Thus we find that while the school tax on each adult in New York would be but $3.56, in the adjoining state of Pennsylvania it would be $4.26; that while in Massachusetts it would be but $3.23, in Illinois it would be $4.88—a difference of $1.65 per capita to the adult; that while in New Hampshire it would be but $2.78, in Mississippi it would be more than double that amount. But the reader can himself, by a glance at the list presented, perceive even more glaring inequalities than these in the relative burdens which would be imposed upon the adult population of the various states and territories, were that burden to be placed entirely on their shoulders.

If it be the true policy of a nation to equalize, as far as possible, the necessary burdens imposed upon its people, then we certainly have before us in these statistics, a condition of facts demanding serious consideration and efficacious action by the general government.

If inequality in the burdens imposed in order to educate our children be any argument in favor of national aid to education—and who will venture to deny it?—then we have in these statistics positive evidence of very great and possibly hitherto unsuspected inequalities; inequalities of which none could be aware without a close and critical analysis of the figures, the developments of which as previously hinted, may well cause us to modify somewhat the reproaches we may have felt inclined to cast upon some of our states for what seemed to be a lack of proper effort on their part in the direction of education.

While, however, reproachful criticism of them still appears to some extent justifiable, yet the deductions from rearrangement and classification of the census and educational bureau tables show that the fault does not altogether lie at the doors of those among whom the greatest amount of illiteracy is found.

In order to make this clear let us examine the ratio of children enrolled in schools, not to the state, but to the adult population. That ratio is, in Alabama, 34.6 per cent.; Arkansas, 31.4; California, 35.2; Colorado, 17.7; Connecticut, 36.1; Delaware, 34.6; District of Columbia, 32.1; Florida, 35.8; Georgia, 42; Illinois, 50; Indiana, 54.3; Iowa, 56; Kansas, 53.8; Kentucky, 36.3; Louisiana, 19.8; Maine, 40; Maryland, 31.4; Massachusetts, 33.5; Michigan, 44; Minnesota, 47.8; Mississippi, 48.6; Missouri, 47.7; Nebraska, 45.5; New Hampshire, 31.3; New Jersey, 40.7; New York, 40.3; North Carolina, 40.7; Ohio, 47.8; Pennsylvania, 42.2; Rhode Island, 30.2; South Carolina, 32.3; Tennessee, 49.1; Texas, 25.2; Utah, 44.4; Vermont, 38; Virginia, 35.4; West Virginia, 51.8; Wisconsin, 50.4, and in the entire Union, 42 per cent.

Now, the mean average number of children in the United States enrolled in the schools being forty-two to every one hundred adults, what is our surprise to find, in the figures just given, that every New England state, as well as New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia, falls below this average, while on the other hand, every northwestern state (including Ohio, Missouri and Kansas), as well as Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia, stands above it!

That in proportion to the adult population of those states, there are more children at school in Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia, than in any of the New England states, is, indeed, an astounding revelation.

Supposing, then, the cost of educating a child in those states to be the same, it follows that each one hundred adults in Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia are paying more to educate their children than is paid by the same number of adults in any New England state!

At first sight these statistical results fairly stagger one, and give rise to doubts of their accuracy. But a careful examination of them will satisfy any reasonable mind that these developments are veritable facts, if the census returns and the school enrollment reported by the Commissioners of Education are to be accepted—being based upon and directly calculated from them. Even supposing the existence of some deficiencies in the returns or some minor errors in the calculations, the general facts they reveal must be accepted as true.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]