The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1895-11-27

VIZ BNh'' oNN-A
edge, it is the duty of the government
TO see that the means of information be
difiused 10 every citizen. This is a
sufficient answer to those who deem
education a private and not public
duty-who argue that they are willing
TO educate their own children, but not
their neighbor's children.
Many complain of the school tax,
not so much on account of its amount,
a. because il is for the benefit Of Others
and not themselves. This Is mistake.
1t is for their own benefit, inasmuch as
it perpetuates the government and en-
sures the due administration of the laws
under which they live, and by which
their lives and property are protected.
Why do they not urge the same objec-
ton against all other taxes? The in
dustrious, thrifty, rich farmer pays a
heavy county tax to support criminal
courts, build jails, and pay sheriffs and
Jail keepers, and yet probably he never
has had and never will have any direct
personal Use for either. He never gets
the worth of his money by being tried
for crime before the court, allowed
the privilege of the Jail on conviction
or receiving an equivalent from the
sheriffor his hangmen officers
But we are told that this law is un-
popular, that the people desire its re-
peal. Has it not always been 50 with
every new reform in the condition of
man? Old habits and old prejudices
are hard to be removed from the mind.
Every new improvement which has
been gradually leading man from the
savage through the civilized up to a
highly cultivated state has required the
most strenuous and often perilOus ex-
ertions of the wise and the good. But,
sir, much of its unpopularity is charge
able upon the vile arts of unpTincipled
demagogues. Instead of attempting to
remove the honest misapprehensions
of the people, they eater to their pre-
judices, and take advantage of them, to
gain low, dirty, temporary, local tri-
umphs. do not charge this on any
particular party. Unfortunately, al
most the only spot on which all parties
meet in union, is this ground of COM
mon infamy {!
| have seen the present chief magis-
trate of this Commonwealth violently
aSsailed rs the protector and father Of
this law. am not the eulogist ofthat
gentleman he has been guilty of many
deep political sins. But he deserves the
undying gratitude Of the people for the
steady, untiring zeal which he has
manifested in favor of common schools.
will not say his exertions in that
cause have covered all, but they have
atoned for many of his errors. | trust
that the people of this State will never
BE- called upon to choose between a
supporter and an opposer of free schools.
Bat If il should come to that, if that is
TO be made the turning point on which
we are to east our sGffrages, ifthe oppo-
nent of education were my most inti-
mate personal and political friend, and
the free school candidate my most OBJ
noxious enemy, should deem it my
duty, rs patriot, at this moment of
our intellectual crisis, to forget al other
considerations and to place myself un-
hesitatingly and cordially, in the ranks
of him whose banners streams in light.
But will this Legislature-will the
wise guardians of the dearest interests
of great Commonwealth, consent
TO surrender the high advantages and
brilliant prospects which this law
promises, because il is desired by worthy
gentlemen, who, in a moment of cause
less panic and popular delusIon, sailed
into power on Unitarian flooi?-a
flood of ignorance, darker, and to the
intelligent mind, more dreadful, than
that aecursed Stygian pool, at which
mortals and immortals tremble Sir,
il seems to me that the liberal and en-
lightened proceedings of the last Legis-
lature have aroused the demon of igno-
rance from slumber and maddened at
the threatened loss of his murlly en-
pire, his discordant howlings are heard
in every part of our land.
The barbarous and disgraceful cry,
which we hear abroad in some parts OF
our land, "that learning makes US
worse-that education makes men
rogues," should find no echo within
these walls. Those who hold such
doctrines anywhere would be the object
of bitter detestation if they were not
rather the pitiable subjects of commits
Grafton. For even voluntary fools re-
quire our compassion Is well as natural
idiots?
Let all, therefore, who would sustain
the character of the philosopher or
philanthropist, sustain this law. Those
who would add thereto the glory of the
hero can acquire il here, for in the
present state of feeling in Pennsylva-
mia, am willing to admit, that but
little less dangerous To the public man
is the warclub and battle axe of savage
ignorance than to the Lion-Hearted
Richard was the keen scimitar of the
Saracen. He who would oppose il,
either through inability to comprehend
the advantages of general education, or
from unwillingness TO bestow them on
all his fellow citizens, even to the low
est and the poorest, or from dread OF
popular vengeance, seems to me to
want either the head of the philosOph-
er, the heart Of the philanthropist OF
the nerve of the hero.
Who would not rather do one living