Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1876-07-22
NOS
Our Public School System.

Our Public School System.
To the Editors efhe Independent
We will now briefly discuss our
last proposition under this head,
namely:
4. IT HAS A TENDENCY TO d.
MINIsH PAUPERIsM AND CRIME.
1t has placed within the reach
of thousands the mean by which
they have been enabled to rise
above poverty and want. AS to
crime, it acts as a preventive, not
so much per Sc, perhaps, as aided
by the moral power which should
accompany it. The true end ofed-
ucation can only be accomplished
by combining: moral with intel
lectual culture. No system of ed
ucstion, private or public, select
or general, is complete unless NOR
al influences, both at home and
in school, are brought to bear upon
the character of the child. Wheth-
err there would be an actual dimin-
ution of crime without this, is a
question. But if not, then where
does the fault lie? Not in the sys-
tenn, but in the family. The fail
ure Of many otherwise talented
and educated men, and, in some
instances, that sad fall and degra-
| dation, is due, not to a defeat in
intellectual training but to a want
of due moral culture. If, as some
times the case, an educated man
will in his depravity, abuse his
knowledge and prostitute his tai
ents to mean and ignoble purposes,
it argues no more against educa-
ton than the meanness of a hypocr-
lite in the church argues against the
truth of christianity and the di-
vine character of the church of
Christ. But while some abuse
their knowledge in this way thou
sands are enabled, by their intel
lectual light to e and shun the
curse of a life of degradation and
crime, and to become a radiating
centre for wholesome influences to
hundred of others.
In proportion as children turn
their backs upon schools, and are
allowed, and sometimes encour-
| aged, to do so by their parents
and others, they become idle, pro-
fligate, wicked and vicious. On
the contrary every intelligent per-
son must bear witness, that just in
proportion as the parents send
ther children regularly and pune
tuaily to school, they become in
dustrious and exemplary land form
a character that will be proof
against pauperism and crime.
OF all the penal offences COM
mitted in this or other countries,
a very large majority of them have
been perp0trated by i~lliterate men.
Two-thirds of the murders COM
mitted have been the work of I'M
educated men. Take the crimes of
forgery, burglary, perjury etc.,
crimes that require a certain
amount of education to commit,
and we find that they are exceed
lngly rare, when compared with
the crimes committed by the ig-
norant, "As education increases,
crime decreases" is the record of
many a prison. Take the city of
New York, for instance, and you
will there fndlthat more than one
half of the convicts in her prisons
are foreigners taken from the very
dregs of society, and coarsely illit-
crate. The Directors of the Ohio
Penitentiary stated some years
ago that cit is a mistake that the
convicts are intelligent and shrewd
men. Nearly the whole now in
prison are below mediocrity in
point of information. OF 276, 175
are grossly ignorant, and the
greater portion of the balance are
below mediocrity, and the tenden-
cy to crime among the ignorant is
fourteen times greater than il
ought to be on the snpposition
that education has no power &c
y .aSf~ofn ~ ~