The Greek conception of democracy, while a lofty one in its time, was narrow and limited as compared with that of to-day. Aristotle could not conceive of a democracy which did not contain both a ruling class and slaves. Succeeding efforts at democracy have centered chiefly about the idea of freedom from the rule of a tyrant. This negative aspect of democracy has persisted even to very recent times. The founders of our own republic started practically where Plato and Aristotle were; for while they caught occasional glimpses of a larger significance to the meaning of self-government, yet they, too, were tolerant of the idea of an enslaved class.

Even the experience of more than a century, including the fiery baptism of a bloody Civil War, has not freed all our people from a too ready aquiescence in the existence of a close counterpart to slavery. It is hard for even a majority of the people to grasp the significance and the cost of maintaining a free, self-governing state. So long as democracy meant a struggle against oppression in which the people were united against the ruling class it was easy to arouse enthusiasm and equip armies for war.

These later days, however, find us contemplating a different conception of a free government. With no tyrant to overthrow, with the reign of peace throughout our borders, we are beginning to realize that the test of democracy is to come in times of peace rather than war. As problems of industrial and social development unfold, as the proneness of men to be self-seeking to the extent of obliterating any thought of mutual well-being and the perpetuity of our cherished ideals of government becomes apparent, we are compelled to throw aside all negative ideas of a democratic state, and to consider seriously the essentials of a positive existence as such.

To us government is no longer a thing to be opposed, evaded or defrauded. We are the government. Whoever defrauds this government defrauds us, every mother's son of us. Whoever evades the law of our government is refusing to deal fairly with those in whose partnership he is, and with whose weal or woe his own weal or woe is inseparably wrapped up. Whoever opposes this government of ours is opposing

the welfare of every living man or woman, himself included. Government is no longer a something distinct and aloof; we are it.

A free, sovereign people must be essentially an intelligent people. We speak sometimes of educated leaders. In these days, however, we are coming more and more to realize the need of educated followers as well. Our leaders somehow need the moral influence of the presence about them of intelligent, thinking masses in order to make it possible for them to attain to the highest results as leaders.

Ever since the first attempt to organize armed resistance to attack, or to lead an organized body of men to conquest or retaliation, the need of training has been recognized. To this day every nation, whether civilized, barbarian or savage, makes provision for training in the art of war. But as peoples have risen, step by step, to higher conceptions of their existence under some order of government, there has come a broadening conception of the individual's participation in this government. Parallel to this change in thought as to the rights and prerogatives of the individual has come an enlarged sense of the need of a generally disseminated intelligence. As yet our notions of what degree of intelligence is demanded are very incomplete; but each decade adds much to our accumulation of wisdom through experience.

Aristotle was able to state pretty clearly the notion that a democracy calls for general intelligence. He puts it thus: "And since the state, as a whole, has but one aim, it is evident that the political education of all the citizens ought to be the same, and that this is a matter for the state to attend to, and not to be left to individual caprice."

Even earlier, among the Jews, although under a different type of government, the desirability of intelligence among all the people was recognized. Here the burden of educating the young was laid almost entirely upon the home.

Out of the religious movement known as the reformation in Europe came a growth toward a religious democracy which gave impetus to the development of modern free institutions; and along with this impetus the call for the education of the

masses.

From Luther in Germany and Milton in England come the setting forth of plans for a system of public education remarkable for their broad and liberal provisions. Out of these and later reform movements, we get the development of the schools founded by the Dutch in New York, the Pilgrims in New England, and the Quakers in Pennsylvania.

In the case of the latter, William Penn stands for a clear enunciation of the more modern conception of an intelligent state when he says, "That which makes a good constitution must keep it, namely, men of wisdom and virtue; qualities that because they descend not with worldly inheritance must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth, for which spare no cost, for by such parsimony all that is saved is lost."

In such expressions as this we find the explanation of the remarkable virility in education which has characterized the Quakers. Theirs has been a very important influence upon the spirit of our institutions. Not only in Pennsylvania, but also southward in the highlands of Western Virginia and the Carolinas, westward in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas has this influence been felt. Almost always a thrifty people, no class of citizens have taxed themselves more liberally for the support of public education than have those communities settled largely by the Quakers.

Perhaps no utterance of our forefathers better sums up the ideals of the Pilgrims of Massachusetts in regard to public edution than the words of John Adams in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780: "Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education to the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of the Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences and all seminaries of them, especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, by rewards

and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a national history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in all their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections and generous sentiments among the people." No broader or more comprehensive scheme was ever enunciated than this brief summary of what Adams understood to be the kind of education which a a free state should foster.

It is, indeed, remarkable that widely separated people, moved by the same common desire for religious freedom, should have hit upon the same conception of a most fundamental need of a free state. For we find that the Dutch, also, in New York, brought with them to America the selfsame ideal as that expressed by the Pilgrims in New England and the Quakers in Pennsylvania.

A fair statement of this ideal as expressed by the Dutch, is found in the following words from Brodhead's History of the State of New York: "Neither the perils of war, nor the busy pursuit of gain, nor the excitement of political strife, ever caused the Dutch to neglect the duty of educating their offspring to enjoy that freedom for which their fathers had fought. Schools were everywhere provided, at the public expense, with good schoolmasters, to instruct the children of all classes in the usual branches of education."

With the free dissemination of such utterances in regard to the necessity for general intelligence among the colonies, it is not surprising to find, as national independence is realized, that all the great leaders stand for the proposition that a free people must be an intelligent people.

"Promote, as an object of primary importance," says Washington," institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

Jefferson on the one hand, and Hamilton on the other, became the promulgators of schemes of education which have played a very important part in the development of our present types of

state school systems. The ideals of Hamilton have found expression very largely in the school systems of New York with its strong centralized control. Jefferson has left the stamp of his conception of public education upon the north central states, beginning with Michigan. Indeed, we may very justly say that all through the speeches and writings of the founders of our Republic, as well as of the earlier interpreters of our laws, we find great emphasis placed upon the need of such general intelligence as only a liberal policy in regard to public education could ever maintain.

When education is provided freely by the state at public expense, it is justifiable only on the ground of the necessity of the state. It has already been suggested that some citizens might see a difference between giving individuals a chance in the world and providing for the perpetuity as well as present safety of the state. Once grant that education is essential to the existence of the state and it appears evident that the state may rightfully levy tax on all persons for the support of schools. The principle of eminent domain applies as well here as in other cases. No one would question the right of the state to protect its citizens and their homes against invasion and the destructiveness of war.

The maintenance of courts for the administration of justice, all alike concede as not only a right, but a duty.

Now, given a state whose foundation is conceded to rest on the intelligence of the people, as in the case of a democracy, and it evidently becomes both a duty and a right of the state to see to it that the means to such intelligence are supplied. Unless this were true, it would be an injustice to tax all for the education of some of the citizens.

Since education is essential to the perpetuity of the state, it follows that the state is bound to support such a system of education as will most certainly insure such perpetuity. That state would justly be considered unstable and false to the trust imposed upon it, which, when the need was imperative for naval protection should maintain only land forces; or which, for any reason, should neglect to provide needed protection to its citzens up to the very limit of its capacity.