Sad Story

Ghosts of rum-tippling, slave-swopping Early Americans arose last week, as Evolution has often done to plague contemporary pedagogy. To the School Board of Franklin. Pa. had been recommended a new textbook for the seventh and eighth grades--Socialized History of the U. S. by Charles Van Nest and Henry Smith. The board read the book, was divided in its opinion. Especially objectionable seemed two passages:

"During the ijth Century the people of Europe did not drink water as a beverage as we do today. When they came as colonists to the New World they continued to drink the same beverage that they had been used to in Europe, that is, whenever they could get it. In many cases, however, they were forced to drink water and were actually surprised that no ill effects came of it.

"Nearly all the colonists drank strong liquor. . . . Here is a sad story: The New England colonists made most of the rum. They took it to Africa and bought Negroes with it, they took the Negroes to the West Indies and exchanged them for molasses to make more rum to buy more negroes to get more molasses to make more rum. There was no end to this cycle."

Though approved by the Franklin superintendent of schools, a principal and two instructors, the selection of the history was postponed. Said Ambrose Sheasley, a school director: "The book gives a distorted opinion of pioneer living conditions. Why go into all that detail about drinking and then have the young mind find justification for conditions as they are today?"

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