Excerpt from Schools a Paying Investment for the State

Other concrete illustrations of this fact are at hand. For example. Mullhall gives the annual earning capacity of the inhabitants of several European countries as follows: Nations with efficient educational Nations with inadequate educational systems. systems. England 36 Spain 16 France 31 Greece 13 Germany 25 Russia 10

The effect of education upon the accumulation of wealth is equally notable. The figures given by Mullhall for the total wealth per inhabitant of these several European nations are: Nations with efficient educational Nations with inadequate educational systems. systems. England 302 Spain 135 France 252 Greece 101 Germany 156 Russia 61

Similarly, in America, Massachusetts, with slightty smaller population than Texas, has $4, 956, 000, 000 of accumulated wealth to $2, 836, 000, 000 possessed by Texas. That this is not altogether due to the fact that Massachusetts is a much older State than Texas is shown by the fact that Wisconsin, a comparatively new State, with only about two-thirds the population of Texas, has an equal amount of wealth, and California, a newer State, with only two-thirds the population, has $4, 115, 000, 000 of wealth. All three of these richer States for years spent two or three times as much per child on education as Texas spent.

The relation of productive power to education is shown by the enormously increased rate of production that has come about everywhere since education became more generally diffused. The total wealth accumulated in America from 1492 to 1860, a period of 368 years, was$514 per capita. Fromthen till 1904, a period of only 44 years, this increased to$1, 318 per capita, or an addition in 44 years of $802 per capita.3 Since that time the increase has been even more striking. This increase is partly due to increased valuations or the smaller purchasing power of the dollar, to the use of accumulated capital, and to many other things, but after due allowance is made for all these the conclusion is inevitable that the education of the Nation is largely responsible for vastly increasing the productive power of its citizens. The productive power of illiterate countries is not increasing at such rates.

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