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Nobby Cutaway and Sack Suits at Steinberg's Clothing House.
The Weekly University Courier
The Largest College Journa Circulation in the United States.
Published Every Friday Morning by the COURIER COMPANY For Kansas University Students.
CHAS. LYONS,
President. O. B. TAYLOR,
Secretary
EDITORIAL STAFF:
FRANK G. CROWELL, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ASSOCIATES
JOHN PRESCOTT,
F. C. KEYS,
C. N. HOWELL,
L.A. STERBINS,
H.F. B. MARR,
W.R. ARMSTRONG,
NAN. LOVE,
LILLIE FREEMAN,
GENTIR FHUNNICTU
BUSINESS MANAGERS:
EARLE L. SWOPE.  |  WILL A. JACKSON.
From the Press of P. T. FOLEY.
Entered at the post-office at Lawrence, Kansas as second-class matter.
AN ABUSE
Under the new optional system, the lines of study to be pursued in the department of History and Political Science have been mostly reduced to courses of well directed reading and research. In order to get the full benefit out of such a course, it is necessary that the students should have access to all the books of this department of the library for constant and immediate reference. In view of this necessity an arrangement was made by which all who were taking such courses of reading, should be admitted freely to the alcoves, between the hours of nine a. m. and six p. m.; and it was also provided that no books belonging to the department should be taken from the library. This latter provision was a wise one, and was designed to render the books always accessible to all the students, and to prevent any person from monopolizing the use of them by taking them to his room and thus depriving all others of them.
It was hoped that these two provisions would be sufficient to insure to all a full enjoyment of their rights and privileges, and to prevent any abuse of them. But contrary to this hope the privileges have met with some abuse. Some one of late has been in the habit of concealing books which he wished to use behind other books on the shelves, that they might be at his immediate command the next day. He doubtless did this with no deliberate intent to rob others of the use of the books, but merely as a matter of convenience to himself. He probably did it thoughtlessly, and did not realize what he was making an unnecessary convenience to himself, he was necessarily making a serious inconvenience to several others. But, however good may have been his motive, he should remember there are several other students in the University who have an equal need for, and an equal right with himself to, the use of the library; and that he has a right to a book only so long as he is using it.
COMPULSORY EDUCATION
A dead letter law is a disgrace to any community. Laws enacted and not enforced is one of the best examples of the uselessness, degredation and deterioration of the community and this disregard for all law and order. If the popular trend of the mind and public opinion can over come our statute laws and thwart al enactments of our legislature, and decisions of our judges, then our government is on the verge of destruction and a remedy should be imme diately applied. If one law is sub ject to violation, so are all others.
The law relating to grand larceny and man-slaughter is as as apt to be violated as the one concerning education.
According to the laws of Kansas children between the ages of eight and fourteen are required to be sent to school at least twelve weeks in each year, six weeks consecutively, where the schools are within two miles of the nearest traveled road.
Parents may be fined not less than $5 or more than $10 for failure to comply with the law, and $3 for the second and every subsequent offense.
Here we have a child without a protector, a law without an executor. Result, a large number of children growing up in ignorance, deprived of any improvement in their naturally sober, thrifty and provident habits, the firmest, surest and broadest foundation for good government and social advancement.
The enactors of the law undoubtedly had good intentions but "a good law without execution's like an unperformed promise."
Some step should be taken by our officers, the guardians of our laws, ot enforc this most just and wise provision, and let Kansas, ever foremost for freedom, education and justice, be among the first to enforce its educational laws.
THE NEW RULE.
The new rule concerning regularity in examinations is a good one. Already it is beginning to produce good results. In the past, many students, by reason of failure to make proper preparation, have, when the day for an examination came, felt loth to take it, and have put it off. Procrastination leads to more procrastination, and examinations which ought to have been taken in the Freshman year, were often put off until the Junior or Senior year. This tendency has always produced irregularity in class standing, great dissatisfaction with the professor and ultimately deep regret in the student. Nothing is more discouraging to one when he enters his Senior year than to find that he has a number of examinations in arrears which he ought to have taken long ago. The new rule will in time overcome the irregularities due to neglect, though of course it cannot reach those which are due to the lack of facilities throughout the state for proper preparation for the Freshmen class.
The Seniors and Juniors are required to make a selection of studies for next term before the vacation.
Is Thre a Science in Education?
From earliest times there have been teachers and students; from earliest times great-minded men have given themselves to the work of education. We see throughout Europe ancient seats of learning cared for by governments and reverently regarded. More than this, during the past two, even three centuries, enthusiastic efforts have been made to found education upon its true basis. Most fitting opportunities were granted to men who thought they had the science of the matter; experiment after experiment was tried; and yet to-day we find ourselves in the very thick of the conflict, on the threshold of great changes, and apparently no nearer the education-science. Naturally the question arises. Why is this so? as naturally also the further question, What have we to expect? These inquiries are vitally related, and the answer from the second follows from the answer of the first.
Past endeavors have not given us a science of education because, from the nature of the case, education is the last subject that can become a science. Who is it whom we seek to educate? Man. What is man? Evidently if we are to educate man upon scientific methods we must know what man is; we must know the laws of his being, the relation of these laws to one another, and to the end for which man is made. The science of education, therefore, pre-supposes a true physiology, and a knowledge of the formation of character based upon this psychology. In our country, so-called educational treatises are written by persons who have neither psychology nor minds to comprehend it; and, while these works may have much valuable practical matter, they should not be received as in any sense scientific. With one exception ("Education," by Herbert Spencer) the only works which may pretend to treat education scientifically, are German, and every one of these bases itself upon some psychological system. I need but name in illustration A. H. Niemeyer's "Ground Principles of Education," Fred Schwarz's "Instruction book of Padagogik" as coming directly out of the Kantian thought, or Miss Anna C. Brackett's translation of "The Philosophy of education," by Prof. Rosenkanz, the biographer of Hegel, as an application of Hegelian thought to education. We, of to-day, are feeling the influence of an entirely different philosophical system from either of those above mentioned. Our educational methods are being remarkably and rapidly modified. This change has received its psychological expression in England, and Mr. Spencer may be regarded as the representative thinker of this new school. Here the idea of man as to his nature and the laws of his development is distinct and peculiar; it gives us an education based almost entirely upon instruction in the physical sciences.—Prof. W. R. Benedict, in Popular Science Monthly.
THE DEATH PENALTY.
The band met last Saturday afternoon to practice.
The execution of the anarchists, and the recent hanging at Wichita, within our own state, has again excited a discussion as to the merits and defects of capital punishment. At nearly every meeting of our Legislature this question has been discussed, pro and con, within the Legislative halls, and by the people and papers throughout the state. It is now well understood that the present law in regard to murder in the first degree is but a cowardly subterfuge upon the part of the legislature to evade a direct settlement of the much mooted question as to what shall be done with the murderer. As the law stands, the burden of every execution would be thrown upon the governor of the state, and no man is strong enough to bear the responsibility of every execution. There are now about forty prisoners in the state penitentiary under the sentence of death. None of these will ever suffer as they deserve, and in all probability there will never be a legal execution in Kansas under the law as it now stands.
The principal object for which punishments are enacted against infraction of the laws, is the prevention of crime through the dread and fear of the infliction of these punishments. It is not for the sake of the vengeance which is always uppermost within the heart of him who has suffered a private wrong, or which impels the angry mob to greedily follow the path of the murderer. Society should care but little for revenge. It is for the protection of the people from the unrestrained acts of unscrupulous or impassioned men. Any punishment that tends to bring about this result, if it could be coupled with humanity, is not only just, lawful and proper, but expedient.
The death penalty is the sole remaining punishment of those who were actuated by the old "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." But it is doubtful whether we should consider that it is from the remembrance of this barbaric aphorism, that we at present inflict death upon those convicted of premeditated murder. Men are wiser in these modern days, and have learned to know that retaliation is not the only method, nor the best method, by which crime may be combatted. Is it not because we feel that the greatest crime which can be committed against society, merits the most severe punishment which is consistent with the dictates of conscience? The murderer who has studied and planned every particular of his intended act, who has taken into consideration every consequence, who has a clear realization of every result, who has suffered sufficient time to elapse for his ungovernable passions to cool ore he strikes the fatal blow, has not the slightest claim upon the community that he should be permitted to enjoy that of which he has so coldbloodedly deprived another from the enjoyment. He is a burden to the earth, a monstrosity which should be gotten rid of at the earliest opportunity. There should be no
waste of sentiment in the case. To the objection: "we should respect the sacredness of human life" the answer of Talleyrand: "then, let Messieurs, the assassins begin and set the example," is a tense, comprehensive way of putting the whole matter. He who has no respect, deserves none. We should respect the sacredness of the many lives rather than the few, and place the non-respector in a position where he will have no opportunity to jeopardize a single human. We should show that we so respect the sacredness of human life by putting him to death who does not so respect it.
One of the principal objections urged against capital punishment, is the difficulty of conviction in trials or murder in the first degree. It is an awful responsibility to condemn a fellow creature to death, and the mercy and humanity of man is shown in the dread to render a verdict of leath. As long as human nature remains unchanged, this will be. And is it not for the best that this is true. Are there not cases, though rare indeed, where there are mitigating circumstances that make homicide justifiable, even though it be premeditated? And ought not it be premeditated? And ought not the jury to have the right to take into account all these circumstances and render a verdict accordingly. But the possibility of suffering death, even though the possibility be extremely small, is a powerful check upon the passions. That "perhaps" has controlled many an aroused savagery. It is undoubtedly true that even in our own state, where there has not been a state execution since the passage of the present law in 1872, that the fact that is possible to execute a murderer has been a check, though it will be admitted that if the law was fully understood the check would be slight. It can be proven by the examination of the records of those localities where capital punishment has been abolished and reinstated, that the fear of death has been the most mighty in restraining crime. But to the question, why not make all crimes punishable by death and reduce sin to a minimum? Would not the placing of all crimes upon an equality have a most pernicious effect upon a community? Would not the placing of the murderer and the robber of a penny upon the same level give the idea that one was no worse than the other, and derive murder of its awful heinousness? Would not all thefts be accompanied by murder? The uncertainty of conviction would become greater and greater. And is it not right and just that there should be gradations of punishment?
The majority of the objectors to capital punishment advocate the making of imprisonment for life the punishment for murder. It is their claim that this punishment possesses all the terrors of death, and can be made even more terrible; that it would be as potent in the prevention of murder as is the present law. But how truthfully does Shakespeare say: "The wearied and most loathed worldly life That age, ache, penury and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death."
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