CORRESP ONDENCE. 



12 3 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



"FUNCTIONS OF THE STATE." 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



THOUGH usually reading with appro- 

 bation the " Editor's Table " in " The 

 Popular Science Monthly," I can not re- 

 frain from expressing a decided dissent 

 from the position taken in the latter part 

 of an editorial in the March number enti- 

 tled "Functions of the State." The opinion 

 therein advanced is that "education is no 

 part of the functions of the State, and that 

 it would be better, therefore, to leave it in 

 the hands of the family, even though the 

 result were to show in the course of a few 

 years a larger proportion than now of that 

 kind of illiteracy which consists in not 

 being able to read or write." In other 

 words, as I understand the editor's mean- 

 ing, he would do away with our present 

 public-school system, now regarded by edu- 

 cators and tax-payers generally as the most 

 effective means of promoting popular educa- 

 tion, and substitute therefor a laissez-faire 

 or go-as-you-please system of private edu- 

 cation. That is certainly a revolutionary 

 proposition. Is it logical or tenable ? 



The theory of the common-school sys- 

 tem, by which the wealthy (tax-payers) are 

 made to bear the burden of educating the 

 children of the poor, is, of course, that un- 

 der this system more children are taught 

 the rudiments of knowledge, and that this 

 teaching is, as a whole, more effective than 

 would be the case if the matter were left to 

 individual action ; that is, that more knowl- 

 edge is imparted to the people in a given 

 time than would be possible by any other 

 means. Back of this is the more funda- 

 mental assumption that knowledge is good ; 

 that as the antagonist of ignorance it is 

 also the enemy of crime and disorder. Can 

 the truth of either of these propositions be 

 successfully disputed ? 



It needs no figures to prove that igno- 

 rance is the mother of crime. It is a part 

 of the common experience of every man. 

 The patrons of bar-rooms, the criminal 

 classes in city and country, the inmates of 

 prisons, are, as a rule, the uneducated. 

 Educate the children of these people, teach 

 them the great lesson that happiness, pros- 

 perity, and success depend upon right living 

 (to the establishment of this truth all true 

 education tends), and you decrease crime. 



Again, can it be denied that anatomical 

 and physiological ignorance is the parent 

 of disease ? Or that ignorance of political 

 economy gives birth to financial heresies, 

 to the enactment of unjust or unwise laws, 

 to mistaken ideas concerning real - estate 



tenure, to socialism, communism, and an- 

 archism ? 



If it be admitted, then, that the spread 

 of knowledge is conducive to the public 

 weal, the only question remaining is as to 

 the efficacy of the present school system 

 to that end. And here, again, it is not ne- 

 cessary to appeal to statistics to prove that 

 a large majority of the people in any coun- 

 try would be pecuniarily unable to educate 

 their children without some form of State 

 aid. And of those who could afford it a 

 large fraction would lack the disposition to 

 do so. It must be evident to any observer 

 that were all laws relating to instruction at 

 public expense to be repealed, and the en- 

 tire matter left to the individual, popular 

 schooling would become a thing of the 

 past. Illiteracy among the masses would 

 be the rule, and education would be con- 

 fined to a comparative few among the well- 

 to-do. A well-defined educated class would 

 gradually be formed, and a class spirit 

 would be fostered contrary to the central 

 idea of a democratic society. The brother- 

 hood of cranks would increase and multi- 

 ply, all kinds of isms would flourish and 

 become powerful, and especially the "labor 

 element," with its demands, would assume 

 the proportions of a national danger, and 

 perhaps succeed in time in bringing about 

 revolution and anarchy. 



I think I have not put the case too 

 strongly. That our present educational 

 methods are in many respects faulty, and 

 that there is urgent need of reform in the 

 manner in which the theory of public edu- 

 cation is put in practice, I do not deny. 

 The wisdom of compulsory educational laws 

 may be questioned. But it seems to me 

 plain that the theory itself is based upon 

 correct scientific principles. If there is any 

 public function which an organized society 

 is justified in performing, it is to take 

 measures for the elimination of elements 

 within itself inimical to its own existence. 

 And the surest and cheapest way to ac- 

 complish this is to disseminate the simple 

 branches of knowledge among its young, 

 to an extent that will inspire them with a 

 desire for higher truth, and furnish them 

 with a sufficient mental equipment for its ac- 

 quirement and digestion. E. S. Marsh. 

 Brandon, Vermont, February 2S, 1887. 



A CORRECTION. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Sir: In your March issue you say, re- 

 ferring to my article on socialism, in the 

 January " Scribner " : " He apparently ap- 



