The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in EuropeWashington, Booker T.
History
The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in Europe
Washington, Booker T.
Poor -- Europe; Working class -- Europe
I have referred to the Socialists and the revolution they propose not
because I wish to oppose their doctrines, which I confess I do not
wholly understand, but because it seemed to me that, as I went through
Europe and studied conditions, I could see the evidences of a great,
silent revolution already in full progress. And this revolution to
which I refer is touching and changing the lives of those who are at
the bottom, particularly those in the remote farming communities, from
which the lowest class of labourers in the city is constantly recruited.
Let me illustrate what I mean: Under the old system in Europe--the
feudal system, or whatever else it may at various times have been
called--civilization began at the top. There were a few people who
were free. They had all the wealth, the power, and the learning in
their hands, or at their command. When anything was done it was because
they wished it or because they commanded it. In order to give them
this freedom and secure to them this power it was necessary that vast
numbers of other people should live in ignorance, without any knowledge
of, or share in, any but the petty life of the estate or the community
to which they belonged. They were not permitted to move from the spot
in which they were born, without the permission of their masters. It
was, in their case, almost a crime to think. It was the same system,
in a very large degree, as that which existed in the Southern States
before the war, with the exception that the serfs in Europe were white,
while the slaves in the Southern States were black.
In Europe to-day the great problem to which statesmen are giving their
thought and attention is not how to hold the masses of the people down
but how to lift them up; to make them more efficient in their labour
and give them a more intelligent share and interest in the life of the
community and state of which they are a part. Everywhere in Europe the
idea is gaining ground and influence that the work of civilization must
begin at the bottom instead of at the top.
The great medium for bringing about these changes is the school. In
every part of Europe which I visited I was impressed with the multitude
of schools of various kinds which are springing up to meet the new
demand. The movement began earlier and has gone farther in Denmark than
it has elsewhere, and the remarkable development of Danish country life
has been the result. What has been accomplished in Denmark, through
the medium of the country high schools, and in Germany, through the
universities and technical training schools, is being industriously
imitated elsewhere.
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