Show GENUINE EDUCATION A question of vital importance abid one that they cannot ignore een n if they felt inclined to do so fuents itself to the latter day saints at the present time connected with the education of their Ob dyon ildren possibly on the earth is the percentage of juveniles pr per family as great as among the saints aih and this enormous local inse ate of the population demands calr f utmost care and attention they are the coming members of the G hurch church and citizens of the state tipon whom shall devolve the labor required laired to subdue the earth and establish bash truth and virtue in the aft dat of the children of men to knafele them to fulfil fulfill the highest deliby tte stiny which opens up before tham sa it is that they S d be properly educated our teg streams of water our pure ba and healthful climate are all to physical development am ad manhood and woman wod hb 0 4 indeed we have scarcely ay thing left to desire in this diree aai r district school system offers an excellent opportunity for mental culture in the ordinary branches of an english education nearly or quite one half of the taxes collected in the territory are devoted to the sustenance of our common or district schools all the modern and improved appliances and apparatus to aid and assist the teacher are in general use charts maps blackboards etc etc are to be found hanging upon the walls of all our schools school teachers 5 basoria associations abound on every hand e encouraging n cou raging the discussion and application of the very latest methods plans and details of successful teaching the general distribution of newspapers books and reading matter of every variety opens up a wide educational field in this particular direction enabling the student to grapple WM with and master the most difficult scientific social and political problems of the age here too a university munificently endowed and popularly patronized its various departments presided over by professors of known and acknowledged ability who have received instruction in the leading educational institutions of america places within our reach a systematic course of education that would seemingly remove illiteracy entirely ti and gives to the youth of utah an opportunity seldom equaled and rarely excelled of preparing for foe the struggle of life these same privileges are granted to almost all the citizens of our common country and the chances afforded to real merit and worth a are re well nigh unlimited notwithstanding all these advantages however we find a peculiar condition of affairs growing up gradually it is true but steadily nevertheless tending toward infidelity socialism anarchistic views Nihilism and the different panaceas offered for the blessing and benefit of suffering humanity to imagine that our children will escape the pernicious influence of these doctrines and principles is almost hoping against hope to illustrate the situation more fully we will take the state of massachusetts where the public school system haa had abundant facilities lor for the development of its strength and shown good results we learn from official statistics that in the year 1850 there was one criminal to every eight hundred inhabitants and in 1870 one to every four hundred in short that notwithstanding the influence of a popular and universal system of education in that state the criminal percentage has haa doubled in twenty twe nty years this ratio of increase has apparently had a steady growth down to the present time the chaplain of the sing sing aing penitentiary new york made the following report on october lat 1883 convicts 1406 number who have attended public schools 1375 1275 number who have attended academies 11 number who have attended colleges 4 number that can re td id 6 5 illiterate total I 1 1406 1405 out of 1405 convicts 1296 1295 have had the privilege of public school education and are evidently not inmates of the he prison above named owing to ignorance neither has the course of training which they have undergone been sufficient to kep keep them from wearing the convicts convict is stripes this is certainty certainly a remarkable showing and one calculated to cause everyone who has the well being of the human family at heart to reflect seriously if our present system of education fails so lamentably in controlling the moral action of the people is it not quite time that we looked about in order to discover the cause of the failure our country swarms with a class of people generally denominated tramps they are to be met on every highway and byway by way in the land trudging along railroad tracks stealing rides in freight cars on the top of passenger cars on the break beam anywhere and everywhere that they can obtain a scanty foothold we find them congre congregating atin often at some central point t in suf sufficient numbers to take possession of a train or a village ani carrying things with a high hand thief of the new world one of i the most singular facts connected with this class is that they are almost universally educated to a greater gr enter or less extent frequently men of superior education but evidently lacking in moral culture and representing in realia reality the mud sills of the social fabric uric of christian civilization BT the foundation and body of the edifice are found to be so radically would it not be well to examine the carstones capstones cap stones and learn the condition of the head of the image who are the acknowledged literary lights of the loth ce century are they not the dalls the Dar carwins wins the emersons and the Inger who without division repudiate the god of israel and reject the atoning blood of the savior sneering at communication between god and man they substitute fine spun span philosophical theories for the Cst straight raight and narrow way 11 and by pro processes cemes of evolution physical and men mental tal produce I 1 immortal tn ortal man with the at attributes autes of the dehy from a protoplasm the seed has been sown and the harvest draws near if we place our children under these influences must we not naturally expect that they will float with the current and become like the resty rest 1 JOHN ion K M ORG SALT SAIT LAKE crry CITY feb 9 ai aw |