Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1882-06-21
= BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS.

BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS.
Rev. Lathrop on Public Education.
The Congregational church was crowded
last Sunday evening with attentive listeners
to sermon by Rev. E. r. Lathrop, pastor Of
the NJ. E. church of thia city-the farewell
discourse delivered to the graduating class of
1882, from our public school. 1t was so full of
valuable information and argument in favor
of our public school SYSTEM that we wish
every person could have heard it. We take
pleasure in publishing extracts from the SER
mon, and hope our readers will give it care
full perusal:
We have in our country what we call the COM
mon school system supported by taxation of all
private property in the state. On what ground
can this system be justifed2 There are few
who have an idea Of the magnitude of our
common school system. The last report of
the Superintendent of Public Instruction
gives the number actually enrolled in the
public schools 1sO,24s. This vast army of boys
and girls were actually receiving instruction
in our public schools in the year of grace 1880
BY the report of the Superintendent for 1875.
there was less than Is per cent. of the entire
school population in school. Assuming that
| the ratio of attendance is the same at present,
the number of school population would be
we'll toward two hundred and eighty thousand.
! Again, the value of school houses and
| grounds is $3,l56,2l0 The whole number of
| school houses in the State is 1893. These
| range from elegant brick and stone struct-
| ures-the pride Of the cities-to the humble
| log structure of the frontier settlement.
The amount expended for school purposes in
the State during the year 1880 was 81, 32S, 42S.
Paid for teachers wages $933.2O5. This vast
| sum of money is paid in single year to sup
port this gigantic system of public education.
Out of this sum an army of 5,2l5 teachers is.
paid. Generally we obtain only confused
ideas from statistics. Let us look at these
| figures for a moment. Here is an army of
| l6O,248-call the entire school population for
| convenience, 100000. If they were soldiers
they would constitute $50 regiments of In
fantry, eighty brigades, twenty divisions,
seven corps de arme, employing corps Of
over 5000 teachers. Placed in line three
feet apart they would reach a hundred and
forty miles, or standing in two lines would
extend from here to St. Paul. Our school
property is valued at $3,156,2l requiring an
annual outlay of 81 1928 42S!
| This presents the present status of our
schools. but their number and cost are con-
tinually increasing. In 1876 the enrolment
was 12S902. AS compared with 1880 there is an
increase of 51,346 in five years. The value of
school property was 81, 223S, 200, showing an in
crease of SSl7,510, we'll toward million dol
lars in five years. The number of school
houses 2,75S, showing an increase of 935, near
| ly thousand. The total cost of schools in
1875 was 81, LIZ, al, increase Of S172 $751; Let
us look forward a little. In ten years at the
same rate of increase, we shall have school
population of nearly 100000. Our school
| property will have a valuation of 81, OOO, O0O
Our school houses will number 5000; our
schools will cost 81 sol $40; the cost per scholar
is S7.36. This exhibit shows the condition of
our own State-one of the youngest members
of the Union. Taking our own State as an
average, what an enormous system this is.
We have the number enrolled in the United
States, 6,649, 424; value of school property,
Sis, 935,9S0. In round numbers $120 600, 900.
Cost of schools $50, 4S0 246; probably this
amount might be doubled and still be within
the truth. We see the magnitude of our
system.
Returning to our own native State, we have
a permanent school fund obtained from sales
of land donated to the State by the general
government amounting to 100000.
The United States set apart one eighteenth
of the entire public domain in our state for
| this purpose of education.
| Let us inquire now, upon what ground the
state is justified in this large investment of
permanent funds amounting to $4,000, 600, and
an annual outlay of a million and one third
dollars for this purpose.
The American theory of government is
based upon the equality of all citizens before
the law. From the equality of all citizens be-
fore the law follows the right of all citizens to
equal participation in the government. The
participation of all citizens in the government,
by the use of a free ballot, gives citizens
equal power in the government. Now it is
assumed that the education of all the people
| is necessary to the safety and perpetu ity of
| the state. If this is true, then the right of
the state to maintain a system of education
by taxation of all property, follows
| No free government can be safe in the
| hands of IN ignorant and depraved people.
| The greater the nation is, the greater the
| danger becomes from ignorance and deprav-
! ity. The dangers that menace the state from
| ignorance and depravity ergo, are ever in
creasing with the growth of the nation in ter
ritory and population.
1t is not a question then, whether we had
better adhere to our system of public educa-
| ton or not. We must maintain and adhere to
| this for the highest ends. The right of taxa
! ton is one of the rights of government, since
without taxation. it cannot exist. 1.-THE state
has the right to exact from all it's citizens the
full pecuniary support necessary to the I'D
| m1n1stration Of its government. This right is
| involved in the very existence of state author
lty lnasmuch as it can have no sovereignty if
| 1t cannot claim the means necessary to its
| authoritative action" But, mark. 1.-THE tax
| is never to be for any private end, and is for
hidden by morality except solely az subordi-
| nate to the public freedom, and no agency can
determine what and how much is due but the
state ITSELF" This then, is the complete justi-
fication of the state in taxing all private prop
| erty to support its system of education.
| There were in the United States in 1875,
4,62s.0S4 persons over ten years,of age who
| could neither read nor write. There were
| 5,65S, IA, over ten,who could not write. Could
not write ticket to VOTE There were in this
State "a. Alb over ten who could not write, About
| three per cent. of the population adult of the
United States are illiterate. Now mark, forty
per cent. of prisoners, persons actually con-
victed of crime, are illiterate. This forty per
cent. of prisoners is produced from the three
per cent. of illiterate! If ignorance does not
| tend to increase crime, then but three per
cent. of prisoners should be illiterate. Asa
measure of economy it would be better to
educate the three per cent. of illiterate, than
to care for the large class of criminals. do
not mean to say that education alone would
eliminate this large class. but would reduce