The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-01-13
NUMBER ls.

of yards will be required to raise the
levees to their old grade, and over
thirty-fiye millions of cubic yards to
the new grade. You will find that
there has been built under the Board
of Public Works 6, ,380, 900 cubic yards.
You will find that over eight millions
OF cubic yards have been built in the
parishes of Madison, Carroll, Tensas,
COncordia and Pointe Coupee since
the war, and that over fourteen mil
lions of cubic yards have been built in
the State during this time. You will
also find the cause of this vast in
crease in quantity over the estimates
OF former years.
The Louisiana Levee Company has
lately reorganized, with some of the
strongest financial men il the Stateas
directors. Mr.. Gaines, of the Citi-
zens' Bank, is its president, while Mr..
Duncan F. Kenner, one of the oldest
planters on the Mississippi river, and
a. man OF great practical experience
and knowledge of the levee subject, is
its vice-president and active business
manager. The company has now q
cash capital of $500,000, and has as
sumed the payment of all work con-
tracted for or authorized by me du-
ring the late season of uncertainty
and delay of the company to prose
cute the work. | have great conf
dence now that the work will be done
promptly.
MILITIA.
have again to speak in terms of
the highest praise of the State militia.
The valuable service they have rem
dered in preserving the peace, and
the spirit and enterprise which
they have manifested in keeping 1.
up their organizations under many
difficulties and at great individual
expense, entitle them to the high
est commendatiOn and to the en-
couragement of the State. hope that
you will make an appropriation sutfi-
cient to enable them to make an ap-
pearance creditable to the State.
PUBLIC EDUCATION.
At the commencement of this ad-
ministration the State possessed no
system of public education. What
ever facilities were afforded prior to
the war had been we'll nigh obliter-
ated, leaving, outside of the city of
New Orleans, only here and there
solitary school. The Freedmen's Bu-
reau under the direction of the gem
eral government, had established
number of schools, which were indie
pendent of State control, and were
designed for the benefit of a single
class of citizens
The Legislature of 1869 enacted a
general school law, which, it was be-
lieved, would meet the necessities of
the people. 1t differed in many
points from the recommendation of
the Superintendent of Public Educa-
tion, which had been transmitted to
your honorable body with my endorse
ment, and experience proved how un-
wise was that divergence. The law
lacked the elements of directness and
simplicity which were needed to in
sure its efficiency, and although under
it q successful commencement was
made in public education, the State
Superintendent found it necessary to
apply to the succeeding Legislature
that of 1870-for such notifications of
the law as would give the State edu-
cational authorities an actual in place
of a merely nominal control of the
school work in the State. Too timor-
GUS to grant all that was asked, that
Legislature, through its committees,
the simple yet complete sys-
TEN proposed by the State Board of
Education, and left the cumbr0us ma
chinery demanded by the former law
almost intact. Still much was accom-
plished during the following year
these disadvantages.
The foundation of subsequent success
was laid, but through an expenditure
of labor and at an expense which
would have been avoided had not a
fear Of centralizing power, where alone
power could be efficiently employed,
deferred the Legislature from passing
the bill proposed by the Superintend-
ent of Education.
At this juncture the present mem
bers of your honorable body were
and during the session of
1871 the school act was so amended as
to give the direetness and simplicity
which had been yainly sought from
the action of the previous Legislature,
and it is gratifying to know that the
success attained under it has eqnaled
the expectations of the advocates of
those amendments. Information fur
nished by the Superintendent of Pub
lie Education enables me to state the
towns and rural districts of the State,
where, at the commencement of this
only here and there
solitary school existed, now six hum
lred and forty may be found fully or
yanized, equipped with teachers and
supplied with the appli-
anees of education. So successful
has been the workings of the present
law that no hand should be allowed to
disturb it. It's simplicity and effec-
tiveness are sufficient arguments in its
behalf; and law which is sustained