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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1877)
' 'A. &-& 180 EDUCATION AND TIIK El.lHTIVK VllAKCIIISK. resa ffc4' W5 M. IB&ai Whnt the uiilinnKlncd (,'lorien of the diiy? Wlutt llio evil that hnll porlcli In Itc uny? Aid tliu (litwnlii),'! tiingiio mill pun! Aid it, hopes of litmiist men, Aid It pnpor, iild It typo, Aid It, for this hour U ripe; Ami our earnest must not slacken into play. Iun of thought and men of action, clear the way!" M. H. F. EDUCATION AND TUK KLKVT1 VK FJlANVJJlSh'. "Vc often hear lliib question raised ; shall wo make education a test in the exercise of the right of suffrage!1 Most persons, perhaps, will at once answer this question in the affirmative. Sonic will answer it thus, but thoughtlessly, since this view of it seems to them a self evident truth. They look at its desirability rather than at its practicability. This proposal has been favored by men in high position, as by ex president Grant in his last annual message. Such a scheme has doubtless arisen from good motives; yet it looks inconsis'cnl with the spirit of our institutions. It would, no doubt, be very desirable, could this be realized; yet what is desirable is often quite impracticable. Were it other wise, the Utopian theories that float around tis would long since have made this world of ours indeed a paradise. This scheme we look upon as impracti cable, unjust and impolitic, at least, ai the present time. Let us therefore look at il, and seek to find its nature and practical bearings. ft is, in the first place, imprac. ticable, as it is difficult to fix for the pur. pose a standard of education. The terms of the proposition itself admit of very un like interpretations. Shall we take as a standaid a prescribed amount of hook knowledge, or shall we determine a man's fitness by his intelligence In cither case what shall be the degree of the standard, and above all, bow is it with justice to be determined? Even if a fixed standard of qualification were adopted, this arbitrary attempt to bring all voters to a common intellectual level would prove both lutilo and unjust. Filtile, because every person cannot gain u useful education. Some may go to school for years, and yet be able to read and write only in the most indif ferent manner. An advantageous edueu lion is beyond their grasp. Through some peculiarity in their intellectual make-up, they cannot reach it. Now this may he in part, and only in putt, owing to poor instruction in the. schools. JJy increasing, therefore, the clllcicnoy of the latter, this class may be reduced in numbers, but yet it cannot wholly be removed. The bus1 educated nations have ever contained large numbers of those having either a limited education or none at all. And in the nil. ture of tilings, this will never cease to bo the case. The attempt would also be unjust, he cause, in many instances, it would place a needless barrier between a voter and the use ol the elective franchise; needless he. cause there is no fault on his own part to call for such a barrier. "A knowledge of books does not imply in every ease a knowledge of the most practical use in every day life;ueither does the converse necessarily bold. The result, then, of this attempt would be to takeaway all political privileges from a class, whereas, in a point of practical worth, many of these compare favorably with some of the educated class. We further claim that the proposal is impolitic. The moment when education is made a test the voter will Unci also political power taken away from the peo pie its a whole, and placed in the hands of a privileged class. Our republic would thus become an aristocracy, and the very act would be a direct remove from the mam principals of true democracy. It would also show that our national life has proved a hothouse culture, and the inllu. ence thereof fatal to the democratic sim plicity of our early history. The breach between thoo two classes, the educated and the illiterate, once made, would tend to widen. The interests, thoughts and feelings of the former would differ from
