The Builder Magazine
August 1922 - Volume VIII - Number 8
Federal Aid to Education, Its Justification, Degree and Method
BY BROTHER HORACE M. TOWNER, IOWA
Brother Horace M. Towner, Representative from Iowa, is Chairman of the Committee on Insular Affairs of the House of Representatives at Washington, D.C., and is sponsor in the House for the Towner-Sterling Bill. This address was delivered before the University of Illinois at the recent inauguration of President Finley.
I AM NOT quite sure that President Kinley expected me to discuss the creation of a Department of Education in connection with the subject of Federal Aid to Education. But as the subjects are both included in the legislation to which I am committed, and as they are so closely connected in creation and application, I shall venture to consider them both in my remarks.
The Cabinet was not created by the Constitution. It is an institution of government created solely by legislative enactment. New executive departments are created and new members of the Cabinet added whenever Congress considers it wise that such action should be taken. The first three of the ten now in existence were established in Washington's administration; the last one was created in 1913.
Departments are not created nor members of the Cabinet appointed to control the subjects assigned them. If the general government has the Constitutional power to control the subject, such measure of control may be given the Secretary as Congress deems advisable. For example, the general government is given control of military affairs and the Secretary of War is granted certain powers of control. The general government is given control of postal affairs, and the Postmaster General is given large powers over such matters. The Constitution wives no power to the general government to control agriculture or labor. Hence, the Secretary of Agriculture is charged with the duty of "promoting agriculture." He is not given power to control agriculture. The Secretary of Labor is charged with the duty of "fostering, promoting, and developing the welfare of the wage earners of the United States." He is given no power in any manner to control labor. In like manner, if a Department of Education is created, its Secretary will be given no power to control education, but he may be charged with the duty of conducting studies and investigation in the field of education, he may call educational conferences, and encourage and aid the States in their educational work without exercising any measure of control.
The justification for creating a Department of Education lies primarily in the fact that education is of supreme importance under our system of government, and should receive the recognition its importance merits. It has been a source of wonder to foreign observers of our institutions that the United States has so far failed to give education such recognition. It is almost alone among the nations in that respect. As reported by the Bureau of Efficiency, the National Government expended over $65,000,000 during the year 1920 for educational purposes. The educational activities thus carried on are scattered among the numerous bureaus, divisions, and commissions without any coordination and with numerous duplications of work. The Bureau of Education occupying a subordinate place in the Department of the Interior, and supported by only a small appropriation, has no control or even knowledge of these various activities. It is apparent that in order to secure efficiency and economy in the work already assumed of this character a directing and coordinating head is required.
A Department is needed to coordinate and integrate the scattered educational forces among the States. It is proposed to create and organize a National Council of Education to consult and advise with the Secretary of Education on subjects relating to the promotion and development of education throughout the nation. This Council is to consist of the chief educational authority of each State, twenty-five educators, representing different interests in education, and twenty-five eminent persons, not educators, interested in education from the standpoint of the public. Annual conferences are to be called, at which the entire scope of the educational interests of the nation will be considered.
It is manifest that in order to carry on such work a Secretary of Education is required. Both in the councils of the Cabinet and in leadership and influence with the educational forces throughout the land, such an educational head is necessary to dignify and unify the educational work of the nation. This does not imply nor is it desired if it were possible to take from the States the control of their educational systems, nor does it mean the adoption of a national system of education. It is only to aid and encourage the States to greater educational endeavor, and by mutual conference and discussion to bring to the States most backward the stimulus that will raise their standards to the level of the more forward and advanced.
It is believed that the creation of a Department of Education with its chief a Secretary in the President's Cabinet, will express for the first time in our history the nation's real interest in education; that it will promote by research, investigation, and reports the practical operation of our public school system throughout the United States; that it will by leadership and service stir the States and the people to a greater interest in educational work and to a more comprehensive knowledge of educational needs; and that it will mark the commencement of a new era of educational progress throughout the whole country.
NATIONAL AID
It is further proposed that provisions shall be made to authorize appropriations from the National Treasury to encourage the States in the promotion and support of education. In order to do this effectively certain specific educational needs are considered as being the most important and pressing. Thus, appropriations are to be authorized to encourage the States for the removal of illiteracy, for the Americanization of immigrants, for the preparation of teachers, to promote physical education, and to equalize educational opportunities. It is believed that this selection of objects covers in large measures the most pressing educational needs in which there is an immediate national interest. A State may accept the provisions of any one or more of the respective apportionments by meeting the prescribed requirements and by providing for the expenditures from State or local funds of a sum at least equally as large as the national grant for the particular apportionment authorized.
It is provided that these grants from the National Treasury are not dependent upon executive discretion or favor, but are compulsory when the States meet the conditions specifically stated in the Act.
These requirements are minimum requirements, and there can be no reasonable dissent as to their necessity and fairness. The National Government cannot make a grant without stating the purpose for which the grant is made, and in making a contingent grant it must state specifically the conditions necessary to be met in order to secure the grant. On the other hand, the State is entitled to know just what the requirements necessary to receive its part of the apportionment are, so that it can be assured that if it meets those requirements, and those only, it will not have to appeal for executive favor in order to receive its grant, and will not be required to surrender control of its educational system to a centralized authority.
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
I presume that these propositions are familiar to you. I presume, also, that most of you are familiar with the arguments that have been advanced in its favor. Let us consider briefly some of the objections that are urged against this proposed legislation.
It is said that the legislation is unnecessary. This objection is urged both against the creation of a Department of Education, and against the proposal to aid the States by subventions from the National Treasury. There is always reluctance about creating a new department. Originally there were but three, State, Treasury, and War. An advisory attorney was selected, and afterward he became a member of the Cabinet. Then came at intervals, Navy, Post Office, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, and then, separately, Labor. Now we have ten departments, and our Cabinet is one of the smallest among the nations. The purpose of the creation of all of these executive departments was to give recognition to and secure a more effective realization of our primary and essential National interests. Because the National Government was not given control of education, and because the States have exercised that power does not disparage the fact that education has been throughout our history a primary, almost a paramount interest, of the Nation. In 1785 the National Government made grants of its public lands for the "maintenance of public schools." The Ordinance of 1787 creating the Northwest Territory provided that "Schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." From that time down to the present the National Government has recognized education as an important interest of the Nation, and has aided it with grants both of lands and money. If it has been and is a primary interest of the Nation, why should not full recognition be given it by the National Government? It certainly is of equal importance with Commerce, or Agriculture, or Labor.
NATIONAL CONTROL OF SCHOOLS
It is asserted by some objectors that merely to create a Department of Education and select a Secretary will transfer the control of the schools from the States to the Nation; that in some mysterious manner there will thus be created an autocracy that will reach out and absorb all the educational activities of the Nation; that for some undisclosed and malevolent purpose a conspiracy has been formed of the educators of the country to subvert the Constitution and destroy the liberties of the people. It is unnecessary to say in this presence that there is no effort being made anywhere or by anybody to transfer the control of the schools from the States to the Nation. On the contrary, and in most explicit terms the Secretary is forbidden to exercise any control over the schools within the States, and that power is expressly reserved to the States.
The objection is also urged that merely to grant appropriations from the National Treasury contingent upon conditions, in and of itself transfers control from the States to the Nation; that the States in order to secure the funds from the National Government will surrender their Constitutional rights; in short, that the Nation offers to buy from the States the control of the schools and assume the power of directing and managing the education of the people.
This objection, strange as it may appear, is the argument most strongly urged by the opponents of the legislation for National aid. It must appear indeed remarkable that such a purpose could have actuated the educators of the country in the formation of their bill. It has not generally been supposed that the school men of the Nation were engaged in a conspiracy to subvert the Constitution and secure control of the Government. It must appear to every reasonable man that there is no desire nor can there be any purpose on the part of the representatives of the Government to take over the control of the schools. It must also be apparent that the people of the States are not so stupid and submissive as to sell their right to control the education of their children for a money bribe.
The legislation is advocated because conditions are urgent and demand action, and because the States are in some cases unable, and in others unwilling, to meet the emergency without help. It is to stimulate the States to greater activity in the education of their own people; it is to aid them in reducing the burden and danger because of the ignorance of their people, that this legislation is urged. The Government has an equal interest with the States in the character of its citizens. The Government has no citizens nor interests within its territory outside the States. Their people are its people, and their citizens are its citizens. If the people of the States are ignorant, so are the people of the Nation. If the peace, prosperity and security of the States must depend upon the intelligence of its citizens, so is it with the Nation. With this community of interest there is a common obligation. So it is proposed to aid the States by granting them funds from the National Treasury, and in effect to say to the States: "The National Government will help you to remove this burden and danger from your people, because your people are my people, and your interests are my interests." In effect, also, the Government declares to the States by this proposed legislation: "This aid is granted you upon the condition that you use it only for the purpose stated in the grant, and that you use it in your own way without dictation or control by the Government."
It may be again stated that all the conditions upon which aid is granted are statutory, and are specifically stated in the Act. These requirements may be changed by Congress, but they cannot be changed by the Secretary or any other executive officer. No additional requirements can be added, and no autocratic, bureaucratic, or centralized control imposed.
It should be further stated that before any State can receive the benefits of the Act such State must by legislative enactment accept its provisions. So that there must be an agreement of the representatives of the people of the Nation with the representatives of the people of the State before the legislation can become effective. Under such circumstances it is not probable, it is not possible, that the State will surrender its rights, or that the Nation will transcend its powers.
Attention is called to the fact that by the provisions of the bill the administration, the application and distribution of the funds within the State are exclusively committed to the State authorities. I think I am justified in saying that in no other legislation of this character ever enacted have the rights of the States been so carefully guarded. Let me call your attention to this provision of the bill, found in Section 13:
"PROVIDED, That courses of study, plans and methods for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act within a State, shall be determined by the State and local educational authorities of said State, and this Act shall not be construed to require uniformity of courses of study, plans, and methods in the several States in order to secure the benefits herein provided: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That all the educational facilities encouraged by the provisions of this Act and accepted by a State shall be organized, supervised, and administered exclusively by the legally constituted State and local educational authorities of said State, and the Secretary of Education shall exercise no authority in relation thereto except as herein provided to insure that all funds apportioned to said State shall be used for the purposes for which they are appropriated by Congress."
If any stronger or more explicit statement can be made to save to the States their right to control their own schools in their own way and to prohibit any interference on the part of the General Government, the friends of the measure would be glad to accent it.
ILLITERACY
It is said that contributions from the National Treasury are unnecessary, for the States will meet the emergency and provide the necessary means. If that were true, the objection would be good. But is it true?
Take illiteracy, as an example, and consider conditions. The census of 1910 showed that in the United States there were 5,500,000 over ten years of age who could not read or write any language. In addition there were 3,500,00 who could not speak, or read, or write English. This placed us below the standard of most of the civilized nations of the world. But that was not the worst. The examination of the draft registrants for service in the late war showed that of the men called between the ages of 21 and 31, nearly 25 per cent could not read a newspaper, could not write a letter home, and could not read the posted orders about the camps.
The Nation's defense is thus doubly impaired; first, because one-fourth of the sons of America called to the colors are incapacitated for efficient service because of their ignorance; and, second, because the safety of a free country is jeopardized when a determining portion of its voters cannot read the ballots they cast and can only vote as they are told.
Consider the economic loss which Secretary Lane estimates as at least $825,000,000 each year! The Director of the Bureau of Mines states that of the 1,000,000 men engaged in mining in the United States 620,000 are foreigners, and that of these 460,000 cannot speak English. He states that the removal of illiteracy among the miners would save annually 1,000 lives and 150,000 injuries. Investigation has shown that one-half the industrial accidents are the result of ignorance, because the workers cannot read the danger warnings or understand the orders given.
It has been said that illiteracy is a Southern problem. The facts do not warrant that conclusion. Georgia has 389,000 illiterates, but New York has 406,000. Alabama has 352,000, while Pennsylvania has 354,000. Louisiana has 352,000, Mississippi 290,000, and Texas 282,000; but Illinois has 168,000, Ohio 124,000, and even Massachusetts has 141,000.
It is thought that illiteracy is a race problem. But it is much more than that. There are over 1,000,000 more white illiterates in the United States than illiterate negroes.
Is not this clearly a National problem? If the Nation's safety is imperilled, if the lives of its citizens are being lost, and if the States are not able or not willing without help to remove this reproach and danger, is not National aid justified and imperative?
AMERICANIZATION
Consider the condition of our immigrant population. We now have over 15,000,000 foreign born people in the United States. More than 5,000,000 cannot speak, read, or write English. More than 2,000,000 cannot read or write any language. Unfortunately, these foreigners often group themselves into alien settlements or colonies, where our language is not spoken, where our journals are not read, and where the whole environment is alien and non-American. These masses of alien ignorance constitute a rich soil for sowing the seeds of unrest and revolt. Revolutionary agitators who come to this country to advocate the destruction of our Government find here their opportunity.
To make the immigrant understand America is the only way to make him love America. He cannot love a country he does not understand. Education is the first requisite of Americanization. Education, first in our language, and then in the nature of our institutions is the best defense against the bolshevik and the anarchist.
This demand is not being met. When great States like Massachusetts and New York and Ohio have actually increased both their percentage and total of illiteracy within the decade from 1900 to 1910 because of their failure to educate their foreign born, we realize that even these enlightened commonwealths need stimulation and aid.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Perhaps no disclosure of the draft examinations carries more reproach to our intelligence than the fact that out of about 2,400,000 young men examined for service 700,000, or nearly one-third, were found disqualified because of physical disability. Ninety per cent of these disabilities could have been prevented by a knowledge of the simplest rules of hygiene and health. It was ignorance, gross ignorance, that in the vast majority of cases was the cause of their incompetence.
There is but one adequate remedy for this disgraceful and distressing condition, - to put into all our schools a system of physical education. Unfortunately, this has not been done. The additional cost deprives thousands of schools and tens of thousands of children of this essential element of education. Here again is the stimulation and help of the Nation needed to remedy the existing unfortunate condition.
EQUALIZING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
That gross inequalities in educational opportunities exist within and among the States is well known. In the South almost one-half of the negro children never see the inside of a school room. In the North there is hardly a city that has adequate facilities for all its children. In some rural communities and factory districts the value of the property is so small that local taxation cannot support the schools. On an average the country boy has two months less school than the city boy.
Unfortunately, it is found that where the educational needs are greatest the schools are most inadequate. All over our land the poorest schools are in the poorest communities - just where the best schools are most needed. To equalize educational opportunities is a task that the Nation is especially qualified to undertake. To encourage and aid the backward States to bring their deficiencies up to a reasonable measure of efficiency and service is apparently a National duty. By such stimulation and cooperation we may be able to give to every child in America the advantage of at a least a common school education.
PREPARATION AND PAY OF TEACHERS
The most pressing educational problem confronting the people of the United States at the present time is to obtain competent teachers for our schools. Thousands of schools have been closed because teachers of any kind could not be secured. Tens of thousands of schools are now being taught by incompetent teachers. Three hundred thousand are teaching who have no professional training whatever.
An equally imperative duty is that of providing means for the better preparation of teachers. We need about 700,000 teachers to teach our schools, and this requires about 120,000 new teachers each year to keep the quota full. Our schools and colleges preparing for teaching are turning out but 24,000 each year. Nearly 100,000 must enter the profession each year inadequately prepared. This condition is alarming and must be remedied. In some way we must bring States and the people to a realization of this danger. Unless conditions can be bettered we will have in the present decade even a larger proportion of near-illiterates than was disclosed by the war registration. Indifference as to the character of our schools and their teachers will inevitably lead to a deterioration of our citizenship. We must see to it that every school in the land is taught by a competent teacher. Nothing less than that is safe for either State or Nation.
If illiteracy is a National peril, if ignorance of our language and institutions is a source of danger, if unjustifiable inequalities exist in educational opportunities in our land, if our young men called to the service of their country are incapacitated because of ignorance of the ordinary rules of health, if schools are being closed for want of teachers, and almost one-half are being taught by incompetent teachers, then it can fairly be claimed that National aid for education is justified and necessary.
MUTUAL OBLIGATIONS
It is urged as an objection that it is unjust to call upon the stronger States to aid the weaker to educate their children; that the money derived from the general taxation which would fall heaviest on the richer States should not be used to help the poorer States; that each State should bear the burden and responsibility of educating its own people.
This objection was urged from the beginning against the whole system of public schools. It was argued that parents should have the burden of educating their own children and that taxation to support common schools was unconstitutional and unjust. It was said the rich man was under no obligation to help educate the children of the poor. It was especially urged that those having no children to educate must not be taxed to help educate the children of others. It was still more strenuously insisted that it was especially iniquitous to tax the properly of a bachelor to carry on schools for others' children.
But all those objections were disregarded, and now no one claims that it is unjust to tax the rich man to educate the poor man's children, and the bachelor must pay his taxes to support the schools, whether he wants to or not. It is recognized that the welfare of a community or State depends upon the character of its citizens; that the city or State is concerned for its own safety and peace in the intelligence of all its citizens, and that each must contribute his share to the common good.
So with the Nation. We have seen how its safety may be jeopardized because of the illiteracy and physical incapacity of so many of its young men. We have seen how in a free Government its security and prosperity depend on the intelligence of its entire electorate. Neither illiterates nor alien malcontents can be confined to any one State. And so it is a National problem as well as a State and local problem. Manifestly, it needs the cooperation of all these to find and apply the remedy.
THE NATION CANNOT AFFORD IT
The cost to the Government is urged as an objection to the legislation. To place this additional burden on the Government at this time of extraordinary expenditures would be unwise, it is said. Our people already groaning under the weight of Federal taxes will not approve this addition to the load, it is argued. Granting the full weight of this objection, it must be admitted that the Nation must make choice as to its expenditures. Wise action depends on selecting those objects for National appropriations which are most needed and most important. There is nothing in our scheme of Government more important than the education of the people. Whatever else may be left out, education cannot safely be excluded. And this may be said to the credit of our people, that the one thing that justifies a tax in their judgment is that which strengthens and supports our public schools. There are many millions annually appropriated which in their opinion have much less justification than the appropriations authorized by this bill. We might cut off a hundred million from either the Army or the Navy bills with less danger and more profit than to omit this appropriation. We gave seventy-five millions the other day to the States for good roads. Are good roads of more importance than good schools? We are still spending millions to remove rocks from our harbors and snags from our rivers; to remove hog cholera in Iowa, and cattle ticks in Texas; to remove boll weevil in Alabama, and wheat rust in North Dakota, - are we justified in refusing to spend anything to remove illiteracy from our own American citizens? It is not that the things mentioned are not worthy of consideration, but certainly they are not more worthy of consideration than is the education of our children. Those things are after all but economic ills, while ignorance imperils the safety and endangers the perpetuity of the Nation itself.
There are some outstanding facts regarding the relations of the Nation and the States toward education which it is wise to recognize. There has never been proposed in Congress any legislation which has even suggested that the Nation should take from the States the control of education. No one has ever advocated it, no one now proposes it, no one in or out of Congress desires it. The proposition has no support anywhere by anyone. There is no legal authority for such legislation if anyone did propose it. If a bill carrying such a proposal were introduced, it would immediately be recognized as without Constitutional warrant, and would never even reach the calendar of either Senate or House.
To claim that anyone, sponsor or supporter of the pending educational bill, desires or expects National control of education to follow the enactment of the legislation under consideration is without the slightest sanction. To state that the emphatic and repeated negations expressed in the strongest language that can be used which are incorporated in the very terms of the proposed law mean nothing and will not be effective, is to say that no law can be made effective by its terms.
But while Congress has no desire nor purpose nor Constitutional power to take from the States the control of education, the General Government has the right to aid and encourage the States in the education of their and its citizens, and this right it has exercised repeatedly from the beginning of our history to the passage of the last Appropriation Act. It granted sections of the public lands to the States for schools. It granted townships of land for the creation and support of universities. Lands were given as long as they lasted, and then money was given. Congress gives annually over two and a half million dollars from the National Treasury for the "support and further endowment of colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts." Every year we give tens of millions of dollars from the National Treasury in support of almost every form of education. Why is it that these grants are not opposed? Why is it that where education is so much needed, at the very bottom of our political and social structure, where it enters into the very texture of the fabric of our American citizenship - in form about which there is no controversy and in substance the acknowledged essential - why is it that when it is proposed to strengthen our common school system the proposition is condemned and opposed?
It must be that such opposition is based upon a misconception of the proposed legislation. To think otherwise would be to believe that there were in our country those who really desired the destruction of our common school system. Such a belief no loyal American would desire to entertain.
It is characteristic of the American people to be intensely interested and enthusiastic in the formation and establishment of a particular public service, and then when they have succeeded and have placed it in what they believe competent hands, to go off and forget about it. In a degree that has been true of our common school system. We have been so absorbed in building cities, making railways, plowing prairies, redeeming wildernesses and subduing a continent that we have had little time to give to the humdrum work of the district school. Lately all our minds and hearts, all our energy and activities have been given to save our country and the world from a savage onslaught of outlaw nations. And as a consequence we have allowed twenty-five out of every one hundred of our sons and daughters to sink into deplorable depths of illiteracy and ignorance. We must rescue them. We must see that their successors shall not suffer like neglect and misfortune. We are compelled to realize that an intolerable condition exists which must not be allowed longer to continue. This calls for each of us to bear a part in the work set before us. By the memory of those who throughout all the years of our National life have given so much of thought and service to the upbuilding of the Republic; by the memory of the thousands who by the sacrifice of life itself have rescued the Nation from dishonor and destruction, we are called to meet and will fulfill the responsibilities which now are ours!
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EDUCATION MUST BE CONTINUED INTO ADULT LIFE
"The necessity for continuing education from the schoolroom into daily life is being more and more emphasized in New South Wales and Labor idealists are laying stress on the value of a thorough training which will fit the workers for a bigger part in the control and direction of industry. New South Wales is doubling its facilities for technical education....
"The East Sydney College, which will cover more than four acres and be practically a series of separate colleges, will accommodate the students in drawing, art metal work (including the making of jewelry and watch making) modeling, sculpture, pottery, sanitary engineering and plumbing. One building will be devoted to bread making and pastry with a special laboratory and with costly ovens and machinery. In another building instruction will be given in everything relating to transit by road, rail, sea and air, including the building of aeroplanes and the construction of motor cars and motors. Special attention will be given to the sheep and wool trade. An important portion of the college will be utilized for women's handicrafts, including dressmaking, millinery and costume designing.
"At the conference on the control of industry, Prof. R.F. Irvine of Sydney University declared that the whole educational program would have to be modified if men were to be fitted for making wise choices and initiating great changes, and adult men and women would have to be made to realize that education did not end with school or college, but was a life process. Two things seemed to him to be necessary to fit men for increasing their part in the control of industry and for making wise choices: (1) A revised program of education for young people and adults of all classes; (2) An institution for the collection of data relating to experiments in control, and for the stimulation of such experiments.
"While the bursary system of the state is giving a university training every year to a large number of working class boys, Mr. W. Davies, a member of the Legislative Assembly, declared at the conference that the boys were being made over into 'snobs,' this showing the necessity for a new atmosphere in that institution. He favored the compelling of every boy to attend continuation classes in order that he might be trained for the control of industry and that a spirit of responsibility might be inculcated in him. The necessity for the latter was shown by the large number of disputes in the mining industry caused by irresponsible boys who had never been made conscious of their duty to the rest of the community." - The Christian Science Monitor, 1921 - M.S.A. Bulletin No. 8.
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FREEMASONRY AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ‑ A GRAND MASTERS' SYMPOSIUM
Why is it that Freemasons have ever been so interested in the public schools? The answer is not far to seek. Free masonry itself is chiefly in existence to foster the growth of democracy and equality among men: other aims it has, but none more paramount than this, or more vital to itself and to the world. If this ideal is ever to be realized in this land it will be realized very largely through the public school system, because the wit of man has never devised, nor could devise, an institution more ideally fitted to organize the lives of men according to the spirit and principles of democracy and equality. Moreover, our Fraternity has very much at stake in the American government, and this government, as everybody knows, has in the public school system one of its principal bulwarks. There are other reasons why Masons, as Masons, are always eager to foster and protect general education but these reasons are sufficient here. In order to do its bit in this worthful cause the National Masonic Research Society has prepared this special public school number of THE BUILDER, and to the end that its account of Freemasonry and the public schools be as representative as possible it has asked the Grand Masters of the country to speak each one for his own jurisdiction, a thing they have done with prompt courtesy, and to good effect, as these communications show.
Let Schools Teach Love of Country.
There can be no grander theme to engross the attention of the Master Mason than that subject which has to do with the public school education of the children of our nation. This is a subject of deepest interest to every citizen, inasmuch as the happiness of all classes is bound up in the common interest of education.
We have come to regard our public schools as the very backbone of our civilization.
The youth who believes it is impossible for him to obtain an education is deemed deficient in courage and energy in this enlightened age, and ignorance is considered a voluntary misfortune.
Our public schools offer to our boys and girls the training that is necessary to prepare them for the common duties of life, and, if they wish, they may delve into the fields of classic lore and polite literature.
Even the most humble has within his reach the opportunity to obtain sufficient education to enable him to appear advantageously in the theatre of life.
Our public schools have made rapid strides in the years that have passed but there is yet much that could be done that would add to their usefulness and efficiency if we are to keep pace with modern civilization.
It is our duty as Masons and citizens to keep in close touch with school affairs in our own community, as well as to inform ourselves on educational matters in general. We should consider it a privilege to aid in any possible way the cause of public education to the end that our schools may be brought up to the highest possible degree of efficiency, and the standard of the teaching profession be upheld upon a higher plane, realizing that there is no interest above that of the children themselves.
In our educational plan we must insist upon the education of the whole man, the body, the mind and the heart, that he may be a complete creature of his kind. Classic lore has its place in education, but is valuable only when linked with a vast amount of practical intelligence that can be fitted for every-day use. Our public schools are valuable only insofar as they train all the faculties in the right direction.
Besides the teaching of the proverbial three R's we must not forget the many important lessons in Patriotism; love of country, respect for all the laws of our land, reverence for things holy and kindred subjects. It is in our public schools that we must depend largely for the study of the psychology of our foreigner, consider his needs and win his loyalty if he is to become a citizen in any real sense.
Is not this work of public education one of inestimable importance, and one which is worth the careful and thoughtful consideration of every Master Mason ?
Let us not neglect our duty in so important a matter.
Henry C. Smith, Grand Master, Montana.
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Rich as Well as Poor Should be Educated in Public Schools.
The progress of civilization has been marked by the progress of education. The height to which any people have been able to attain has been in direct proportion to the dissemination of learning among them. Every means of teaching the young the principles of sterling worth and the knowledge that gives an understanding of the problems of life should be fostered among all right thinking people.
The public schools of America afford the one great channel through which men can effectively aid in preparing the young for useful, patriotic citizenship. Other means of teaching will not reach the masses and, therefore, cannot render the great service that comes through the public schools.
The Federal Bureau of Education provides the following figures: Of 31,981 distinguished Americans only 31 were limited to an elementary education and only 3,110 received merely a high school education; whereas, 28,840 were college graduates. There can be no college graduates without training in grades. Consequently, all of these received lower academic teaching. If we would raise the standard of our citizenship, and produce Americans of real distinction, we must place before the masses of the people educational opportunities. Every man who is committed to this high purpose must favor every move that will lend broader extension and greater efficiency to our public school system.
Aside from the question of providing educational advantages to the young of limited means, I am impressed with the belief that children of wealthier families should also be given training in public schools. It is here that they are brought into contact with the representatives of homes of all classes and are given that association with others of strange environment which will develop the characteristics that have made Americans democratic. Other countries may support the private schools where the so-called aristocracy are trained in manners, culture, dress and snobbishness, but practical America must maintain and develop to the uttermost that school system which, by teaching and association, will best cultivate in the Americans of tomorrow the democratic principles of justice, fairness and tolerance.
Julian F. Spearman, Grand Master, Alabama.
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Competent Teachers Essential to Good Citizenship
Our late Brother Theodore Roosevelt, while addressing a vast assemblage of school teachers at Ocean Grove, N. J., once said: "Teachers, in your hands lies the destiny of our nation!" How clearly he saw the truth!
The stability of our government and the welfare of our free institutions developed under it depend entirely upon the character of our citizenship. Our schools impress character upon the youth of the land. This work is in large part actually in the hands of our public school teachers. If they do their work well, the future of the nation is assured! If they are unable to do it well, the nation is in danger.
From a purely patriotic standpoint, therefore, it is clearly our duty to see to it that we have the best school teachers we can obtain, and place at their disposal the necessary equipment to enable them to do their work well. To do this more money must be appropriated for the maintenance of our public schools than is now available. This money will not be forthcoming unless there is an irresistible public demand for it. The public will demand it when it becomes clearly conscious of the necessity for it. This public consciousness can only be aroused by a proper presentation of facts and figures and by intelligent effort on the part of those who are entirely familiar with the various aspects of the problem.
Masonry stands for good citizenship. Every Mason is under an obligation to consider the welfare of his country at all times.
If Masonry as an institution should undertake to bring its individual members to a proper realization of the necessities confronting our various public school systems, and thoroughly familiarize them with the facts, it would furnish the country a group of representative men who can and will arouse public opinion. Shall Masonry undertake this task?
Charles C. Coombs, Grand Master, Dist. of Columbia.
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Freemasons were Active in Founding Iowa Public Schools
The public school system of education has ever had the full interest and support of the Masonic fraternity in this commonwealth. The settlement of Iowa and the development of its educational facilities (even during its pioneer days) are a story of absorbing interest; and in the annals of that time we find the leaders of our Craft in the forefront of the movement for general education through public schools maintained at public expense.
The reputation of Iowa schools proves the extent and success of those efforts.
I have no doubt that I speak for all Masons of Iowa as well as for myself when I say that we are emphatically in favor of a state and national system that shall require every child in each commonwealth to have at least an elementary and secondary education in free public schools maintained by general taxation and affording an equal opportunity to all.
Furthermore, that it be mandatory that the English language be used with a uniform course of instruction in these grades; that the ideals and principles of representative American government be taught throughout all the grades; and that training in our public schools be made a necessary qualification for teachers in the same. Furthermore, that the hygienic, physical and moral welfare of the child should have attention as the intellectual development, so that the future citizens of our country may be fully equal to their responsibilities.
A. N. Alberson, Grand Master, Iowa.
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Masons Must Support the Public School System in its Present Crisis
The past two years of reaction from the emotional intensity of the World War have given us a breathing space in which to appraise, in some measure, the magnitude of the task of adjusting ourselves to new world conditions.
The summons of peace is not to complacent repose, but to still more strenuous endeavor for enduring good. The task that now confronts us is the conquest of the allied forces of ignorance, selfishness and prejudice. For victory we must look to the armies of peace, the teachers and pupils of the public schools. The forces of the whole nation must be mobilized in their support. Everywhere the Craft is seeking opportunities for service and everywhere instances are multiplying which point to the existing public school crisis as the logical field for Masonic devotion and endeavor.
The subject of public education has ever been close to the hearts of our greatest men and Masons. Our Brother Washington founded at Alexandria and endowed one of the first free schools in Virginia. Our Brother Franklin founded the first free public school at Philadelphia. Indeed, one of Franklin's opponents there has left on record the complaint that "the people who are promoting the free schools are the Grand Masters and Wardens among the Freemasons, their very pillars." Our Brother Dewitt Clinton founded the free public school system of our own great Commonwealth, and our Grand Lodge gave the first New York free school generous patronage and support.
The mingling of children of every race, creed and degree in common schools, publicly supported, tends to bind together the whole population with the strong ties of common customs and a common tongue and to make this a thoroughly united nation. In the language of Brother Washington "the more homogenous our citizens can be made in principles, opinions and manners, the greater will be our prospects of permanent union." These ideas are truly Masonic. The public schools are the only means whereby the prosperity, nay, the very survival, of our beloved Fraternity can be safeguarded, and the perpetuity of the institutions that underlie our civil and religious liberties assured.
Let Freemasons everywhere rally unitedly to their support.
Robert H. Robinson, Grand Master, New York.
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Education Must be Represented in the President's Cabinet
Of all the important public questions of interest to the people of the United States, there is none more vital to the future welfare of our country than that of the public schools. It is imperatively necessary that the boys and girls of today, who are to be the citizens of tomorrow, shall acquire in the public schools such a common stock of ideas and ideals that the stability of our government and the perpetuity of our institutions will be assured.
A real democracy can exist with success only if there is true democracy in education, that is, equal educational opportunity for all. It has been clearly demonstrated by the experience of the past that if this equality of educational opportunity is to exist, since the states by themselves are unable to provide this, financial aid from the national government is necessary. If a reasonable amount of financial assistance is given to the several states, each child in the entire country can be assured the minimum amount of education; illiteracy will gradually disappear, and the great work of Americanization can be more vigorously carried on. It will be possible to conduct with greater success other educational activities, such as health education.
The importance and dignity of education in this country demand that this important work be represented in our national government, not by a subordinate bureau but by one of the great departments, with a Secretary at its head, who should be a member of the Cabinet of the President. If all these measures outlined above be adopted, great care should be taken that each state of our Union retain complete control of its educational policy and procedure. All of these provisions are, I understand, carefully included in the Towner-Sterling bill which is now before Congress; if this bill is enacted into law, the beneficial effect upon education in this country will be quickly realized.
Warren S. Seipp, Grand Master, Maryland.
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Thou Shalt Exalt the Public School
In viewing the question of public schools, there are certain facts that stand out as self-evident:
(1) Public schools are consistent with and necessary to the maintenance of that liberty and pursuit of happiness guaranteed in the fundamental utterances of our laws. The untutored mind may know license but it cannot have the highest sense of real liberty.
(2) Public schools are necessary to perpetuate the principles and verify the eternal truth proclaimed in the American Declaration of Independence "that all men are created equal" (as to privileges and immunities under the law); and without a system of free schooling supported by the state and so regulated as to perform the most efficient service, the great mass of the people born unequal as to environments, wealth and opportunity would remain in ignorance and thus become a prey to the unscrupulous and the charlatan.
(3) Without an efficient system of free schools, higher education can never become at all general. The free schools must feed the colleges and universities if, indeed, they are to be fed - a necessary nourishment for their growth and usefulness.
The following, constituting the fourth of ten "Home Town Commandments" which appeared in The University of North Carolina News Letter of April 19, 1922, is to be commended:
"Thou shalt exalt thy public school and honor it all the days of thy life with the best of teachers, buildings and equipments, for the school is the cradle of the future. Thy children are here and they shall be the leaders of tomorrow. No training is too good for them and no preparation superfluous."
James H. Webb, Grand Master, North Carolina.
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The Public School Serves No Scheming Interest at Home or Abroad.
The assertion that the public school is the cornerstone of American liberty has become a truism. We reiterate the declaration at frequent intervals, but many of us fail to realize wherein lies the greatness of this typical American institution.
The public school is remarkable and successful for several reasons. It is the natural outgrowth of American ideals and life and development, a concrete expression of the American spirit and of what we term Americanism. It is democracy in education, and bears much the same position with regard to the other educational systems of the world as does the American theory and system of government to those of the various other nations.
The public school in the United States is great because it is the school of all the people. It is confined to no region, sect, race, color or narrow selfish interest. It is the same in Maine, California, Louisiana or North Dakota. It places one stamp upon the boys and girls who pass through its courses and that mark is the shaping touch that makes an American from whatever state he comes. Unlike many another hallmark, the stamp of the American public school is an evidence of broadening instead of narrowing; of stimulus to thought and initiative and achievement, not stultifying; of personal independence of thought and soul, not attachment to an imposed creed or system; of upward impulsion toward everything clean and wholesome and pure and helpful.
The power of the public school lies largely in the fact that it is pure and single in its purpose. Its sole aims are to train the minds, develop the bodies, make skillful the hands, quicken the hearts and ennoble the souls of the youth it touches. Its one purpose is to make splendid men and women, ideal Americans and exemplary citizens. It has no other purpose and it serves no selfish scheming interest at home or abroad.
Henry E. Byorum, Grand Master, North Dakota.
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The Schools Make for Democracy
There is no agency in our American life that is capable of doing more for the advancement of the common welfare of our people than our public school. In that fortress of democracy our children of all classes meet, day after day, from the age of six or seven years, up to the age of from fifteen to eighteen that most impressionable age when character is formed and when the men and women of the tomorrows are shaping their opinions of life, and determining the course they will take.
It is highly important in a country like ours that every man and woman shall understand and appreciate every other man and woman, and recognize the fact that each of us is the "architect of his own fortune." In America opportunity smiles upon all. The names of the men and women prominent in American life today reveal the fact that it is integrity and efficiency that count and not the accident of one's birth. The public school brings the children of all races, of all creeds, of all political beliefs together, and makes Americans of them all; and as American citizens they each and all see the value in others, and come to appreciate that value.
The public school system of America is not perfect. It has perfection for its ideal however, and is moving rapidly in that direction; and therefore its permanency is assured. As the objective of this great American institution is better understood, it will be more loyally supported by all good and true American people. Long live the American public school.
George C. Williams, Grand Master, Delaware.
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South Dakota is Heartily In Favor of the Towner‑Sterling Bill.
I want to say that I am heartily in accord with the movement that is under way to improve the educational system in the United States. I believe that nearly all the Masons of this jurisdiction are of the same mind. It would be a long step for good if we would have a law in every state requiring every child between the ages of six and sixteen inclusive to attend the public school. Of course, those who are physically deficient or who are backward should have special attention and assistance, that all may have an equal chance to gain an education which will fit them for the duties of future citizenship.
With improvement in our public school system will come a higher standard of living, better morals and cleaner lives. As some one has pointed out, every child should have the right to be cleanly bred, rightly fed, and clearly taught.
In this state we have a very good set of school laws and with but little change we could receive the benefits provided for in the Towner-Sterling Bill should it pass our national legislative body. Some objection has been made to this bill on account of the appropriation it carries. I do not know of a better use to which we can apply our funds, and certainly it is better to improve our children and make better citizens, stronger men and women, than to spend all in the improvement of hogs, cattle, etc.
W.F.R. Whorton, Grand Master, South Dakota.
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Masons Should Interest Themselves in School Elections
I believe in the American public school - first, last, and all the time. I believe that the greatest influence in our American life today is the public school, and therefore it should be carefully guarded, continually improved and greatly encouraged.
We realize now that we have lacked the vision the founders of our government had when they wrote the constitution of this country, and that we have not consistently used our energies to improve future generations. We have concerned ourselves about the educational system only insofar as it affected our immediate needs.
If we are to remain united as a nation, it is necessary that American ideals be implanted in the youth of the land. The public school is the only agency that can successfully accomplish this. Make elementary education compulsory in the public school and teach the American language only. Compel the child to read, write and think in the American language. Only in proportion as he can think in this language can he appreciate the American spirit, and the American government. The parochial school draws a line of division across the community, and should therefore be eliminated.
Only men and women of the highest ideals can impart the spirit of the country and the teaching profession must be made attractive - better salaries, better teachers, better schools.
Masons everywhere should interest themselves in school elections, placing men on school boards who believe in the American public school system.
In Minnesota we hope that before another year has passed, we shall have had the opportunity to preach the gospel of the public school in every lodge room in the state. Competent speakers, with motion picture outfits, will be sent into every part of the state, and the needs and advantages of the public school will be demonstrated. The Towner-Sterling Bill will be explained and discussed.
I believe that physical education, and instruction in the principles of health and sanitation, should be taught to all children and through the public schools. The future of our country, mentally, morally and spiritually, will depend on the physical condition of the coming generations.
Herman Held, Grand Master, Minnesota.
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The Schools Should be Bulwarks Against Bolshevism
While it is the duty of every Mason to be interested in the public schools, it is especially the duty of those of our eastern states to be particularly vigilant, for it is in the east that the obnoxious red doctrines of continental Europe are being secretly, and in some places, publicly taught. Even in some of our standard colleges there have been instances where professors, aided and abetted by parlor radicals living on inherited wealth, have been making covert attacks on American institutions. History teaches us that the school and the lodge were the pioneers and outposts of our civilization, and that our present public school system originated with and was flowered and protected by Masons. Therefore, each of us should constitute himself a committee of one to see that the schools of his town are the best, or at least the equal of any, in the land; and that support and reverence for law and order, and love for the flag, are taught free from any foreign taint or continental influence of any sort.
Frank L. Wilder, Grand Master, Connecticut.
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Tennessee Stands for the Development of Primary Schools.
A public school number of THE BUILDER just at this time is very essential and timely! Let's make it unanimous! Especially so far as Masons are concerned. Every Grand Master at least should be closely in touch with the educational movement as to be heartily in favor of public schools, and I am sure the only reason that every Mason is not in full sympathy with the course of education is due to the fact that he has not given much thought to this subject.
I am happy to say that the Grand Jurisdiction of Tennessee is squarely behind the idea of developing the primary public schools to the end that every child may have equal opportunity to secure an education. I am of the opinion that no greater movement for good has ever been launched by the Masonic Fraternity and wonderful progress has been made; many rural districts report decided improvement.
The idea carries with it not only the endorsement of public schools, but the education of our own members - nay more - the enlightenment of our members as to what they owe the world and humanity.
I believe the success of the Masonic educational movement is assured in Tennessee as Brother Joseph A. Fowler, our State Chairman, is very earnest in his efforts. He is thoroughly capable and a Mason of splendid ability.
The public schools! By all means - that great democratic institution where children, rich and poor, may mingle together and learn the fact that they are all Americans.
Walker M. Taylor, Grand Master, Tennessee.
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Free Institutions Cannot Exist Without Schools
There can be no question of the vital importance to any free government of a comprehensive and effective system of free, public education. It is absolutely impossible that free institutions should exist without the basis of an intelligent electorate. Every citizen should be capable of reading as well as hearing the views and opinions which may be set forth for or against proposed legislation or candidates for office. So far as possible he should be sufficiently educated to understand what he hears and reads, and to weigh and compare conflicting statements. This is a large requirement, but all history shows that it is an irreducible minimum.
Freemasonry is the foe of ignorance, tyranny, and superstition. Education is the only weapon by which these great foes of mankind can be conquered. It is the Masonic duty of every member of our Fraternity to do his best to forge this weapon and strengthen the arms of those who wield it.
Freemasons are bound by their obligations, and by loyalty to the principles of our order, to be good citizens. It is, therefore, their duty to do everything in their power for the promotion of good citizenship. Nothing is more essential to good citizenship than education.
The experience of the great war has shown conclusively that our educational system is not functioning as well as we expected. Discoveries which were made with regard to the illiteracy of the young men in our drafted army were not only surprising but extremely disconcerting. The immediate need of the time is the strengthening of our educational system sufficiently to enable it to do what it should do, and what until 1917 we all thought it was doing.
It is the duty of every Freemason to do everything that he can to help the cause of education in his community, in the state, and in the nation. He should labor in every possible way to exert all the influence he has in all ways in which such influence may be exerted in this good work.
This does not mean that the Masonic Fraternity, as an organization, should put itself behind any specific legislation, or attempt to adopt an educational legislative program. Such a course would do more harm than good both to education and to Freemasonry. It would distinctly lower the plane of discussion and bring into it considerations and antagonisms which would be harmful in the extreme.
If all the members of our great Fraternity can be roused to the sense of personal responsibility and made to feel that each one of them has a sacred duty to perform and that he cannot rest until he has performed it, we need not worry as his right choice of methods and measures.
Frederick Hamilton, Grand Secretary, Massachusetts.
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Nevada Masonry is Strong for the Public Schools
From the dawn when man first realized that light and more light would make his world larger, his life broader and his heart happier, he has as with tenacles reached out for truth and more truth. Our present-day public school system has been evolved from that hungering for knowledge. Susceptible of improvement though it be, our public school system is the best on God's footstool and every man and woman, of whatever affiliation or creed, if he or she desires to realize a dream of yet higher civilization should be back of, and ready with instant support for, the public school.
To the forbears of Masonry were entrusted the arts and sciences of their day. Upon them devolved the duty of pointing the way to larger intellectual life. Such through the generations has been the big objective, the star that held the compass by which the fathers of present-day Masonry sailed through the storms that would surely have wrecked them long years ago had their purpose been selfish and the ends of their existence small.
With all the impetus that comes from Masonic traditions and history, teaching as they do that Masons of the past have been the pathfinders, the pioneers in intellectual development, surely Masonry of today is recreant to its trust unless every Mason is alert to defend and support the public schools.
Masonry must be aligned with the forces that seek the us up-building of our educational system, for Masonry can only prosper in the sunlight of education: its enemies prosper only when the black hoodwink of ignorance clouds the vision of men and women. In this jurisdiction Masonry is strong for the public school.
Louis G. Campbell, Grand Master, Nevada.
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Selection of Teachers Is of Greatest Importance
The public school question in this country is a live one and every red-blooded American should be vitally interested in it. But the public school is absolutely in no danger from its friends or its enemies. It is the basis upon which are founded our free institutions and it will survive all opposition. True, the system occasionally needs revising, improving and directing. Of this there can be no doubt. In the present day the tendency to drift away from fundamentals is the result of over anxiety on the part of its friends. This, however, is only temporary. As a system it will soon regain its equilibrium and it will continue to go forward in its chosen field.
Any additional legislation for the benefit of the public schools should be undertaken with the greatest care, and its only aim should be to improve the personnel of the teaching force. After all is said and done the teacher is the school and stands for more than expensive equipment and fine buildings. Guard well the entrance to the teacher's ranks, and you will accomplish a work of the utmost importance.
Our law making bodies everywhere are opened with prayer. How much more important it is that our public schools should open each morning with a proper recognition of the Supreme Being. The reading of the Bible should not be denied to the teacher who feels its worth and its usefulness in impressing upon pupils the highest standard of moral and upright living.
F. A. Jeter, Grand Master, Idaho.
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Religion Cannot be Taught in the Public Schools.
Man is a gregarious animal. For self preservation gregarious creatures have leaders. With the lower animals these leaders occupy their position by physical force: the leadership with man is on a different plane to that of the unthinking creature governed by instinct; his leadership is, or should be, based upon reason. The activities growing out of reason are so varied and numerous that it becomes necessary in order to bring about the greatest success that not a few but all of society must in as great a measure as possible be qualified to become leaders of at least one of these activities.
For quite a time it was mainly the Church that took charge of preparing or educating people for leadership. That a sufficient number of people were not educated under this system to carry on these activities past and present history confirms. The state then for self preservation instituted public schools. Individuals or organizations are loath to surrender what power they may possess, hence the antagonism of the Church to the public schools. Individuals recognizing their interest in humanity have as of yore aided in the work of educating. Since nations that foster the public schools are the most prosperous and efficient we must conclude such schools are beneficial and should be preserved.
"Knowledge is power." The best safeguard against the improper use of that power is moral force. Some religions do not separate morals from religion. Our national Constitution grants no preference to any religion; therefore we can not teach religion in the public schools. The morals of our country are as good as those of any other country. We therefore conclude the public schools are not destructive of morals.
L. Kirby, Grand Master, Arkansas.
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The Public School is Confronted by Three Ruffians.
It is needless to affirm the statement that all Freemasons must of necessity do everything in their power to support and uphold the public school system. However, just at the present time, our public school system is passing through the most serious condition that it has ever had to face. The present widespread complaint in regard to taxes has brought this subject squarely before every right-thinking citizen.
There are three classes of people who are fighting the public school system; the vicious, the penurious, and the ignorant. In our state, the Lutheran and the Roman Catholic churches have joined hands, after fighting each other for 400 years, and are carrying a case to the Supreme Court of the United States in an endeavor to invalidate our language law. The second class, almost as dangerous as the first, does not want to furnish adequate school buildings and equipment and fight every move to improve the schools. They, together with the third class, who have very little if any education themselves, and do not care whether their children have an equal chance in the world with others or not, continually object to the payment of reasonable salaries to teachers, to proper medical supervision of the children, and to all forms of sanitation. The whole question resolves itself, as I see it, as to whether we are "our brother's keeper" or not. Are we willing that our brother's children shall have the same advantage and opportunity in the world as ours? Who can measure the worth of a child in dollars and cents? It is a time, in my judgment, for every red-blooded American-loving Mason to endeavor to see that the public school system is supported in every manner in his community, keeping distinctly in mind the thought that we ought to be for America first and not America last.
Lewis E. Smith, Grand Master, Nebraska.
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Masonry at Work in Oregon.
My thoughts on the public school question are embodied in the following Official Circular which I issued to the constituent lodges of this Grand Jurisdiction under date of February 1, 1922:
"The promotion and extension of our free public school system is a logical field for Masonic activity. The progress of every initiate in Masonry is one of advancement from darkness to light. Light and knowledge are synonymous terms in Masonry.
"The history of public school education is closely interwoven with the history of Masonic progress, and to these we owe in a great measure the wonderful progress of our country. Brother George Washington, among his many other great achievements, founded one of the first free schools in Virginia; Brother Franklin, the first free school in Philadelphia; and Brother Dewitt Clinton, the free public school system in the great state of New York. All of these were and are revered as leaders in Ancient Craft Masonry.
"To have a strong and united nation every one must assist in the promotion of public education. This means the bringing of all children into the public school where equality and fraternity will give us men and women who will maintain and defend a united nation.
Our Grand Lodge, at its 70th Annual Communication, unanimously proclaimed this principle in the following unmistakable terms:
That we recognize and proclaim our belief in the free and compulsory education of the children of our nation in public primary schools supported by public taxation, upon which all children shall attend and shall be instructed in the English language only without regard to race or creed as the only sure foundation for the perpetuation and preservation of our free institutions, guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, and we pledge the efforts of the membership of this body to promote by all lawful means the organization, extension and development to the highest degree of such schools, and to oppose any and all efforts of any and all who seek to limit, curtail, hinder or destroy the public school system of our land.
"At the 71st Annual Communication the Grand Lodge, by resolution, recommended your Grand Master to use his influence and authority in support of our free and non-sectarian educational system, and unanimously approved the Towner-Sterling Bill (successor to the Smith-Towner Bill) providing for a Department of Education. Our nation today stands alone among the world's great nations as having no separate educational department in its national government.
Believing that I am only expressing the views of every thoughtful Mason, I invite and request each lodge in this Grand Jurisdiction to set apart and devote one special meeting during the month of February as a Public School Night. I suggest that competent speakers be secured to present to the lodges the great importance of this subject, the qualifications of those who may be called to administer our school system, and also the merits of the Towner-Sterling Bill as a national program for public education. This should also include an opportunity for a discussion by the brethren, of all matters affecting our educational system in open lodge. I furthermore recommend that each lodge appoint a committee to investigate and report upon the condition and needs of the schools in its particular district and also to serve as a means of communication between school authorities and the lodges.
"In compliance with the recommendations of the Grand Lodge your attention is called to this most important matter, and you are directed to read this official circular at the first communication following its receipt and to file a report of the action taken with your District Deputy Grand Master.
Frank S. Baillie, Grand Master, Oregon.
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Believes that the V. S. L. Should be Taught in Every School.
The public school system of the different states in the Union is of the gravest importance to the whole country. It is the place where, in large measure, the character, hopes and plans of our children are moulded. If America is to remain a free country the rising generation must be properly taught. When we look about us and realize the inroads that have been made by an insidious foe against the freedom of our country it should arouse every man, woman and child to an earnest purpose to do his or her part to throttle this beast.
I believe in the free and compulsory education of the children of the nation, and that the public schools should be supported by taxation. I believe that the Towner-Sterling Educational Bill should have the hearty support of every right thinking man and woman in this country. I believe that the Holy Bible, that great light in Masonry, should be taught in every public school in the whole nation, especially in the state colleges and universities. I believe that every public school teacher should be required by law to qualify to teach the Bible. I believe that the English language should be the only language taught in our public schools.
If those who seek our shores from foreign parts are not willing to adopt our language then send them back from whence they came or let them go where they can find a more congenial people. We want one language, one people!
I am irrevocably in favor of the separation of church and state.
P.H. Murphy, Grand Master, Mississippi.
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Each State Should Adjust its School System to its Own Resources
That the public school is of supreme importance throughout our country is, I take it, generally conceded. In a republic where government derives its powers from the governed, where policies are determined and laws enacted by the representatives of the people, it is vitally important that the electorate should be educated. But just how far the state should go, how wide in scope the curriculum of the schools should be, must, it appear to me, be left to the people in the several states to determine. A populous state with ample means at its command would naturally be expected to spend more on its school buildings, pay better salaries to its teachers, and provide for a greater number of schools of the higher grades than could a state sparsely populated and with less means. The question then of the "public school" is one to be determined primarily by the ability of the community to pay.
IN our state we have a splendid school system. In the city in which I live the School Board has the taxing power and I believe that both the state and the city are, considering the enormous burdens of taxation we are all bearing, doing all that should be done in the way of giving education to the masses. I do not believe that the time has yet come when the state ought to attempt to give university education to all the boys and girls. A high school education is ample equipment for the intelligent discharge of the duties of citizenship and I think the every‑day happenings of life demonstrate that high school boys make as good a showing in business and in the professions as do university graduates.
Abraham M. Beitler, Grand Master, Pennsylvania.
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Sectarian Schools are a Thing of the Past
To be tolerant is a cardinal principle of Masonry and one of the most blessed virtues of mankind, especially in the matter of being considerate of the opinions of others, but it ceases to be a virtue the moment it fails to hold to principles that will be of the most benefit to the majority.
Viewing the situation as we do, it seems incredible that the public school system, such as we have in the United States and parts of Central Europe, should have an adversary, but the fact remains nevertheless that educational legislation, both state and national, meets with its share of opposition.
While this condition is attributed partly to the matter of economy, we believe this feature is negligible in comparison with other potent factors. The burden of taxation falls on those most able to pay, except in a minority of cases, which is a natural law and could not be otherwise; and while most tax payers believe it to be a special prerogative to complain about the payment of taxes, it is the ignorant or miserly who find fault with judicious expenditure of public funds for educational purposes.
It is gratifying to know that those at the head of corporations employing large numbers of men are rapidly learning that the best results are not obtained by employing the lowly and ignorant from Southern Europe and the Orient, because it is through this class of workmen that the unscrupulous agitator gets his living and creates strife and dissension between the employer and employee and is detrimental to both. This cannot be accomplished among the more enlightened classes of workmen because they do their own thinking. When the thinking is done by the masses, peace and harmony usually prevail and employer and employee are benefited thereby.
The parochial or sectarian schools should be given great credit for the excellent work they have done in the past. They made education possible at times when it could not have otherwise been obscure when there were no others. They pioneered in advance of the public school, but we believe their period of usefulness is at an end, particularly in our country. Humanity has always been benefited with conveniences suitable to the particular period, but conveniences of one period are often found to be detrimental to another.
E.R. Gibson, Grand Master, Utah.
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The American Public School is the Greatest of all Educational Institutions.
In a republic such as ours where the people are under a Constitution that is the source of all power, and where it was intended that through their chosen representatives they should enact and administer all laws governing our civic relations both intellect and information in the masses are essential to our prosperity and to our perpetuity as a national entity.
Equality of intellect is a natural impossibility, but through education all persons above the class of feeble-mindedness may be brought to a point where they can reasonably exercise the rights of citizens.
The American public school system was evolved for the purpose of giving to the youth of our land the opportunity to acquire the foundation at least for a superstructure of information that would enable them to intelligently perform their duties as citizens.
It has been improved by time and experience until it has reached the point where it stands at the head of all the basic educational systems in the world and it is continually being bettered.
No one claims that it is perfect - being a human institution no one expects perfection - but those who rail against it offer nothing in its stead that can compare with it in the results accomplished or in promises for the future.
The American public school system has been charged in some quarters with inflexibility, and with measuring all growing intellects with the same yardstick; but the products of our grammar and high schools have shown an adaptability to conditions, and a versatility of talents, that compare most favorably with those from private and parochial institutions.
It has also been charged with being Godless in that neither the catechism nor the calendar of saints are chanted as an opening exercise for the day; but here again the records of our criminal courts show that the pupils and the graduates of the American public school are less addicted to infractions of the decalogue than are those of some opposition agencies which are loudest in their condemnations.
Among the many charges against the public school system, one is conspicuous by its absence. It has never been accused of inculcating disloyalty to our government, disrespect to the emblem of our nationality, nor a divided allegiance between the land in which we live and any other government, power or potentate.
