Evening journal., 1898-03-02
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
DANGER IN COMPULSORY EDU-
CATION.
To the EdItor Of the Evenlng Journal

CATION.
To the Editor of the Evening Journal
Sir: 1t is going the rounds OF the
press that the New-Century Club, of
Wilmington, is endeavoring to foist
upon the peaceable people of Delaware
a compulsory educational law l say
peaceaIble people to distinguish them
from the people of other states where
compulsion is the law, and where
strikes, riots and bloodshed are of year
ly occurrence The New-Cenltury Club
is reported as making a point i'm de-
claging that there are $4,000 illiterates
in Delaware, and that it Is for their re-
duction it demands the compulsory law
passed. But / would ask, where aI'e
these $4,000 illiterates? If the premises
OF the compulsory advocates are cor
rect they should all be found in jails,
penitentiary, poor-houses, on tramping
the highways and byways, disdaining
honest tell and menacing the peace of
the commonwealth. Where are they!
That is the question that has been put
TO the compulsiOnists of this state, and
no answer has been returned In Della
ware they are probably the peach-pick-
ers and plow-boys without whom the
wealth of the state could not be pro-
duced.
Ever since the public school question
has been abroad there have been two
sides to IT, and the adverse side gathers
istrength for its arguments as time rolls
on. Among the many leading thinkers
and writers who have discussed the
subject Is Richard Grant White, who,
some years ago. had long ARTICLE on
"The Public School Failure" I'M that
Authoritative periodical, the North
American Review. As his statements
are applicable to the situation in Della
ware, few of them, given ait random,
may be profitable for the consideration
OF Delaware's legislators who are to be
impOrtuned and harassed by the visits
OF the New-C Century Club. He says on
"The Public School Failure" The
case is worse than that of mere fail
ure; for the result has been deplorable,
and threatens to be disastrous.
knowledge will not lift tho masses,
except as a balloon is lifted, because 1t
is inflated with gas"
''The road to the best government of
the people does not lie only Through
the door Of the public schOol-house.
''If ignorance be the mother of vice,
and the public school is the efficient
foe of Ignorance, the last fifty years
shloud have seen in all these respects
an Improvement so great that admir-
! ing nations would applaud and humbly
hope to imitabe But who needs 10 be
told that in all these respects we have
deteriorated?"
Our large towns swarm with idle
vicious lads, and young men who nav.
no visible means Of support. Our rura
districts are Infested with tnamps-s
creature unknown to our fathers, anG
even to us in our youth"
: bribery ait elections is almost open
: ly practiced by both our great pOlitica
parties"
e Dishonesty in business and betrayal
4 of trust have become so common tha
e the public record of the last fifteel
years ON this subject is such that 7
e cannot be remem bered without Shame.
"Crime and vice have increased yea
? after year almost pari passu with th'
development of the public school sys
= TEN, which, instead Of lifting tbs
masses, has given us i'm their place
I ncnedscript and hybrid class. unfit fo
professional or mercantile life, unwill
h ing and also unable to be farmers o
It artisans so that gradually our skille
II labor Is done more by immigrant for
eigners, while our native citizens, VIII
; would otherwise naturally fill the ne
J. spectacle position in society, seek b
= make their living by their wits-hon
n estly if they can; II not, more or les
dishonesty"
l. "FIlial respect and parental love hav
# both diminished"
l. 1.-The remedy may be briefly indicates
d as a discontinuance of amy other edai
n cation ait the public cost than tina
which Is strictly elementary readine
spelling, writing and the common rule
of practical arithmetic; and in the re
v mission Of all education higher THAI
q this to parents, the natural guardians
q and earthly providence Of their chill
'5 dren And those children only shoul
II be thus educated ait public cost who's
e parents are too poor to give them eve
Il am elementary education themselves.
l. "If government is to assume a pa
n rental and formative function, and
q attempt the making of good citizens,
,e may with much more reason and prt
y, priety establish public farms and pull
7r Tic workshops and train in them its fl
Is ture citizens to get their own living n
Especially and honestly. than it may e.
tablish and compel attendance upo
. schools on a system the result of whicl
according to the experience Of half
century, Is deterioration in purity (
morals. in decency of life, in thrift, an
). in all that goes to make good citizem
- accompanied by a steadily increasin
failure in the requirement OF the yer
elements Of useful knowledge.
FRANCIS B. LIVESEY.
lTd March 1898