The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-07
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND TRAMPS.
Supt. AshmOre's Reply to Maryland
Man who Says One Produces the

Supt. AshmOre's Reply to Maryland
Man who Says One Produces the
other.
There are men and women in this
country who have all sorts of ideas,
which, though decidedly out of the run
of common acceptance, are defended by
their holders with a determined and even
fiery vehemence. Up in Sykesville Nd.
is a man who says the tramp evil is
directly traceable to the effects of the
public schools. He is Mr.. Francis B. Live
sey. In a letter to the Morning News,
he outlines his position on this
question and brings to the support of his
arguments the testimony of other Amer
lean writer's and thinkers. He says:
THE Baltimore American of June 8
quotes you at length on The Tramp
Evil You state: 1t is only within the
past half century that the tramp problem
has existed in this country; but during
that time it has grown great Let US
scratch our heads and ask what institu-
ton in our country has also grown great
during the past half century? Let>us ask
ourselves If this institution was not
promised us with the expectation of max
ing good citizens out of the masses? This
is the public school institution of whose
benifcence educators and ministers con-
| tinually speak. 1t is hardly proper to
damn people that are the product of
| our compulsion, and tramps intrinsically
are product of the public school insti-
| tuition. All who come to my door are
the offshoots of the schools, while l have
never seen one that hailed from the
mountains of the Southern states where
there are said to be 100000 people suffer
| ing 60 from illiteracy.
THE tramps ought to pay their best
respects to all school commissioners, to
all those interested in the schools, who
think them the salvation of the repub-
| lic,' and to all state and religious insti-
tutions. Why? Because the public school
Institution has founded the tramp insti-
tuition; because the man who lives on
state aid at the child end of his life has
a natural right to expect 1t at the other
end when 1t has not properly prepared
him to fight the battle of life; and be-
cause the ministers and churches play
second fiddle Justify to all that the pub
lie schools propose. Since l got this idea
in my head, 1 find there are many
'cranks besides myself having the
same. One of them will suffice as proof.
80 long ago as 1880, Richard Grant
White had en- article in the December
issue Of the North American Review, on
The Public School Failure To
the average public school devotee,
of course, Richard Grant White
lean Review a very unheard-of and
insignificant publication; but some people
deemed Richard one of the ripest schol-
ars and most profound thinkers of the
age and also thought the Review one
of the most authoritative periodicals.
Such is the difference in thought. we see.
This article on the public school fail
ure set forth the various national evils
that the public schools had wrought and,
IL tod ha
tramp, a creature unknown to our faith
ers and even to us in our youth. NO
body believed this, so the public schools
have kept on multiplying and 'compul-
sorry education has been made law in
| many states, to insure the making or as
many tramps as possible. The machinery
of the whole thing has run pretty smooth
". and tramps have been duly turned out
| accordingly.
Just look at the poor boy at the pub
| lie school, His pa can work on the rail-
road or at anything else, at from 81 to
| $3.50 per day, and his ma can take IN
washing at 81 or 81 a week. That boy
| enjoys benevolent assimilation at the
school with boys whose parents are much
richer than his. Their ideals become his
ideals. He spurns the honest toll of his
| nareuts refuses to carry SO much as a
| bod of coal or bucket of water for his
ma. and expects on leaving school to step
| forthwith into fame and fortune, as the
| educators led him to hope.
| THAT boy leaves school; finds hmsef
forced to take a job twenty times lower
| than what he calculated on; kicks himself
In disgust and disappointment all the time
| he is at work; finds he has not physical
| strength for his job; gets careless and I'M
| conscientious, and gets discharged. Then
he pokes around for an easier job; can't
| find It; won't take what's offered; thinks
the world owes him living anyway;
| hangs around awhile for something to
turn up' and, after exhausting the pa
tience and pennies of his friends, he takes
to the road and the woods as tramp or
| hobo.
1.-THE process by which the tramp is de-
| veloped is something akin to the above;
| but there is an infinite variety Of the pro
cesses, and they are all attributable to
the public schools. Looking at 1t In this
| light, / always damn the school and pity
the tramp, and give the latter bread at
the table, wash at the bench, and bed
IN the barn whenever he calls, regardless
OF work at the wood pile. When he works
at the latter, l pay him for 1t, take note
of his true inwardness. and wind up by
recommending him TO some farmer glad
enough to get help. have never yet re-
GREETED my course"
Mr.. Otis Ashmore, superintendent
and Chatham county was shown
the communication from Mr.. Livesey and
asked to express an opinion as to the
Justice of the criticisms and deductions
therein made. He glanced over the let
ter with a smile.
''Why." he said, "Mr. Livesey might
as we'll have said that appendicitis is
product of the public schools. for the rea-
son that fifty years ago II had not been
| heard of and has been heard OF more
1 and more ever since.
"IIe might as well argue that the pub
lie schools produce murderers or thieves,
| n IL happened that the only murderers
or thieves with whom he has spoken have
attended the schools in their youth. He
might charge the mothers Of the muir
derers or thieves with entire responsibility
for their character with the same justice
and logic he exhibits when he says the
nublic schools are responsible for the
tramp"