Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-06-21
MINING JOURNAL.
FROSTBURG. MD. JUNE u. 1890.
4 Fair Presumption.

N falf ffcSuHlption.
The Morgantown Neu Dominion pub
fishes the New York WcrM story of
the New Haven Comm fiogging, and
makes comments which, as the most
abominably senseless slush, take the
entire bakery, saleratus and all.
In the first place, the JOURNAL does
not believe the Worlds story.
In the second, if it be true, the
teacher was goaded by some extra
ordinary and persistent provocation.
In the third, if death ensued as a
result of such injuries, the victim, in
all probability, was much the more
responsible for it.
The JOURNAL does not, has not and
will not excuse brutality in the school
room. At the same time it contends
that the beast who is able to teach,
qualified and permitted to teach, is the
exception, not the rule. As the ex
ception, he is not a sufficient object
for a furore. As the exception, he can
be disposed of quite easily under the
common law without recource to stat
utory provisions. AS the exception, he
furnishes not the shadow of an excuse
for destroying By lao the discipline of
all the schools. AS an exception, he
provides not the slightest ground of
apology for degrading By laO to his
level the thousands of patient, hard
working, conscientious and ill-paid
teachers who are as far above misuse
of any powers placed in their keeping
as the brute is below it.
The Neao D0minion holds that corpor-
al punishment in the schools and wife
beating, being twin relics of barbar-
ism, the latter should survive as well
the former this on the principle,
doubtless, that two wrongs make q
right.
But mans child has never in any
sense approximated equality with him
to the extent his wife has. The right
to chastise his child has never
been questioned, while the right to
punish his wife was matter so much
in doubt for ages that it was permitted
by law. In other words, the child
could be whipped without law, the
wife according to law.
To restore the latter, therefore.
would have nothing to do with the
former. There is no connection, no
relevance between the two. The one
is no more a necessary corollary
of the other than that all the Blue
Laws should be rehabilitated and en-
forced simply because Sabbath OBJ
servance is still live page on the
statute books.
But here is a sample of the very des-
peration of argument
Will any man whose heart is as big as a
pigeons say that any ancient barbarism like
that binds him to fold his hands and stand
like q stick while another man whips his
child; that he must stand still while another
man. against his authority, against his WILL
and against the right which God has gwen
him as the guardian and protector of his de
fenceless child, and see that child whipped
and make no resistance?
We will answer that by asking
another: If God can trust an ignor-
anus with a child, why can't the latter
make a trustee of the educated teacher ?
For it is just as fair to assume that
every father is fool as that every
teacher is beast.
And we have no hesitation in saying
that the man who sends his child
to school persistently and blatantly
shielded by the aegis of his parental
authority from all punishment, no
matter what the offence, is a fool
The teacher, in such cases, should
be empowered by law to fog both.