Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-12-26

against any bearer Of 3 greenbaek or
treasury note or silver certificate, and
so fast as the gold reserve is replen'
ished It is Withdrawn again.
The imperative necessity that an end
should be- made to this financial folly
does not admit Of argument. Yet Con-
srsss has done nothing thus far but
see-saw over the Carlisle banking plan
and ouibble over details, with no very
bright prospects Of agreement on that
or anything else.
Suppose Congress drop the bank prob
lem for the present at least and turn It's
attention solely to the vital necessity OF
the hour, the retirement Of the green
backs aud the unloading Of that incubus
from the neck Of the public credit. After
that the Carlisle banking plan or some
other would follow without necessity
for haste. But first of all the green
back must 60. Aud no other plan has
been submitted that is so practicable as
that empowering the Secretary Of the
Treasury TO substitute IOW-interest-
bearing long term bonds Of small
amounts, so as to be within the reach Of
the masses Of the people.
Mr.. DEPEw displays considerable
philosophy, knowledge aud discern
ment in his answer to the question
"Can drunkenness be cured?" He
says: "Taklng the results attained so
far by the various medical cures and
from religious influence, this cOnclu-
sion seems tenable: That il the two
systems were united the problem of
curing drunkards would be solved"
DR.. Depew is right. Drunkenness is
not merely physical disease, If it is a
disease at all, to be cured by drugs; it
is a moral and spiritual ailment as well.
EDUCATION AND CRIME.
Is the world growing better? is a
question much discussed at this stage
OF our advancement in civilization. The
affirmative side is warmly taken, Of
course, by every Optimist on the general
principal Of his own kindly belief in his
fellow man and by those whose faith is
firm in our boosted civilization. The
negative side is strongly argued by 9TH
ers who draw q line sharply between
education on one hand and righteous
ness and goodness on the other, main
tanning that ignorance is not bar to
goodness, nor that a condition Of right
eousness presupposes a cultivated in
tellectuslity.
Statistics, the modern method Of
measuring social conditions, tell us
nothing. They are apt indeed to
mislead US as to the true condi-
ton Of man, for the pharisee will al
ways appear we'll before the world.
Statistics, also, are at variance the
world over. For example, since 1870
the number OF children in English
schools has increased from 100000 to
5000, 600, and the number Of persons in
English prisons has fallen from II, 600
to 5000. The yearly average of per-
sons sentenced to penal ssrvitude for
aggravated crime has decreased from
5000 to 500 while Juvenile offenders
have fallen from $4,000 to 5000. Some
enthusiastic believers in the theory
that as education is enlarged crime is
decreased insist that the smaller per-
centage is due to the greater per-
centage Of persons who have enjoyed
the benefit Of the Instruction impaired
in the schools.
The experience on one side Of the
English Channel. however is totally at
variance with the experience on the
other side. In France the criminal
statistics and the statements Of magis-
trates show that as schools have been
opened prisons have been filled, and
that the diffusion Of education has been
accompanied apparently with an in
crease Of crime, especially Of Juvenile
crime. Keeping children in school
ought apparently to some extent keep
them from the commission Of petty
offenses by lessening opportunity; but If
this be the case, the same effect should
be produced In France as in England.
A French journal offers the explanation
that ia France, under the Republic,
education is simply intellectual instruc-
ton, while in England there is not only
instruction but training; moral and re-
ligious influences are brought to bear
upon the minds Of the young.
Education that improves the mind
simply without awakening moral senti-
meut or cultivatlng the spiritual IN man
does not lessen the tendency to crime.
More probably it raises the grade aud
agEravates the quality of crime, as an
educated rascal is more dangerous than
an illiterate rascal. The people Of no
other country spend more for education
than the people Of the United States;
but crime has more than kept pace with
instruction. An educated man, as we
ST know, is not necessarily better man
without his training shall have been