Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-02-29
THE STATE NAUTICAL SCHOOL.

The public has heard something OF the
nautical" contrivance, lit would not be amiss
to say excrescence,) which the last legislature
was induced to engraft upon the state reform
school, And great deal more will be heard
of it, after time. 1t went through the legis-
lature, with little or no discussion, and with
scarcely any attention from the people. Its
friends seemed afraid of thorough discussion,
and slipped it along through the two branches,
with as little noise as possible. But, the dis
cussion evaded at that time, will come here
after. 1t is an experiment that will fail. 1t
can not reach the results promised by its
friends, while, as an appendage to the reform
school, it is liable to very grave objections.
Those who have alleged that its influence
would be hostile to the interests and character
of sailors, are sustained by the board of pub
lie school commissioners in Maryland. There
is at Baltimore nautical or floating" school,
such as ought to have been established in Bos-
ton by the commercial interest that needs it.
In recent report on this Baltimore institu-
ton, by the school commissioners, is the fol-
lowing criticism on what is proposed here:-
at is the intention of Massachusetts to en-
graft her floating school upon the state reform
for juvenile delinquents penal institution
similar to our house of refuge. The incorpo-
ration of this feature upon the plan of ma
rine school is entirely subversive of the phi
lanthropic purpose OF the founders of our in
stitution, in the removal of degradation from
the pursuit of the sailor, and the elevation of
his profession and himself to a respectable
standing" MARYLAND educates the
boys of her floating school in the principles
of morality. She instls into their minds and
hearts the knowledge and desire to pursue
the paths of virtue; and she sends them
forth with their diplomas of proficiency
and character without blemish upon them.
Massachusetts takes from her prison the Of
tenders against the laws of the state, and
obliges them to work out their penalty in her
Marine School; she then transports them to
mingle with the sons of Maryland in foreign
lands. And who upon the distant shore will
ask whether the sailor has been educated in
the Floating School of Maryland or the Re-
form School of Massachusetts,? The contrast
is clear. Maryland would remove reproach
from the profession of the sailor Massachu-
sets would fasten that reproach upon it for
ever. Maryland, in the accomplishment of
her purpose, associates her effort with the best
system of public instruction pursued in the
state. Massachusetts turns aside from the
common schools and identifies her marine with
prison"
The Boston Daily Advertiser copies this,
and objects that the character of our reform
chool for boys is not fairly represented. But
the institution at Westboro' is a penal institu-
ton, and the proposed nautical branch of it
must be prison ship as well as a school /;
more the former than the latter, in the judg
ment of all concerned. The fact that it must
be penal institution as well as a nursery for
sailors,-a prison ship as well as a school,
causes the principal difficulty in selecting a
location for it, and creates the thought that
Edgartown may be better place for it than
Boston. No unreasonable thing can be done
with impunity, as we shall all see, in the course
of this experiment. If its contrivers and near
est friends, bye and bye petition the legislature
to sever this nautical branch" from the reform
school and transform it into something like the
floating school at Baltimore, they will do nc
more than what we expect,-no more, perhaps
than some of them intended at the outset.