Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/612

594 of their ideas; how cheerfully they will devote life, strength, and enjoyment to the work of convincing others of the existence of some fact, or the truth of some view. But, if such forces are to be placed at the service of society, it must be on the condition that society should not throw artificial and almost insuperable obstacles in the way of those reformers who search for better methods. If, for example, a man holding new views about education can at once address himself to those in sympathy with him, can at once collect funds and proceed to try his experiment, he sees his goal in front of him, and labors in the expectation of obtaining some practical result to his labor. But if some great official system blocks the way; if he has to overcome the stolid resistance of a department; to persuade a political party, which has no sympathy with views holding out no promise of political advantage; to satisfy inspectors, whose eyes are trained to see perfection of only one kind, and who may summarily condemn his school as "inefficient," and therefore disallowed by law; if in the mean time he is obliged by rates and taxes to support a system to which he is opposed—it becomes unlikely that his energy and confidence in his own views will be sufficient to inspire a successful resistance to such obstacles. It may be said that a great official department, if quickened by an active public opinion, will be ready to take up the ideas urged on it from outside. But there are reasons why this should not be so. When a state department becomes charged with some great undertaking, there accumulates so much technical knowledge round its proceedings that, without much labor and favorable opportunities, it becomes exceedingly difficult to criticise successfully its action. It is a serious study in itself to follow the minutes and the history of a great department, either like the local board or the education department. And, if a discussion should arise, the same reason makes it difficult for the public to form a judgment in the matter. A great office which is attacked envelops itself, like a cuttle-fish, in a cloud of technical statements which successfully confuses the public, until its attention is drawn off in some other direction. It is for this reason, I think, that state departments escape so easily from all control, and that such astounding cases of recklessness and mismanagement come periodically to light, making a crash which startles everybody for the moment. The history of our state departments is like that of some Continental governments, unintelligent endurance through long periods on the part of the people, tempered by spasmodic outbursts of indignation and ineffectual reorganization of the institutions themselves. It must also be remembered that the manner in which new ideas produce the most favorable results is not by a system under which many persons are engaged in suggesting and inventing, and one person only in the work of practical application. Clearly the most progressive method is that whoever perceives new facts should possess free opportunities to apply and experiment upon them.