The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-10-30

ness mus ltS way into the INK as
well as into the hall where the church
festival is held. Let the preachers do
their duty and attack real evil, not
innocent and healthy amusements
upon which evil indirectly reflects,
because evil prevades society ,and even
finds its way within the sacred walls
of the tabernacles.
TEACH DIGNITY OF LABOR.
Fer long time people have been |
hugging the fatal delusion that educa-
ton, as that term is commonly under
stood, is an au-suff1cient antidote for
crime of every grade and character.
Statistics of crime compiled among
the most civilized nations of the earth
do not warrant the far too prevalent
belief that education is an absolute
safeguard against crime. Beyond
question, it is an indispensably impor-
tant factor; but, single-handed and
alone, it cannot do all that its adYo-
Gates claim for it. The idea that most
of our educators seem to have of edu-
cation is unfortunately too Utopian to
suit the demands of this practical
world; and too rigid adherence to
this conception of it is one of the main
reasons, if not the main reason, why
universal popular education has so
lamentably failed in its chief mission
to arrest crime and inaugurate among
men an era of peace and good viii, and
a profound regard for the laws of God
and man. Sir William Hamilton says
that education has for its object the
highest attainable development of the
powers of the human mind, and that
it has no sort of connection with the
attempt to prepare one for the duties
of life. This character of educa-
ton may be eminently fitted for
a limited number of persons, to-Wit:
Those that have the mental capacity,
the inclination and the means to de-
vote themselves to the utmost deVel-
opment of their mental powers. A
large per cent of children have to stop
the educational process, as far as
schools are concerned, at the very
threshold of this development, and
devote themselves to the solution of a
problem of different character, viz:
that of making living. Leaving out
of consideration, for the present, the
moral and physical aspect of educa-
ton, every child, male and female,
especially the former, while he is
! learning the rudimental features of
7 the common school education, should
have systematic instruction in some
kind of mechanical manipulation that
will directly or indirectly lead to some
pursuit on which he may trustingly
rely Tor a living. Our educational
methods of to-day are too vigorously
mental, without having pro-
per admixture of the industrial ele-
ment in it. 1t is the absence of this
element that causes much of the
crime with which the country is
cursed. The educational methods
may do very we'll for
the kid-gloved aristocracy, but they
are hardly suited to the wants of those
who must earn their living by the
sweat of their brow.
The history of crime in Massachu-
sets, where the ideal education has
attained the highest state of perfec-
ton, is not at all satisfactory to those
who have based great expectations on
mental training for the suppression of
crime. Ohio has school system to
which her people point with pardona.
BILE pride; yet they cannot reconcile
this with another unsavory fact, that
she is the banner state OF the Union in
crime. Statistics disclose the alarm
log tact that the per centage of crime
in the different states is largely on the
increase, Notwithstanding their hav-
ing increased and improved facilities
for educating the masses. Thought
full persons are beginning seriously to
ask why these things are so. They
had hoped and thought that educa-
ton would, in great measure, put a
stop to this. Not so. Some have I'M
dertak en- to connect the prevalence OF
crime with the influence of the pub
lie schools. They argue that the ten
dency of these schools is not to good.
but to evil, and that continually. They
call them hotbed of crime and a
criminal nursery. They compose the
statistics OF crime in Virginia at a
time when she had no public school
ST stem, and those of Massachusetts at
a time when her system of public in
struction was at its best. The result
of the comparison StaggerS belief; it
was altogether favorable to Virginia.
We must not, however, be too hasty
in reaching conclusions adverse to the
claims of education as factor in re-
| ducing the percentage of crime. The
circumstarc es and conditions sur
| hn Of
states may have been radically differ
ent. What may have been crime in
one state may have heen d mere mis-
demeanor in the other. The officers
NAV have been MOI energetic IN ferit-
ing out crime and bringing offenders
to Justice in one state than in the
other. From the foregoing we con-
clude that crime and education are
compatible with each other; but we
are not to conclude that because
these two facts are cc-existent
they have any necessary or logf-
cal connection. The truth is, crime
flourishes, not because of the public
schools, as some would have us be-
lieve, but in spite of them We must
hence recognize the absolute INSULT.
cheney of our present system of educa-
ton for the suppression of crime, am
introduce as speedily as may be other
cooperative features. What shall
these features be? This question is
more easily asked than answered. Ey-
cry child is entitled, when practicable.
to the fullest development of his
mental, moral and physical powers.
He should, during this voluntary pc
Rod, be well instructed in some use
full occupation that will afford him
certain means of making living.
The right of the state to educate It's
children proceeds upon the theory that
it is mote economical to educate than
to punish. II educates one, for in
stance, for the identical reason that it
breaks another's neck, or incarcerates
another in the penitentiary. These
things have one thing and but one
thing in view, and that is the preser-
walton and perpetuity of the social fa-
brio. Now, educating, hanging and
imprisoning people are just so many
means that the state employs for pre-
serving unimpaired its own in.
teglity; and If any OF the
agencies that it employs to
compass this end be defective. then
they must be remedied. The writer
would urge, in conclusion, that every
child be taught the hoF or, dignity and
necessity of labor. This can be learned