The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-01-28
Compulsory Education.

sembly by Mr.. Bingham of Palmyra, pro
viding for the compulsory attendance of
children in the Public Schools. Such al
measure of legislation, will likely strike
many persons as arbitrary and unreasona-
bic. It will be recollected, that when it
was first proposed to base the support Of
schools by taxation on property, the popu
Lar objection was, that the compelling OF
property holders to pay school taxes, who
had no children to educate, was unreason-
able and unjust In many sections the
directors to such taxation were strongly
in the majority. Happily these objections
to free schools, supported by property
taxation have passed away
The State has undertaken the business,
to educate all the children of proper age !;
it assumes the education of the people, to
be the best security to life and property,
and therefore maintains that is right to
make property pay for the expenses But
of what avail is it, that the State levies on
property the means for support and main
tenance of schools, if the children do not
attend them? How is the State to fulfil
it purpose to educat 9, if the children neg
lect or refuse to go to school? The great
design Of universal education, cannot be
achieved unless mind can be brought
within the reach of the educator. A grow
ing laxity among children in attendance
at school, is every day manifest in many
tolFls and villages besides many parents
and guardians, seem to be less regardful
of their obligations to educate their child
rem than formerly. How then shall educa-
tion be made to reach the masses? IF the
liberal provision for the education of the
people, made by the government be neg
lected, what shall be the remedy? Has
the government no power to protect itself
against the dangers of ignorance.
IF education be an acknowledged neces-
sity in order to the maintenance and per-
petuity of our Republican institutions, it
! fAlovs that the State has right to pro-
ltect itself by making education an impera-
tive duty, especially when it is neglected
from mere choice. If the liberties of the
people are pat in jeopardy, and property
heavily taxed, consequent upon ignorance
has not the government right to inter
fere and make education compulsory !?
The objection that such action would be
an interference with personal rights, is
not we'll taken. The statutes of this state
as we'll as other states, make the protec-
ton of society from threatened evils COM
pulsory. Natural rights are in part sur
rendered for the better security Of the re-
mainder. The parents control over his
children, is interfered with by the laws
of the state. In some of the states, the
law forbids the employment of children
under given age in factories; also child
rem are not allowed to be worked over a
given number of hours. The law takes
cognizance of these who roam about the
streets without visible employment, and
denominates them. Migrants. To guard
against fires, the officer of the law may
enter the dwelling of the householder, and
give directions for the removal of combus-
tibles, or make other necessary orders. So
COO, for the protection of the public health
our sanitary laws Interfere with personal
liberty, and compel the performance of
certain duties, and the observance OF such
rules as the exigencies of the case demand.
The markets are forbidden to sell such
meats and3 vegetables as may be be pre-
!, scribed by sanitary regulations Articles
Of food believed to be prejudiclal to the
general health of the people are prohibit
ed.
All these laws and many others of a
similar character, are based on the rea-
sonable assumption, that society has a
right to protect itself, by interfering with
what are claimed as personal rights Why
then has not the law equally the right, to
protect the State against the certain dis
astrious consequences, of allowing multi,
tudes of boys to grow up in ignorance
boys who are daily being trained in the
school of vice, by frequenting the haunts
of idleness and dissipation. The inmates
of prisons, .jails, pen itentiarics and houses
of correction, are largely made up from
the ranks of those who, never availed
themselves of the blessings Of the common
school, and therefore naturally fall into
the society of the illiterate, the profigate