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Show A HIGHER TRAINING NEEDED. H We, last week, expressed the conviction that England had been falling behind in comparison H with some other nations because, through over- H confidence, she had permitted her schools to do- H teriorate, all of them from her primary schools to M her universities, and because at the same time her manufacturers had become careless and her skilled artisans had grown lax in their methods. At the same time her military men had given up their alertness and the study and practice needed H to keep an army efficient in every branch, and so H trained that actual war would bring no surprise. nor find the army that the people trusted unfitted H for its duties. H Lord Roberts in India and Afghanistan had H been through a school which had taught him what H an army must be to win when opposed by swarm- H ing hosts of half-savages; Lord Kitchener had re- B ceived the same education in Egypt, but neither H of them had ever before met a force of squirrel- H hunters with guns that were accurate when fired H a mile distant and using smokeless powder, a H force that was Indifferent to hardships, that H wanted no roof at night but the stars, no food H save a couple of links of dried beef to last them H a week; trained frontiersmen that could follow or I cover a trail like a savage. H Think of pitting the country boys that wero taken from the estates in England against such a H fpe and under officers, many of wliom had bought H their commissions and knew little more about the H scientific and practical handling of an army in H the field than children. But with such material H Kitchener won out at length which was not so clear a proof of his military ability as it was proof H of the latent indomitable stock of the raw forces that were sent him and out of which ho finally B constructed a formidable army. H But this is a partial diversion. The idea wo H started in to give expression to was that in these H modern times when the nations have been brought H close together by electricity and steam, when H fierce competition is the rule, the need is more ur- H gent than ever before for the very highest prac- H tical and scientific equipment of the people. H Our belief is that every state should offer four or five scholarships to every county, for the stu- H dents that were first among the graduates from the high schools; that especial excellence in work H in every field should be recognized and rewarded until a determination to excel would become a H national trait. It has become a habit with a class H of millionaires to endow great universities. This is good, but it would be better for them to create B a fund, the interest of which should go to the B higher education of the most worthy students in B lower schools; not necessarily to the foremost H scholars, but to those who promised to becomo B the most superior men and women. Daniel Web-B Web-B ster graduated so low down in his class that it B was only by a scratch that he obtained his college B diploma, but the old teacher who taught him in B the first rude school house, said he had the best B brain in New Hampshire and that time would B prove the truth of his words. B Then preliminary schools should .try to direct B the further education of its students. Murat was B sent to school to prepare him for the priesthood. B In a month the principal turned him out, declar-B declar-B ing that he would never be fit for anything but a B soldier. B Those who saw him a few years later with B plumed helmet, blue coat, the breast of which was B covored with decorations, white trousers and yel-B yel-B low boots, lead the "Old Guard" against an en-B en-B emy's center, realized that the old priest who had B declai-ed that he was fit for nothing but a soldier, B made no mistake in the belief that he might be a B soldier, whether fit for anything else or not. B Suppose Ericsson had been trained to the law B or for the pulpit. Where would the steam fire en-B en-B gine, the screw propellor or a hundred other in-B in-B ventions have been, or who would have had the B Monitor ready for an extreme trial in that crisis B at Hampton Roads? x The point is that all the youth of America should be thoroughly schooled and, also, those possessed of marvelous gifts in any direction should be educated on lines to bring out all of usefulness or grace or beauty in their respective fields. The Government is engaged In pointing out ways through which better returns may be obtained ob-tained from the soil; through which possibly new grasses or textiles may bo grown; it is experiment ing to see if more destructive guns cannot bo made; it is building abutments to make stronger its "world power" in the Philippines, on the Isthmus Isth-mus of Darien, up in Alaska, and all this is good, but if it would establish a great art school in Washington and so equip it that students would be coming to it from Europe instead of our students stu-dents going abroad for a finishing of their educations, educa-tions, it would result in more lofty good than the boring of a hole through the Isthmus ever can. That is, the youth of America need a more general, gen-eral, more thorough and a more exalted training than they are now receiving. |