| Show Is Is the tha bommon Comm oBi man P ast it xo to ic rybe ule population may backslide to low intelligence level by news analyst and commentator washington when the henry wallace for president movement was launched in california it made a lot of republicans happy just to think about it although they never really believed that a third party was possible when I 1 was in college a friend of mine wrote an essay enticed en tiled why a third party Is impossible in america this was just before teddy roosevelt came out with his bull moosers in 1912 if wallace were to become president of 0 the united states it Is unlikely that the common man whom he champions would have any more to say about abou t running the country than he does now however when wallace says say athis this is the century of 0 the common man he far wrong the revolutions which have the world in the past decade certainly ain y aou would id not have been possible it if they had not had the support of the people this support was not necessarily the result of free choice intellectual in tel do decision cislon or popular vote in fact for or the most part certainly under mussolini frano franco hitter hitler and statin stalin it was the opposite nevertheless they were baukhage not revolutions of the upper classes even in the case of great brit ains very mild revolution which was the result of popular vote and a tree free choice the traditional political and intellectual leaders were swept out of office americans are committed to tho the idea that the majority should rule and the theory always has been that the he people would be wise alse enough to select a person of sufficient lelent intelligence and integrity to represent them at the job of ruling of late however a nu number aber of persons ap approaching pro aching the problem from q quite u ite different angles have expressed concern about the aduca tion and training of the men avail able for the responsibility ot car crying on the business of govern ment I 1 have been assured by old timers here who have been familiar with t the he personnel onnel of congress over a number of years that we perhaps have as high type of men mentally and morally in congress today way as we have ever had in fee fact I 1 am told they are making ex excellent cellen t use of the greatly expanded sources of I 1 information on the issues they have I 1 to consider and are therefore better informed than any congress has ever been nevertheless we hear from educators from economists and statisticians tic ians all sorts of dire warnings one that has recently stirred up the press considerably was by guy irving burch head of the population reference bureau it seems bur burch c h read a survey made in england by sir cyril burt at ai the request of the royal commission on population As a result of his survey sir cyril suggests that in 50 years the number of students of scholarship ability in britain will be approximately halved and the number ot of feeble minded almost doubled this conclusion was based on psychological tests and size of families in britain nation of dullards Dul lards seen in future burch has studied population statistics for the united states from the standpoint of psychological tests educational attainment economic status and type of occupation ile he says we may reach the general conclusion that the lowest third of our people in each one of these lour four categories has families camilie s about twice as large as those of the highest third and he concludes As a voting participant in helping to solve the many intricate problems of our complex a dull and backward individual is almost as helpless as an idiot in fact he be may be more dangerous to democratic institutions because he is easily commanded by demagogues and dictators this gives us quite a different picture of the century of the common man or dr francis brown staff a associate I 1 uncle oon of the american coi council on education and the executive secretary of the presidents commission quarrel with buechs figures but he says this population intel report does not give enough importance to the possibility of improving intelligence by education in other words if we broaden the base of our teaching we can regain a lot of the potential waste material that burch has discovered what the burch report overlooks Is this says dr brown human intelligence never has been developed to its fullest among the great masses of people no way has been found accurately to measure the ul in alte capabilities of the human mind there are others however who while they may agree with browns postulation question the methods now being used to develop these innate abilities A very dim view of the situation is taken by canon bernard iddings bell educator pastor author and consultant on education to the episcopal bishop 0 f chicago HP he thinks henry wallace Is 0 correct o in his description of 0 the current century but he says T it does does not follow because the common man has suddenly been lifted lifto into control that he Is thereby automatically made competent properly to exert control he thinks wallaces definition ought to be expanded he says ours is the century of the perpetually adolescent common man of the common man unskilled in the art of living untaught in the wisdom of the race he Is incompetent either to rule or to be ruled need education for common man the canon snobbish he Is not looking down his canonical nose at anybody As a member of society he takes his share of the blame by saying that society has played the common man a low trick for which those who control education are chiefly chargeable bell quotes the late dr william rainey harpers definition of an educated uca t ed man A man who by the an A F t alk I 1 Y i canon bernard iddings bell it unskilled untaught time he Is 25 has a clear theory formed in the light of human experience per peri lence ence down the ages of w what hat constitutes a satisfying life a significant ant life and who by the age of 30 has a moral philosophy consonant with r racial acial experience bell thinks that what we ve do not do and what we ve ought to do to educate is first to give children a knowledge krow ledge ol of the races wisdom imparting to them what they ought to know rather than teach them what they would like to study second to teach children how to read write listen to and speak the english language third they must be taught decent manners the rights of others fourth they must learn that honest and achl achievement element is the only door to social c approval fifth teachers mus must t inspire reverence for the unseen and impart some objective knowledge of what the various faiths about us are to do and teach I 1 wish that some smart statistician would try to figure out if the kind of education which would give a man a high income likewise makes him fit to run a country as complicated as ours in a world as complicated as ours |
