The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-08-28

Sudll Oil oC doPPr.
IT Is said, honestly by some but with
disingenuous partisanship by others,
that that portion of the republican plat
form which deals with the educational
question is partial surrender of the
principle for which Governor Hoard con-
tended. There is no essential difference
between the positions taken by Gov.
Hoard and The Pilot on this question,
and as the charge of inconsistency made
against one will be equally applicable to
the other, 1t may be well to show that the
platform yields not a point in contention.
The law, in fact. needed no amendment
to obivate the objections of its opponents,
unless the objections went to the heart
of the matter and had special and slgn1tl-
cant reference to instruction In English.
1t soon became evident that portions OF
the law which were merely accessory to
tue central purpose, might, IN the hands
of those opposed to the real aim OF the
law, be made to appear It's chief provls-
ions. Disconnected from the law as a
whole, treated as provisions without the
qualification Of subsequent sections, the
separated fragments were made to appear
as dangerous to individual rights. Those
to whom the law did not apply at all were
led to believe that it interfered with
them as we'll as with those who failed
to do their duty by their children.
Those sections which clearly put them
outside the purview of the law were
studiously avoided. The real opposition
outside the political mercenaries, came
from those hostile to instruction in Eng
lish They dared not state the real
grounds of their hostility and so had
recourse to misrepresentation. People
unaccustomed to legal Interpretation
were deceived, and joined in the insensate
demand for crucifxion.
The district requirement" in the Ben
nett law is made specifically inapplicable
to any parent whose child % "has other
wise been given instruction" in any city
town or dis trict the parent might select,
or whose child o. has already acquired
such branches of learning, or who is 90
unable to send his child to school, or
whose child az is unable TO attend school
through physical or mental ailment. This
leaves the law operative only as to those
who do not provide any instruction for
their children it is generally con-
coded that some instruction should be In
English.
So that the Bennett law and the repub-
lican platform are in accord as to the
place where" the child may be instructed.
Now as to the "time when" the child
must attend school: The Bennett law
provides that the child must attend for
a period not less than II weeks in each
year. For portion or portions thereof
the attendance shall be consecutive"
The school board may fix one or more
periods as may best suit the convenience
of the people of the district. So that I'M
der the Bennett law as administered by
intelligent school boards the parent may
select the time during, as well as the
place at, which his child is to rec Give H.
struction.
The Bennett law in no way interferes
with parochial or private schools, neither
in their terms, government or subjects
taught. So that the platform denies, in
terms, an interference which the law
neither contemplated or granted.
1t may be asked why amendments are
advisable when the law as it stands is
free t1um the Objectionable features which
tho platform seemingly desires to eliml-
nate? Simply for the purpose of reliev-
ing the law of burden of misrepresen-
tation. Ordinarily a denial of what is
not affirmed is not necessary. But it has
become SO in the present instance be-
cause the real intent of the law is sought
to be nullified by attacks on its minutiae.
Nothing short of explicit and emphatic
denial will place the law Geyond the
harmful and false Interpretation of those
who are marshaling an army against the
principle of instruction In English. That
army will quickly dissolve when they ap-
preciate the real nature of the conflict.