Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-05-27
Compulsory Education.

The Compulsory Education bill
passed the Senate last week. The men
who voted for it, base their action UP.
on the belief that intellectual and text
book education is a remedy for all OF
the moral ills that aff1ict the people,
but that belief il mistake. Tex
book education never made one man
or woman better. II some religious
zealot would offer bill in tho Logis-
Iatsre to compel all children to at
tend religious service for religious IN
struotions, it would immediately y be
pronounced = dsspotic religious
movement. Compulsory education
is a despotic intellectual movement.
The state that sends its officers into
the family to take out the children
and force them to church schools oz
intellectual schools invadss the most
sacred rights that mon have namely,
the rights of their homes from in.
trusion, and the rights of their per
sons, and the rights Of their families
from molesta.ion and arrest. There
should TO no exception to the free
dom Of individuals and thar fsmil-
ies, except when they are charged
with crimes that warrant arrest.
The public schools are public good
and are open alike to all, but because
Tom and Dick and Harry, does not
send his children to the schools is no
just reason why the rights Of all citi-
zsns are to be endangered, and one
Of the most despotic principles in
troduced by the state for tho govern
mont Of the people. The oompul-
sery act is tho invasion Of every prin-
cipal of government on which Amer
can government is founded. Tie
American principal Of government Is
that the individual is everything, and
that government is nothing, except
to protect the citizeas in tho exercise
Of his individual right. in all things
except in tie commission of crimes.
The advocates of compulsory sduca
ton, desire to have it appesr that
snlettered people commit the crimes
Of the day, therefore to lessen crime
the state should come in and force
children to attend schools So that
they do not become criminals. Such
argument will answer If it is true
that the people who have no intel
lcc.ual education ere the criminals Of
the country, but it is not true that
the useducated are the criminals 81
the land. 1t is true that a certain
percentage of them are uaeducated,
but the statistics of the prison life
show that the larger number of peo-
pie in the penitentiaries are people.
who received intellectual education,
and it is q fac. that forces itself on
the observation Of thinking" men,
that the crimes OF defalcation and
embczzlsInonts In business places,
banks, storos. corporations, &c, are
committed by men who sreceivsd in
tellectual education. A man with
good intent though he bo unsducst-
sd in the school text books is q bet
ter citizen than the man of bad in
tent, who has passed all the grades
OF intellectual training from the com
mon schools up through q collegiate
course. 1t is q great good fer tho
individual to have received intellsc-
tsal training in the schools and all
parents and guardians should see to
il that the Children attend tho pub
lio schools, which are frss to all, but
thst is ono thing and compulsory
education is quite another. It is
hoped that Governor Pa.tison will
veto any compulsory education bill
the Legislature may pass. He is .
thorough American.