SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 53 



present forms they do not tend toward morality and efficiency. 

 It is true that in many instances public education is entirely 

 too formal, being devoted more to books than to things, to 

 general than to special matters, and to abstract truth rather than 

 to practical affairs. Nevertheless, even in its present form, the 

 whole tendency of public education is distinctly moral and tends 

 directly toward competency. I may be allowed to illustrate 

 two cases briefly. Some time during the 90' s my attention was 

 called to a report made by the superintendent of the Detroit 

 House of Correction in which the statement was made that 75 

 per cent, of the inmates of that institution could read and write. 

 One of the Detroit papers commented editorially upon this 

 fact, implying that because 75 per cent, of the criminals confined 

 in the Detroit House of Correction were educated in the limited 

 sense of being able to read and write, and only 25 per cent, of 

 the criminals confined there were totally illiterate, therefore 

 public education, such as these people had, increased their 

 tendency toward criminality in the ratio of 75 to 25. I had 

 occasion to answer this accusation before a meeting of the 

 National Education Association. I called attention to the 

 fallacy in the editorial by showing that, according to the report 

 of the state superintendent of public instruction for that same 

 year, 96 per cent, of the population of Michigan could read and 

 write — that is, were educated to that extent, some of them 

 doubtless beyond that point; and that 4 per cent, only of the 

 population of Michigan was at that time totally illiterate. It 

 resulted, therefore, in the fact that the 25 per cent, of the 

 persons confined in the Detroit House of Correction, represent- 

 ing as it did the entire state, came from this 4 per cent, of the 

 population; while the 75 per cent, of the criminals came from 

 that large proportion of the population who could read and 

 write, namely, the 96 per cent. Reducing to a common denom- 

 inator, therefore, it was discovered that the 4 per cent, of the 

 population of Michigan which was at that time totally illiterate 



