The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-07
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN LOUISIANA.
Causes OF Radical Enforcement Of Pub
lie School Funds.
The oi.Disant State Superintendent as a
Grammalian and Morali,t.

In our last Sundays article we showed by
rcopious extracts from the annual report TO
what extent and for how unholy purposes
the public school funds have been embezzled
or misappropriated by Radical school Off
erials, during the last three years.
For the further information of tax payers,
md for the enlightenment of hundreds of
teachers in the rural districts, as well as in
this city, who have been robbed of their just
salaries by the faithlessness of such officials,
and this, while " the system of popular edu-
cation" has been as the report before us
asseverates, under ''dtteatce and efficient
'SapruisiOn."
We now proceed to a consideration Of the
primary causes Of such embe=efeme"ts; and in
order to do full Justice to even an usurplng
officer, we consult, first, the explanation
given in the annual report itself.
On page 10 Of this report, we find the fol
lowing prefaratory remarks OF the soi-disant
State Superintendent:
.Among the many causes that prejudice
and destroy confidence in our school sys-
ten, no one is so frdught with evil as that
Ii. G. the Cause of official dishonesty, and
that is true whether the dishonest act be.
the result Of criminal ignorance, failure to
appreciate the responsibilities attached to
the office, (the result of defalcatiOn or
robbery Of the school funds"
For correct understanding Of this pre-
face, we have italicised certain words, and
have expressed within parentheses the inn
piled equivalents or elipses, and we com
ment upon it only to show the luminous
character of the mind by which it was con
ceived. A mere tyrO in style must readily
discover that the intrusion of the words,
that Of" hetrays suicidal ignorance
Of grammatical construction, or Of the
logic Of thought on the part of the
writer Of the preface; and a mere
sciolist in morals will at once suggest
that " defalcation or robbery of the school
flu ads" Is dishonest act, and not the result
of such all act, as the writer of the preface
asserts it to be. An honest Republican at
one elbow appositely remarks that the most
prolific "cause Of official dishonesty" in sub
ordinates intrusted with public funds is to
be found in the fraudulent seizure Of offices by
the chiefs, from whom such subordinates
have received commissions or appointments;
fand, admitting. that the examples of such
chiefs are : xfaaght with evil, Though deny
ing that an abstract cause, in the sense of
reason, can be .f,augM (freighted) with aught
else than luminousness or obscurity) he in
sists that such an emendation as he has sug
gested, is indispensable to proper compre-
hension of the dusky superintendent
oracular preface.
The sol disdnt State Superintendent, face
tiously termed by the organ and apologist
OF Radicalsm, the "best" that Louisiana
ever had % continues:
"To even notice such crimes and, by so
doing, confess their existence, is humiliatiEg.
The necessity, however, is forced upon me
by the division superintendent which md
cate The absence of official integrity to a de
gree alarming" g Bad men have secured
RESPONSIBLE positions in our school boards,
as they have been successful in securing
like Offices in other departments"
No honest official would shrink from no
ticing the crimes referred to; nor would any
public officer of proper moral rectitude
deem the confession and exposure of them
''hnmilating.' Such crimes are but the
Legitimate fruits of the moral leprosy of Rad
cicalism as it has been developed and dssem-
-inated in this State, and in other States of
the Union to the utter humiliation of every
honest Republican in the land and we do
not hesitate to commend even usurping of
ficials who succeed in overcoming their rep"g-
nance to a free exposure of the populations
and other misdeeas of their political breth-
.ren and dupes. :. Bad men hare secured the
responsible positions in our School Boards,
as they have been successful III securing
like offices in other departments" This is
unquestionably true; but why Because
: ffices have been conferred on political para
sites, without proper inquiry into the moral
character mental capacity, and social posi-
zion Of the candidates; and w.oliy wthout con-
sultation Nth the best informed and most en-
frightened citizens of the communities Tor uhose
appointments hare been made.
Consprators in Louisiana may seek to
direct public attention from their own in
sidious schemes of plumber. by exposing to
the scorn Of all honorable men the malfea-
sances Of their immediate predecessors in
Office; but we'll Informed, faithful citizens
OF the State know t;lat Radicals of 1884
are the lineal successors, as well as the
jealous competitors of their kindred of 1868
TO 1872, and that they cannot legitimately
plead exemption from the odium which
clings, like the shirt of Nessus, to the Radi-
cal pseado-republiean party of this State, in
Of Interpretations and EN-
of the public school funds,
during 1912. The putative author of the
report before us has, indeed, as we have al
ready shown, exultingly praised the labor
performed in this State during the past
three years, thus realizing in his own aspi-
rations the efficiency of that system through