The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 45, November 24, 1894 Page: 3
24 p. : ill. ; 32 cm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THE TEXAS M!NER.
THE HOME AND THE FLAG.
STUDIES IN SOCIAL ECONOMICS—BY J. ELLEN FOSTER.
XVIII.
*"T*HE Fourth of July orator who leaps with one bound from
i the Mayflower to the Declaration of Independence, and rest-
ing there a moment, spans with equal ease the years from 1776
to 1788, should remember that these last two epochs in Western
civilization were each preceded by an era of industrial prepara-
tion.
The spirit of liberty which animated the Pilgrims of the May-
flower and the Puritans of Boston was a spirit only; it did not
take on a form—it was not housed in an independent body until
1776, when the representatives of the colonies together declared:
''These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde-
pendent states." Then they assumed the powers of sovereignty
and exercised its supremest function—that of war on its ene-
mies.
When the tie between the colonies and Great Britain was sev-
ered by armed hostilities, at that moment the Union was estab-
lished and the American state was founded.
The articles of confederation were the result of the first crude
attempt to give form to the government of the new *State.
When this government was acknowledged by Europe as the
voice of the American State, when its organic life began to move,
it was found to be insufficiently comprehensive and unified to
meet the industrial and financial needs of the people. As has
often been shown, the Constitution was the answer to these finan-
cial and industrial needs quite as much as it was a fulfillment of
the people's political aspirations.
This historic fact cannot be too often stated, not only because
the protective tariff is thus strengthened by historic perspective,
but because the relation of practical legislation to the spirit of
patriotism is also shown.
Well might the colonies call their laws the "Body of Liberties."
Their posterity might never have known the spirit of liberty which
animated the life of the people but for its body in the law.
The world might never have known the excellence of a written
Constitution but for the industrial necessity which crowded our
fathers to frame and adopt one on these Western shores.
None dispute the benefits which this Constitution has made
possible to our own people. Its annunciations of great princi-
ples, its clear provisions and definite limitations, have given a
certitude in political thought, a dignity and compactness in politi-
cal action to the whole people not possible under unwritten Con-
stitutions.
Let it not be forgotten, however, that this Constitution has
been and is a wide and far-reaching object lesson to the world.
It first taught that the people were possessed of the divine right
which only kings had claimed; that the people could frame their
organic law; that the people could not only receive and defend
chartered rights, but could assume and hold the powers of sov-
ereignty; that a Constitution thus set up was as careful to defend
the authority of the people's government as ever monarchy had
been of its hereditary powers. It demonstrated by its compro-
mises that the tendency of responsible power is toward conserva-
tism in action.
Another great good to the world from the Constitution of the
United States is that it has served as a model of government for
the slowly but surely advancing spirit of self government which
now pervades all civilized peoples and is fast compelling mon-
archies, more or less autocratic, to give constitutional guarantees
of increasing political rights to the people.
Not only do wage-earners everywhere receive higher rates of
wages because the protective tariff has dignified labor in America,
but this rising scale of wages is being protected by industrial sys-
tems patterned after our own. Meanwhile these systems will soon
be secured by the popular will expressed through agencies sug-
gested or even copied from the American Constitution.
When, therefore, Alexander Hamilton and others of the same
mind contended for, and at last obtained, for Congress the power
to establish the tariff for the ' encouragement and protection of
manufactures" they were not only following the hackneyed truism
—"necessity is the mother of invention"—but they were demon-
strating that the race is one; that the solidarity of human interests
more and more appears as the race develops; that industrial truth
and political truth are hemispheres of the world of economic
truth; that which helps one part of the race must help all the race,
and that natural law in social economics dominates the spirit of
progress.
Well may the great Bismarck declare that America's protective
policy is the cause of her industrial greatness; well may England's
uncrowned king—William Evart Gladstone—assert that the Con-
stitution of the United States is the greatest document ever
penned by man. Well may the American people, fortified by
history, sustained by the Constitution and taught by experience,
repudiate any attempt to break down or to materially modify the
protective tariff.
EDUCATiONAL AND REHGIOUS.
BY J. A. WEST.
A juvenile literary society was organized in the school last
week. All the pupils of the third, fourth and fifth grades are
members. The society will hold its meetings from 3 to 4 p. m.
each Friday. Their teacher will preside for the first month.
The other officers are: Nellie Gordon, vice-president; Arra
Eads. secretary; Jane Murray, treasurer; John Jordan, marshal.
The Northwest Texas Methodist conference began its annual
session in Hillsboro Thursday. Bishop Hargrove i-s presiding.
Next week we can announce who is to be the Methodist pastor
for Thurber.
Mr. W. E. Wayte, state secretary of the Y. M. C. A., is ex-
pected in camp next week.
Misses Lula, Maud and Elva Shied, and their brother, Nicks,
returned to school Monday, after six weeks' absence.
Miss Lillie Lewis re-entered school Tuesday.
As a rule all children should study some at night. If their
eyes are in anything like a healthy condition an hour's study by
lamp light will not hurt them in the least.
The scholastic age under our present system is from 8 to 17.
It should be lowered one year. The average child should be in
school at seven years.
The speech of Miss Estelle Davis in the Literary society last
Tuesday night was decidedly superior to any that has yet been
delivered before that body. It was characterized by taste, learn-
ing and eloquence.
The Methodist Sabbath-school is growing rapidly. It is held
in the school house, because the Union church is occupied dur-
ing the morning hours, and rather than change the hour of meet-
ing to the afternoon, an unusual hour for Sunday-school, the
Methodists changed the place o :meeting. Besides, they will
soon have a resident pastor, and will want to hold services every
Sabbath, and as only one Sunday in the month belongs to them
at the Union church they decided for the present to hold both
Sabbath-school and regular services at the school house.
Texas has the largest available school fund of any state in the
Union. Yet. notwithstanding this, Texas teachers must wait
from six to fifteen months for their pay after earning it. Doubt-
less the hard times have had something to do with bringing
about this state of affairs, but wise legislation and good manage-
ment would have saved us from such a condition, even in the
hard times. Whatever hinders the public schools to that extent
lowers the average grade of intelligence of the next generation,
So, the intelligence of our future voters depends upon the public
schools of to-dav. Public education is something that we cannot
afford to have influenced by every drought and temporary fluctu-
ation in the money market. The framers of our state constitu-
tion saw this, and our constitution declares that "it shall be the
duty of the Legislature of the state to establish and make suita-
ble provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient sys-
tem of public free schools " Any one who would call our pres-
ent system "efficient" is either ignorant of prevailing conditions
or greatly lacking in a knowledge of what constitutes efficiency.
The apportionment for this year is only $2.50 per pupil—and
that a year behind time. If the Democrats can remedy this, let
them proceed to do so at once. If they cannot, let them ac-
knowledge their inability, step down and out, and make room for
somebody who can. The Democrats have now had complete
and uninterrupted control of the state for about a quarter of a
century. If they are not responsible for the present condition of
things generally, who are?
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
McAdams, Walter B. The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 45, November 24, 1894, newspaper, November 24, 1894; Thurber, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth200492/m1/3/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.