208 Charles Abner Howard The attitude indicated by these attacks on public high schools would be expected to meet with ardent opposition from those who occupied positions of prominence in the public education of the state. There is no evidence, how- ever, that this was the case. On the contrary, one of the principal speakers at the meeting of the State Teachers Association held at Portland in 1896 consumed a consider- able portion of his time in an argument against public education beyond the "common school." 15 Not only was the speech delivered, but it was printed in the biennial report of the state superintendent the following year. Apparently the state superintendent was not particularly aroused by the following statements quoted from the ad- dress or he would not have printed it in his report : "Private property is justly taxed for public school purposes, not to make drones in society, educated dudes or smart rascals, but in the vital interests of the state and nation, to make intelligent, upright and useful American citizens. To do more than this I believe to be superfluous, unwarranted and unjust to the taxpayers, not in the in- terests of good morals or the nation's welfare, and in a vast majority of cases, injurious to the individual recip- ient. ******* Nothing should be done to extend the curriculum of the public schools beyond that of giving the student a well rounded common school edu- cation adapted to the requirements of the latter part of the nineteenth century." 16 This attitude on the part of influential citizens had G. H. Atkinson, Wm. Kapus, C. A. Dolph, A. Waldman, Wm. H. Wad- hams, Chas. E. Sitton, and Rosa F. Burrell. The committee made a careful investigation and came forth with an extended report which not only exonerated the schools from the charges, but went so far as to set forth vigorous arguments for the high school as an integral part of the public school system. The report of the committee is printed in full in the State Superintendent's Report. 15 "Common school" as used by the laity, means the grades below those ordinarily included in high school. It is this meaning that is intended wherever the term is used in this paper. 16 Dr. George H. Chance — The Preparation in Our Schools for Good Citizenship. Twelfth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public In- struction of Oregon. 1897. pp. 160-162. Dr. Chance was a Portland dentist.
