When I read the Russian despatch further my dream of world peace vanished.  It said that the vast expense of maintaining the army had made it necessary to retrench, and so the Government had decided that to support the army it would be necessary to withdraw the appropriation from the public schools.  This is a monstrous idea to us.

We believe that out of the public school grows the greatness of a nation.

It is curious to reflect how history repeats itself the world over.  Why, I remember the same thing was done when I was a boy on the Mississippi River.  There was a proposition in a township there to discontinue public schools because they were too expensive.  An old farmer spoke up and said if they stopped the schools they would not save anything, because every time a school was closed a jail had to be built.

It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail.  He’ll never get fat.  I believe it is better to support schools than jails.

The work of your association is better and shows more wisdom than the Czar of Russia and all his people.  This is not much of a compliment, but it’s the best I’ve got in stock.

EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP

On the evening of May 14, 1908, the alumni of the College of the City of New York celebrated the opening of the new college buildings at a banquet in the Waldorf Astoria.  Mr. Clemens followed Mayor McClellan.

I agreed when the Mayor said that there was not a man within hearing who did not agree that citizenship should be placed above everything else, even learning.

Have you ever thought about this?  Is there a college in the whole country where there is a chair of good citizenship?  There is a kind of bad citizenship which is taught in the schools, but no real good citizenship taught.  There are some which teach insane citizenship, bastard citizenship, but that is all.  Patriotism!  Yes; but patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel.  He is the man who talks the loudest.

You can begin that chair of citizenship in the College of the City of New York.  You can place it above mathematics and literature, and that is where it belongs.

We used to trust in God.  I think it was in 1863 that some genius suggested that it be put upon the gold and silver coins which circulated among the rich.  They didn’t put it on the nickels and coppers because they didn’t think the poor folks had any trust in God.

Good citizenship would teach accuracy of thinking and accuracy of statement.  Now, that motto on the coin is an overstatement.  Those Congressmen had no right to commit this whole country to a theological doctrine.  But since they did, Congress ought to state what our creed should be.

There was never a nation in the world that put its whole trust in God.  It is a statement made on insufficient evidence.  Leaving out the gamblers, the burglars, and the plumbers, perhaps we do put our trust in God after a fashion.  But, after all, it is an overstatement.