New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-06-27

for the sakes Of part but Of all. Where
all are educated, there will inevitably be
less vice and crime, more morality and vir-
tue, than where ignorance is common con-
sequently, Property, being more safe from
depreciation, has much higher value A
farm or other property exposed TO frequent
losses from depredations or riots is Aot worth
near so much as that same property would
| be if secure from all loss. Land is actually
worth more in the midst Of an educated, in
telligent population than equally good lard
inhabited by an equally dense but ignorant
population. The educated farmers or me.
chanic's SOD, though himself farmer or
mechanic, is ten times more likely to invent
or improve some labor-saving machine or
power which will increase the value of fixed
Property by increasing the efficiency of La
Dor. We maintain, then, that, on several
distinct grounds, IL is the interest Of Proper
| ~ that all Shopld be educated, and that the
children taught in any district are not the
only persons benefited by their education,
but that all who own property in or near 1t
are benefited likewise.
Now, then, to the application: Here is
district wherein one man is worth ten thou
sand dollars and has but one child Tor none,
if you please while another has ten chill
dren who ought to go to school and worth
but one thousand dollars. The latter must
feed and clothe all these children, and can
have very little help from them while they
60 to school; yet you contend that (provid-
ing the whole number Of pupils be tilty) he
must pay one-fifth Of the entire charge upon
the district for maintaining that school,
though he is worth but a thousand dollars,
while the man worth ten thousand pays but
fitch part or nothing, according as he
chooses to send his one child to the District
School or keep him out of it. Now you may
talk of its justice till Christmas, yet we shall
still feel that it is niggardly, shabby, unjust,
to make that poor man pay one-6fth Of the
tax for that District School and let the rich
man OF with fftieth. If he knows the
worth Of Education to Property, and is at
heart q just man, we cannot scs with what
face he can ask It.
But when you come to talk to us of e.
onadting" the Poor from the payment Of
the SchoolTax you rouse spirit that will
not easily be quelled. Here is man worth
twenty thousand dollars, with two or three
children, who oultivates his three or four
farms for one large one) by the help of half
dozen men, who live in cottages on or near
his land, and work for him when he wants
them. At the outside, their earnings will
not amount to two hundred dollars each per
annunn, and from this sum they have to buy
fuel, food, clothing, &c. for their families,
often Including six or eight children. These
children should be taught, yet the parents
can hardly see how to pay the expense. %
that is easily managed insinuates \. B.:
the father has only 70 50 before the Trus-
tees and state that he is not able to pay his
'School-tax, and he will be erOHerated, and
the ADLER assessed TO make it up. Easy,
do you call that? We beg leave to differ
from you. Did you ever try anything Of
the sortl Have you ever been downright
poor enough, destitute enough, 70 feel how
much pride there is in you? No man knows
how proud his spirit is ill he has gone hun
cry and shabby for want Of the needful.-
No man who knows how strong is the ten
deney Of children TO ape the bad habits of
their seniors, and lock down with contempt
on the dependent, can think it light mat
ter for father to send his children to school
where they will be pointed at as paupers
who ave being educated by charity, while
the rest have parents who pay for them.
Were it our lot to hold some other mans
pillow at twelve dollars a month, and try to
bring up six or eight children on the pro-
oeeds, and were it apparently out Of our 1
power to pay the regular rate bills, we /
should hesitate long between keeping those /
children at home and teaching them all thar |
we could, and sending them to school 10 /
be pointed at as exOnerated" or paupers.
And we know that thousands not only hest
tate but refuse to send under just such cir,
eumstances. There were not less than Fif-
ty Thousand Children kept at home BY
dread Of rate-bills and greater dread of hay
ing them sneered at and Inundated as pau
pers when our present law was enacted.
At least Thirty Thousand have been brought
inte the Schools by the operation Of that
law. imperfect as il is and resisted rs it has
A. -.