Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-03-31
EDUCATION
Is a Stimulating Influence to Production
and Wealth.

President Charles w. Dabney, of the
University of Tennessee writes as fol
lows in the April number of Worlds
Work on THE Ratio of Education and
Production" hW
One chief characteristic of the last
century was the extension of the bene.
fits of education to the masses of the
people. Its chief lesson was that edu-
cation increases the wealth-producing
power of a people in direct proportion
to it's distribution and thoroughness
The relations between education and
productivity are so we'll understood
now that you can measure the wealth
producing power of a people by the
school privileges which they have en-
joyed Statistics show for example
that the power of the people of the diff
ferent states to earn money is in direct
proportion to the length of the period
that the average citizen of each state
has attended school.
To illustrate, the average school per-
iod in 1S9S-99 of each inhabitant of the
United States was "A years; of Massa-
chusett, years; of Tennessee, little
less than 3 years. The annual produc-
ton of the whole United States in 1899
was $40 per capita year, or about 80
cents day. The production of Mass
achusetts in 1899 was $500 for each
man, woman, and child or So cents a
day. The most favorable figures make
the total annual production of the peo-
pie of Tennessee in 1899 less than SIG
year, or 3S cents a day, for each in
habitant.
Another way to express it is to say
that the average family of five in Ten
nessee must live on $3.50 year, count
ing everything produced on the farm
and in the home, as well as sales and
money wages; while the same family
in Massachusetts has $1,000 year to
spend, and the average family of the
United States has $780,
Put these facts together, and we az
once see their Tremendous significance.
The proportion between the school per-
iod in Massachusetts, the school, per-
iod in the whole United States. and the
school period in Tennessee is expressed
by the figures IA, S.S, and 6. The pro-
portion between the productive capa
city of each person in Massachusetts, in
the whole United States, and in Ten
nessee is expressed by the figures 13,
S.5, and 5.S. This is a practically con
slant ratio.
Education is as IA in Massachusetts
to S.S in United States TO in TeDness
see. s
Production is as 13 in Massachusetts
to S.5 in United States to 5.S in Tennes-
see.
This is not mere coincidence in the
case of Massachusetts, the United
States, and Tennessee; it is the law the
world over. The productivity of peo-
pie is everywhere proportional to their
education,- their intellectual. physi-
cal, and moral training. II is not tic
natural resources, the climate, the soils
and the minerals; it is not even tho
race, much as these things count IN
Eroduction; but it is education whicn
above everything else determines tLe
ealth-earning power of a Leople.
The population of Massachusetts is
2,S05,346; of Tennessee is 2,020, ,6lG
They have the same number of children
t. educate. The enrolment and tht
average daily attendance of their puo
lie schools il 1859 were as follows
Ave. Attend
Enrolment ance.
Massachusetts .... .471,977 360,311
Tennessee ...... .499,845 952,734
Massachusetts taught school 1873 days
in the year, and her enrolled pupils at
tended an average of 143.5 days. Ten
nessee taught school only SO days, and
her enrolled pupils attended only 62.S
days. 4<ags
Massachusetts expended for all pur-
poses on her public schools in 1S9S-9s
$13, 1888, which was 1855 per pnpil
and $5.07 per capita of her population
Tennessee expended for her public
schools in the same year, $1,62S, S,313
which is S4G2 per pupil, and only 81
cents per capita of population. The
average expenditure for all the states
of the Union is $19 per pupil and So g.
per capita of the population of the en-
tire country.
The power of education in production
may be presented again in this con
crete way:
Massachusetts, spent in 189S-99 $12,
261 ,525 more upon her public schools
than Tennessee. But see what a re
turn she gets. Each one of the 2,8O5,
GAG citizens of observation-disclosures
women and infants-has, as we have
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