This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887. Excerpt: ... bettering their condition and fulfilling more perfectly the duties and obligations of life. The public good is a higher object than any private interest. Universal education, in the language of our founder, is "a debt due from present to future generations." It is an obligation of property, a proper return for protection afforded, the surest guaranty of security and increase.' "The general fact urged by Dr. Curry does not need illustration or argument. The special interest of this association in the subject is indicated by the question, 'How can our system of popular education be improved so as more effectually to aid in the prevention of crime f' It must not be inferred from this question that there is doubt as to the influence of our present systems of public education. That influence is clearly and powerfully on the side of morality and honesty. But cannot this influence be vastly widened and strengthened? In the existing condition of criminal statistics in the United States one may well hesitate if asked, what is the chief source of crime in our country? Among the capital leading causes of crime, we must surely class the inability and the unwillingness of our young people of both sexes to make their living by manual labor. Last year Mr. William Mather, a member of the English Royal Commission on Education, submitted to his government a report on American methods of education, in which he said: "' Too large a class of young people of both sexes in America are seeking pursuits that avoid manual labor. Their education in the high schools and colleges tends rather to unfit them for the active industries of life in a country where the vast resources of nature are waiting for willing and trained hands to utilize them. The nativeborn American hates drudgery, ...