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JAN 14 1899

THE INLAND EDUCATOR.

A JOURNAL FOR THE PROGRESSIVE TEACHER.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY at the rate of $1.00 | viduals the responsibility of each is clearly seen.

per year. VOLUMES begin with August and
February. For rules of publication, see last
page of reading matter. Address all communi-
cations, whether business or editorial, to
The Inland Publishing Company,
Terre Haute, Ind.

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That competition is the life of Cooperation. trade has been long accepted as a sound business proverb. That cooperation is coming each year to play a larger part in our business relations is also true. We believe heartily in healthful competition, but we think that cooperation expresses more nearly that finer spirit which makes our usefulness and our success measured by the good that we can do. In the business world promptness in meeting business obligations is a greater virtue than it is generally thought to be. We realize that such a statement coupled with a request for payment may at first thought appear to be wholly selfish. We confess that we have an interest, of course, but it must be evident upon careful consideration that every time a subscriber meets his obligation promptly he helps us the better to carry out our plans to make the best paper at the lowest price that we possibly can. On the other hand each failure to pay when due has its influence, however slight, in defeating those plans. No single failure hurts much, but when it is remembered that the entire support of a periodical depends upon a multitude of indi

To accommodate subscribers who have not found it convenient to pay in advance our agents have been authorized to grant credit with a limit at January first. How refreshing it would be to have all these dollars come rolling in with overwhelming promptness; but yet, every year there are thousands of our subscribers who defer payment, innocently and honestly, until they receive a statement reminding them of the obligation. To send these takes fully five per cent. of the subscription price. Others wait for a second or third request, calling for an unnecessary outlay of ten or fifteen per cent. We are sure that our good friends have not thought of it in this light, but the calculation involves only cold mathematics, and there are just two logical results, presuming that we have not an exhaustless mine of wealth to draw from:-this item of expense must necessitate either a reduction in quality or an increase in price. This is an absolute law of trade, and in the end can not fail. However, we have too much faith in our friends and patrons to raise the price, and our plans for the coming year include more of the best than ever before. It is yours to help us to make, and every reader to enjoy, a better paper. May we not appeal to you, one and all this year, to encourage this spirit of cooperation by mailing us your subscription before we need to ask for it?

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Teachers and pupils who are interestCurrent ed in the leading events of current Events. history will find many things worth talking of besides the treaty with Spain. Public opinion in France, which a few months ago was so emphatically in favor of the army as to endorse the conviction of the Jew, Dreyfus, has now completely veered around and the government has been obliged to reopen the case and give not only Dreyfus but also Colonel Picquart an impartial trial in a civil court.- -The dissolution of the new republic, United States of Central America, after an existence of only five weeks, is rather discouraging to the friends of consolidated democracy. But when it is remembered that in one of the states, Salvador, there was a strong sentiment against the union the collapse is not surprising. We hope to see the time when all five of the Central American states will join freely in a permanent union. -Interest in the czar's peace proposal is increased by the endorsement it has received from

the German Emperor, and by President McKinley's favorable allusions to it in his recent message. The situation in China is deplorable and alarming. The whole authority is usurped by Tsi An who accounts to no one for her arbitrary will. The fate of the emperor is unknown. The empire seems to be tottering, and the powers of Europe are evidently expecting and awaiting the moment of dissolution.- -France has judiciously retired from the disputed territory in the heart of Africa leaving England free to push her colonization plans, and her railway from the cape to Cairo.General Garcia, the Cuban patriot, the hero of many battles, the leader of several insurrections, died of pneumonia in Washington, December 11. There is wide-spread regret that he did not live to enjoy some of the blessings of Cuba Libre.- One of the important things to come before the present Congress is the question of the Nicaragua Canal. The need of an interoceanic waterway is more deeply felt than ever before, but the representations made by the promoters of the Panama route, that their canal is progressing rapidly, may defer action on the Nicaragua plan for some time to come.

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Considerable interest is felt in New Plan for the work of the committee that County and is preparing a legislative bill to Township. reform the township and county system of schools in Indiana. We do not know that the plan has yet assumed definite form, but it is believed that the following are the important provisions which the bill will contain: A county board of education to be composed of the superintendents of schools of the cities, towns and townships, to meet in May and September with certain specified duties, among which is the election of the county superintendent for a term of four years, the first election to be held in 1901; no text-books to be changed within six years; the circuit court to try superintendents on charges of immorality or of interest in the sale of anything to the schools; to give bond in the sum of $5,000 and to have power to revoke license for cause; the superintendents elected in 1901 to have a thirty-six months license, but those chosen afterwards to have a life or a professional license; superintendents' salaries to be in counties of less than 15,000, $1,000; of 15,000 to 30,000, $1,200; of over 30,000, $1,500; examinations for licenses to be held every alternate month, the questions to be furnished by the state board of education, and a license to permit the holder to teach in all parts of the state; the county superintendent to receive

and record examination manuscripts and forward them to the state superintendent for grading; these grades together with that given by the county superintendent on school-room experience to constitute the general average of the applicant; life license to be the first grade, professional the second grade, high school the third grade, three years the fourth grade, two years the fifth grade, one year the sixth grade; the township board beginning 1900, to consist of two tax payers and a third member whom they must choose within ten days after their election, this third person to be a teacher with at least a three years' license, and after 1900 a high school license, and to be president of the board; this president to name all teachers of the township subject to confirmation by at least one vote besides his own; school to be held at least six months in each year; the standards for all examinations to be fixed by the state board.

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Hints for the New Year.

So much has been said about the futility and the folly of turning new leaves for the new year that resolutions made at this season are proverbially below par, and it has come to pass that we have almost lost faith in formal decisions to begin over again with the new year. This is manifestly unfair, though it is evident enough that new year resolutions are habitually discounted because so many of them are recklessly broken, while the year is yet young. The mistake, of course, lies not in attempting to reform now, but rather in not attempting it before. If we find a weak point in our character, be it January, May or December, let us form it altogether" on the spot. But, if the convenient season has perhaps been put off until the new year then that is the time of all others to commence doing better.

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Moreover, we consider it worth while to express in specific form the new ideas and principles which we take as our own. The person who formulates and honestly adopts a rule of conduct is more likely to live up to it, other things being equal, than one whose standard is vague and general, and perhaps elastic. There are many eminent examples of great persons who early in life resolved that their lives should be controlled by certain fixed principles, and the result was invariably strength of character. If old familiar examples like Washington and Franklin have grown threadbare, study the life of Daniel Manin, that famous patriot of Venice, and that most loyal of Americans

who never saw America, and is hardly known by Americans.

A careful inventory of one's resources and liabilities may be more strongly recommended, and indeed often shows the need for reform at points where we seemed entirely solvent. The most methodical and practical business men find such a review desirable, and teachers may well take the suggestion to canvass the field as regards their work, their usefulness, their capacity, their prospects. What is the movement in education? Am I keeping up with it? Am I growing? Do I fill my place? Am I preparing for the larger opportunity that may come-that does come in due time to those who are ready for it? What are the weak places in my teaching and how can I repair them? Do laid or retard educational progress -or worse still, am I neutral and lukewarm? Is my position in the community essentially helpful or essentially selfish? Am I earning more or less than my present salary? Some such catechism honestly put and honestly answered may help us to see ourselves as others see us. It may help us to estimate our present worth educationally, and to express in something like definite terms our educational hopes, ambitions and creeds.

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Making the Treaty.

Teachers should devote considerable attention at this time to treaty making in general and to the essential features of the new treaty with Spain. Teach pupils first of all that treaties, as formal agreements between nations, are the greatest of all compacts. A treaty may define the terms of certain relations, commercial and otherwise, between the nations forming it, or it may settle points in controversy and dispute. Many of the great treaties of history have fixed boundaries, some have provided for the cession and purchase of territory, others have granted certain privileges, and still others have guaranteed social, religious and civil rights. It is an interesting spectacle to see the distinguished representatives of two nations recently engaged in deadly strife, meeting as the American and Spanish commissioners did in Paris to agree in the most dignified manner to such terms as the victor invariably names.

The brief but decisive war with Spain

was fearfully expensive, almost fatally so for Spain, and the wide-awake teacher will not miss the opportunity to show how much more profitable it would have been for Spain, and perhaps even for us, to settle the question by arbitration.

It is interesting to recall that a few years ago our government offered Spain a hundred million dollars for Cuba. She now gets twenty millions for all her American and Asiatic possessions-and the flower of her fleet. She has retained, however, that peculiar treasure called national honor which so seriously barred the way to an earlier settlement and which leaves her to-day paralyzed and almost bankrupt. When will men and nations learn that the adjustment of differences by the candid judgment of impartial men is altogether more honorable than war?

The making of the present treaty really began with the protocol which provided for a suspension of hostilities and became the. basis for the work of the peace commission at Paris. The treaty provides for the relinquishment of Cuba, the cession of Puerto Rico, the cession of the Philippines upon the payment of twenty million dollars as compensation for public improvements in those islands, the release of prisoners, the surrender of public buildings and property, the renunciation by both nations of their respective claims against each other, a concession to Spanish trade and shipping of the same rights in the Philippines for ten years as the American trade and shipping shall have, the return to Spain of the Spanish soldiers now in the Philippines at the expense of the United States, religious freedom in the Philippines. and equal rights to all churches. The remaining provisions are of minor importance, except that in order to be binding it must be ratified by both governments within six months from the date of signing. This right, under our constitution is vested in the senate. So loud a cry has been raised against imperialism as a possible policy of the United States that it may in some measure influence the action of the senate. However, we believe that the two-thirds vote necessary to ratify the treaty will be cheerfully given and that questions of the status and future government of the various islands, serious as these questions are, may safely be left to the intelligent judgment of the men who must decide them.

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