But
they have made their high demand of the only institution that can give in
full measure what is sought in a democracy.
First, it teaches the child the way and the means by which the race has
come out of barbarism and something of the rigor of the disciplines by
which civilization has been learned.
Second, it gives this teaching to the whole nation of to-morrow. There are
over ten million children in the public schools of that valley alone in
America, and, as I stated above, less than eight per cent in the private
schools; in the State of Indiana, where Lincoln had his slight schooling,
less than three per cent are in private schools-that is, practically the
entire people of the coming generation will have had some tuition of the
common school, some equality of fitting.
Third, as is to be inferred from the second fact, children of rich and
poor, of banker and mechanic, doctor and tradesman, come together, and in
a perfectly natural companionship, though in the great cities, where there
is less homogeneity, this mingling is somewhat disturbed by social
stratification and the great masses of immigrants.
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