Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1875-12-16
IA PU1IIC IDVOATION A FU1IIO INJURY !
aIX ANTY-oCHO0L P1OOID C0M0IDK1ED.

oIX AMTI-sCHOoL P1001s C0MgDK1KD.
Tbs six pretended citations Of fact with
which The Morning. Herald supports It. theory
thas public education IL . public injury, We gave
in FUN In yesterdays CoMMEHoAI, and intelh |
gent people NO doubt bestowed upon them such |
ridieuls ~ they deserve. We could not bs Ok.
pssesd. In this day and generation, to entsr |
upon serious demonstration Of tho importance
Of sdueasion, upon such . challenge, yet W
may perhaps b excused for devotins to the
six asssrtous-for they arc only assertions,
almost wholly destitute Of foundation in his
toFical OF statistical faot-some brief comment.
The hrst promising that Prussia has the
best sducassd population in the world, declares
that country 10 be 81 desposism which menaces
the Peace Of Europe" This 10 exactly what the
ultsamAntAne RomAnists also say, and 1t has
no special truth. Prussia is no more
"dsspoio than other monarchiss Of
Continental Europe !; her people enjoy vastly
Spain and II her power u 20 great that Europe
fears It, that fact 10 solely due to the general In
tslligencs Of her people-the very thing assailsd
BY ths extraordinary critic, We are reviewing.
The wise words Of an Austrian statesman In tho
Parliament Of that Empire, in 1871, while con.
tending against the utramontane and reaction.
ary party, for the maintenance Of public schools,
were that ait is not the needle gun, but the
power OF the intellect, which in our time gives
superiority TO one nation over another"
To the second assertion that "Sweden, sec,
ond in education, il more thoroughly debauched
than any [other] Christian country in the world,
aoI h.u . a.
NAL. There are no statistics that show any such
thing. The dsbauched nations are those Of
the South. Scandinsvia's simplicity Of life ia
proverbial. What everybody knows We need
not proceed to prove. II the Morning Herald
believes it, own assertion, let Ills soc some evi.
dsnce Of it, truth.
That In New England " more horrid and re.
Voting crimes arc committed in proportion te
the population than in any other section Of the
country" must be sustained by something NOR
than the HeralGs say-so, or it will be laughed
At II is, in fact, destitute of truth. The cen
sus reports show that Of CONNECTIONS for Grim,
Delaware has more in proportion than any on,
Of the Now England States, even Massachusetts,
where the criminal classes Of the great city o
Boston swell the lists. This may be seen by an,
one who will consult the reports; we cannot spar
space here for tho figures That the penal code
Of those States are more rigid, and designate
larger list Of crimes than ours will not be denied
and therefore their convictions should be NOR
numerous instead Of less 80. To say, then, tina
the crimes committed there are "more revoltin
and horrid" than those of any other section i
contrary to the census evidence. ~ far ~
goes, and unsupported by proof, must in tn
face Of the worlds knowledge Of New England
steady habits" only receive ridicule. For cir
oumstances Of cruelty and strocity, we remem
Der no murder in the United States which e1
oesded that Of Mrs. Armstrong who was killed b
her husband in this county, in 1866, nor for ez
traordinary .nd devilish ingenuity Of murderou
purpose, do We think the country could presen
An instance out-doing the butchery Of the un
fortunate Cooch Turner, by DR.. West. At Dove
Of which crime, by the way, Turner being blac
man, the " Doctor was not convicted.
The illiteracy Of Southern Delaware is not th
reason why the rate of crime is low. This cor
dition exists in spite Of the illiteracy. It ia
quiet agricultural community, with no shiftin
population. 1t has no Migrants, no Cramps
Yet it has its offenders against the laws, snd "
will call the prosecuting officers Of the State I
provo that they have had fair proportion Of cs
SEES, where white men were the criminals. t
prosecute at the bar OF Sussex county.
As to the fifth and sixth assertions we nee
only to refer to the last one that "pena statsto
show that the ordinary education of Our school
does not check the growth. OF crime" This ia
monstrous inaccuracy. In the New York Pen
itsntiary, 80 per cent. Of the prisoners could nc
read, while Of the adult population Of the State
not in prison, only per cent. could not, show
ing that mere ignorance Of reading was eleve
times more favorable to crime than knowledg
Of that accomplishment. In the Ohio peniten
tiary, 81 per cent. of the prisoners were unedu
catsd-that il could just read or barely scrAtc
their names-while IA per cent more did nc
know their alphabet, showing that 81 per cen
were unsducated persons. All the reports O
penal subjects, all the transactions Of prison r,
form Congresses are full OF the proof, draw
from ample statistics, that ignorance is til
fruitful parent OF crime, and that education
public school education-raises the standard
conduct and is . check upon wrong doing.
But, after all, it seems waste of time to &
back to the proof that our American civilization
pursuing the work OF education with 20,
scarcely equaled in the history of the world.
not all wrong. 1t is rather late-is it not PFC
even ultrAmontane theorists to insist that nte
ligence and crime 80 hand in hand, that tn
most virtuous sections are where illiteracy i
greatest, that the school house is the bane an
not the blessing Of the COMMUNICATE fine tina
public education is public injury 1t is tru
that such is the theory Of senator Bayard an
Of the Morning Herald but it can hardly be posi-
bic that their party will take such ground for tn
campaign Of 1876. Should it do so. the American
people will only need to be told the Issue tina
is pending,t to be ready to decide upon it at once
Such . campaign would indeed be Short shar
and decisive. By the month Of November
would require microscopical investigation to die
cover . grease-spot where the anti-school part
stood.
Mr.. Honderson's stump speech to the Aver
jury, going out Of his way to Assail the Pres
dent, in three distinct illusions, is general
condemned, except by those who are bent upo
misrepresenting and abusing President Gran