Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v3.djvu/423

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Labour and Education 405 subsequent years it was proposed to destroy the plates from which they were printed, a private subscription by appreciative friends of education in England saved them. During the third, fourth, and fifth decades of the century another class of periodicals disseminated much material on education and exerted a peculiar influence on the developing ideas of the new democracy. These were the labour publications, particularly The Workingman' s Advocate, The Daily Sentinel, and The Young American. Those enumerated were all issued in New York, but similar publications appeared in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Cincinnati. The labour ele- ment, which during this period came into self-consciousness and achieved organization, took greater interest in education than at any subsequent time, but was peculiarly interested in the establishment of free public education of democratic character. The most succinct and effective of the statements of labour on education is found in a series of sIk articles first issued in 1830 and republished subsequently in a number of publications. The first essay addressed itself to the question "What sort of an education is befitting a republic?" and answered "One that is open and free to all." An education, such as then prevailed, which shut the book of knowledge to one and opened it to another, was undemocratic. The second essay discussed the source of support, and asserted that it should be "from the Government," because education was in reality a form of legis- lation and if wisely cared for might to a great extent supersede the necessity and save the expense of criminal law, jails, and almshouses. The third essay considered the question "What sort of an education should the people have?" and answered "Whatever is good enough for human beings." The current aristocratic education "of adornment" was rejected, "not because Hebrew and velvet painting are good only for the rich and privileged, but only because we think them useless for any one. ' ' The purpose of education is to make men ' ' not frac- tions of human beings, sometimes mere producing machines, sometimes mere consuming drones, but an integral republic, at once the creators and employers of industry, at once master and servant, governor and governed." The specific scheme recom- mended was a combination of industrial and agricultural train-