The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1911-08-19
COMPULSORY
EDUCATION


Recent articles opposing COM
pulsory education have appeared
in your paper, signed The argu-
ments advanced have this justifi-
cation: that compulsory educa-
ton does now and then galvanize
into outward responsibility and
tn appearance of intellectual pow
err men who are out of place any
where above the animals. This
makes possible the jackals Of lit
,erature who do the dirty work in
intellectual lines which the mean
est men among the employers are
too decent or too stupid to do for
themselves. Articles to help the
greedy exploit the poor are proof
of one unavoidable detect in COM
pulsory education.
Let no one misunderstood the
issue. The working, wage-earn-
ing and :arning classes, inch by
inch, wrenched public educational
systems from the kings and en-
ploying classes. 1t took blood
and brains to do it. We have edit
cation for all; the mill owners wish
to gradually take it away from us !;
the gentlemen who write against
compulsory education are trying
to help them. The whole matter
is one OF getting more money
from the employment Of wage
earners. Not only is it greed
gainst the people; it is darkness
against light. The mill owners
opposing compulsory education
not only want to be free to work
childrens lives and woman's mo-
therhood into dividends, but they
want the darkness OF ignorance to
cover their actions with a mantle
of gross stupidity, SO that an edit
Gated people shall not reproach
them for their crimes against hui
mainly. In all lands, in every age,
education has been the foe of ex-
ploitation and wrong. Child la
Dor, which deprives the parent OF
a job and places his little girls and
boys in his place, is simply new
phase OF that ancient rascality that
has in every age gone as far as it
dared in making ignorant and
poverty-stricken the mass OF the
people. Herod slew only the male
children still in arms, but the mod
ern eNploiter and his tool seeks
the blood of all children and Of
the mother, and with lying words
declare that system tina. de-
prives the child o; bodily growth,
mental development, its hours for
pleasure and of health and life, is
beneicent and not injurious. For
such men, if there be God of
Justice. there shall be yet the
damnation of the liar and the by
pocrite as we'll as the punishment
of those who for greed darken the
light OF knowledge aud aid dis
ease, superstition and crime.
The cancer of ignorance has al
ready eaten deep into the life of
South Carolina, whose shameless
governor this last article quotes.
Poverty is the burden of the I'M
developed individual and low
wages are first fruits of non-at-
tendance at school. On page 1888
of the Congressional record, COW
ering the proceedings of the
House for the day on which your
last issue was published. Con-
gresham Aiken, o: South Caro-
lima, was quoted by Congressman
Buchanan, while addressing the
House, as authority for the state
ment that the average wages of
the operatives in cotton mills in
South Carolina is only four dol
lars and ten cents a week. To
this proud condition has the work
man risen by banisling compul-
sorry education and allowing his
own wife and children, whom even
an animal man should protect, to
compete with him at his own lob.
II the wage earners of Maryland
wish to introduce into the mills
and elsewhere an amy OF comp =
titors who will further reduce
their wages while they grow up
stunted i'll mind, weak in body,
deficient in sex, vigor and victims
of tuberculosis and poverty, let
them listen to articles against
compulsory education, let them do
as some of the still greedy en-
ployers of children desire, and
they may thank themselves if the
result is more poverty, more crime
and more graves ifor them to
mourn over.
n