New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-01-18
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COMPULSORY EDUCATION.
Its Necessity Magnitude Of the SchoO
Interest.

Its Observation-Disclosures Of the school
Interest.
The following report of Mr.. Dexter A.
= Hawkins, chairman of the committee on
education of the New York City Council
of Political Reform. will be read with in
terest by every friend of our common
school system:
In a democratic republic like ours,
where all political power resides in and
springs from the people, where, to use the
language of Abraham Lincoln, "the gov
eminent is of the people. for the people
and by the people" no subject can be
presented to the citizens for their con-
sideration more important than the edu-
cation of the youth.
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION ESSENTIAL TO FREE
GOVERNMENT.
Intelligence in the rulers is essential to
good government; with us the rulers are
the voters, hence the necessity Of fitting
them by education to rule With intelli-
gent voters our form of government is the
best yet devised; but with ignorant voters
it is one of the worst. An intelligent peO-
pie seek freedom, and an ignorant one
despotism, Just as naturally and certainly
as the needle points to the magnetic pole.
The founders of our free institutions
$50 years ago saw this, and scarcely had
they completed the log cabins for their
families when they began the log school
house for the school and schoolmaster.
The schoolhouse has spread, developed,
and improved from Maine to California
equally with the dwelling house. 1t is
the nursery of American citizens.
THREE CARDINAL PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN
LIBERTY.
These three cardinal principles our fore
fathers never lost sight of, viz: A free
State, a free school and free church.
Self-preservation imposes upon our gov
eminent the duty of educating the people
sufficiently to qualify them to exercise in
telligently the right of suffrage. Conscious
of this, every free State established q sys-
TEN of free schools.
So great and benefcent has been their
influence upon the people that the mate
rial prosperity, intellectual and moral de-
velopment, respect for law and obedience
to it in each State may be relatively meas
ured and calculated by the condition of
the free public schools.
WHAT THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IS DOING
FOR EDUCATION.
The national government has already
set aside for educational purposes 140,-
Co., 900 acres of public land; and the
question of devoting to education the
whole proceed of the public lands still I'M
disposed of is discussed. In the last Con-
gress the Committee on Education and |
Labor in the House of Representatives
reported favorably bill for this purpose, |
nd Oft a atnf IA nd
ton it passed that body, and was sent to |
the Senate 1t has established a bureau
of education as a permanent part of the |
government, with commissioner OF
education at its head. His annual report
is one of tie most interesting instructive,
valuable, and important documents that
issues from the government press. Every
legislator and every school officer in the
United States should study its contents
and heed its facts.
MAGNITUDE OF THE SCHOOL INTEREST.
We have in the United States over
14,500,00 children of the school age; we
expend annually for schools over $685.
600, 900, which is equal to third of one
per cent of the value of the property, real
and personal, of the whole country, as
returned by the last census; and we en-
ploy 224, 600 teachers. This is our stand
ing army, and these are our raw recruits.
Their arms are the pen and the slate
pencil; their munitions of war the text
books; their forts and arsenals, the school
houses: and the enemy they are enlisted
to conquer, ignorance and bigotry.
Through the munifcence of the govern.
ment, the finest building that springs up
in every village in our new States and
Territories is the public schoolhouse.
Like the light of heaven and the water of
the earth, it is open and free alike to rich
and poor.
In the State of New York we have
100000 school children, %, 600 school
teachers, $4,000 schoolhouses, and 1,OOO,-
600 volumes of books in the school dis
trict libraries. The school property of
the State is worth S24, 600, 900, and We are
spending $4,000, 600 year to add to it
and improve it. The law in the State of
New York requires us to raise annually
one and one-quarter of mill tax upon
each dollar of valuation of taxable prop
erty, for the support of the free schools.
This amounts to 50, 100000. But so fully
is the value of the schools appreciated
that the people voluntarily tax themselves
annually four times this amount, making
the whole sum spent upon schools in this
State S10,000,000 year.
This is called the Empire State" SO
long as we continue this liberal policy OF
education for the whole people it will re-
main SUCH
The canal interest, the railroad inter- p
est, the manufacturing interest, important !
IS they are to material progress, are yet l
small compared with the education OF our !
!, 500, 600 youths. Il. 80 r-.,.e. II
: The city Of New York had, last year, {