The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-05-28
JaiIs and Schoolhous es.

popular and most generally accepte
} lies that he has ever circulated is tina
contained In the assertion that secula
education Is preventive Of crime
Crime 10 q phenomenon of the mora
order exclusively, and therefore has NJ
direct connection whatever with CREATE
or less knowl ledge of the arts and sciences
Prinsa facie there is no ground at al
for the inference that learning will lesser
crime, yet that proposition lie boldly ad
vanced by theorists under the cunning in
spiration of the arch liar, and is greedily
accepted by the unthinking multitude as {
self-evident truth.
Now, facts prove that, though there Il
no direct connection between secular learn
ing and moral character, yet indirectly
there is a good deal, and that unfOrtu
| nately the influence of the former on the
latter is to vast extent exceedingly dis
astrous. The universal history of the
world shows that always where intellectual
cured, unless where it was under the full
control of religion, immortality and crime
have increased in q ratio at least as great
If not greater.
We have never seen the proofs of this
truth more tersely and yet comprehensive
ly set forth than in an article from the
pen of the distinguished DR.. Dabney oil
Virginia, written on the common school
question, and recently published in the
Richmond Enquirer. In one portion OF
his article the Doctor takes up the thread
bare fallacy which has go long played the
part of cornerstone in the fabric of State
usurpation in education, the pretepse that
sit costs less money to build lighthouses
than jails." The inference intended to be
drawn from which is that education will
diminish crime. The Doctor commences
by quoting from Alison's History of
Europe to show that while forty years ago
two thirds of the Inhabitants of France
could not read nor write, and while in
Prussia at the same time common school
education was compulsory and well-nigh
universal, serious crimes were fourteen
the former State.
Then he goes on to compare France within
itself. Official records of the eighty six
departments show that, without exception,
the amount Of crime reported has been in
exact proportion with the amount of secular
education. Investigations in Paris traced
the larger proportion of abandoned females
to the more intelligent departments. Scot
land gives four and a half to one, of edu-
Gated and illiterate criminals respectively.
In ancient times the people known as Bar
barians were not nearly 30 corrupt and de-
PRAYED as the refined and highly educated
Greeks and Romans.
Then he examines the records of, this
country. Before the war the Northern
States had all warmly embraced the public
school system, while the Southern States
had not. The former had, in 1850, tEirteer
and half millions of population and ovel
twenty thousand criminal convic
tions; the latter with nine aud half millionl
had less than three thousand convictions
That is, the convictions were more than si1
times as great, in proportion to the popula
tion, among the educated Northerners thar
among the uneduca ed Southerners, includ
ing the slave population. As to paupers
the North was supporting ia. 700 and the
South only 90, 500. In the North, magnif
cent public school houses followed imme
diately by palatial prisons at the South, nc
State schools and the prison system nomi
nal.
How is it that corruption and crime
nearly always go hand in hand with civil
iEation 30 caledf Why do we find crime
rare and homely virtues common among
rural and uncultured populations, while
vice and immortality are rampant in the
highly cultured capitals and emporiums o
the same people7 According to the Stat
school theory, Paris, London and New Yorl
ought to be the most highly blessed local.
ties in the matter of pure morals and uni
versal virtue, while the peasantry of France
the rustics of England and the interio
farmers of America ought to be very demon
of vio