The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-11

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

At mass meeting of citizens held in
Pittsburg Monday the following trenchant
preamble and resolution were read and
adopted: by an imperative law of nature
the family is intrusted with early and In
fant education; by the potency of religious
life and sentiment, the church must be en-
trusted with strictly religious or sectarian
instruction; by the inherent principles of a
government of the people and by the peo-
pie, that education which relates primarily
to the rights, duties and needs of sover-
eign citizens must be entrusted to the
state. To admit the first two of these
principles is to admit the third, and to
deny the third is to abrogate the prnci-
pies upon which our civil government
rests
mo discussion of compulsory laws and
their enforcement as mere distractions
will avail. The real question is q practical
one of the adjustment Of educational agen-
cies. The question Is not whether the
state has right to enact compulsory edu-
cation laws. We have passed beyond that
point, and it is evidenced by the fact that
laws compelling the attendance of chill
dren at school have been enacted and are
now in force among the most enlightened
and freest nations of the earth as well as
in nearly all of the leading states of our
own grand Union.
''The question now Is, what education
may the state prescribe and by what
means shall 1t enforce the instruction pre-
scribed? This Is the question that Is now
before the people Of this commonwealth
for discussion, and 1t Is not answered nor
put aside by the assertion that public
schools have been established and MAIN
talned without the aid of compulsory
laws, and that their results justify their
existence. nor by asserting that compul-
sorry laws are un-American and conse-
quently remain dead letters upon the
statute book. Such assertions are neither
pertinent nor true. Our public schools
have not been established and maintained
by voluntary, charitable or philanthropc
effort They exist by force; law backed
up by enlightened public sentiment.
"They came into existence in response TO
a conviction in the minds of our fathers of
the necessity of a safeguard for political
and religious liberty, and they live and
prosper today by the force of the laws
which were much more hateful to the enc
mics of free schools when they were en-
acted than a compulsory education law
would be to any class of our citizens to-
day. 1t Is no more hateful nor tyran-
nlcal. nor un-American to compel q citizen
to educate his own children than 1t Is to
Hiiii " pay IL " tuuCdte MS
neighbor's children.
ITO hold that compulsory school laws
are un-American is to ignore the history
of our free school system and remain ig-
norant of the spirit and purpose Of past
and present opposition to the establish
ment of free schools. The only freedom in
connection with our free schools Is that
freedom granted to dilatory and neglect
ful parents to allow and even compel
their weak and wayward offspring to alb
sent themselves from school instruction.
We already have compulsory schools, COM
pulsory taxation, compulsory certification
of teachers, compulsory supervision, COM
pulsory free text books and supplies, and
why not now add compulsory attendance?
In view of the foregoing, be 1t
Resolved, By the citizens Of Allegheny
and Pittsburg In mass meeting assembled
that they unanimously and earnestly rec
ommend the passage Of the Farr compul-
sorry educational bill as amended and as
recommended by the principals clubs Of
Allegheny and pIttSburp