Aurora observer., July 07, 1921, Image 2

Three More Names in the Hall o f Fame
CREED FOR
AMERICANS
B E L IE V E in th e U nited State* o f
A m erica as a govern m en t o f the
people, b y the p eople, fo r the p eople;
w hose ju st pow ers are derived from
the con sen t o f the g ov ern ed ; a d e­
m ocracy in a re p u b lic; a sovereign
nation o f m any sov ereign states; a
p e r fe ct union , on e and in separable;
established u pon th ose prin ciples o f
freed&m, equ ality, ju stice and hu­
m anity fo r w hich A m erica n patriots
sacrificed th eir lives and fortu n es.
I th e r e fo re b elieve it is m y du ty
to m y cou n try to lo v e it, to support
its con stitu tion , to o b e y its laws, to
respect its flag and to d e fe n d it
against all enem ies.
At Historic Salem Bridge.
1
A view of the hall of fame at New York University during the unveiling of tablets to William Cullen Bryant,
Joseph Choate and Mark Twain; and photograph of Doctor Brown, chancellor of the university, speaking at the im­
pressive services.
Small Is Cost
of U. S. Schools
Commissioner of Education Gives
Figures of Expenditures
in This Country.
AVERAGE IS $515 FOR PUPIL
Counting Children of Kindergarten
Age There Are More Than Thirty
Million Children of School Age in
the United States.
By P. P. CLAXTON.
(United States Commissioner o f Educa­
tion.)
Considered alone, expenditures for
public education in the United States
may Iseem large. Figures and com­
parisons recently published in many
newspapers show how small they are
when compared with expenditures for
other purposes, public and private.
These expenditures are also small
in comparison with the number of chil­
dren to be educated. We forget how
numerous a people we have come to
be. In thinking of hundreds of mil­
lions of dollars for public schools, we
forget that there are tens of millions
of boys and girls to - be educated.
Keenly conscious of the size of the
dividend, we forget the size of the
divisor. We forget that there are
in the United States more than twen­
ty-seven million boys and girls between
the ages of six and nineteen—that is,
between the ad(e at which children
in most states enter school and the
age of those who graduate from the
high school having gone through the
grades of the elementary school with­
out the loss of more than one year.
If children of kindergarten age are
counted in there are inore than thirty
millions.
The Cost.
Just how much do we pay for the
education of these children?
The first of three tables giving de­
tails show how much was spent on
an average in the public schools' of
each of the ^states for the education
of each child of* the generation of
children entering school in the fall
of 1905 and reaching the normal age
of high school graduation in 1918.
The figures given in eaGji case show
as nearly as can be computed from re­
ports made to the United States bu­
reau of education just how much has
been spent to make all the difference
between total illiteracy and the lack
of all school training of this genera­
tion of boys and girls and that which
they did get in the public elementary
and high schools. May it therefore
fairly be taken as the measure of the
value of such education in the minds
of the people? It should be remem­
at the rate of expenditures in 1918
would be paid for all education—ele­
mentary, secondary, higher, technical
and professional, that is, how much
would be spent on the average for all
the school education s of all the chil­
dren in public elementary schools and
high schools and in colleges, universi­
ties, technical and professional schools
of all kinds. The range would be from
$111 in Mississippi to $1,274 in Mon­
tana, again somewhat too high, and
the average for the United States
would be $440, Illinois, in this third
table, is put down at $431.
Grand Average Is $515.
To this $440 should be added about
$75—probably not quite so much—for
expenditures of private schools of all
kinds, elementary and secondary, pri­
vate commercial schools, and schools
for the deaf, blind, the feeble-minded
and other special classes of children.
The grand total of $515 represents
what at the 1918 rate the people of
the United States would pay on an av­
erage for all the opportunities of edu­
cation, public' and private, higher and
lower; for all the difference which
schooling makes between a generation
of total illiterates lacking in all the
training of the schools, and the condi­
tion we would have as the result of
a continuation of the 1918 rate of ex­
penditure for education and’ training
in the schools.
Since in the figures for the United
States as a whole and those for each
of the states are included the ex­
penditures for many who will go
through college, for many more who
will go through the high school, and
for still more who will get more than
their share of the average in city
schools and country schools having
comparatively long terms, the actual
amount paid for the ‘educatio*i of the
large number of children whose school­
ing is confined to the elementary
grades of the .city schools and of the
short-term country schools must be
pitifully small.
Does It Pay?
As a matter of investment and busi­
ness economy, alone, the thoughtful
man will ask: Does it pay to spend
an average of $515 on the education
of the Children 6f the nation, or would
it be better to save this money, close
all our public schools, and let the
next generation of men and women
depend wholly on their unspoiled and
unimproved native ability? Is it prob­
able that on the average these men and
women will because of the education
which they receive from the schools
and colleges, universities, technical
and professional schools, produce $512
more during their lives than they
would if nothing were spent on their
education?
bered that these figures include not
only the cost of instruction, but also
expenditures for buildings, grounds,
equipment, repairs, fuel and all inci­
dentals, including in many cities and
states books and supplies.
The range is from $63 per Individ­
ual person in Alabama and Mississippi
to $637 in Montana, the Montana rate
being almost exactly ten times that
of Alabama and Mississippi. The Ill­
inois range is $539. The average for
the United States is only $252.
Comparisons.
In a country in which we blithely
acknowledge that all tilings wait on
education—the public health, material
prosperity and wealth, social purity,
civic righteousness, political wisdom,
the strength and safety of state and
nation, and, finally, the thing for which
all these exist—that is, the individual
welfare and happiness of the people
—we have recklessly ( “recklessly” Is
probably the word) spent $252 per
child that the attainment of all these
tilings may be assured. Since, less
than 70 per cent of all the money ex­
pended for public schools goes for in­
struction, only $175 of the $252 was
paid for actual instruction. We fre­
quently have complaints that the in­
struction and training of the boys and
girls who leave the schools is not as
extensive and thorough as it should
be. What should we‘ expect for $175 ?-
¿Tor the generation of boys'and girls
reaching the age os high school gradu­
ation in 1906 the average per capita
was $140. For the elementary and.
secondary education of the million of
men and women in the United States
now between the ages of twenty-one
and. thirty-five the average paid was
$ 200 .
An Average.
The secohd table shows what would
be spent on the average for the edu­
cation of each child of those (some­
thing more than two and a quarter
millions) who reached the school age
of six years in 1918 if the. average ex­
penditures for that year were to be
continued until 1931 when these boys
and girls will have reached the nor­
mal age of graduation from the high
school. In only one state would the
amount be less than $100, and the av­
erage for the United States would be
$359. The figures for Montana ($1274)
are no doubt too large, the number
of children of school age in that state
in 1918 being larger than the number GIVES LIFE TO SAVE HIS SON
calculated on this basis of the esti­
»
mates of the total population made Father Reaches River Bank With
Drowning
Boy,
Then
Sinks
by the bureau of census. The same
From View.
is probably true, but in^ a smaller de­
gree, for California ($540). Illinois’
Philadelphia.—Stanley Shirery of
average in this table is the same as
Westinghouse .Village was drowned
in the first, $539.
The third table shows how much in saving the life of his 12-year-old
son. The man sank In view of sev­
eral persons along the river bank, who
were powerless to aid him. His body
was recovered.
Shirery and his son, with John Bail­
ey of the same village, went fishing.
While leaning over, the son evidently
became dizzy and fell into the stream.
The elder Shirery plunged into the
stream and reached for the boy as he
was disappearing beneath the surface.
With his arm around the neck of
his son, Shirery managed to reach the
bank. Bailey, leaning far over the
stream, took the limp form from the
father. Bailey then reached for Shir­
ery, but his last vestige of strength
had gone. With safety only a few
inches from him he sank from view.
To Bomb Former German Warships
. The Stars and - Stripes is not the
flag of a ruler or an individual. When
General Grant was a candidate for
the Presidency he saw a flag with his
name attached to it and exclaimed,
“ Take down that flag or take my
name from it; the man has never yet
been born whose name is great
enough to put upon the flag of my
country.”
It is the flag of all the people. It
Is the emblem of our unity, safety and
faith. Into whatever parties we may
be divided by varying political convic­
tions, as a single person we take our
stand under the one flag. It is not
the badge of a particular policy, but
of a complex agreement of privileges
and checks.
The flag is the only thing we have
about which to twine our national
sentiment. We have no royal family;
we have no hereditary aristocracy ;
we are pledged to no political party.
Of any country we have the leàst race
pride ; we can scarcely be said to
have any distinctive art or music
As the-grave of the martyred Kosci-
useko is made of a handful of earth
from every battlefield of long-suffer-
There were as merry soldiers in. the
days of the American Révolution as
there are now.
One of the most
laughable figures in the Continental
army was Doctor Skinner, a waggish
surgeon whose huge fur cap and long
beard made him the butt of the sol­
diers everywhere. When asked by a
teasing comrade why he wore such
a lengthy beard, he answered : “It
is a secret, sir, betwixt my God and
myself, that human impertinence shall
never penetrate.”
And this same
doughty surgeon, ¡who was always
ready to pick a quarrel in private,
took excellent care of his precious
person on the battlefield. “ Every man
has his sphere of action,” said he,
“beyond the limits of which he ought
never to emerge. Mine amidst the
tumults of war, the conflicts of battle,
is in the rear. There I am always
Here the First Armed .Resistance to
to be found I I am. firm at my post !”
And nobly he lived up to his prin­ Royal Authority Was Made by the Pa-
triotic Colonists,
’ ■ . X '
ciple !
One night when an alarm sounded,
Colonel Lee rushed forward to learn
the cause and met Doctor Skinner in
full retreat. “What’s the matter, doc­
tor?” called Colonel Lee. “ Whither
so fast? . Not frightened, I hope!”
“No, colonel, no !” replied the doctor
hurriedly.
“ Not absolutely fright­
ened, but, I candidly confess, most
terribly alarmed !”
Among other merry wags in the Con­
tinental army was an Irishman named
Levingstone. He belonged to Marion’s
A study of parallels- serves to es­
&
tablish the fact,- ' seemingly forgotten,
that Rochamheau rendered no minor
aid, but was the immediate instru­
ment of Providence for * the triumph
of the sacred cause of freedom, just
as Pershing and his army were the
final weapons of Foch * to : smite the
oppressor, writes Margaret B. Down­
ing in the : Catholic World. From the
m iliary standpoint, then, there can be
no controversy over, the success with
which the commander-in-chief of the
"Declare Your Principles!"
French allied army executed the be­
brigade. One very dark night he was nevolent intentions! of his king.
separated from his companions andt as Rochamheau, however, too often fig­
he was wandering around, he was sud­ ures in the American mind solely as
denly surrounded by a troop of horse­ a symbol'of the friendship of France,
men, and a pistol was pressed against gained through painful, weary efforts
his breast. “Declare instantly to what of Franklin, Jefferson and other great
party you belong," shouted a harsh fathers of the republic. It is full time
voice, “ or you are a dead man!” Lev­ that he should be known for the
ingstone peered through the darkness, splendid, virile^ ; unusual ' traits of
but could not make out the uniforms character. which his contemporaries
of the troopers. “I think, sir,” said have ever accorded him. He was ever an
he cautiously, “ it would be a little upright, religious man. He is a figure
more in the way of civility if you were to fill the canvas,-nò matter who takes
to. drop a hint, just to let me know
wtdeh side of this question you are
ple&sed to favor.” ,?No jesting!”
roared the trooper.
“Declare your
principles or die!" “Then,” shouted
Levingstone, “I will not die with a
lie in my mouth! American!—to the
extremity, you spalpeen ! So do your
worst !” “You are an honest fellow I”
laughed the horseman.
“ We are
friends, and I rejoice to meet a man
faithful as you are to the cause of
your country!”—New York Evening
Post Magazine.
Betsy Ross House
Where the First United States Flag Is
Thought to Have Been Made.
Honors Minute Men
ing Poland, so our flag is woven of
every thread of our national strug­
gles. Because it alone represents all
the principles which our forefathers
upheld, because it is a constant re­
minder of duties heroically performed
and of errors and defects retrieved
through suffering and sacrifice, be­
cause It testifies to a century and a
half of enlightened progress and
prophesies all the hope and assurance
of our future, it still has power to
direct thought and concentrate emo­
tion, to make the hot blood throb in
the heart of every citizen.
Its white stands for purity, its red
for valor, its blue for justice. To­
gether they form a trinity of social
virtues which it is our inherited priv­
ilege to honor and uphold and promul­
gate over the whole earth. As a na­
tion we are pledged to let no human
power dim the brightness of that
galaxy, but to establish it forever in
the observance of order, in the obe­
dience to law, In the recognition of
human right and in the immortal love­
liness of world-brotherhood. We have
rebaptized it the emblem of democ­
racy’s fairest flower and the flaming
meteor
of
resistless . destruction
against all tyranny.
RAISING BLAZES.
Boys Ordered Home Nights.
Greenfield, Ind.—Seven boys, all
under the age of twelve years, found
guilty in city court the other day
by Mayor Myers of taking pennies
from milk bottles set on porches, were
sentenced to stay at home after'six
o’clock in the evening for 30 days.
Their parents are instructed to en­
force the sentence and not permit any
of the boys to leave their homes be­
tween 6 p. m. and 6 a. m. unless
accompanied by their parents.
Arsenate of Lead Poisoned Eight,
Dexter, Kan.—Eight persons are
fighting against death by slow poison­
ing, caused by eating a cake. The
cake was made with arsenate of lead,
Members of the bombing crew from the U. S. naval air station at Kock- instead of sugar, through a mistake.
“Say, how do people raise blazes?*
away Beach, who will take part in the destruction of the former German bat­ It was eaten at a family reunion pic­
“By shootin’ off skyrockets and re­
tleships Ostfriedland and Frankfort at Hampton Roads, Va., shortly.
nic six miles northeast of Dexter.
man candles.”
Commemorating the Brave Deeds of
the “ Embattled Farmers," This Mon­
ument to Revolutionary Patriots Is a
Shrine Inexpressibly Dear to Every
American Heart.
Robert Morris True Patriot.
On the day that Robert Morris
signed the Declaration he was the
wealthiest and greatest merchant in
Philadelphia. He purchased goods in
England and sold them here at a large
profit. His ships were on the ocean.
He had a hot-house and an ice-house,
the first In America. No price he
might have asked would have gone un­
accepted or unpaid by the British gov­
ernment—James B. Morrow in the De­
troit Free Press.
up the brush to paint, him. Wash­
ington shows him as the honest col­
league and dependable ally from the
moment he set foot on American soil.
In his greeting to the commander of
the Colonial forces; tfiev French gen­
eral wrote: “1 send you a - copy of
my instructions as well, for I f| el that
if we are to co-operate usefully I
must have no secrets from. spy gen­
eral.” In the late days of Fij^ruary,
1784, when Washington, anofller Cin-
cinnatus, was busy with the eares of
husbandry about Mount Vernbn, and
Rochamheau, honored by his king, al­
so for the nonce rested on his: sword,
he wrote that immortal eulogy to his
former associate which may bfirfound
graven on the statue of the «French
hero in Jackson square, Washington,
“We have been contemporaries and
friends in the cause of Liberty and
we have lived together as brothers
should, in harmonious friendship.”
There is one splendid saying handed
down by the loyal ClosenM’-When
France danced madly in tab red
stream, after she had executed her
Bourbon king and his Hapsbw'g con­
sort, Rochambeau, last marihdl of
France under the dynasty, fjafljered
his bewildered army- and offa'ed his
services to the awful tribunal. His
old friends and aristocratic kindred
reproached him for making pe$e$;.with
the enemy, and hinted at unworthy
motives. Then the hero of Yorktown
and of a half-century of wafs, /drew
himself up haughtily , and flingiftg his
sword on high,
he
exclaimed:
“France! whoever rules her, my. best
and my all.”
*
Occupations of the Signers.'
Among th e. signers of the Declara­
tion the physicians were Josiah Bart­
lett of New Hampshire, Lymari Hall
of Georgia, Benjamin Rush of Penn­
sylvania, Matthew Thornton . o f ¿New
Hampshire and Oliver WoJcQjtt of Con­
necticut.
The Connecticut delegation was one
of varied occupations,
embracing
a physician, a sailor, a shoemaker and
a “statesman.”
It also contained a
lawyer. Samuel Huntington.