Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-09-30
JUDGE RICE'S ADDRESS.
DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF
COKE MEMORIAL SCHOOL.

Education by Public Taxation Are Dis
cussed by the Learned Jurist.
The following is the complete address
of Hon. Charles Rice, of Willesbarrc,
president Judge of the superior court of
Pennsylvania, as delivered by him at
the dedication and hag-raising of the
Coke Memorial School, at Freeland, on
Saturday, September 21:
After had accepted the courteous invita-
| tion of your school board, and considered
what | should say upon this occuson it oc-
| Cured to me, that although it would be fam
| iliar ground, it would not be inappropriate or
| unprofitabc to re-eXnmine, briefly, the un-
| derlyng principles upon which organized So
| ciety, acting through the state us its agency,
assumes the right to provide by public taxa
| tion for the elementary education of every
| child within the borders of the commonwealth.
| The purpose for which civil governments in
| its simplest form, is organized is to protect
| human life and property, and to render the
| enjoyment of them secure. This, at least, is
| its primary purpose; it is this, which of neces-
| sity calls it into existence. Were these simple
| rights of person and property secure, in the
case of the individual members of society,"
I from the malice, the cupidity, and the negli-
| gence Of his neighbor, and were the commu-
| nifty or society OF which he is II member secure
| against the aggression of foreign foes, civil
| government might be dispensed with-that is
| to say, there would be no absolute necessity
| for its existence. But, by protection to life
and property, | mean not only security in
| their possession, but in their full, free and
complete enjoyment, and this, of course in
| cludes all natural rights of which we can con-
| ceive.
| Civil government is not established, and
| laws are not framed in order to make men
| learned, good, virtuous, temperate or moral
| as an end or us duty which society owes
| but i'll order that if they will be ignorant bad,
| incorporate and immoral they shall not be so
| to the prejudice of the rights of their neigh
| Dor or to the general welfare of society us n
whole. free popular government does not
| assume, so much to protect the individual clti-
zen against the natural consequence of his
visciouSness or ignorance, as to protect him
against the visciousncss and ignorance of his
ncighbor. 1t is not much a teacher of
morals as guardian of rights.
But when it is said that society has perform
ed its whole duty to its individual members,
when, through the agency of civil govern
ment, it has secured them in life and property
and their enjoyment, it is not implied that a
stop must be made there, and that appropri-
utey, it can assume no other functions. That
would be but the rudest form of government
| and such as even the most desperate band of
outlaws would establish for themselves if iso-
lated from the rest of mankind. Our govern
ment assumes to go further Written in the
preamble of our orgunic law is the dcclnra-
ton that it was framed not only "to secure
the blessings of liberty" but also ito promote
the general welfare" Under this broad char
ter of rights conferred by the people, from
whom, as we claim in this land, all the right
ful powers of the government emanute, dt- |
rectly or indirectly, the nation and the state
acting in their proper spheres, assume to reg
ulate commerce, to promote trade, to Cncour-
age manufactures and agriculture, to reward
inventions, TO care for the sick, the poor the
maimed, in some small degree to foster the
arts and sciences, and last, and chief of ALL to
promote the diffusion of learning, and in this
state to provide ON II liberal scale for the free
elementary education of each child. Not
withstandng all this il is emphatlcally not a
paternal government. and / pray that il NAV
not become such. If there are those who
would barter away that personal liberty
which dignies American citizenship who
would destroy individual responsibility, and
deny the rewards of individual effort and sub
stitute in their place the transient case and
pleasure of paternulsm, let them not deludc
themselves into the belief that they are car
'ying out any principle which our forefathers
breathed into the government they estab-
lished 1t is undoniablc that the national and
state governments, both do property exercise
functions not absolutely necessary to be ex-
ercised in order to protect the citizen in the
enjoyment of his rights of person and proper |
ty, but If there were time for the discussion
think it could be shown that where these
functions are not exercised in order to secure
him the fuller enjoyment of those rights
they are but critici2ing agents employed by
the government to strengthen, pcrpctuute
and glorify itself 1t exercises these func-
tions, not because they are duties, strictly
speaking, owed to the citizen, but because
they are duties owed to itself. The good of
society and the power, dignity and influence
of the government are wrought out through
the civilization, the material prosperity and
the education of its citizens. But while the
education and enlightenment of the individual
citizen are not duties which society and the
government owe to him. neither are they
mere charitics doled out TO him by the govern
mcnt as an almontr, and the state has no
right nor is the recipient bound, so TO regard
chem.
The idea that is in my mind has its best cX-
cmphcation and illustration in the common
school system, which, in its possibilities is the
glory of this commonwealth. Our constitu-
ton provides: ''rhe general assembly shall
| provide for Il thorough and efficient system of
| public schools wherein all the children of this
commonwealth above the age of six years
| may be educated, and shall appropriate at
| least one million dollars each year for that
purpose" Note the broad foundation of the
governmental principle upon which the com
mon school system is placed, as contrasted
with the narrow principle in the earlier consti-
| tuition of the commonwealth, which, uninten-
| tionaly maybe subjected every pupil of the
| public school to shame by declaring that:
'''rhe legislature SHALL as soon as convenient,
| provide by law for the establishment of schools
| throughout the state, in such manner that the
poor may be taught gratis" In the one case
| it is clearly implied that the public school is
| an institution in which the state is interested
in maintaining for it's own good, while in the
other case the idea was conveyed that educa-
| ton was offered by the state to the children
of the poor in pure benevolence. But from
| small beginnings and in spite of crude notions
| of the true principle upon which alone the
state was justified in establishing the common
school system, it has steadily grown until to-