EDITOR'S TABLE. 



119 



" should be in part established and, 

 temporarily at least, supported by con- 

 tributions from the overflowing Treas- 

 ury of the United States." The word 

 "temporaiuly" here will raise a smile 

 on the lips of those who remember how 

 often temporary protection for "our 

 infant industries " has been applied for, 

 and how invariably the protection so 

 accorded has become a permanent thing. 

 Infant industries that are nourished on 

 " protection " never emerge from the 

 infant condition. However they may 

 extend and expand, they never volun- 

 tarily forego the leading-strings or the 

 pap-bottle ; and so we shrewdly suspect 

 it would be with the schools " tempo- 

 rarily " assisted by the Federal Govern- 

 ment. If, in the course of a few years, 

 they demonstrated their ability to dis- 

 pense with such assistance, they would 

 do what has seldom been done in this 

 world. It is a most unusual thing for 

 any organism to close an easy channel 

 of alimentation, in order to depend ex- 

 clusively upon one more difficult. Let 

 the Treasury of the United States once 

 begin to overflow in the way of aid to 

 education "on the basis of illiteracy," 

 it may go on overflowing. The " basis " 

 is not likely to contract, but rather to 

 widen out from year to year. 



The question, however, deserves 

 careful consideration. Is the stability 

 of our institutions threatened by the 

 ignorance of the electorate? By " illit- 

 eracy " is understood the condition of 

 being unable to read or write; and we 

 are asked to believe that our system of 

 government stands in peril on account 

 of the extent to which illiteracy as thus 

 defined prevails. The language used 

 would point to the conclusion that il- 

 literacy is now a more serious evil than 

 at any previous period of our history. 

 The facts, however, do not support any 

 such conclusion. The census of 1870 

 gave the total number of white males 

 of voting age unable to write as 748,970. 

 From 1870 to 1880 our population in- 

 creased thirty per cent. Had the num- 

 ber of illiterates remained, therefore, 



relatively stationary, we should have had 

 in 1880 not less than 973,661 white 

 voters unable to write ; instead of that, 

 the census for that year shows the num- 

 ber to be 886,659 only, a decidedly re- 

 duced proportion. It is true, on the 

 other hand, that, among the colored 

 population, education is not keeping 

 pace with the natural increase of num- 

 bers, but this fact alone does not justify 

 the interference of the Federal Govern- 

 ment to supplement the educational 

 work that is now going on. 



"What has not been shown as yet, so 

 far as we are aware, is that the so- 

 called illiterate classes are a specific 

 source of danger to our institutions. If 

 we review the several crises of our his- 

 tory, we shall probably find that those 

 who have done most to bring on these 

 crises have been, for the most part, 

 men quite able to read and write. The 

 Tilden-Hayes imbroglio could not cer- 

 tainly be traced to the ignorance of the 

 electorate. Maine is a highly educated 

 State, and yet it was precisely there 

 that a few years ago a condition of war 

 almost supervened in connection with 

 the State elections. The false returns 

 which kept this city, and in a less de- 

 gree the whole Union, in a condition 

 of fever-heat for days together last fall, 

 had nothing to do with illiteracy, quite 

 the contrary. Even the Cincinnati riot 

 was not the work of men who could 

 not read or write, but rather of citizens 

 quite competent in these respects, but 

 who had momentarily lost their heads. 

 The fact is, the citizens who can read 

 and write have everywhere the power 

 in their own hands, and if they are only 

 willing to discharge their duties, pri- 

 vate and public, in a proper manner, 

 the non-reading and non-writing ele- 

 ment in the population will give them 

 comparatively little trouble. 



There is, however, another view to 

 be taken of the matter. If our schools 

 are not as efficient as they should be, 

 and if an undue proportion of the 

 whole population escapes the civilizing 

 influence of education, what is the- 



