The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-07-13

prosecuted on false premises.
THE DEFECT IS IN OUR THEORY AND
SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.
Children are allowed to grow up in lg-
norance and idleness, and as q conse-
Quence acquire vicious habits and here,
after the child has passed from a state of
innocence and susceptibility to gentle in
fiuenees, to a state of viciousness and
Obduracy, the government begins its
so-called work of reformation by
subjecting all offenders, without dis
elimination as to the age or character of
offense, to the same penalty, and as might
reasonably be expected, the offender IN
ninety cases out of one hundred, instead
of being reformed, becomes confirmed
criminal, skulking through the world
under q burning sense of shame, con-
scious that the brand of disgrace is upon
his forehead, feeling that every mans
hand is against him, and believing that
the only course left to him is total disre-
gard for all social and moral obligations.
Thus, while perhaps ten may be reclaim
ed, ninety may become confirmed GRIM
inals. Whereas, If different policy had
been pursued ; if the child in its tender
years OF innocence and susceptibility had
been trained to proper habits of industry,
and its moral sensibilitIes quickened and
its intellectual faculties developed, nine
ty would have needed no reformation
of human nature. and perchance falling
into vicious habits, could have been re-
claimed il they had been placed under
the rigid though kind discipline of re-
formatory schools. To arrest and convict
and punish criminal costs the govern
ment not less than five hundred dollars, and
in many cases one thousand dollars, while
the education of u child, and thereby se-
curing to society an honored member,
and to the state a law-abiding, honest, in
dustrious citizen, need not cost exceed
ing $120. 1t Is, therefore, maintained as
a measure of economy, as a measure to
preserve the peace and good order of so
cfcty, to promote individual comfort and
happiness, to guarantee stability of gov
eminent, and to multiply franchises and
produce wealth, that it is wiser, it is
more humane and cheaper, to seek to
protect life, liberty and property by
means of education than by means of CO.
ercion. This is no new theory of govern
ment, no recently developed principle in
the science of social and political econ
omY. 1t is as cid as civilization. 1t was
taught by the law-giver of the Jews;
was approvingly discussed by Plato, and
by Lycurgus was formulated into
statute. 1t has received the unqualified
advocacy of the wisest statesmen of mod
ern times.
MIR. JEFFERsoN's OPINION OF PUBLIC ED
UCATIoN.
The greatest philosopher of his or of
any previous or subsequent age, MIR. JEFF
ferson, was an incorporating advocate
of popular system of education as the
strongest guarantee of liberty, civiliza-
ton and material prosperity. He de-
clared: "If nation expects TO be ignOr-
ant and free in state of civilization. it
expects what never will be. Where
the press is free and every man able to
read, all is safe"
Referring to the Virginia code, he said:
81 think, by far, the most important bill
in our whole code is for the diffusion of
knowledge among the people. No other
sure foundation mark his wOrds) can be
devised for the preservation of freedom
and happiness"
Again, he says, in letter to Mr.. Wythe,
''Preach, my dear, sir, crusade against
ignorance; establish and improve the law
for educating the common people. Let
our countrymen know that the people
alone can protect themselves against pO-
litical evils, and that the tax mark well
his words) which will be paid for this
purpose is not more than the thousandth
part of what will be paid to kings, priests
and mobiles, who will rise up among us if
| we leave the people in Ignorance" How
| full of wisdom these words, written under
the shadow OF the palace of kings, in full
| view of magnificent royal parks and the
broa1 possessions of lordly mobiles, deco
rated and maintained by the labor of the
| ignorant, superstitious commonality."
These prophetic words of warning by
| the great apostle of liberty were uttered
| in 17S6, little dreaming that before an
other century rolled around his own
| countrymen, through an ignorant eXer-
| else of the elective franchise, would en-
| courage and sustain that character of leg
II.
| istocracy-princes and mobiles in all re-
| spects save the name. The great mass of
the people, the blacksmith at his anvil,
| the mechanic at his bench, the designer
| at his table, the farmer at his pillow, the
| merchant at his counter, the physician at
the bedside, the lawyer at the bar, the
judge on the bench, the herder on the
plains, the printer at his stand, the editor
| in his sanctum, the seamstress at her ma
| chine, the minister in his pulpit, the en-
gIneer on the locomotive, the brakeman
| at the wheel, the miner under the earth Z,
| the teacher in his school-room, are all
| made to pay tribute to mOnied aristoc-
| racy-the princes and mobiles of America.
Is this right? Did God in his infinite
| mercy and wisdom create this beautiful
world with its mighty oceans, its grand
rivers, Its laughing brooks and smiling
| lakelets, its Towering wales and immense
| mountains, Its fertile valleys and verdant
plains, as possession for the lOrdly few 4,
or as an rich inheritance for the teeming
millions of his self-likened creatures?
They (the tev) pay no taxes, or nOmi-
nally none, and yet they run the govern
ment they labor not, and yet they live
on the fat OF the land. Is it TO be won-
| dered that under such condition of affairs
/ we have strikes; is il to he wondered
that ominous mutterings of discomfort
should come up from millions struggling,
a a..
despotIsm, for Il scant and squalid exist
encel
Jefferson's own loved Virginia needed
not his warning, and to-day, because she
| suffered herself from ignorance, against
which her own noble son forewarned, to
be prostituted and politically disgraced
her proud daughters and noble sons mourn
in. sackcloth and ashes.
NO WAR ON CAPITAL-EQUAL PRIVILEGES
AND CORRESPONDING BURDENS.
We make no war on capital legitimate.
| ly acquired; we are no advocate of de.
testable communism. We hold tn at what
| a man honestly acquires he has the righi
to peacefully enjoy; and it is the duty oil
the government to protect him even al
the point of the bayonet. All we claim il
that the government should be admins
tered upon the basis of equal privileges
and relative burdens that no citizen
whether he be an inhabitant of palace
or tenant In a garnet, n govern
ment bOndholder or the owner of forty
acres and a mule, should be exempt
from contributing his just quota to the
| support OF the common government. In the
name of humanity, in the name of consti-
tutlOnal liberty, in the name of all that Is
right, fair and honest between man and
man, we plead for legitimate encourage.
| ment by honest legislation and faithful
| ~ nj at m all al nf tru
and exclusive protection to none. To
realize the Justice of such a demand, and
| to create popular sentiment that would
proclaim it in thunder tones which would
shake the established order of things In
this government from foundation to tur-
ret stone, it is only necessary for the peo-
pie to be made fully to understand that
taxes In the shape of pensions, bounties
and subsidies, are being laid upon their
energies and their resources without any
corresponding return.
PROTECTIVE TARIFF.
There is protective tax upon every
yard of imported cotton goods of from
five to seven and one-half cents per square
yard, and in addition thereto an ad
| Valorem tax of from ten to thirty-five
per cent. Upon all earthen wares, in
GLIDING states, slate pencils and chalk,
| there is a tax Of from twenty to fifty per
cent; upon window glass, from one to
three cents per pound upon cylinder and
crown glass, two and one-half to forty
cents per square foot cast polished plate
glass, from three to fifty cents per square
foot looking-glass, from tour to sixty
cents per square foot, and q correspond
ing rate upon all other glass wares.
Hemp, jute, and all flax goods come in
for their share of protection, ranging
from five to forty dollars per ton liquors,
from forty cents to two dollars per gall
lon iron from one to three cents ner