Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-01-03
Compulsory Education.

Extracts from the speech of W jam
isun, delivered before tue SCHOOL Director
nf Bnrl-r Co., at their convention OF Dec i,
20, 1894 }
The lamented James A. Garfield in his
Inaugural address said; "All tue Consti-
tutional power Of the Nation and OF the
states. and all the volunteer forces of the
people. should D. summoned To meet the
danger of ignorance by the saving iptiu-
ence of universal education" This remark
is just as timely now as then, because ig-
norance is upon the increase IN our State.
The discipline of our public schools, where
in punctuality, and regularity are enforced
and the children are continually taught To
suppress mere self will and inclination has
been proven to be best school of morality.
Self control is the basis of all morality,
and industrious and studious habits are
the highest we can form in our children.
The question comes TO as how far my
the State provide for the education of her
children at public costf
Free aud universal education to be PR =
NluHu dUu cHlbICtu W WV pNoNVB 10 WV We
sential meaning of what is commonly call
ed compulsory education. Education is
the road to the grand cOnsummatiUn of hu-
man life.
The most dangerous enemy to repuhll-
can institutions is ignorance. Crime is a
less peril. Educated criminals are com
paratively rare. and their power FIR mis-
chief would be slight but for their iutiu-
ence over the uneducatei.
Ignorance is the precursor of crime, and
almost the necessi it'- of it. in a comm un-
ity where the average intelligence is high
All doors to wealth aud distinction being
shut to tn. ignorant man be is doomed by
his very ignorance to poverty, and power
" wl,h its privations and despairs drives
him too often into crime. In fact the
higher you raise the average of education
in any community the more dangerous
and demoraizlng you thereby make the
influence of ignorance.
The only safety to any SOCIAL system lies
in making the people homogeneous, IN
divided in classes of wide extremes, and
unracked 10y social jealousies. There is no
future for q stratiied civilization.
What more frightful warning could we
have of our growing danger than the late
condition of New York Cityl The igno-
rant Glasses have SO multiplied there as To
hold supreme political power. KDaveo
aud rogues haYe fastened upon their prey;
and the Tammany Ring Is the result. Tnr
same fate awaits every city IN America in
which the same conditions shall obtain;
and our own cities of Pittsburg and Ale
gheny are in danger from the same plague
What right have We to allow whole
generation of street Arabs" To grow up III
our ciIiesi These boys and girls are Amer
lcau born and bred; but instead of growing
up to be worthy American citizens, they
are ripening for he peuitentiary and gal
lows. 1t is the vast mass OF uneducated
voters of our country, innocent Of great
crime. that has given the corrupt political
riugsters their power. ! Without the igHu-
rance ot the many, the crimes of the iew
could never have grown to such mons
trous and horrible proportions. Let us re-
eognize the fact that il is general igno-
rance far more than occasional crimInality
that is sapping the foundation of our
American commonwealth. Remove the
ignorance and crime will be very easy to
suppress.
Free and universal education will blank
the moral evils that are now invading tho
Republic as the hordes of Goths and Huns
invaded the Roman Empire.
No church or creed should be allowed to
dictate terms or be recognized in The dis
tribntion of State funds Tor public school
purposes.
Some say 'let no one vote who cannot
read and write" This is preposterous
Democracy in America has shown itself to
have been the effort of society to pass from
al arbitrary 10 a natural classification.
But uo 5UvgsE hss IGv G1isnvTsVy dissb