LITERARY NOTICES. 



559 



through by the methods of the politi- 

 cian, and half-strangled in the honds of 

 routine. So great has been the dissatis- 

 faction — we might almost say, dismay — 

 at the discovery, that we hear of the 

 formation of a committee of citizens 

 who propose to charge themselves with 

 the duty of watching the action of our 

 educational authorities, and, if possible, 

 bring the working of the state machine 

 into measurable accord with the reason- 

 able demands of the community — de- 

 mands predicated upon a knowledge of 

 the results which well-directed private 

 enterprise is made to yield. So, then, 

 we first of all arm the state with full 

 power for all purposes of public educa- 

 tion, and then, when the business falls — 

 as fall it must — into the hands of the 

 politicians, and these proceed to act ac- 

 cording to their natural instincts, we or- 

 ganize volunteer committees to infuse a 

 little of the breath of life, a little of the 

 vigor of private enterprise, a little of the 

 true spirit of science into the unwieldy 

 organization we have called into ex- 

 istence. We abandon private effort 

 through a conviction that it will not 

 meet the case, will not educate the peo- 

 ple fast enough, and then we resort to 

 it again in order to make the govern- 

 mental machine move. Surely, under 

 the circumstances, we are entitled to ask 

 why private effort and enterprise should 

 ever have been abandoned, why educa- 

 tion should ever have been mixed up 

 with politics at all. If we have so many 

 prominent citizens prepared to act as a 

 kind of Vigilance Committee to keep the 

 politicians, to whose care our education- 

 al interests have been committed, from 

 violating or mismanaging their trust, 

 surely the same citizens might do much 

 toward organizing a system of education 

 for the people, and making it work for 

 the general advantage. We know it is 

 taken for granted to-day that parents 

 will not pay, directly, for the education 

 of their children. In less enlightened 

 days they were prepared to do so, and 

 to make considerable sacrifices for the 



purpose ; but in these days, having tasted 

 the sweets of free schools, they regard 

 education as something which should 

 not entail any visible or appreciable sac- 

 rifices. The assumption, no doubt, is 

 largely based on fact, but can it be 

 claimed that the change is a happy one? 

 If not, if it is an unhappy one, can we 

 too soon set about turning the current 

 of people's feelings in another direction ? 

 We do not propose to discuss the ques- 

 tion at any length at present, but merely 

 wish to point to the fact, which recent 

 events in this city have rendered notori- 

 ous, that all is not for the best in the 

 nominally and reputedly best possible 

 system of education. Here, in New 

 York, the system has, to a large extent, 

 broken down. It is seen not to be a 

 system of education in the true sense, 

 but a system the main elements of which 

 are political, and which, consequently, 

 feels no impulsion toward improvement. 

 The committee of citizens are no doubt 

 armed with good intentions, and we 

 highly applaud their action in coming 

 forward at this juncture ; but we fear 

 their zeal will wane before the steady 

 persistence of the enemy. To hand over 

 education to the state is a step easier to 

 take than to retrace ; and the evils of 

 the political management of education 

 are very much easier to protest against 

 than to cure. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



A History of Political Economy. By J. 

 K. Ingram, LL. D. With preface by 

 Prof. E. J. James, Ph. D. New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp. 15 -f 250. Price, 

 $1.50. 



The author of this book is the writer of 

 the article " Political Economy" in the latest 

 edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," 

 and the book is, for the most part, a repro- 

 duction of that Article. Prof. James, in his 

 preface, characterizes the present treatise as 

 " the first serious attempt by a properly quali- 

 fied English writer to present a view of the 

 progress of economic thought," and adds 

 that it " will compare favorably with any 



