The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-01-23
EDUCATIONAL FIGURES.

The New York City Council OF
Political reform appointed Dexter
II. Hawkins chairman of the Com
mittee on education, and had him
prepare a report upon compulsory
education. in his investigation of
this question he did q good deal Of
figuring, and adduced many facts
which are of interest to the general
reader. We want to lay before our
readers a few of his facts and fig
ures. Mr.. Hawkins is an advocate
of secular education, and earnestly
recommends q compulsory system.
He has examined the various school
systems of Europe as we'll as Amer
lea, and shows by figures, which
will not lie, that illiteracy produces
pauperism and crime everywhere.
And in Roman Catholic States,
where parochial schools prevail, we
find that education, and not the
church, restraints crime. The same
tables show that, "other things being
equal, as education increases, pau
perism decreases" His conclusion
is that, Gas the chief expenses of
government arise from crime and
pauperism," that the extirpation
of ignorance is one of its
first duties He claims that the
government ought to provide the
means of education, and require of
its people the use of those means.
He also argues that wherever
compulsory education has been
tried, it has become a fixed policy.
Refers to Germany, and claims that
the effectiveness of the Germany
army is largely indebted to COM
pulsory education. And claims
that Boston, which has had such a
system for twenty years, has, in the
last ten, reduced trHancy from
school sixty per cent. We have not
been strong advocates of compul-
sorry education; but we will give
you some of Mr.. Hawkins figures
allowing you to form your own con-
illusions. s.:..
In France, cnly one half of the
inhabitants could read and write
in 1869 ; and the illiterate half fur
nished ninety-five per cent. of those
arrested for crime, aud eighty-seVen
per cent. of those convicted. In the
six New England States there are
only seven per cent. of the inhabi-
tants, over ten years of age who can
neither read nor write and this
small number furnishes eighty per
cent. of the crime. He says again
that in "New York and Pennsyl-
yania an ignorant person commits
seven times the number of crimes
that one who can read and write
commits, and in the whole country
the proportion rises TO ten times. !"
These figures speak volumes and
ought to awaken every parent, and
every lover of the country to the
necessity OF educating the masses.
Educate your children and save
them from pauperism and crime.
Educate the children and save the
country from the unrewarded ex-
pense of Furnishing criminals and
supporting paupers. Money and
labor expended in ed eating the
masses is not spent IN vain. Money
spent in Furnishing crime and sup
porting paupers is sQuandered.
He claims that public education
should be secualr, because our cons
ttution forbids "any favor to any
form of religious birth" We be-
lieve we are safe in saying that
every sect in our land, save one,
favor this idea. We believe the
common school to be a pillar of
strength and beauty in our system
of government. Some of the Ro-
man priests oppose our common
schools, and denounce them as
goddess schools" They cry out
for parochial schools, and want a
division of the public money to sup
port their sectarian schools. Mr..
Hawkins examines the parochial
system lie sets our foreigu-born
population down at five and a
half millions mainly from England
and ireland where parochial schools
have prevailed, and gives US the
figures: q uder the pa
rochisl system, l4O0 illiterates, 40
l60, criminals to 10000 in
Public school system, in
twenty-one States, give us $50 illit-
crates, ITO paupers, Is criminals to
the same number of inhabitants
as above. Massachusetts, gives the
following: II, illiterates, 40 pau
pers, and IL criminals.
Such figures are convincing. Tho
public. school system spsaxs for It