St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-26

TO write Is going to prevent his
committing forgery; or the mere know
ing how to cipher. is going to prevent
him from specializing with his employ
er's money and retiring to Canada to
live on the profits. 1 would as soon
boy British bulldog revolver, loaded
and cooked, without telling him which
way to point it, is to teach him to read
and write and cypher without at the
same time explaining to HIM the prin-
clpleS that must guide him in the use
OF such knOwlenge. But let us hear
what those who ought to know have to
say on this subject. Prof Welcker,
state superintendent of public instruc-
ton, strikes the note of warning in his
address delivered before the California
State Teachers association in San
Francisco, whereby he uttered the fol
lowing words:
;. j doubt if there is any tendency in purely
intellectual education to restrain vice be-
yond slight elevation of prudence.
State Superintendent Carr incorpo-
rates into his biennial report the follow
ing extract from ScribneI's Monthly,
wherein DIR. Holland, referring to the
false education we are giving our
youth, says that for certain classes
named:
1t is an education in stealing, in the be-
trayal of trusts, in the watering of stocks,
grain gambling, stock gambling, in the use
of power without heart, without conscience,
honor or patriotism.
Capt. Lees, with his twenty-eight
years experience on the police and de-
tectiye force on the Pacific slope, thus
testifies his convictions:
My experience has been that If man is
criminal, the better educated he is the
more desperate and dangerous he is.
Once more the editor of the San Fran
cisco ArgOnaut declares editOrially:
Nor do we believe that the kind and degree
of educaIiong given at our high grade free
schools is calculated to preserve either the
virtue or the honesty Of our rising genera
ton.
But space forbids the accumulation
of any more authorities on this subject.
Now for few facts. l promised l
would take particular examples only
from large cities other than our own. [
turn, therefore. to New York, where l
find that the New York Times states
that between July, 1878 and Dec. 81,
1877, both inclusive, the names of more
than three hundred firms in this county
were published as embeZZlers or de-
faulterS, in sums of over $1,000, while,
doubtless. scores more escaped pub
licity. Let us take, haphazard, few
cases:
Charles Carlton secretary of ss Tnon
dead; Charles, H. Phelps, cashier Of the
state treasury department: Albany, N. Y,
S30O,0OO; j: Duncan, bank president, San
Francisco. $75O,0OO; Stephen Wardwell,
Providence. R. l., S2OOUO; Daniel Gage, city
treasurer Chicago, H., $500. 900; Theodore
Wick, treasurer. Ohio, $4,000; water COM
missioner, .Pittsburg. Pa, 100000; Henry
Nicoll chairman OF the executive committee
of the bar association, New York. S2OO,O0O;
Abraham Jackson. lawyer, Boston. Mass,
S3OO,OOO; John B. Morton, Philadelphia,
81, OOOOOO; e. B. Winslow. Boston, Mass,
$60O,O0O;- G. Van Hallern, city collector,
Chicago $4,000; John c.. Tracy, bank
president, Hartford, Conn. Justification of
accounts to the extent of S60O,OOo: Hildreth
q Tighe, lawyers and agents, New York, over
S13O,OOO.
Now will anyone tell me that all
these gentlemen were not proficient in
all that our public schools can teach?
The regular Boston correspondent of
the San Francisco Morning Call, under
date of November 16, 1877, says:
1.-THE rapid progress of knowledge pecu-
liar to the educational system of this state
has led to the erection of two more state
prisons. one of which, for women, was
successfully opened few days ago, the
admission being forty-four. Present indica-
tons point toward the rapid filling up of
this new institution in few months
One more example, and have fin
ished with this branch of my subject.
Lieut.. Gov. Johnson's biennial re-
port, showing the condition of the Cali
fornia state prison and state prisoners
for the two years ending June 80, 1877,
says under the head of education"
low Toh No Oh III rs,
tional abilities Of the inmates of the prison,
gives the number who can read and write at
9S5: read but not write. at twenty-tOur;
neither read nor write, at 300. If we con-
slider the number of Chinese and Indians in
our prisons who can neither read nor write,
and deduct them from the whole number so
as to match our whites and negroes against
the same in other states, it will be found that
ours possess the advantage in large degree.
In fact. among the younger convicts they can
all read and write.
Now, OF the younger cOnvictS. as ap-
pears from the Turkeys Table No. 6,
there were some 253 but twenty-One
years old or under, while there were ISL
under thirty years old.
1t is for this reason that Gov. Brown,
when addressing the seventh national
teachers convention in st. Louis said:
1t is very customary declaration to pro-
nounce that education is the great safe
uard of rep u blics against the decay of virtue
and the reign of immortality. Yet the facts
can scarcely bear out the proposition. The
highest civilizations, both ancient and
modern. have sometimes been the most flagi
tious. Nowadays, certainly, your prime
rascals have been educated rascals.
Thus. the result of our boosted edu-
cationaI facilities are before the country
in the shape of most enormous crop of
educated pimps, hoodlums, loafers,
tramps, burglars, fOrgers, pickpockets,
swindlers, embezzlers, defaulters, safe
blowers, highwayrobbers, incendiaries,
assassins, corrupt bribe-taking officials,
clerical knaves, hypocrites, PERU
rers, ''centennial'' drunkards and
vile blasphemers against God and
all that is good or sacred in heaven or
upon earthi Let us once more earnest.
ly reflect upon the unquestionable truth
of the maxim, "Train ups child in the
way he should go, and when he is old
he will not depart from it, then seri-
ouSly ask ourselves whether we feel
more inclined to question the truth of
that proposition, or to rising suspic-
ion that something is radically wrong
in our system of education, nd that
perhaps one of the principal features of
a true education is being utterly and
shamefully neglected in our public
schools? AMERICAN CITIZEN.
To be continued next Sunday.]
Sunday at White Bear Lake.
Dc,,J O. N,,l,,kL