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Show PRESIDENT ELLIOT. He Says the American School System is Defective. President Elliot of Harvard, who recently shocked the staid spinsters of New England by saying a kind word for the mormons, 6ays the Philadelphia Record editorially, has given another shock to American sensibility by muMnr invidious comparisons between the public schools of the United States and those of Northern Europe. In an address delivered in Hartford, Conn., be said that "we are all wrong in supposing that we have the best school system in the world. There is not a'country in the north of Europe which has not a better system. The immigrants who come to our shores from abroad will be found to have a far better school training in what are denominated the common branches than the average of the rural population pop-ulation of this country. In democratic schools we close the gate to the scholar in all the interesting studies after the age of thirteen." There may be some truth in this so far as our rural schools are concerned, but it cannot can-not be said that the schools of our large cities close the gate to the scholar in all interesting in-teresting studies after tho age of thirteen. On the contrary, the criticism is sometimes made that too much effort is concentrated upon higher education, to the neglect of training in the common branches. Moreover, More-over, the compulsory system of education in force in England, France and Germany would never be accepted by our people. Even higher efficiency would not compensate compen-sate tnem for this infringement upon individual indi-vidual liberty. . |