Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1843-07-21
From the Vermont Mercury.
STATE SCHOOL FUND.

NO. x.
In preyious numbe. we hare said, that
the State school fund owed its origin TO the
Old Vermont State Bank, aud that the act
of 1925, establishing that fund, was designed
az shelter 10 protect the scattered irag-
ments Of that institution.
"The act constituting this fund provides,
that. until the same shall amount 10 sum,
which shall Weld an annual interest or in
come. sufficient TO defray the current ex-
penses Of keeping a good free common
school in each district in the several towns.
for a period Of two months II shall not be
expended or appropriated TO the use OF com
mon schools. Admitting the number OF
towns in the State to be $40, and allowing
II districts 10 each town, and SOS ~ as the
expense Of keeping good free common
school for two months in each year, aud IT
would require capital Of 81 600, 600, yield
ing an interest Of six per cent. per aDnum,
making no deductions fer loss or expense oil
managing the fund, before the people Of this
State could expect to realize any OF the ben
e6ts contemplated in the establishment OF
this fund. The Auditors report IN the
Treasury Department, in Nov. lS4l, show
ed the fund, in round numbers, TO be Sl64,-
600. II had then been accumulating SIX
teen years, and it would require hlty-h'e
years more, before that sum, at compound
interest, making no allowance for loss or
expense. would amount TO S4,OO0,OOO, or
very nearly. This sum would be required,
10 yield tie necessary amount OF annual IN
terest. In this calculation no allowance is
m1de for increment Of population, though
at the rate Of increase, as exhibited by the
census, for the last twenty years, II would
have accumulated more than twenty per
cent This possible increment Of popula-
ton. and the indefinite sum required to keep
school two months in the year, may posi-
bIy outrun the yearly additions made to the
fund. and thus much farther delay the peri
cd DESIGNATED for the distribution"
la 1912 the nominal amount OF the iund
was SlS4, S06 70, and the debt due the fund
from the State was $751; Az o., which de-
Quoted from the nominal amount will leave
the sum of S33, 4S9 20, as the present actu-
al available amount Of the fund. Eighteen
wears have elapsed since the nucleus Of this
fund was established, and here we have the
actual result OF accumulation, unless we add
the $751; ,4l70S being the debt due that
fund by the State. Blu; there is no more
propriety in considering that debt as part OF
the fund, than Of inyentorying mortgage
Of mans farm as part Of the morfgagor' 5
property In both cases the money is used,
expended, gone, and not TO be recovered,
but by the same slow process, by which the
one was earned, aud the other accumulated.
But il is said the State owes the fund. BE
il so, but let US look at the subject as II will
be found TO be in practice. The State debt
has no resources but in direct taxation, and
the amount Of this debt, if ever paid TO the
fund is to be raised de moro, and thus leaving
US, so Far as the debt issconcerned, precisely
in the same place whence we started. II
from the data assumed ia the Auditors Re-
port of 1912 il will require fifiy-four years
for el64, 900, at compound interest, TO
amount to 81, 900, 900. it will require some
thing more than 269 years Tor the present
available residue Of that fund to amount to
that sum, as may be seen by any one who
will take the trouble TO make the calculation.
1t is assumed in this calculation, that subse-
quent legislatures shall extend to the fund
the same paternai protection! which il has
received for the last eighteen years Should
the legislature adopt course OF taxation TO
pay off this debt to the fund, the mere ex-
pense of collecting the tax at 7 per cent.
would be $40, 500 "a. This sum wonld be
sunk in attachments and in collectors fees
and would never reach the fund. The tax
paying community will therefore be called
on to advance 1852 ,0I6 81, to reinsiate the
school fund in the position il would have
occupied, but for the loan TO the State, for
building the State House, and for expenses
other than the ordinary expenses Of govern
ment. The facility of obtaining money is
a fruitful occasion of extravaganza in gov
ernments, as we'll as in individuals. But for
the aid Of the school fund, the expenses Of
erecting the State House could not have
been met A fund, accessible by the legs.
iature, will be ever ready to encourage that
body TO make liberal appropriations, for any
object strongly commenting itself to their
judgment or sympathies. When a govern.
ment has no other resources TO supply It's
pecuniary necessities, than direct taxation
no expense ought TO be incurred by the lie.
gislature, which would not justify direct
tax upon the peoples AUDITOR,
within the last seven years the Legislature hal
appropriated for bounties on crows $4,I97 Al
" 4" " Cocoons al o.