The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-08-07
Extra Session of the Boord of School

Extra Session of the Boord of School
COmmissiOnerS.-The School Board held
an extra meeting last week. Among other
business the difficulty with the County
Commissioners, which through the per-
verseness of certain officials has caused Sc
rious embarrassment in the school manage
ment, came before the Board.
1t is not easy to understand how any diff
ficulty should have arisen between the two
Boards, in regard to their several duties,
under law SO clearly expressed. Chapter
9th, sec. 1st requires the School Commits
sioners to keep open the county schools for
ten months in the year. Chapter Sd, sec.
4th, requires the County Commissioners to
levy upon the assessable property of the
county the sum which shall be designated
by the School Commissioners as sufficient
for the purpose of paying salaries of teach
ers and providing books and stationery for
the children. There is no discretion repos-
ed in the County Commissioners 1t is
ministerial duty to make such levy as the
ocHOOt bOHTu snail ucSlyH0te
Here is the entire law, so far as it bears
upon this controversy, CHI. Sd, sec. 4:
"The State School Fund is primarily
intended under this act to pay the salaries
of the teachers of the several counties, and
to provide school books and stationery for
the children of the State. If. however, in
apportioning the said State School Fund
among the different counties and the City
of Baltimore, the share of any county
should prove inadequate for the purposes
aforesaid, then the County Commissioners
OF such county are hereby authorized, EN-
powered, DIRECTED and REQUIRED to levy
and collect such a tax upon the assessable
property of each county, as the Board of
County School Commissioners sAuH OBSTINATE
as sufficient to make good the deficiency,
and to pay quarterly, on the day fixed for
the payment of the State School Fund to
the several counties, the amount so levied
and collected, over to the Treasurer of the
said Board of County School Commission
ers, in order that the schools may be kept
open for the time herein set FORTH and the
said tax shall be levied and collected as
other taxes"
Whether this is a wise and salutary law
is one question: what are the duties of
the respective Boards under this law is
another and very different question. The
first may admit of debate the second is
too clear for intelligent men to dispute
about.
Under the above section, the School
Board designated 20 cents in the hundred
dollars, as the sum sufficient to answer the
purposes specified in that section. But the
County Commissioners refused to levy
sum exceeding Is cents in the hundred dol
lars, and from the refusal to levy the addi-
tonal cents, arose this disagreement be-
tween our august county officials.
The School Board appeared to think it
due to themselves that this matter should
be definitely settled one way or the other.
If this law has been enacted and stands
upon the statute book of the State as the
will of the people, it is only fair to assume
that it is their wish that it should be hon
estly carried out. To the School Board is
entrusted this duty, and they would be ne
glectful of that trust, did they permit the
/ County Commissioners to sit in Judgment
upon the propriety of executing public
law of the State.
Accordingly, they passed resolution to
apply for writ of Mandamus to enforce
their demand
HYDRAULIC WASHING MACHINE.-Mr.
w. I. West, residing near Rowlandsville,
having purchased one of the Hydraulic
Washing Machines of me, furnishes the
following testimony in its favor. Mr.. w.