The Portland daily press., 1874-01-23
Compulsory Education.

Compulsory Education.
More important than all other interests
committed to the Legislature is that of fOs-
tering our common school system and de-
.yising measures which will insure the edu-
cation of all the children in the State. Even
in governments which are not ''of the peo
pie, for the people, and by the people 're, cog
nize now the necessity of the education of
their people as an economic measure and as
the only road to national respect. In our
form of government, intelligence among the
masses is demanded on the ground of safety.
With intelligent voters it is the best form of
government ever devised; with the ballot
welded by ignorant men, it is the worst and
most dangerous. The vicious voter who
cannot read his ballot finds his natural ruler
and champion in the Tweeds of New York,
while the simply ignorant citizen in the
hands of designing men makes PROSTATE
states like South Carolina and Louisiana and
lawless ones like Texas and Kentucky. In
deed, so intimately are the influence and re-
suits of our common school system connected
with the material prosperity, moral condi-
ton, respect Of law and obedience to it, that
knowing the status of the one, we can safely
calculate the other. ..5-..... ........
1t is hardly possible that any one can
doubt the statement that crime is the con-
sequence of ignorance; but that the fact may
be brought clearly to the mind of the reader
the following statistics obtained from official
ara <xsv, s., IL.
assertion. In France from 1867 to 1869, one
bali OF the inhabitants could neither read or
write and this half of the ignorant masses
furnished ninety-five per cent of the persons
arrested for crime and eighty-seven per cent
OF those convicted. Iu the six New England
States but seven per cent of the inhabitants
above the age of ten years cannot read nor
write, yet eighty per cent of the erir,nA ia
committed by this very small minority; or,
to put it in other words, one person in New
England without education, commits fifty
three times as many crimes as one with
education; while in the whole United States
the interate person commits ten times the
number of crimes that the educated one
does. ass
1t has generally been believed that the
church rather than the school, prevents the
people from becoming criminals but wherev-
er statistics have been collected, they indicate
that churches have little effect in that direc-
ton simply because chn,ch influence and
teaching reach so small part of the people
and particularly of that class which furnishes
the criminals. In 1870 the government of
Bavaria was led to carefully examine the sub
ject; and in the various provinces it was found
that the number of churches in a thousand
buildings, bear no ratio to the number of GRIM
inals therein, but on the other hand, it was
found that crime decreased almost IN the
same ratio that schools increased. In short,
all statistics demonstrate that the most effect
i've preventive of crime, is the free school.
Universal education leads to universal moral
ity. III,
Statistics also show that pauperism is in
the inverse ratio of education. The carefully
prepared statistics Of Great Britain conclu-
siyely show this fact. In the three large
states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, sta
tistics show that of the illiterate persons, one
in ten is pauper, while of the rest of the
population, but one in three hundred is a
pauper; which is to say that ignorance fur
nishes thirty times as many paupers as the
same persons would if required to get the ed
ucation of our free schools.
Further than this An examination COW
ering prominent labor centers in twenty
states, made several years since, developed the
hof odu t;<v, froo col, ~ l.
afford, adds an average of fifty per cent, to the
producing capacity of the citizen while high
er training increases the same two or three
hundred per cent.
II, therefore, ignorance is the prime source
OF 30 per cent. of our crime and of even a
larger per centage of our pauperism and re-
duces the value of the individual as a produc
er fifty per cent-and statistics, an almost
infallibIe guide in making inquiry, indicate
that this is the fact--the logical conclusion is
that the first and most important duty of the
legislator is to spare no effort, not only to
make instruction free and accessible, but to
take measures to enforce its general diffusion.
We are aware thai majority of the last
Legislature was not convinced that such a
measure as compulsory attendance of chill
dren, some portion the year, at school either
pupic or private, is demanded. It NAV be
that they did not have time to read the ro-
port of Superintendent johnson in which
they would have ascertained tnat with 22e III
scholars returned in 1872 there was an aver
age attendance at the public schools of but
102,43 Possibly those opposed to it Deem
ed such provision impolitic, bu: certainly
such conclusion could not be arrived at bv
any sort of reasoning which recognizes cause
and effect as means of Investigation.
The law compels all men to paw taxes on
their property for the support of schools. II
is compulsory. The tax is imposed with the
idea that security to life and property is en-
hanced, and the public good generally promot-
ed by the maintenance Of public schools. and
with that purpose in view the law enforces
its payment. Now it isa very poor rule that
will not work both ways. Public schools be-
ing deemed essential to the general good and
the citizen being compelled to pay taxes for
their support, he has right to demand that
ne snail receive the fullest returns for his
money; IN short, that every child in the State
snall De made to accept the benefits of public
instruction.
1t is argued that parents should have a
right TO control their children-and we,heor
much fine talk about personal freedom .u oe
which in this case is nonsense. The m.;or;..
have right to demand that every child he az
instructed that he will MT hooo,,o . -,