First, soldiers were sent to subdue the people.
Then tax collectors followed with the public executioner, the noose and various ingenious instruments of torture to extract cash payments.
We still send soldiers, but with them we send physicians to cure the wounded; and when the soldiers' work is done we do not send tax collectors or other civil vampires.
We send school teachers, publishers of newspapers, organizers of labor unions. We send those agencies which shall enable the people conquered to make themselves equal or superior to their conquerors.
EDUCATION—THE FIRST DUTY OF GOVERNMENT
We wish to discuss with our readers in this and in later editions of this newspaper the great and serious question of education.
It is a question as broad as the ocean, and as deep. It is a question so vast that organized discussion of it seems hopeless.
The greatest minds of the world have devoted their powers to the intricate question of developing the human brain, and the problem has been scarcely touched.
The greatest works on education in the history of the world are undoubtedly Plato's "Republic," Spencer's "Education" and Rousseau's "Emile." The last is the greatest of all. It should be read by every father and mother and by every earnest citizen.
Other works that may be earnestly recommended are Aristotle's
"Politics," Pestalozzi's "How Gertrude Teaches Her Children" and
Froebel's "Education of Man."