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发帖数: 766 | 1 Public Education Association
Address at a Meeting of the Berkeley Lyceum, New York, November 23, 1900.
From Mark Twain's Speeches (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1910).
I don't suppose that I am called here as an expert on education, for that
would show a lack of foresight on your part and a deliberate intention to
remind me of my shortcomings.
As I sat here looking around for an idea it struck me that I was called for
two reasons. One was to do good to me, a poor unfortunate traveler on the
world's wide ocean, by giving me a knowledge of the nature and scope of your
society and letting me know that others beside myself have been of some use
in the world. The other reason that I can see is that you have called me to
show by way of contrast what education can accomplish if administered in
the right sort of doses.
Your worthy president said that the school pictures, which have received the
admiration of the world at the Paris Exposition, have been sent to Russia,
and this was a compliment from that Government -- which is very surprising
to me. Why, it is only an hour since I read a cablegram in the newspapers
beginning "Russia Proposes to Retrench." I was not expecting such a
thunderbolt, and I thought what a happy thing it will be for Russians when
the retrenchment will bring home the thirty thousand Russian troops now in
Manchuria, to live in peaceful pursuits. I thought this was what Germany
should do also without delay, and that France and all the other nations in
China should follow suit.
Why should not China be free from the foreigners, who are only making
trouble on her soil? If they would only all go home, what a pleasant place
China would be for the Chinese! We do not allow Chinamen to come here, and I
say in all seriousness that it would be a graceful thing to let China
decide who shall go there.
China never wanted foreigners any more than foreigners wanted Chinamen, and
on this question I am with the Boxers every time. The Boxer is a patriot. He
loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish
him success. The Boxer believes in driving us out of his country. I am a
Boxer too, for I believe in driving him out of our country.
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. |
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