The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-06-03
Crime North and south.
Cincinnati Commercial.

ID a. CDIlCtTI Tie HStlulIlcSS Oh WHICH
is very doubtful, but they occasional.
ly collect figures and tabulate them
which could not otherwise be obtain.
ed except by application to each
state separately. The Bureau has col
lccted the total expenditures for pub
lie schools in all the States and Ter.
ritOries of the Union, and the result
is very suggestive. These figures
will be regarded by many rs in part
accounting for much of our National
difficulty in reconciling North and
south. The amount expended upon
common schools in the Northern
States is out of i'll proportion to the
same expenditure in the Southern
States. Allowing for excess in pop
ulation and wealth in the Northern
States. and still the difference is not
accounted for.
New York heads the list with an
expenditure of $40, 464,0 l0 in support
of public schools, Pennsylvania comes
next with 81 ,747 1857, and Ohio with
III 1875, Illinois expended $6,l90,
1873, and Iowa 1904 All. In short,
five states spent over $37 ,000,0 900 an
nualiy i'm support of public schools
among population of about II .00O,-
900
In the Southern States, North Car
DINA spends 1897 .54l; Georgia, $685..
74S; Alabama, $377,033; Tennessee,
$40, $50, and Virginia, $57O,3s9, or
altogether only one-half rs much as
expended in the single State of Iowa.
These figures are very suggestive
and partially account for the exist.
ence of great sectional question in
politics. If New York spent &c..
000, 900 annually in support of popu-
lar education and Pennsylvania but
threc-fOurths of one million, and
this is continued year after year, the
very fact would indicate a radical
difference in methods between those
two States, and ultimately result in
striking points of dissimilarity in the
population of the two States, Speak.
ing of this matter to your cOrrespon-
ent, Il prominent New England Sen
atOr said that he did not think our
children nor our children's children
will live to see an end of the "sectiOn-
al question" as between North and
South. The habits and methods of
the people of the two sections were
81 different as to mark two civilian
tons. not necessarily antagoniStic
civilizations. but still 80 dissimilar rs
10 he a cause of constant agitation
OF one sort and another.
In this connection he mentioned
Senator Buffers remarkable speech,
in which he attempted to hold up
New England civilization to ridicule
by three or four murders which have
happened in Maine and Massachu-
sets within the past few months.
The Maine murder was peculiarly
atrocious, a man having slain his
mother, cut her up and hid her re-
mains.
OF course there are murders iE
Maine, us everywhere, but in the
single county of Edgefield, South Car
DINA, the home of Senator Butler.
there are, some years, us many muir
ders and manslaughters us in the Ell.
tire state of Maine. In Edgetield
county, in the year 1878. there We're
as many people murdered as during
the same year in the whole State of
Massachusetts, outside of Boston. In
u single street fight in that county
four men were killed, and Senator
Butler was one of the counsel retain.
ed to defend the survivors of the
little atl'ray.
The frequency of deafness of
these afflays. which are peculiar to
Southern civilization, or the want of
it i'm the very county where Senator
Butler lives, have given rise to a
joke which the Senator has no doubt,
himself heard. 1t is said that when
Il man returns to Edgefield county
from Il journey his first question is
this: "Well, who's been killed since
I've been gone :"
The argument of Senator Butler.
based upon atrOciOus instances of
murder in New England, is not
worth "A feather. The first man born
into the world killed the second. and
there have been instances of murder
in almost every community on the
globe. The question is not as to the
peculiar features of brutality attend
ing this crime, but the number of
crimes of this class committed. In
this particular Senator Buffers argu-
mcnt, and that of all the Southern
Senators who attempted to say any.
thing about it, is childish. 1t is as
childish as if man should affirm
that there were more cOlored people
in New Orleans than in Boston, and
this declaration should be "refuted"
and answered" by citing the names
of numerous colored people who live
in Boston. This illustration is about
on par with Buffers argument, as
well us that of every Southern Sem
ator who has spoken on the subject.
The statistics of murder and man.
slaughter in Massachusetts have been
kept with particularly for forty
years or more; and the annual av.
erage of felonious hOmicides is about
twenty-five, of which about one-half
happen in Boston, leaving the rest
of the State with an annual average
of from ten to twelve feloniOus homi.
cides annually, among over million
and u quarter of population.