Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-03-01

all of the school houses were proper
ly constructed to keep ont the win
ter's blast, and if the teachers were
all efficient, then there would be no
necessity for compulsory education.
Although, Mr.. Editor, indifference
may be, and doubtless is, factor
operating to keep children from
school, still we maintain that it is but
insignificant in comparison with those
l have just enumerated. No. 1t ap-
pears to US that the defects of our
educational system needs far more
radical treatment than that afforded
by compulsory school law. The
system should be so perfected, so
developed, SO manned and thereby be
made so attractive and inviting that
every individual in the State would
be drawn irresistibly by thirst for
knowledge to the schools of the
State. Where force is necessary
to create desire for education then
education is, and always will be, a
failure. The two cannot go together.
Moreover, with such conditions
prevailing, the law if enacted would
be but dead letter. Unpopular in
itself, and meeting with such in
superable obstacles in the way of it's
enforcement, the result would be in
evitabie. This view, indeed, is con-
firmed by the report of the United
States Commissioner of Education,
who in nearly every report of recent
years has had to make the oommenJ
that the law is not and indeed can
not be enforced in States as sparsely
populated as this; but the best ex-
ample of it's enforcement is to be
found in the more densely populated
States of the North, and even some
of these, notably Massachusetts,
find it necessary to make exemptions
in favor of certain thinly populated
counties. Of course it is unnecessary
for me to elaborate the argum ent
that laws when unenforced, whatever
the cause, are positively harmful in
their effect, tending as they do to
breed disrespect for all law and
authority it is we'll known that our
statute books already contain too
many laws that invite defiance. In
fact, / know of no one thing that has
caused more disrespect for the law
than that of enacting such legisla-
ton.
(3.) / am asked to justify or ex-
plan my remark about the @devil-
ment in Massachusetts" The state
ment l made was brought out by the
claim that "the schools, the churches,
the small per cent. of crime, and the
wealth of that State were the result
of compulsory education" and | spoke
in substance as follows: Massachu-
setts is not the State for us to copy
laws from, State that burned
witches, that tratiicked in slaves,
selling them to us, and then being
foremost to take up arms FOR their
freedom and placing upon us the
greatest burden the South ever had
State that has never lost an oppor-
tunity to enrich itself at our expense.
South Carolina and Massachusetts
have always occupied antipodal posi-
tions on matters of public policy, and
I am yet to learn that South Carolina
is wrong. Of course would not be
30 ridiculous as to argue that an edu
cation does not increase mans
earning capacity and better equip
him for discharging the duties of
citizenship, but at the same time
none of us are blind to the fact that
the laboring classes of the South,
despite its lack of compulsory school
laws, is to-day and always has been
happier and better satisfied than
those of Massachusetts. Our labor
ing classes are contented and happy,
those of Massachusetts are restless
and wretched, involved in strikes and
riots and labor agitations. Massa-
chusetts has always taught the doc
trine that the citizen ia not bOnnd to