218 The Hon. Walter Mines Page [June 12, 



incidentally or innocently hurt by it. This is the way, in fact, that 

 righteousness has been maintained in the world from Moses on Sinai 

 to the emphatic voice of the American masses — a thunderous way. 



Another example of the working of this principle will be found 

 in the vast educational work of the Republic. The punishment of 

 trusts and railways was negative ; it was an effort to remove evils 

 that had already grown up ; it took the form of restraining those 

 who were judged to have abridged a fair chance for all alike. But 

 the vast energy that goes to the education of the masses is positive ; 

 for there is little need to make sure of the mobility of society unless 

 those at the bottom are able to rise. In fact, the greatest harm 

 done Ijy all systems of privilege is that they tend to reduce some 

 section of society to a condition in which it loses the ability to rise, and 

 finally the desire to rise. The working out of any vital democracy 

 demands the constant reinforcement of society from the rear. There 

 must not be any neglected or forgotten class. 



Now, American education proceeded, until a recent period, more 

 or less after the old fashion— a routine elementary system of instruc- 

 tion at the public expense theoretically for everybody, and higher 

 education, more or less of the classical type, for the few. But it 

 became increasingly apparent that this system did not really touch 

 or profoundly affect the mass of the people. The millions profited 

 little by the more or less routine common schools, and still less by 

 the old-fashioned higher education ; and a complete change of the 

 aims and methods of popular education has taken place during the 

 last two decades — amid more discussion than, I dare say, any other 

 subject ever underwent in any two decades of human history. The 

 aim now — the movement which may be called the glacial motion of 

 the nation — is in one straight line, and that is towards training 

 every child in the Republic so that nobody and no class shall be 

 forgotten, whatever its needs may be. 



For example, it was observed that into the high schools, which 

 prepare boys and girls for college, only a very small proportion of 

 the children from the lower schools ever found their way. The 

 reason, of course, was that they did not wish, or could not hope to 

 go to college. Many of them, in fact, were obliged to earn their 

 livings before they reached the college age. Well, if the few who 

 could go to college received such training as they needed at the high 

 schools, why should there not be high schools for the very much 

 larger class that would never go to college, and that required a 

 training different from the classical or scientific training that led to 

 the college ? Thus a forgotten class and a large class was discovered. 

 Rather, it discovered and asserted itself. And high schools were 

 equipped to do this service for this large forgotten class. This, in 

 turn, modified the training given in the elementary schools. But it 

 has not disturbed the old machinery for the old-time classical or 

 humanistic training. This also has been improved. 



