The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-09-30
Education and Citizenship

Education and Citizenship
The September number of "Suc-
cess" contains a portion of a most
noteworthy address recently deliv-
cred at the semi-centennial of the
opening of Tufts College by one of
it's most distinguished graduates,
Austin Barclay Fletcher, LII. D.,
of New York. tits published un-
der the caption, "The Scholars
Debt to Posterity," and is intend
ed to show that "the chief purpose
of education is better citizenship"
and that it is the chief duty of the
government to promote such citi-
zenship. He takes the position
that "the scholar is reared for the
state, and is Insignificant in him
self, except in so far as he uses his
education for the public good"
Reasoning that "there are few re-
forms that do not require wise and
honest legislation" he properly at
tributes innumerable legislative
evils to the indifference Of the So
called chest citizen" to attendance
at caucus, thus leaving the way
open for the sending of unfit men
to legislatures-often men without
ability or education or moral STAN
ina," and for the nomination and
election of unfit men to administer
unwise and often vicious laws.
Emphasizing the importance of
the home as the corner stone of the
republic he draws striking pic
ture of the evils resulting from the
herding together of the poor, litter
ate and criminal classes in the ten
ement districts Of the great cities.
He makes the statement that "a
single block in New York city,
three hundred and seventy-five
feet by one hundred and seventy
five feet, furnishes all the home
that three thousand people have.
New York statistics show that bad
homes and bad company sent nine
ty-two per cent of all the prisoners
to the reformatory and that seven
ty-seven per cent of these young
persons have no moral sense" The
jewellers in the crowded tenement
districts are nearly all immigrants
and their families, "who now COM
prise nearly one-half the total pop
ulation of New York city and
speak more than fifty different Ian
guages, with no knowledge of Eng
lish or desire to learn it."
Mr.. Fletcher expresses the opin-
ion that ''the laws regulating i'm
migration are weak and impracti-
cable and their execution a farce"
During a single day not long since
twelve thousand immigrants arrived
at New York and it is expected
that the total influx this year will
reach one million, two-thirds OF
whom will probably belong to the
class known as undesirable More
than three hundred thousand will
be Russians and Polish Jews and a
larger number will come from the
worst sections of Sicily and other
parts of Italy, many of them hav-
ing committed crimes and served
sentences and been warned out of
their countries. In single COM
munity in Hungary, out of two
hundred aud eighty prisoners re-
leased from Jail during the past
three years, one hundred and eigh-
ty were sent to the United States.
In New York city over ninety-fve
per cent of the slum population
are foreigners and in Illinois the
foreign population of six per cent
furnishes the state prison at Joliet
with ffty-four per cent of it's in
mates. During the past twenty
years the number of murders and
homicides in the United States has
relatively increased four times fast
er than the population"
Mr.. Fletcher is strongly opposed
to the governments policy of ter
ritorial expansion and to the con-