Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-11-17
FRIDAY EVENING. NOV. II, 1893.

ONE OF THE subjects now de-
mand the consideration of the wiser
men among the members of the legisla-
ture, is the present system of free
schools, under which the criminal class
of the population of the State has in
creased at rapid rate and is reaching
alarming proportions as is made
patent by the recent annual re-
port of the superintendent of the
penitentiary, and by the crowded condi-
ton of the jails of the several counties.
The fact that this increase is necessari-
" accompanied by corresponding in
crease in criminal expenses, warrants
all the consideration that the legisla-
ture of a State, that was by some sup
posed to be too poor to pay its debts,
and the immense expense of whose
public schools is a heavy tax
upon all her property holders,
can bestow upon it. That the sys-
TEN referred to would do infinitely
more harm than good was foreseen be-
fore it was adopted, by men familiar
with its history in other States and
countries, and that it has done so, Is
now patent to all observant men, capa-
BILE of reasoning from cause to effect.
Mr.. 4. Montgomery commences his
well read book "The School Question
from a Parental aud Non-Sectarian
Standpoint" as follows:
ave promise to prove that our
boosted New England public school
system as now by law established
throughout the length and breadth Of
the American republic, is poisonous
formation, fraught with the seeds of HUI
man misery and moral death"
And that he has done SO, is plain to
all who have perused it, among whom
are Ex-Governor Burnett, of California,
who said of this book
sit is one of the most conclusive ar
guments | have ever read on any dis
puted subject"
Mr.. Richard Grant White says:
Mr.. Montgomery's trenchent pam
phlet contains very elaborate tables
made up from the Z. S. census reports.
/ have verified them by those reports,
and find them essentially accurate and
trustworthy. Evidence
which proves the case against the pub
lie school system as clearly and as un-
deniably as the truth of Newton's theo-
nv of gravitation is proved by the cal
culations which enable astronomers to
declare the motion and weigh the sub
stance of the planets"
Mr.. &. Reece, in his article on public
schools as affecting crime and vice in
the Popular Science Monthly for JAN
uary, 1890, says:
IF the instruction of our common
schools subdues the tendency to crime.
why is it that the ratio of prisoners,
being | to 3,442 in 1850, rose to l to
l.Gl7 in 1860; l to 1921 in 1870 and ]
to S37 in 1880; while the quantity OF
liquor consumed, per capita, was three
times as great in 1888 as in 1902"
'sSouth Carolina which shows the
highest per cent. of illiterates, viz
50 40 per cent, presents the lowest
average of insanity and crime, having
but one delinquent in every 56S inhabit-
ants. as compared with in l67 in Cali
fornia in 2O5 in Massachusetts,, and
in 222 in New York" ="
"The prisons of Auburn andSing Sing:
n. y, contained 2,6l6. Common school
education, 1,SOl able to read and
write, 373 collegiate, 8; classical and
academic, 81 only able to read, 81; no
education, 23S.
as it not contrary to our most con-
fident predictions and undoubted ex-
pectations that the common schools
should furnish S3 per cent. and the col.
leges and academies only per cent. of
the inmates Of Auburn and Sing Sing ?'