TO WHAT IS DUE THE SUPERIORITY OF THE ANGLOSAXONS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10132, 3 September 1898, Page 3

TO WHAT IS DUE THE SUPERIORITY OF THE ANGLOSAXONS.

-♦ Literary Digest (New York). A prominent French author uses ,this question as the title of a new book in which he frankly admits Anglo-Saxon superiority and seeks to set forth the causes thereof. The author is M. Demolins, editor of "La Science Sociale" ; and a prominent Parisian firm published his book. M. C. de Mann's

instructive review of M. Demolin's work appeared in the "Literary Digest," October 9th, 1897, emphasis being placed on the author's thesis that French Is primarily due to dependence upon the community in contrast to Anglo-Saxon dependence upon individual enterprise. ; The? author makes a mistake, according to M/ de Mann, in ignoring completely the moral forces and, trusting entirely to political and practical measures to bring about the needed reorganisation of French society. i M. views are given additional i prominence ,'by'the indorsement; just received from another prominent ! Frenchman, the late M. Jules Steeg,. who for years was considered one of; the leading educators of rSrance. The indorsement of M. Steeg appears in "Reviie Pedagogique" (Paris, May), where a minute analysis of the j work is given, - i>a. Demolins's book opens with a defence of the title in these words: "It is useless j to deny the superiority of the Anglo-Saxons. We. may be vexed by this superiority, but the fact remains despite our vexation. We cannot go anywhere about the world without meeting Englishmen. Over all our possessions of former times the English or the United States flag now floats. The Anglo-Saxon has supplanted us in North America, 'which we occupied from .Canada to Louisiana; in Mauritius, once called the Isle of France; in:* Egypt. He dominates America, by Canada and the United States; Africa" by Egypt and the Cape; Asia, by India and Burma; Ocea_ica, by Australia and New Zealand; Europe and the entire world by bis commerce, by his industry, and by his pofitics. The Anglo-Saxon "world is to-day at the head of that civiUsation which is most active, „most progressive, most devouring. Let this rice establisk itself anywhere on the globe, and at once there is introduced with prodigious rapidity the latest progress of our Western societies, and often these young societies surpass us. Observe what we Frenchmen have done with New Caledonia and our other possessions in Oceanica, and what the Anglo-Saxons have done in Austraua and New Zealand. Observe what Spain and Portugal have made of South America, and what the Anglo-Saxons have made of North Ameria There is as much difference as between night and day." > Considering the superiority conclusively proved, the author proceeds to search for the cause of this superiority. He finds the secret of this irresistible power of the AngloSaxon world in the education of its youth, in the d»v ''on given to studies, to the spirit which reigns in the school. The English and the people of• the United States have perceived that the needs of the time require that youth should be trained to become practical, energetic men, and not pub*

lie functionaries or pure men of letters, who know life only from what they learn in books. M. Demolins has personally studied with care some prominent English schools. In these he found the school buildings, not, as in France, immense structures with the aspect of a barrack or a prison, but the pupils were distributed among cottages, in which efforts were made to give the place the appearance of a home. Tliey were not surrounded by high walls, but there was an abundance of air and light and space and verdure. In place of the odious refectories of the French colleges, the dining-room was like that of a family, and the professors and director of tha school, with his wife and daughters, sat at table with" the pupils. M. Demolih's study of schools in tihe United States was made from descriptions given by Frenchmen who have travelled or resided here. He finds that education among us is systematically organised in a manner quite -unknown in France. He praises" highly institutions in'which the pupils -earn their living while pursuing their -studies. He relates the history of a student who began his university studies owuig some twenty-throe dollars. During the four years he was at the university he earned enough to live on, paid his debt, and left the institution with a little sum in hand. What is especially praised is that the students who 'thus earn tibeir living are none the less respected by their fellows. In institutions, however, where there are not pupils thus earning, their living, the education received gives a spirit of decision, a habit of self-reliance, so important in a country where, with but few exceptions, a young man is expected to make his own way in the -world, and where he must learn betimes that if he rises he must depend on his own energy and bis own tenacity.