104 



illustration than in the United States. If any people ever used 

 this " power of education," or united its destinies to the develop- 

 ment of its schools, or made public instruction the supreme 

 guarantee of its liberties, the condition of its prosperity, the 

 safeguard of its institutions, that is most assuredly the people of 

 the United States. This role assigned to the school in social 

 life has long been the most characteristic feature which foreign- 

 ers have observed in American customs. This solicitude for 

 the education of youth grows with the growth of the country, 

 enters more and more into public opinion, and is incorporated 

 in more decisive acts. What in the beginning might seem a 

 burst of enthusiasm has gradually assumed the force of a pro- 

 found conviction. No longer the work of philanthropists, or 

 of religious societies, it has become a public service for which 

 states, cities and towns include in their ordinary taxes sums 

 which no country in the world, had hitherto thought of conse- 

 crating to education. So far from restricting itself to ele- 

 mentary education, this generosity extends so as to provide 

 free institutions of superior secondary instruction. Public 

 opinion approves, nay, enacts these sacrifices, so clear has it 

 become to all eyes that the future of the American people will 

 be what its schools make it. 



Many causes conspire to give the American school this 

 unique importance. At first it was the influence of the Pro- 

 testant element. The early settlers of New England knew of 

 no grander duty, or more precious privilege than reading the 

 Bible. Holding ignorance to be barbarism, the}^ early enacted 

 that each town shall have a school and that each family shall 

 instruct its children. Tn proportion as their government be- 

 came democratic, that which at first was only a religious duty 

 became also a political necessity. Where everything depends 

 on the will of the people, that will must be enlightened, at the 

 risk of utter ruin. Education, useful elsewhere, is here 

 essential. Universal suffrage means universal education or 

 demagogy. 



This country is peopled by the constant immigration of men 

 of every race, class, and religion, who have little in common 

 but the desire to better their condition. The mixed and ignor- 

 ant crowds who form the bulk of this immigration tend to 



