Arizona republican., 1905-07-26
The Moral Sense a Necessity

 legislature calling for an investigation Of the insurance business, Governor Higgins of New York expressed in sententious phrases some general principles which should not be ignOr- ed. "Legislation,' he declared, lis no panacea for the ills of the body pol itic that arise from a disordored nor al sense. The multiplication of penal statutes do2s not diminish the spirit tom of it's growth"
 To neglect the sources of vice and crime and then try to cure the evil by dealing legally and penalty with their consequences is folly.
 A perverted and a vicious moral sense can be cured only by training and discipline, and the proper place for that work is not the penitentiary or the state prison, but the home, the church and the school.
 The "disordered moral sense" which just now is attracting the most atten- tiOn is that Of men who were not reared in the slums, but in homes of wealth and education. in our public schools, our colleges and universities. Either their morals were neglected in those homes and schools or there have ensued relaxation and degenera- tion. Otherwise they would not have permitted themselves to indulge their greed at the expense of honor and of common honesty.
 ,F almost exclusively men of education. and some of them are scholars of ripe culture; yet many of them have not scrupled to indulge in practices which, on smaller scale, are stig- matized as thievery, obtaining money by false pTetenses and confidence games, and are punished with terms of more or less magnitude in the pen itentiary. ManifestIy education as commonly understood affords no guar antee of honor or honesty in it's pos sessor. Neither will laws, however severe in their terms afford any as- surance of a correction of these evils.
 Back of the laws and underlying the education must be a moral sense and
 
 render it morally impossible for a man, however great the temptation, i to do those things indulgence in which i has been the secret of the acquisition 1 of many of the great fortunes of our ! day
 There are sound and insuperable ob- jectiOns to the teaching of religious | doctrines or engaging in religious ser vices in our public schools, but there ! are no objections to moral instruction 1 and training in those schools. On the | contrary, there are urgent reasons. ! considering the purpose and character | of public schools in fitting boys and | girls for the responsibilities of citi- ! zenship, why the pupils should be as . thoroughly grounded in morals as they are in the elements of knowledge It is just as important to the state that a young man shall be taught that he should not steal or lie or break any of the other primal laws of the moral code as that he should be an expert in grammar, arithmetic. geography. civil government, or dancing. Indeed, if his morals are to be neglected it would be better for society and the state to leave him in ignorance. con that an educated rascal is much more dangerous and harmful than an ignorant one.
 Neither popular education nor laws. however complete the former or Ora conian the latter, will afford assurance of exemption from venality in high places in the absence of a moral sense which will scOrn to do a dishonest Il thing, not because of its penalty, but Il because it is essentially wrong.