mii, Mh NKW YORK CITY COUNCIL POLITICAL REFORM. REPORT COMPULSORY EDUCATION, i^j k DP:XTER a. HAWKINS, Dl-:CKMBEK 30, 1873. NEW YOPvK: E V E N' I N (i POST S T E A iM PRESSES, 41 Nassau SruFKr. jorkk <.):■• 'I.ihiirtn'. 1874. W3' ^i^W fnm com/iiimenid 0/ Wexiet' od. (^aoi/'H^fynd'. CO ^ Education perpetuates a Free State ; decreases pauperism and crime; and doubles the value of the citizen. y^ REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION OF THE New M Cilj tali of lllid Piiii UPON COMPULSORY EDUCATION. lua Democratic Republic lil^e ours, where all political power resides in an.l springs from the people ; where, to use the language of Abraham Lincoln, " the government is of the people, for the people, and hy the people," no subject can be presented to the citizens for their consideration more important than the education of the j'outh. ITNIVEIISAL EDUCATION ESSENTLIL TO FREE GOVERNMENT, Intelligence in the rulers is essential to good government ; with us the rulers are the voters, hence the necessity of fitting them by education to rule. With intelligent voters, our form of government is the best yet devised ; but with ignorant voters, it is one of the worst. An intelligent people seek freedom, and an ignorant one despotism, just as naturally and certainly as the needle points to the magnetic pole. The founders of our free institutions two hundred and fifty years ago saw this, and scarcely had they completed the log cabins for their families, when they began the log school-house for the school and school-master. The school-house has spread, developed and improved from Maine to California equally with the dwellirig-house. It is the nursery of American citizens. 2 THREE CARDINAL PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. These three cardinal principles our forefathers never lost sight of, viz., a free State, a free School, and a free Church. Self-preservation imposes upon our government the duty of educating the people sufficient!}^ to qualify them to exercise intelligently the right of suffrage. Conscious of this, every free State established a sj'-stem of free schools. So great and beneficent has been their influence upon the people, that the material prosperity, intellectual and moral development, respect for law and obedience to it, in each State, maj be relatively measured and calculated by the con- dition of the free public schools. WHAT THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IS DOING POR EDUCATION. The National Government has already set aside for educa- tional purposes one hundred and forty millions (140,000,000) of acres of public land ; and the question of devoting to education the whole proceeds of the public lands still undisposed of, is dis- cussed. In the last Congress the Committee on Education and Labor in the House of Representatives, reported favorably a bill for this purpose, and after a careful debate and considera- tion, it passed that body and was sent to tlie Senate. It has established a Bureau of Education as a permanent part of the Government, with a Commissioner of Education at its head. His annual report is one of the most interesting, instructive, valuable and important documents that issues from the Govern- ment press. Ecerij legidaior and every scJiool officer in the United States should study its contents and heed its facts. MAGNITUDE OF THE SCHOOL INTEREST. (1.) — In the NcUion. We have in the United States over fourteen and a half mil- lions (14,500,000) of children of the school age ; we expend an- nually for schools over ninety-five millions (95,000,000) of dollars which is equal to one-third of one per cent, of the value of the property, real and personal, of the whole country, as returned by the last census; and we employ two hundred and twenty- one thousand (221,000) teachers. This is our standing army, find those are our raw recruits. Their arms are the pen and the slate pencil ; their munitions of war the text-books ; their forts and arsenals the school-houses ; and the enemy they are enlisted to conquer, ignorance and bigotr3\ Through the munificence of the Government, the finest building that springs up in every village in our ncAv States and Territories is the public school-house. Like the light of heaven and tlie water of the earth, it is open and free alike to rich and poor. {±)~-In (he Slale of New York. In the State of New York we have one million and a half (1,500,000) school children, twenty-eight thousand (28,000) school teachers, twelve thousand (12,000) school-houses, and one million (1,000,000) volumes of books in the school district liljraries. The school property of the State is Avorth twenty- seven millions of dollars ($27,000,000,) and we are expending two million dollars ($2,000,000) a year to add to it and improve it. The law in the State of Now York requires us to raise an- imally one and one-quarter of a mill tax upon each dollar of valuation of taxable property, for the support of the free schools. This amounts to two and a half millions of dollars. But so fully is the value of the schools appreciated that the people voluntarily tax themselves annually four times this amount, making the whole sum spent upon schools in this State ten milHons of dollars ($10,000,000) a year. This is called the " Empire State." So long as avc continue this liberal policy of education for the whole people it will re- main such. The canal interest, the railroad interest, the manufacturing interest, important as they are to material progress, are yet small compared with the education of our million and a half of youth. {?>.)~Jn flic Citij of New Yorl: The city of New York had, last year, over two hundred and thirty thousand (230,000) pupils in its schools. It employed three thousand (3,000) teachers and school officers, and ex- pended upon public education three millions three hundred thousand dollars ($3,300,000.) The citizen, however humble, has only to send his child to the public school, and Government furnishes him, there free of cost, an educational palace, warmed 4 and lighted, the best text-books and apparatus, and the most skillful teachers. Stewart and Astor, with their hundred millions of property and no children in the public schools, like true-hearted Ameri- can citizens, gladly pay the school taxes that educate the sons and daughters of thousands of poor laborers who have no property to be taxed. Aided by the free school, the greatest wealth and the highest honors and offices in this broad land are within the reach of the sons of the humblest workman. THE PROPERTY SHOULD EDUCATE THE CHILDREN. The American doctrine is, that " the property of the Slate shall educate the children of the Slate.'' This benefits equally the rich and the poor. It decreases crime, reduces taxes, improves labor, increases the value of property, and elevates the whole com- munity. One of the first and decisive questions asked in seek- ing a permanent location for one's family is ; What are the means provided for education ? A village, town or State, with good free schools, is the resort of families ; without them it is the home of criminals. In this city it costs more to support police and police courts to restrain and punish a few thousand criminals, nearly all of whom became such from want of education, than to educate our 230,000 children. CRIME THE CONSEQUENCE OF IGNORANCE. In France, from 1867 to 1869, one half the inhabitants could neither read nor write ; and this one-half furnished ninety-five per cent, of the persons arrested for crime, and eighty-seven per cent, of those convicted. In other words, an ignorant per- son, on the average, committed seven times the number of crimes that one not ignorant did. In the six New England States of our own country only seven per cent, of the inhabitants, above the age of ten years, can neither read nor write, yet eighty per cent, of the crime in those States is committed by this small minority ; in other words, a person there without education commits fifty-three times as many crimes as one with education. In New York and Pennsylvania an ignorant person commits on the average seven times the number of crimes that one who can read and write commits, and in the wdiole United States the illiterate person commits ten times the number of crimes that the educated one does. / The above facts are derived from official statistics. THE SCHOOL THE PREVENTIVE OF CRIME. We maj have supposed that it is the churches rather than the schools that prevent people from becoming criminals, but the facts indicated l)y statistics collected by government show the contrary. ^ The kmgdom of Bavaria examined this question in 1870. In Upper Bavaria there were 15 churches and 5^ school-houses to each one thousand buildings, and 667 crimes to~eachone hundred thousand inJiabitants. In Upper Franconia the ratio was 5 churches, 7 school-houses and 444 crimes. In Lower Bavaria the ratio was 10 churches and 4J school-houses and 870 crimes. In the Palatinate the ratio was 4 churches, 11 school-houses and only 425 crimes, or less than one-half. In the Lower Pala- tinate the ratio was 11 churches, 6 school-houses, and 690 crimes, while in Lower Franconia the ratio was 5 churches, 10 school-houses, and only 384 crimes. Tabulated for clearness of comparison, it is as follows : Upper Bavaria. . Ujiper Franconia. Lower Bavaria. . Tlic Palatinate . . Lower Palatinate. Lower Franconia. Per l,OtiO Buikiino-s. Churches. !Sfh..,)l Houses. Per lOO.OCO Souls. 15 5 10 4 11 5 5i 1 11 6 10 (rimes. 667 444 870 425 690 384 In short, it seems that crime decreases almost in the same ratio that schools increase, while more or less churches seem in Bavaria to produce very little effect upon it. Those unerring guides of the statesman— statistics— demon- strate that the most economical, effective and powerful pre- ventive of crime is the free common scliool. IlDiversal educa- tion tends to universal morality. THE SCHOOL THE PEEVENTIVE OF PAUPERISM. "^fi^* An examination of the statistics of England, Scotland, Ire- land, and of the different countries of Europe, indicate that, other things being equal, pauperism is in the inverse ratio of the education of the mass of the people ; that is, as education increases, pauperism decreases, and as education decreases, pauperism increases. The same rule holds good in our country. Taking the three States of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois for illustration, we find that of the illiterate persons one in fen is a lyauper; while of the rest of the population only one. in three hundred is a pauper. In other words, a given number of per- sons suffered to grow up in ignorance furnish on the average thirtii times as many paupers as the same persons would if required to get such an education as our free public schools afford. Add to this that they furnish also ten times the wnnher of crimincds, and the right as well as the duty of Government, as the protector of society, to enforce general education is clear, for it is the plain obligation of Government to protect society against pauperism and crime. EDUCATION, THEN, SHOULD BE COMPULSORY. Government should prevent both crime and pauperism by extirpating the cause of each, to wit, ignorance. An educated citi^v'cn is of more value to himself, to society, and to the coun- try than an ignorant one. An examination covering prominent points or centres of labor in twenty States, made three years ago, developed the fact that even such education as our free common schools afford, adds on the average fifty per cent, to the producing capacity of the citizen ; while a higher training increases it two or three hundred per cent. He can do more and better work, from the street scavenger up to the most skilled mechanic, with the same expenditure of time and force, from the mere fact of possessing knoAvledge. A well-educatecl commonwealth, however narrow its borders or poor its soil, soon becomes rich and powerful ; while an ignorant one, even under the happiest circumstances of land and sky, falls a prey to anarchy, poverty and despotism. + Government is making ample provision for the secular education of all. Has it not a right, then, io require all to he educated, either in the public schools at public expense, or in private schools at private expense? We think it has, and that secular education sufficient for the common affairs of every-day life, and to enable the citizen to vote with intelligence, should be compulsory. Prussia and many other German States have tried it for years, with the happiest results. It is her vigorous system of compulsory education that in sixty years has raised her from a bankrupt and conquered petty kingdom to the ruling empire of Europe, and made her the seat and home of intelligence, industry and wealth. Boston has had such a law for twenty years, and in the last ten they have reduced truancy froin school sixty per cent. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Khode Island and Michigan have now adopted it. England has given her school boards power to adopt it, and in London they have. The effect is to increase the attendance at school, and decrease the number of juvenile delinquents. The time has arrived to try the experiment in the cities of our State at least, if not in the whole State. This will cause every child to enjoy the benefits of the public school, or of some private school. Wherever compulsory attendance has been tried long enough to determine its effect, the result has been so satisfac- tory that it has become a fixed and settled policy. Prussia, Saxony and Democratic Switzerland testify to its excellence. It is in harmony with the true spirit of a Democratic Rapub- lic to require every citizen to qualify himself for the right of suffrage and for earning an independent living. The taxpayers who furnish the money to educate all the people have a right to require thai all shall he educated, in order that crime and pauperism, and the public burdens caused by the same may be reduced to a minimum, and the ballot wield- ed only by intelligent voters. The ballot, in the hands of a corru[)t and ignorant populace, is the torch of the political incendiary ; but with an intelli- gent people is the bulwark of libert}'. H^-4-"-^ ^ jLi^"^ " An ounce of preventive is worth a pound of cure." It costs far less to prevent crime, paupciism and civil commotions, by il ^ educating the whole people, than it does to punish criminals, support paupers and maintain armies to repress an ignorant and vicious population. The average daily attendance in this State upon the public schools during the school year is only about one-third of the vi^hole school population; and upon all schools, public and pri- vate, it is only about one-half. The class most in need of school training seldom attend school at all, to wit, those whose parents, through ignorance, poverty, avarice or crime, give them little or no home education. This class can be reached only by the aid of a compulsory and searching statute. Every other remedy has been tried Avithout curing the disease. By a judicious law, firmly but kindly enforced, compelling at- tendance during school hours upon some school, either public or private, the streets of our large cities could be cleared of the thousands of youthful vagrants from whose ranks now our army of criminals is almost entirely recruited. Such a law in a sin- gle generation would work a moral and intellectual reformation and regeneration of our ci'iminal and pauper classes, and save millions of money in the departments of police, charities and corrections, and largely increase the wealth, influence and pro- ducing power of the State. The wisdom of developing and perfecting our free schools is admitted by the great majority of the community. A small minority oppose them on the ground that their religion is not specially and authoritatively taught therein. OUR GOVERNBIENT CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT TEACH RELIGION. Oar Government cannot give religious education ; because while protecting each citizen in the undisturbed enjo3auent of his own religion, as a sacred matter between him and his Maker, and thus tolerating all religions, it has none of its own and can- not favor any sect or domination or class. The whole letter and spirit of the constitution of the United States as well as of the several States, prohibits the establish- ment either directly or indirectly of a State Religion : or the showing any favor or giving any protection, privileges, or finan- cial support to one religious sect more than to another. Pro- 9 tecfion to allequcdJy,hut suppovl io none, h on this point, flic organic law of America. If tlie Churches would not interfere with the Government's secuhar education, but woukl devote the whole of their strengtli to giving, in their own places and manner, religious education, they and the Government, though working in different spheres and in different buildings, would act in entire harmony, and would in the end produce the best possible general result. By simply protecting religion, but not teaching it, Government is, as matter of fact, giving the utmost genuine vitality and strength to the religious element BUT ONE SECT OPPOSED TO FREE SCHOOLS. This American doctrine of free non-sectarian schools is sub- stantially accepted and adopted by all religious sects save one. That one, however, is large, enthusiastic, well drilled and ably and powerfully led ; and though its members are chiefl3' of foreign birth, yet, having become citizens, they are entitled to the same voice and rights and privileges as natives are in this matter. The leader of this sect, though a foreign ruler, has ordered the destruction of our free non-sectarian system of popular education, and the substitution of his own system of church or parochial schools, that is schools whose text-books and teachers are selected, appointed and controlled by the Church, though the State may be permitted to pay all the bills. In the city of New York, through State and municipal legisla- tion, the following amounts of money were obtained in the last five years from the public treasury for sectarian institutions, such as churches, church schools, and church charities, viz. : 1869 $7G7,815 of which this one sect received |G51,19l 1870 861,326 " " " 711,436 1871 634,088 " " " " 552,718 1872 419,849 " "' " 252,110 1873 324,284 " " " 306,193 Total 5 yrs. $3,017,362 " " " $2,473,648 If this is a better system than ours, we should adopt it, for we want the best ; but if it is a worse, we should reject it. 10 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM PEODUCES MORE ILLITERATES) PAUPERS AND CRIMINALS THAN OURS. It has been tried for centuries ; and in some countries, as Italy and Spain, under the most favorable auspices, for there this sect has had despotic power, both civil and religious, and so could carry its system out to its highest perfection. What, then, are its fruits? We may say, its necessary and inevitable fruits ? By its fruits it should be judged. They are as follows : (1.) A highly educated few ; but among the masses general ignorance, instead of general enlightenment. (2.) A low grade of morality. (3.) A large pauper and criminal class. (4.) A tendency to despotism and to official selfishness and corruption. (5.) A lack of national progress and development. These statements are made, first from a personal knowledge of the facts gained by investigation in those countries — having visited them before they rejected that system, for the purpose of studying this very question ; and secondly, they are made from a careful analysis of official statistics. The fruits of the two systems also exist side by side in our own country. There are with us five and a half millions of foreign-born inhabitants, the greater portion of whom came from' cour tries as Ireland and England for example, that have had the paro- chial or church system of schools ; hence they may justly be taken intelleducdly and moralli/ as the fair average product of that method of education. Of these the iUiterahs above the age of ten, are fourteen per cent. (.14) of the whole number; the jxtiipers are four and one tenth per cent. (041), and the criminals one and six-tenths per cent. (.016.) While on the other hand, in the twenty-one of our States having the American system of non-sectarian free public schools there is a native population of twenty miUions. This native population has been educated in this system of schools, and in 11 like manuer ma.}' l)e Justly taken, infcUcciuaJJjj and moralhj, as the fair average product of tliis metliod of education. Of these, the illiterates above the age of ten are only three and one-half per cent. (.035) of the whole number ; the paupers only one and seven-tenths per cent. (.017), and the criminals only three-fouiths of one per cent. (.0075). In other words, from every ten thousand (10,000) inhabitants the parochial or church system of education turns out fourteen hundred (1,400) illiterates, four hundred and ten (-110) paupers, and one hundred and sixty (IGO) criminals ; while the non- sectarian free public school system turns out only three hun- dred and fifty (350) illiterates, one hundred and seventy (170) paupers, and seventy-five (75) criminals. Or if we take Massa- chusetts by itself, which has the type or model of our free public school system, with its 1,104,032 native inhabitants, the number is still less, viz., seventy one (71) illiterates, forty-nine (49) paupers, and eleven (11) criminals. Illiierates. P.uipevs. Criiuiuals. Inliabitauts. Parochial .suliool system 1 .100 -1 1 1 CO to tlu; 10,000 Public school sj'stein in '.il States :!riO ITn T.") " 10,000 Public school system in Massachusetts. 71 '!'•• 11 " lo/xnj That is, we arc asked by these friends wlio have come here and joined us, and whose zeal and energj^ if rightly directed, will be of great service both to themselves and the country, to abolish our own well-tried system of education and adopt the one to which they, hi their former homes, became accustomed, though that one, on the average, produces four times as many illiterates, tivo and a half times as many paupers, and more than tivice as many criminals as ours. Or if we take Massa- chusetts as a fair sample of our system, we are asked to adopt one that Will give society twenty times as many illiterates, eicjld times as many paupers, i\.\\<{ fonrteen times as many criminals. We cannot do this, and when they come to understand thoroughly the facts they will not Avish us to do it ; for the AN'elfare of their children is just as dear to them as that of ours is to us, and they, equally with us, desire to diminish ignor- ance, pauperism and crime, and to make the country of their adoption and the home of their descendants intelligent, pros- perous, powerful and happy. The whole future of our country and the very existence of our free government is wrapped up in the common schooL Promote and develope that, and every department of industry and intelhgence will flourish like a tree well watered and nourished at its roots. Destroy the common school, and ignor- ance, poverty, despotism and bigotry will soon pervade the whole land. Generalizations drawn like the above from the official statistics of twenty-five millions of people are unerring guides. They settle the question as to the comparative excellence of the two systems of education. They are intellectual, industrial and moral beacons, that direct with certainty and safety the statesman and the philanthropist. They point out unmisfaJmUy to the lecjislator the duty of enacting a law requiring attendance upon schools, during the school age and the school terms, of all the children in the State, unless legally and for good and sufficient reasons temporarily excused. The preservation of free government requires this. Protec- tion of society against pauperism and crime demand it. The material developement of our country calls for it. The success and happiness in life of the children of the poor, the ignorant and the vicious can be secured only by such a statute. Your committee recommend the passage of the following resolution : Resolved, That the Legislature should enact a law authoriz- ing and empowering the school boards in each city, town and incorporated village to require the attendance at some school, public or private, during the school terms and the school hours of each day, of all children between the ages of eight and fifteen years, unless for good and sufficient reason temporarily excused. New York Dec. 30, 1873. DEXTEE A. HAWKINS, Clialrman of Committee on Education of the New York City Council of Political Reform. 13 At a meeting of the Council, held at their rooms, No. 48 East Tweuty-third street, on December 30, 1873, the foregoing Report and Resolution were accepted, adopted and ordered printed, and the thanks of the Council were presented to the Chairman of the Committee. H. N. BEERS, Secretary of the New Yorlv Council of rolitical Keforin. s of llie Iw Iiiii Cilf Coiiiifil III' l\iliiiriil lidiiriii, WM. H. NEILSOX, Preddent. THEODORE W. DWIGHT, Vice-Prcshknf. A. R. Wetmore, Wm. F. Havemeyer, D. Willis James, Henry Nicoll, Dexter A. Hawkins, Alfred C. Post, M. D. John Stephenson, Thomas C. Acton, John Falconer, J. C. Havemeyer, Robert Hoe, Geo. Hencken, Jr., s. d. moulton, Jackson S. Schvltz, -John P. Crosby, Joseph C. Jackson, C. E. Detmold, Frederick Schack, Charles Watrous, Julius W. Tiemann, John R. Voorhis, Joseph B. Varnum, H, N, BEERS, Secretari/. D0RM.\N B. Eato.n, James Emott, Henry J. Scudder, D. D. Wright, Hugh Taylor, S. B. H. Vance, Thos. L. Thornell, Hiram Merritt, J. C. Sanders, Wm. Gardner, Wright Gillies, Alonzo J. Chadsey, M. D. j. p. huggins, Phillip Bissinger, Jonathan Sturges, Geo. W. Lane, Henry Tice, Henry Clausen, Jr., Allen Hay, Edward Salomon, B. B. Sherman, Joseph H. Choate. HENRY CLEWS, Treasurer. V7 ,.0 ^ .{^^v* ^^..** /jfe- "\/ :'Mm, %.^' *; •4^ V ^^-^^ ^^^ V" t^^^ii;*^ % -;^y^4#>;s -^V ^^ .^ J,-, 0^ (?; ^. G'