ii 4 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



superintendent of schools is better than the other, ac- 

 cording to one's view of political things. It is one of 

 the left-overs of an antiquated attitude toward the 

 management of public affairs by the people. What the 

 people now demand is educational efficiency and not po- 

 litical attachment. They want educational leaders who 

 are not faddists but real experts, who are given both 

 authority and money to carry out wise plans, unham- 

 pered by fear of political interferences. It is probable 

 that our city school systems suffer more than do our 

 rural schools from politics. But the evil is a national 

 one in both city and country and ought to be abolished. 

 Furthermore, the time has come for federal appro- 

 priations for aid to rural education. Some of our edu- 

 cational leaders are strongly opposed to such a policy. 

 They believe that it looks toward undue centralization 

 and autocracy. There is a widespread tradition that 

 education is purely a local matter. But if this was ever 

 true, it is so no longer. In the New Day it is to be seri- 

 ously, desperately a national matter. Is it anything 

 short of a national scandal that when our great army 

 was mobilized, we found so large a percentage of illit- 

 erates? Long since have we discovered that Asiatic 

 cholera is not a concern of San Francisco alone, nor yel- 

 low fever of New Orleans alone, nor Spanish influenza 

 of Boston alone, but that any plague spot, no matter 

 how small, is a menace to the entire country. We must 

 cease to think that the failure of any community, large 

 or small, properly to educate its children is a local ques- 

 tion. So long as boys and girls have the right to go 

 from one community to another, just so long their edu- 

 cation is a national affair. We need a national educa- 

 tional policy with respect to the education of the rural 

 people. We need a strong, well supported national 



