The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-05-09
NUMBER 80.


be oppressive to those communities which
VIII be burdened with the support of per
haps hundreds OF families whose natural
supporters have resolved to turn their
plowshares into swords and their pruning
hooks into spears. Beside, such course
would rapidly tend to bring our noble
Common School System into disfayor with
the masses, whose cheerful compliance
with its requirements aud hearty co-opera-
tion with Directors are essential to It's
success. Just now heavy taxation for all
purposes not directly connected with the
prosecution Of war measures must of ne
cessity be avoided, and School Directors
are therefore entirely justifable .tos. the
present IN refusing to levy a tax for school
purposes for the school year commencing
on the first day Of June next This policy
does not by any means imply an abandon
ment Of the System, but viii merely limit
its usefulness in Johnstown and Cone
maugh boroughs, and perhaps IN the bor-
oughs Of DIillville, Wilmore and Ebens-
burg, to tisK and aCiater te,ne Of toar
months, instead Of an aggregate summer
and winter term of ei1ltt or ten nlon6ts--
In our large towns the people viii cheer
fully second the determination of their
Directors to keep the schools open dt least
four months during the fall and winter,
while they would feel unable and unwilling
to support them tlctce that time Then
again, when taxation for school purposes
in the fall Of the year does come, the war
may be over and gone. If not, the tax
viii be paid Aep' with better grace and
from more plethoric purses than it would
h.. IL
viii, OF course, during the summer months
send their children to subscription Schools
the visitation of which it wiz be my pleas
ure as well as my constructive duty. not to
neglect.
OF course the foregoing remarks are
mainly applicable to those Joroughs of the
county in which schools have heretofore
been taught by authority Of the Directors
In the summer months. In all the rural
districts, and in some of the smaller bor-
oughs OF the county, the teaching term is
confined to the fall and winter months,
and therefore no necessity exists now for
taking any action whatever relative to the
next term 1t will be time enough in
these districts three months hence to levy
the school tax for next winter. When
that time arrives, it is hoped that no Board
of Directors viii hesitate to levy tax
which, with the aid derived from the
State, win be sufficient TO keep the schools
of their district in operation four months.
The hope is also INDUCED that the taxpay-
ers OF every country district and small
borough will by that time be able to come
up manfully to the help Of the most be-
neicent system of general education the
wisdom Of man ever devised.
With regard to outstanding duplicates
in majority Of the districts of the county,
| most respectfully beg leave to suggest to
the Directors Of those districts the propri-
ETY. of urging their immediate collection
No duplicate should ever remain unsettled
and unpaid after the Auditors Settlement
on the second Monday Of April. Taxpay-
ers in the country districts, from which
but few volunteers have yet been taken,
and in which Soldiers Relief Funds have
not yet been established, are just as able
to-day to pay the school tax already assess
ed against them, and for the prompt pay
ment of which they are morally and legally
responsible, as they were a month ago,
before the Secession serpent brought to US
all our woes. BY all means, then, let the
old duplicates be speedily collected, and
the needy teachers Of last winter be paid
their wages. In crisis ike that which
is now upon US it is the duty of every man
&c pay his just debts, if pay them he can,
and the debt you owe to the teacher Of
your children should be paid .frst.
These hints and suggestions are thrown
out as part of nty duty in the present
crisis, trusting that they VII be received
in the same kindly spirit which dictated
them. JAMES NJ. SwANK, Co. Sup't.
JoHNsrowN, April 26, 1851.