Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-02-21
From the Boston Globe.l
COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

| As shown by our abstract, yesterday, from
the advance sheets of the important forth
coming annual report Of the commissioner of
education, that document reveals facts of
great significance as to the importance of
compulsory juvenile instruction. 1t appears
that twenty per cent. Of our population are
| illiterate after having reached the age of ten,
when the child has received indelible impress.
sions from his surroundings, and is not likely
| to have either the opportunity or desire for
mental improvement This is certainly fact
of startling Importance in connection with
the growing tendencies of our lower classes
towards decentralization. When crime is
rampant, and property and life are hourly ex-
posed to danger from the brutality and vio-
lence which are synonymous with ignorance,
it behooves US to do what we can 10 remove
its cause. 1t is in vain that we erect prisons
| and reformatory institutions for the violators
Of law, or that we make the murderer expi-
ate his atrocity with his life, unless we also
improve the condition of things which make
such outrages possible and such punishments
| necessary. Crime is hydra-headed, but the
chief source of its vitality is. ignorance. 1t
is in vain to strike its snaky crest without al
| so piercing the monsters heart. Deep in the
| foundations of our social system are the
causes of its prosperity and its weakness.
They rest, and must always rest, on the char
acter of the people; it is impossible to sepa-
rate the condition of a community from the
| condition of the individuals that compose it.
The law of averages which determines the
| relative advantages of different nations is
mainly governed By circumstances of educa-
| ton.
Asia is beginning to recognize this truth,
which the experience Of Europe and Ameri-
ca has illustrated. Japan has. adopted the
system of compulsory education for all chill
dren above six years of age. She is stealing
a march, the march of Improvement, ON our
own country, and in this respect is giving an
impressive lesson to her teacher. If the
consciousness of their own necessities could
be awakened in the children who crowd our
factories, who burrow in the novels of desti-
tute or vicious parents, or who prowl about
our streets, they would appeal to the govern
ment to grant to them those opportunities for
education which would promote their pros
perity and usefulness. England is alive to
the necessity of educating the masses, though
in doubt as to the methods of instruction.
The example Of Germany, which has sent
thinking bayonets into the field, and whose
achievements in scholarship and war, touch
the high water mark of modern progress,
shows what compulsory education can ac-
complish. In the neglect of such provisions
for the welfare of its people, may be read the
lesson of the downfall of France, its submis-
sion in the first place to the sway of despot,
and in the second place to foreign foe. Italy
and Spain have suffered from the same blight,
and if republicanism is ever to become per-
manent institution in Europe or America, it
must be based on popular education.
The most accurate statistics gathered from
the official records of our own and other
countries show that pauperism and crime are
directly connected with ignorance. With few
exceptions, the inmates Of our almshouses
and jails are destitute of even an ordinary
school education, most of them being unable
to read and write. How the duties of pro-
noting the intelligence and culture of its
members can be most effectually performed
by community becomes, therefore, an OBJ
ject of vital interest and paramount impor-
lance. Those who would deny to the State
the power of enforcing education upon chill
dren overlook the purpose for which political
government is constituted. II the body pol