Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1871-01-12
NO. Il

school is practicable at all, it can be furn-
ished far more ..cheaply, regularly and
certainly, by the public than by the pri-
Vate system.
Virginia, for tie frst time as a State,
is entering upon systematic production
Of the most valuable commodity which
can be pos essed by State OF offered in
the markets of the world namely. trim
Cd mind. Nothing else commands so
high price, or produces such large re-
suits, nen are valued everywhere, not
IN proportion to their brute force, or even
their natural endowments, but in proper
ton to their knowledge, skill and habits
Of Industry. Slumbering intellect and
unframed fingers can command bat little
more wages than the powers Of the brute.
In every grade of employment intelli-
gence adds to the value of the labor, and
III the same proportion to the wealth of
the State. There is no Question connect
ed with this subject thal' is more inte-
resting, and none that will bear closer
examination, than the commercial value
of popular education, when mind utters
Its workings In the form ofreapers, manur-
es' cotton gins, printing presses, railroads
aud steamboats,, one eau easily See that the
cost OF educating generation is paid By
the production of a few men like Watt anu
Whitney, Edmund Rufin and the McCor-
mlcks. But it is hot SO obvious, vet
equally true, that popular education con
stantly produces an Infinite variety Of
similar results, which when taken slngly,
may attract but limited notice, vet occur
ing, as they do, in every department of
effort, their combined influence on the
prosperity of the State is prodigious. And
this influence is not confined to the pro-
duction Of new inventions, buf is every
where stimulating and improving the
quality of labor SO that the aggregate of
the unnoticed results far more than re-
turns a Il its cost to the State
One other vital consideration presses
this matter upon our attention at this
critical time. immigration will avoid "a
Stats which has not good free school
system in operation. Mechanics and far
mers, IN choosing home, will always be
largely Influenced by the educational ia
cllties OF country. Mechanics know
that they had better take lower wages,
farmers know that they had better pay
higher prices for land, here there are pub.
lie schools, than where they would have to
depend on the costly, troublesome and
uncertain mode of hunting up means of
educa ton by private effort. THIS consid-
Grafton will also influence rich CAPT,
talists just as much as men of smaller
means. If capitalists buy lands, estab-
fish factories, open mines, or build rail
reads, their success is dependent upon
attracting laborers, small producers and
large patronage.
!. At this moment all the property in Vir-
ginia is depressed for the want of facilities
for popular education. Let it be known
that the public school system here has
become fixed fact, and is to be efficiently
worked, and the annually growing value
of property will pay the school tax ten
times over. This invigorating influence
is now coming to be understood by think
ing men generally. DR.. Sears, who has
had opportunities of observation equal
perhaps to any man living, declares that
the strongest friends and largest contrib
utors to the public school cause he has met
with in the South, as we'll as elsewhere,
have been the large property holder& 4 few
days ago an intelligent Western capitalist
came into the office of the Superintendent
of Public obstruction at Richmond for the
purpose Of saying that he had purchased
2OOO acres of land on the Potomac, with
a view to resale in small tracts. and would |
now give $1,000 for the establishment of !
a public school on or near his land. Said !
he IN substance, Il am great advocate
OF public schools on general principles, !
but make this proposition for reasons
purely selfish. have tried to induce +
settlers to come and buy my lands, but
they all say the same thing-'we cannot
60 where there are no public schools,
1t IS evident to ME that cannot sell my
lands until there are schools, Expert. |
enced land agents testify to the same eff
feet.
Intimately connected with this point is
the character of laboring population. -
Who arts to bay land among plunder-
ing vagabonds, who live by stealing more
than BY work /! What was land worth in T
Calforn ia before it had good population?
What decent man wants land in Mexico |
or St. Domingo q? Now who are the idle
thieves that infict damage upon the
property Of country Let the records of
prisons answer. As a rule, thoy are the
iliterate. High and low, rich aud poor
are all interested deeply in universal ed
ucation.
W II. RUFFNER,
Superintendent Public Instruction, va. /