St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-09
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Startling Secrets Disclosed
by the U. S. Census Re-
ports.
Crime Has Increased in
Every State in the
Union
In Direct Proportion to the
Amounts Spent on the
System.
Official Figures for Parents,
Teachers and Taxpayers
to Ponder.

brought against our public schools. and
/ consider it the most terrible arralgn-
ment of the system | have ever seen,
and the proofs the most crushing.
Their strength lies entirely in the Off
cial figures of the United States census
reports as carefully tabularized by the
late assistant attorney general of the
United States. The figures have been
verified and authenticated by those who
were best able to judge, and their ac
curacy cannot, and Will not be disputed.
My allotted space in the GLOBE
will not permit me to publish
these tables in full, but l will
give the pith of them as far as possible
in the words of the assistant attorney
general. If any one doubts the cor
rectness of the figures or wishes to pur-
sue the subject further, let him send
me his name and address, in care OF the
GLOBE. and | shall be pleased to for
ward him the documents III full.
Now, keeping steadily in view this
common standpoint. namely, that peO-
pie properly educated are more moral,
virtuous. -contented, happy and law
abiding than an ignorant people, let us
suppose that we find somewhere living,
side by side, two communities, one of
which is made up almost entirely of
educated people. while the other is
largely composed of iliiterate people;
and let us further suppose that amongst
those considered educated you find that
in proportion to their population
they have six criminals to where they
more illiterate community have but
one: suppose that they have two pau
perS to where the more illiterate
people have but one; suppose they have
two insane to where the illiterates have
but one: suppose that their death list
shows four suicides to where that of
the illiterates show but one: and sup
pose that the same list shows three
deaths from the criminal Indulgence
of the brutal passions, while that of the
illiterates shows but two, what conclu-
sion would you arrive at with reference
to that kind of education?
Adhering to the proposition with
which we set out moment ago. namely,
that a people properly educated are
more moral, virtuous, cOntented, happy,
and laW-abiding than an uneducated
people. would you not be forced to the
conclusion that there must be something
wrong. terribly, radically wrong, in a
system of education so much more dire
ful in it's results than even illiteracy
Itself?
For this educated community, let us
take the native-bOrn white population of
the six New England states, to-wit:
Massachusetts,, Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Is
land. and for the un!ettered community
we will take the native-bOrn whites of
the six states of Virginia. Maryland,
Delaware, Georgia. North Carolina and
South Carolina. 1t will be observed that
the states thus enumerated are either
part OF the original thirteen, or such
have been carved out therefrOm.
Both of these communities started OH
their career of existence about the same
time: both spoke the same language
and had been accustomed to the same
laws, manners and usages. There was
one important particular, however, in
which these two communities widely
differed at the very start, as we shall
presently see. "More than two hun
dred years ago the principle was incor-
porated into the legislation of MaSsa-
chusetts that the whole people must be
educated to certain degree at the pub
lie expense, irrespective of any social
distinctions"
"At very early day, after their set
Element, similar system of education
was adopted in all the other New Eng
land states, from which fact the system
seems to have taken the name of 1.-THE
New England SYSTEM On the other
hand. the six enumerated stated, COM
prising what we have agreed to call the
uniettered community. steadily resisted
the New England system up to very
recent date.
"Virginia, which occupies about the
same relation to the latter community
hot ATnc at,1rcn TO 70 fHn FL,
according to Lippincott's Gazetteer of
the World, published in 1856, had at
that time no general free school system,
but ''made an appropriation for the in
struction of the poor"
"Thus these two communities, the
one with its New England public school
system, and the other without it, trav-
eled along, side by side, for about two
hundred years, until A. ID. 1860, when
the eighth United States decennial
census was tax en-, and the following
was the showing of these two commu-
mites, as will appear by reference to
the annexed table No. 1: We find that
at the date referred to, to-wit, 1860, Mas
sachusetts and her five New England
sisters had 1865, 945 native-bOrn white
inhabitants, and out Of these only S,543
adults who could not read or write,
while Virginia, with her five sisters,
numbered 3,1Sl,9 1863 native-born whites,
of whom 262.S02 adults could neither
read nor write. So that in the six New
England states the proportion of litter
ate native whites was only one to every
312, while Virginia and her five sisters
counted one illiterate to every twelve.
But mark you! How stand the crimi-
nal lists? Massachusetts and her five
sisters, out Of her white native popula-
ton of little more than two and half
millions, had on the first day of June,
1860, Just 2,459 criminals in prison,
while Virginia and her five compare
lively unlettered companions, with
native white population of over three
millions, had but AL in prison. That is
to say, those educated under the New
England system had one native-bOrn
white criminal to every l,0S4 native
white inhabitants, while those who had
generally rejected that system had but
one prisoner to every 6,670. being dis
proportion, according to the whole num-
Der of native whites. of more than six
criminals in New England to one in the
other community. A glance at the
same table will show that the natives
educated under the New England sys-
TEN had one pauper to every 178, while
those who had managed to live without
lldG luxury ldu UuI Oue pdupcI W every
345.
"Of those who in one year had died
by suicide, New England had one to
every 1925 Of the entire population.
while Virginia and her five sisters had
but one suicide to every 56,584, and
those who persisted, the victims of their
criminal lusts, New England had one
to every S4,737, while her neighbors,
that had never enjoyed her educational
advantages, had but one such victim to
every 12S, 729. We have not before us
the list of insane in the several states in
1860, so we borrow from the report fur