TEACHERS LIAR

U. S. CONSTITUTION.-II. . ·

THE FOUNDERS OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.

BY R. K. BUEHRLE, PH. D.

"The wisdom and patriotism of America." AVING shown in the May number of

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The Journal what led to the desire for a stronger government, it remains now to say a few words about the men who were chosen to accomplish so great a work—the personnel of the convention. To afford as much information as possible in the briefest space, their names are given by States, and with the name are given one or more facts of special interest. The names printed in italics belong to those of foreign birth; an "A" indicates service in the army, "C," in Congress, "D," a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and "Coll." a graduate of a college. The age is also given, as far as any definite knowledge of it was attainable by the writer.

Pennsylvania.-Benjamin Franklin, 81, D.; Thos. Mifflin, 43, A. C.; Robert Morris, 54, D. C.; George Clymer, 48, D. C.; Thos. Fitzsimmons, 46, C.; Jared Ingersoll, 38, Coll.; James Wilson, 45, Coll. D. C.; Governeur Morris, 35.

Virginia.-George Washington, 55, A.; Jas. Madison, 36, Coll. C.; George Wythe, 61, D. C.; Edmund Randolph, 34; George Mason, 61; John Blair, 55; Jas. McClurg, 40, Coll.

Delaware.-George Read, 54, D. C.; Gunning Bedford, Jr., 40; John Dickinson, 55, C.; Richard Basset; Jacob Broom, 35.

South Carolina.-J. Rutledge, 48, C.; C. C. Pinckney, 41, Coll. A. Č.; Charles Pinckney, 27, C.; Pierce Butler, 43, C.

New Hampshire.-John Langdon, 48; Nicholas Gilman, 25, C.

Massachusetts.-C. Strong, 42, Coll.; Elbridge Gerry, 43, Coll. D.; Rufus King, 33, Coll. A.; Nich. Gorham, 49, C.

New Jersey.-W. Livingston, 64, C.; W. Patterson, 65; Jonathan Dayton, 27, Coll. A.; David Brearly, 41; W. C. Houston.

North Carolina.-Hugh Williamson, 50, Coll. A.; W. R. Davie, 33, Coll. A.; Wm. Blount, 43, C.; R. D. Spaight, A. C.; Alex. Martin, 47, Coll. A.

Georgia.-Abraham Baldwin, 33, Coll. C.; Wm. Few, C.; Wm. Pierce, A. C.; Wm. Houstoun.

New York.-Robert Yates, 50; John Lansing, 33, C.; Alex. Hamilton, 30, A.

Connecticut.-W. S. Johnson, 60, Coll. C.; Roger Sherman, 66, D. C.; Oliver Ellsworth, 42, Coll. C. Maryland.-Luth. Martin, 43, Coll.; J. F. Mercer, 29, Coll. C.; Dan. Carroll, 32; Daniel Jenifer of St. Thomas, 64; Jas. McHenry, 34, A. C.

Both in number of delegates and their collective statesmanship, Pennsylvania stands pre-eminent, and hence well deserves to be called the Keystone State. She placed at the head of her list the president of her Commonwealth, Benjamin Franklin, the

Nestor of the Convention, whose diligent attendance at the advanced age of 81, shows the intense interest he felt in this, his greatest political work. She also contributed Robert Morris, the financier who safely brought the ship of state through the perilous storms of the Revolution; James Wilson, an eminent Scotch jurist and, as the sequel showed, one of the very ablest statesmen; and Thomas Mifflin, the only major-general in the Convention, who lies buried within the shadow of Trinity Lutheran church, Lancaster, and to whose honored memory the Legislature of Pennsylvania has just passed an act for the erection of a stone to mark his grave.

Virginia, the Old Dominion, scarcely yields to her northwestern neighbor in the number and ability of her contingent. Eminent above all in lofty patriotism and strong common sense, stands George Washington, accompanied by James Madison and Edmund Randolph, the latter her accomplished governor. Of the remaining members of her delegation, George Wythe and George Mason deserve particular mention—the former as a life-long courageous champion of liberty, and the latter as an ardent ABOLITIONIST. As a specimen of his eloquence on this subject, and to give an idea of the man, we need but quote the following: "Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. "This infernal traffic originated in the avarice of British merchants."

Little Delaware sent a delegation the peer of that of any State except the two just mentioned. Besides George Read, the only Southern statesman who signed the three great state papers on which our history is based-the original Petition of the Congress of 1774 to King George III., the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution -she sent John Dickinson, who as a member of that Congress, wrote the Declaration to the Armies, the two Petitions to the King, and the Address to the States, and Richard Basset, her governor, the great-grandfather of the present Secretary of State, Thos. F. Bayard.

Of the remaining Southern States, the delegation of South Carolina furnished John Rutledge, in Washington's opinion the greatest orator in the Continental Congress, and C. C. Pinckney, whose spirited reply to Talleyrand in 1796, "Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute, " became a famous motto, and covered its author with a halo of glory.

New Jersey sent her governor, W. Livingston, in that office from 1776 to 1790, conducting the ship of state, especially through

one of Pennsylvania; five, six or seven had been connected with William and Mary's; Scotland sent one of her sons, a jurist, who had been taught at three of her universities, and Glasgow had assisted to train another; one had been a student in Christ Church, Oxford, and he and three others had been students of law in the Temple. To many in the assembly the work of the great French magistrate on the "Spirit of Law," of which Washington with his own hand had copied an abstract by Madison, was the favorite manual. Some of them had made an analysis of all federal governments in ancient and modern times, and a few were well versed in the best English, Swiss and Dutch writers on government. Altogether they formed, says Bancroft, "the goodliest fellowship of" lawgivers "whereof this world holds record."

"ENGLISH AS SHE IS TAUGHT."

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MARK TWAIN'S LATEST TRIUMPH.

ARK TWAIN is eminently a humorist who enjoys his own jokes, and surely the crowning enjoyment of his life was when he looked through the newspapers the day after his "English as She is Taught," appeared in the Century. From the grave editor of "Topics of the Time," in the Century itself, down to the conductor of the smallest country newspaper, every soul fell into the trap, and felt bound to point a moral against our long-suffering school system. As a matter of fact, these extraordinary productions were the vindication, had they only been true, of that system; for there is hardly a line in them that does not contain a witticism good enough for Mark Twain at his best; and who would not be willing that his children should make a few blunders for the sake of securing a collection of such wits in the family? We have talked long enough of the slowness of our English cousins to take a joke; but here is a whole nation apparently as credulous. It will not be strange if after this we see the Archæological Society seriously organizing an expedition to refit and restore that tomb of Adam over which Mark Twain, in Innocents Abroad, shed such honest tears.

That such transparent bits of fun as "The first conscientious Congress met in Philadelphia," a joke which first appeared in the newspapers more than a year ago; or "The Constitution of the United States was established to insure domestic hostility;" or

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"Congress is divided into civilized, halfcivilized, and savage;" or "Shakespeare translated the Scriptures, and was called St. James because he did it;" or SnowBound' was written by Peter Cooper; "Lord James Gordon Bennett instituted the Gordon riots;" or "Ireland is called the Emigrant Isle because she is so beautiful and green; or "The two most famous volcanoes of Europe are Sodom and Gomorrah ;' or "A demagogue is a vessel holding beer and other liquids; or "A plagiarist is a writer of plays; or "There are a good many donkeys in the theological gardens "—that these should be seriously taken for childish blunders show how easily people get away from the mental habits of their own childhood. This is not naïve and unintentional wit, but is overt, deliberate, experienced; not the delicious childish blundering, but something concocted with malice aforethought; not the product of immaturity, but of maturity. It is extremely amusing, and may have here and there imbedded in it something actually said by a child; but while Mark Twain's readers are enjoying it, we may be very sure that he meanwhile is enjoying them. Probably he is collecting from the newspapers the more serious moral discourses called out by his witticism; as Richard Adams Locke, in the last generation, might have collected the serious discussions of his celebrated "Moon Hoax." Mr. Clemens has the greater advantage of a scrap-book of his own devising in which to put these cuttings; and twenty years hence, when everybody is saying that everybody saw through the joke at once, he will reprint his scrap-book and make up another funny essay.

The only serious aspect of the matter is in that curious distrust of our public schools on the part of editors and clergymen which is so in contrast with the experience of those who work in those schools. Our schools, such as they are, are the product of the American people; they were not created by any arbitrary ruler or any council of doctrinaires; they are the gradual evolution of a popular demand. If their result was only to create wits or fools, we should have found it out long ago; for their success or failure is actively discussed in every town meeting or district meeting throughout the land. They are not mainly supported by endowments, but every dollar that they cost has to run the gauntlet of a public discussion in some form, held among a race as thoroughly practical and as little sentimental as can easily be found. The popu

lar education given to its children by such a race, and paid for out of its own pocket, may have its defects; but those defects will not lie in the want of common senserather in the excess of it. Put the most supercilious reformer upon a school committee, and he soon finds that our whole school system is, after all, wonderfully well adjusted to an intelligent public demand. Such a school system will often leave the private schools to originate important improvements, because private schools are more elastic, deal with smaller numbers, and run less risk in case of failure. Just so the rich amateur farmer renders a great ser. vice very often by trying some agricultural experiment which those who make a living off their farms cannot afford to try.

But, after all, the real agricultural work of the land, on a large scale, is done by those who have to farm in earnest, and so the real education of the American people is being given in the public schools. Children learn there, on the whole, the qualities that are most important-obedience, order, punctuality, method, the habit of doing a certain thing at a certain time, of applying their minds promptly and definitely without waiting for moods. In all these things the public schools far excel the private, as a rule, so that pupils going from the private schools have commonly to learn such habits over again. For children without especial genius-which means the great mass of children-these habits are essential; and for children who happen to have genius they are, at least up to a certain point, inestimable. Genius often brings with it the habit of neglecting rule and method, and suffers life-long if that practice prevail. To sneer at rule and method is easy and tempting, just as it was easy in the army to sneer at red tape. There were occasions, no doubt, where is was needful to disregard red tape utterly; but any soldier might pray to be delivered from a commander who disregarded it all the time. So it is eminently desirable that our public schools should continue to stand mainly, as they do now, for system and order. When we consider the length and repetition of a school coursethat a child during a city grammar school course, for instance, as lately estimated by a teacher, recites about a thousand lessons in arithmetic, reads about seven hundred times, and spells more than six hundred times-it is easy to say that it is a mere mechanical routine. But when we count up how many times we dress and undress ourselves during a similar period, or how many times we sit

down at table, we see that the basis of life itself is a routine. There is really no way of getting rid of such wearisome repetitions, unless we imitate that French nobleman in the story who killed himself because he grew so weary of being shaved.-Harper's Bazar.

INCREASE THE SALARIES.

A MILLION AND A HALF FOR THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

NE of the most important acts of the

ter Local News, has been to increase the State appropriation for public schools from $1,000,000 per annum, at which figure it has remained ever since the adoption of the new Constitution in 1874, to $1,500,000. Our readers generally know that the public schools are supported mainly by local taxation, that is, by the school tax which is laid in each township or borough by the School Directors, and is spent upon the schools of that district. But the amount thus raised is increased by the district's share of the State's appropriation to the schools, and it is this which has just been so substantially increased. The State appropriation is dívided among all the school districts in the State in proportion to the number of taxable inhabitants of each. Last year Chester county's share of the State appropriation was $19,308.03; next year it will be increased by about $9,700. What should the School Boards do with this money? We answer: Add it all to the teachers' salaries.

The school tax in Chester county is already low, the average tax throughout the county is but three and one-sixth mills on the dollar, and outside of the boroughs it averages scarcely more than two and onehalf mills. This is about one-third of the average school tax paid in the State, and in but five other counties is the tax so low. Only one township pays as much as four mills (not quite half the average of the State), and but few others as much as three. Moreover, if the increase in the State appropriation were used wholly to reduce local taxation, it would lower the tax rate over the county not quite two-tenths of a mill, and outside of the boroughs the reduction would be still less. Is there a single township in the county that desires such a pitifully small reduction in the tax rate?

Our school-houses are nearly all reported by the Superintendent to be first-class; but six in the county are now said to be unfit

for use. It would seem that no great expenditure is needed in this direction at present. Neither should there be any considerable increase in the incidental expenses of the schools, such as heating and caring for the school houses, collecting school tax, etc.

But there is need of increase in the salaries of our teachers. Last year the average teacher's salary in Chester county outside of the boroughs (and these would raise this. average but slightly) was only $35.23 per month, and the average school term was but seven and one-third months. On our eastern border is Delaware county, which pays $42.88 per month for more than nine and one-half months, over thirty per cent. more than we pay our teachers. To the north is Montgomery county, where a hundred township schools are now paying from four hundred to five hundred dollars salary. And even Lancaster county on our west pays her teachers higher monthly salaries, although her average school term is somewhat shorter. The result is that every year more of our best teachers leave Chester county simply because they are better paid somewhere else. If the extra State appropriation is added to the teachers' salaries it will increase them all by something over three dollars per month. This is certainly not an extravagant sum, yet an increase that will be very grateful to every teacher, and it would be a wonderful help in securing and keeping better teachers everywhere in the county. And there should not be a school in the county open less than eight months in the year, yet last year seventy-eight of our schools had a shorter school term than this, and three whole townships had school but six months. It might be wisest for these townships to use their increased appropriation to lengthen their school term, and this would be almost as welcome an increase of salary to the teachers as any other.

It cannot be too often repeated that the teacher makes the school. Good houses, improved furniture, apparatus, maps, libraries, etc., are all important, but none of them, nor all of them, compare in importance with the teacher. President Garfield said that he would rather have Mark Hopkins on one end of a pine log with himself on the other end, than all the splendid equipment of Williams College without his great teacher. The teacher is the vital part of the school system; if he is a success nothing can prevent the school from being a success; but if he is a failure nothing else can make the school a success.

Then let every School Board in Chester

county scrupulously spend its increased ap propriation upon its teachers. It will not be felt by a single tax-payer, and in no other direction will it go nearly as far or do a tithe of the good that it will do here. The whole of it will make but a meager increase in the salaries, but we may hope that it will speedily stimulate a further advance from the taxpayers.

The above suggestion having been submitted to a number of the leading representative men of the State and county, we append the endorsements of the Department of Public Instruction, of the faculty of the West Chester State Normal School, Senator Harlan, Representatives Hickman and McConnell, Supts. Harvey, Walton and Woodruff, and others; and we trust soon to learn of the effort's meeting with the same reception at the hands of the Directors throughout the districts composing Chester county:

HARRISBURG, June 15, 1887.

Editor West Chester Daily News-Dear Sir: I have read the above timely article with great pleasure, and most heartily endorse it. In very many of our counties the increased State appropriation may prove an injury if not applied directly to educational work in increasing teachers' salaries, and in lengthening the school term where this is now too short. The increase of State appropriation should not decrease the energy and liberality of our school directors, but increase it in every form, that the State as a whole may be freely repaid for its more liberal encouragement. E. E. HIGBee.

HARRISBURG, June 17, 1887. Dear Sir: Your communication came while I was away. Dr. Higbee, the State Superintendent, has already written you. It is hardly necessary to add that I endorse your proposition most heartily. The one thing needed now more than anything else in our school work is better pay for good teachers.

HENRY HOUCK.

HARRISBURG, June 19, 1887. Dear Sir: The article to which my attention has been called in your communication of the 14th inst., is timely and appropriate. If the policy so clearly outlined and suggested by this article could be adopted as far as practicable throughout the State, a marked improvement would be the result in all the public schools of the Commonwealth.

Good school buildings in every district, liberal salaries for our teachers, and longer terms for the children, are demanded by the progressive spirit of the times. Very respectfully, JNO. Q. STEWART.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,

WEST CHESTER, June 14, 1887. Dear Sir: We most heartily endorse the above editorial, and hope that every district