated by State legislation, supported by State
taxes, regulated by State control, and the
highest officer of the federal government is
going quite beyond the domain Of national
affairs when he attempts to make the school
question an issue in general politics. There
are national problems enough of first rate
importance, and President Grant would be
more usefully employed in trying to con-
/, centrate public attention on such of these as
are of immediate urgency.