The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1911-07-22
COMPULSORY
EDUCATION
Mrs. B. W. Corkran Speaks For 1t And
Incites To The Almighty Dollar ;"
And Competition, While Great Men
Are Ignored

To the Editor:
For upwards of forty years I nave asa
ed the advocates of compulsory educa
tion how it was that they had no respect
for the various authorities that had con-
demned it, and in all this time | have
received no answer. They profess to
have the highest respect for scholars,
philosophers and men of intelligence,
yet they are as dumb as oysters when
confronted with such OF their utterances
as conflict with their hobby.
We are seeing at this moment quota
lions going the rounds of the press an
tagonistic to compulsory education from
statesmen like Governor Blease, from
scholars like John Stuart Mill and from
educators like Horace Mann, while We
are seeing public schools utterly de-
nounced by philosophers like Herbert
Spencer, by scholars like Richard Grant
White, and by great men like Lord North
cliffe.
At the very same time we have thous-
ands of men in every walk of life who
condemn the public schools in ouv
more particulars, but who plead vainly
for reform. One will say that they are
are binding the race; another that they
are nerve wrecking the race; another
that they are the breeders of all child
ren's diseases; another that they are
productive of a destructive immortality;
another that they are goddess; another
that they have translated the three Rs
into fads; another that they are filling
our lunatic asylums; another that they
are productive Of tramps; another that
they are productive of sharpers and
shyster professional men, and so on ad
infinitum, with Socialism thrown in.
There are, it might be said, upwards Of
twenty five of these specific charges
brought against the public schools, while
each charge is backed by thousands of
| prominent men and pressed with tie
| same vehemence that l myself press ut
| ter public school abolition. Reform ID
what the bearers of these charges hope
| for, but they hope in vain. Baltimore
| has furnished a sample of the conflicts
going on all over the land. No civil war
| could have more bitter animosities. To
| talk of compulsory education at such a
| juncture as this is equivalent to forcing
| people into house atre.
Yet go it is that Mrs. Benjamin w.
| Corkran, Jr., of Roland Park, has at last
come out with her arguments for COM
| pulsory education-that is, they nave
| appeared in the press following her
Braddock Heights address. For sixteen
| years | have looked in vain for an au-
thoritative expression from the club
women of her class. They have confined
themselves to themselves and the law
makers that they seek to influence. In
| the words of another IL is the public
be damned" They know what is for
| the good OF the public; it is beneath
them to reason with the public and Ine
mothers who have six children know less
of their needs than they who have ole
or none.
| The craze for the almighty dollA,
has been sermoni.ed on for many years,
and is said 10 be the ruin OF the Ameri-
can people. Mrs. Corkran has shown
that in her plea for compulsory educa-
zion she is one of the Nations leading
meters for the plunge toward the dollar
| Follow her rule, and there would not Ge
Il laboring man in the land. Every one
should be educated and have his earn
! ing capacity increased from 81 a day
as a laborer he should have S. or $40 as
a clerk. Anyhow, every boy and girl
should be we'll educated to be able to
compete"
The dollar and competition ring
through Mrs Corkran's address with a
frequency that are sickening 1t is
enough to disgust even Socialists with
compulsory education. Cooperation and
fraternity are entirely out OF the ques-
ton. The mad rush and the devil take
the hindmost, is the spirit of her mean
ing Ministers whose favortte theme is
the modern whirl, should see in her an
incite to fright in her it begins, then
it is passed along to every teacher in the
State, and with every child under COM
pulsory education, she has the further
ruin OF the State we'll under way. She
boasts that she has won the teachers.
In the light of present day occurrences
every one Of the points OF Mrs. Cork
rams splendid appeal are fatJered
Each one takes a chapter for answer and
| will duly attend 10 them.
FRANCIS 3. LIVESEY,