The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-01-30
Need Of . Better Education.

Need Of q Better Eduoatton.
Commenting upon the causes o.
pauperism in our civilization, the
Salt Lake Tribune says: This II
matter that is serious, and every
taxpayer ought to consent to Q tax
sufficient to see that every schoo!
shall be q school; that while it shall
improve the mind, it shall at the
same time include the instruction
of hand and eye, and above gil
should try to arouse the ambition
of boys and girls, to fasten in their
minds the impression that whatever
any one gets in this world he must
earn. There would be less and less
pauperism until no poor house
would be needed, because it is an
impeachment of civilization to say
that men after thousands of years
of experiment cannot frame state
and 90 conduct it's affairs, that
wholesale poverty can be avoided. "
In most of the foregoing we be-
lieve the Tribune is about right.
We believe schools should be thor
oughly secularized +; should be sup
ported by the state in toto; that
every child in the state should be
compelled to attend school at least
six months in each year from the
time they are seven until they are
eighteen years old; that all should
be dressed exactly alike in order
that no distinctions may be appa-
rent between the rich and the poor,
and none insulted and Inundated
because Of their plain or shabby
clothes that each should be taught
some mechanical trade as means
Of fitting them for the inevitable
struggle of life, leaving professions
to be taken up after their school
days have passed.
The man or woman who begins
life without an education is at a
great disadvantage, even among the
specifically educated Of our time,
and while unjust and selfish legis-
lation is responsible for much of
the increase of pauperism COM
planned Of it is nevertheless a fact
that much of it is also chargeable
to lack of education. Thousands
of our untaught and halt-taught,
especially among the laborers, find
ing it difficult to make satisfactory
Roadway against the multifarious
obstacles encountered all along the
byways of life, aud lacking that
tenacity of purpose that urges their
more resolute brethren to persevere,
become discouraged, and either
take to drink and become public
charges, paupers or criminals. In
either case they are an expense and
a disgrace to the community and
an impeachment Of our civilization
and its methods.
But as no two Of US can agree
upon any plan of procedure, and
as we are all engaged in teaching
falsehood instead of truth, there
seems little prospect of immediate
improvement. Indeed, we're our
schools to attempt to fasten in the
minds of their pupils the "impres-
sion that whatever any one gets he
must earn" the Tribune Would
probably be among the first to cry
out against the innovation, as such
teachings would conflict with the
practice that has become we'll nigh
universal among our so-called up
per classes, Of manipulating appro-
priations from the treasury for the
promotion Of private enterprises.
While our educated men and lead
ers are thieves and beggars, the
mob will follow more or
less closely their pernicious exam
PIE. While the educated upper
classes live for money and osten-
tation it is too much to expect the
ignorant to be imbued with nobler
purposes. Had our children been
taught with earnest force that every
man must earn what he gets, We
would have no Goulds, Rockfellers
and Vanderbilts in the land-would
not witness the spectacle in this
republic of three men holding in
their shylock grasp the sum, and
its dreadful power, of $6OO, 900, 900.
to secure which through dishonest
and corrupt legislation, a million
paupers were made. The Tribune
is right; paupers are made by ex-
cessive drink, and this is caused
largely by despair, which in turn is
due in great measure to legisla-
tive impoverishment Of the labor
ers. To remedy these things we
must have more practical and
universal education, and what is
more essential still, honesty and
purity at the head of our affairs.
Protection to American Labor.