EDITOR'S TABLE. 



701 



came to give as his own undiluted views 

 upon tliat point, lie would deal some- 

 what trenchantly with the argument 

 above referred to, and not altogether 

 in the direction of the brief notice con- 

 tained in his article on " Socialism." 



Next, as to the transfer to the state 

 of the "power and discretion in the 

 matter of the educaiion of children." 

 This, we are told, ''deserves the hearti- 

 iest approval ... as a scheme for ac- 

 complishing good through state action, 

 in a field properly pertaining to indi- 

 vidual initiative and enterprise." It is 

 a little difficult to understand how a 

 field that "properly pertains to indi- 

 vidual initiative and enterprise" can 

 properly be encroached upon by the 

 state. Some explanations on this point 

 would be very acceptable. How can it 

 be said that the field of education prop- 

 erly pertains to individual initiative and 

 enterprise if the contention, indorsed 

 by General Walker, is correct, that 

 "the individual members of the state 

 would be richer, and happier, and bet- 

 ter, if power and discretion in the mat- 

 ter of the education of children were 

 taken away from the family and lodged 

 with the Government " ? It seems to 

 us that it is altogether too soon to be- 

 stow our "heartiest approval" upon 

 this particular "socialistic movement." 

 General "Walker himself notes that "the 

 immediate effects of popular instruction 

 in reducing crime are in dispute." He 

 might also note that this doubt has arisen 

 almost wholly since the state has taken 

 so prominent a part in the business of 

 education. "When education was in the 

 hands mainly of the family, an educa- 

 tion was universally thought to be the 

 very best gift a father could bestow upon 

 his son. Now, that the state is forcing 

 education upon all, the value of the arti- 

 cle has sensibly decreased ; and many 

 are beginning to doubt, looking both at 

 moral and at intellectual results, wheth- 

 er in this matter society is not working 

 in a wrong direction. A vast amount 

 of thought has been bestowed during 



the last half-century upon educational 

 methods; and yet we seriously doubt if 

 there was ever more dissatisfaction with 

 the general results of popular education 

 than there is to-day. "We could refer 

 General Walker to an article that ap- 

 peared a year or two ago in one of the 

 leading newspapers of his own city, the 

 "Boston Herald," setting forth the diffi- 

 culty a certain insurance company had 

 in finding, among a score of graduates 

 of the Boston grammar-schools, a single 

 youth competent to take a junior clerk- 

 ship, the only qualifications for which 

 were fair skill in figures, good hand- 

 writing, and a certain knowledge of the 

 rules of English composition. Is it not 

 the fact that " commercial colleges " 

 have sprung up all over the country to 

 supplement the deficiencies, from a busi- 

 ness point of view, of the public schools ? 

 And in spite of the vast disadvantage 

 at which state competition places all 

 private tuition, the number of private 

 schools and academies advertised in the 

 papers is still very great. The effect 

 upon the home of the wide assumption 

 of educational functions by the state has 

 yet to be fully ascertained ; but already 

 there are grave reasons for thinking it 

 has been far from favorable. It is no 

 small matter to take from the family 

 the "power and discretion in the mat- 

 ter of the education of children "; and 

 before we talk of giving our "heartiest 

 approval " to the change, we should be 

 quite sure that it is not going to loosen 

 the very foundations of society. Our 

 own opinion 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 con- 

 sists in not being able to read or write. 

 We have known illiterates of that kind 

 who could "give points" to people who 

 could both read and write in the matter 

 of common sense and general informa- 

 tion. The question is too wide a one 



