96 



Many sincere friends of education, deprecating these efforts, 

 gave faithful warning as to their certain failure. The subject 

 was freely discussed also in the press, and brought very promi- 

 nently before the people. The sentiment was widely pro- 

 claimed that it is the duty and interest of the State to furnish 

 substantially equal common school privileges to the children 

 of all classes. Self-protection was claimed to be the right of 

 the government. For this purpose it maintains armies and 

 navies. But safer and better every way than forts and fleets, 

 indispensable as they may be, better for its peace and securit}^, 

 its prosperity and protection, is universal education. 



Comparatively few now press the objection which was 

 widely urged ten years ago, viz: "It is unjust to tax me for 

 the education of other people's children. I have none. Let 

 those who have, pay the cost of their schooling." This objec- 

 tion is founded on a false theory of government. The State 

 justly claims a right to its citizens for its defense, a right to 

 lay its equal and needful claim on their property, time and 

 service. For the achievement of our independence, and more 

 recently for the preservation of our institutions, how many were 

 called to endure toil, hardship and death. This claim' of the 

 State involves the correlative truth that the State has duties as 

 well as rights, and foremost among them is the duty of secur- 

 ing a good common school education to the children of all 

 classes. 



The right of a State to support free schools is little else than 

 its right to defend itself by a humanizing and civilizing edu- 

 cation against what otherwise would become a degraded and 

 dangerous class in society. The right of a free State to self- 

 existence implies the right to maintain free schools, essential as 

 they are to its preservation and prosperity. Education is the 

 cheapest police agency a State can employ. In a wisely admin- 

 istered government, educational taxes are the fares which we 

 pay on railroad cars, the price for being safely carried and well 

 provided for, through the journey of life. These taxes are 

 founded primarily not on the idea of benefiting parents and 

 children, but the broader view, that the State has a proprietary 

 interest in all persons and property within its bounds and espe- 

 cially has a stake in her youth that they may be well qualified 



