Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-05-11
sPECULATIONS WITH SCHOOL
MONEYS

AZ Is Truly oifCohihS W hhO -
Radical paper denouncing tho short
comings and corrupt practices ofits
own party. The new editors ofthe
Press and Times have shown the
possession of this redeeming virtue,
at least in the matter of the school
fund In their paper of yesterday
they say of the "sacred" school
fund:
"It seems that light is breaking upon
the transactions connected with the
missing school fund. The hidden hands
will soon appear that clutched and bore
away this sacred deposit. 1t was plum
der, wholesale and iniquitous. 1t was
monstrously wicked. Corruption makes
no approach to the definition of this
damnable operation. The scoundrslly
manipulators did not only fitch from the
treasury, but equally as had as high
waymen, robbed the children of the
State.
awe regard with suspicion every man
connected with the sinking of this fund
by report, who cannot exculpate himself.
And in this connection we would ask
why Col. Wilcox has been silent, be>
yond assuring the people of Knox county
that his robbing at Chattanooga will not
be their misfortune? Why has not John
Eaton, Jr., the State superintendent Of
Public Instruction, who was at Chatts-
nooga in company with Col. Wilcox at
the time of the reported robbery, fur>
nished the public with statement in
regard to the matter? We ask these
questions with the hope that they will
be satisfactorily answered.
Now, we desire it to be distinctly
understood, that we design making no
warfare upon any man connected with
the disappearance of the school money,
but, as journalists responsible to the
people, we intend to work for their in
terests and make known those who are
plundering them"
1t will be seen from Mr.. Wilcox's
card in the Knoxville Wing, re-
produced elsewhere, that he has
been using the school moneys be-
longing to Knox county to specu-
late upon. Itcould have been for no
other purpose, for he is not only not
required to make such investments
as he did, but there is not the
semblance Of authority for it. The
Press and Times has promptly de-
nounced certain suspicious looking
transactions connected with the
missing school fund" VIII they as
promptly and as vigorously de-
nounce what Mr.. Wilcox confesses
has been his custom" with what
ever surplus school money he
might have on hand? This money
is raised for the benefit of the chill
dren of the State, and it must not
be put in jeopardy by such county
superintendent as may take
a fancy to speculate with it.
Ever since the coin returned with
the Bank Of Tennessee was
solemnly set apart by the Legis-
lature as a portion of the perma-
nent school fund, and the half OF
it was so mysteriously, not to say
corruptly lost through the Tennes-
see National Bank Of Memphis,
money that goes under the name of
school funds has a strangely tempt
ing influence: One superintendent
in East Tennessee invests the money
belonging to his county in State
bonds and another uses it in bust
ness transactions. OF course the
securities of these gentlemen are
solvent, and in any contingency
the State would not lose, but there
is no authority for the superintend-
ents to thus use money belonging
to the school fund. Let us have a
strict application of this money to
the object for which it was levied
nd collected. -.