Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-03-07
DOES OPENING A SCHOOL MEAN
 CLOSING A JAIL


 ''Victor Hugo has well said that the opening of a schoolhouse means the closing of a jail," declared superinten- dent Roncoviezi at the dedication cere- mony of the new Monroe school, and there was loud applause.
 Both Victor Hugo and Superintendent Roncovieri, however, have merely ex- pressed pretty sentiment, which we would all like to believe, and which is still very generally believed, but which unfortunately does not accord with the facts.
 Not long ago President Eliot of liar. yard, addressing convocation of teach CTS, sadly admitted that the spread of the public school had not diminished crime, and that on the moral side ed ucation was failure.
 There is no intimate connection be- tween education, as the word is us. uany understood and moral conduct. Sharpening man mind does not make him good. Reading, writing and arith- metic, Greek, Latin and physical sci ence do not soften the passions or re- duce the desire for money, power, pleas ure or revenge. The college graduate loves and hates, he is subject to ambi. tion, lust and greed no less than the illiterate. Nor does his learning give him greater command over himself. Mental discipline is not moral disci. pline. Coming a grammar o. solving mathematical problems does not strengthen the will or clarify the sense of right and 'srong.
 In American penitentiaries the per centage of Iliteracy is not greatly larg. CT than the percentage for the general population. At San Quentin, for ex- ample, out of 1702 prisoners received there were only 16S or little more than nine per cent, who could not read or write, while of the male population of California, over voting age the percent age of illiterates is over six per cent Of the l,0)9 prisoners at Folsom when the report was made only 93 had never attended school
 While mertal education does not tend to dimini3h the amount of crime, it tends probably to change the character of crimes committed An educated man will know better than commit the old fashioned crimes of violence, for which punishment Is usually swift and sure. He will prefer the new-fangled crimes of chicane, against which society has not adequately guarded. He will steal by selling watered stock rather than picking pockets. He will perceive that buying franchises with bribes is safer and more lucrative than breaking into houses or holding up wayfarers on the highway. Railway relating will make stronges appeal to him than three. ! card monte. He will specialize in one form or another of the higher conf. derce game. He will commit murder by adulterating food, by neglecting to provide safety appliances for machin- cry, by working children in mills, by maintaining unsanitary tenements and fretrap theaters, by sending rotten ships to sea, by putting lead in the life presarvers, rather than by the dag. ger and tho pistol.
 But these moro artful and more prof. itable forms of crime are also more dangerous to society, because their harn, is more widespread and it is harder to bring the guilt home to an individu- al Education, therefore, is putting wea- pons into the hands of criminals. It is creating higher-up criminal class which knows how to steal and kill with out breaking the law in provable way; a class which has learned how to Do i'm