Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-01-24


our condition would be materially inn
proved if the few were uneducated
rather than the many. 1t will be hap
py day for the State when no child can
/ grow up without the means of receiving
the elements of good education, and
to that end our most persistent efforts
should be directed.
COMPULSORY EDUCATION
has elsewhere been successfully resorted
to. These are such laws as are at first
resisted by those who least appreciate
the good to flow from them; yet, in the
course Of time, public opinion takes the
place of law, and forces acquiescence.
There is no doubt but that the compul-
sorry educational laws which have work
/ ed so well in other States
might be introduced to advantage.
! Ours is an agricultural community, and
there would be little difficulty in having
all children between the ages of five and
fifteen attend the schools for at least
three months of the year without seri-
ously interfering with their Iabors. l
recommend careful inquiry as to the
expense, as well as to other considera-
tiOns which may attend compulsory
system of free common-schOol educa-
ton, having in view early legislative
action.
THE PUBLIC DEBT OF OUR STATE
is small, as compared with other States
of the Union. But few States owe less.
/ Many cities, even, have debts many
| times larger. Ours, however, has been
increasing year by year. There can be
no better time than the present to take
! measures to prevent the accumula-
/ tiOn of a debt which even the
nQ of hn dr1fa
prove burdensome. Our party has
! pledged itself to retrenchment in
! expenditures, and to rigid economy, and
so far as it may bein my power, its wish,
as well as that of the entire people, shall
be executed to the very letter. Our in
debtedneSs should not be permitted to
increase, and that it may not, every
department should be vigi1ant in its ef-
forts to retrench and economize. By so
doing l doubt not the unavoidable ex-
penditures will be kept within the
amount raised by taxation for the sup
port Of the government.
THE POLICY OF PAYING AS WE GO
is the only safe one, and can be objected |
to by none. Now, We have to meet the /
expenses of annual sessions of the leg |
islature. Biennial sessions would prove |
more profitable not only because of the |
less expense thereof, but also because of |
less legislation which would likely at /
tend such change, for the time of leg !
islative bodies generally, is consumed |
In considering measures in the interests .
Of the few, which if adopted, are at tie
expense of the many.
Now we have elections every year.
Could our constitution be so amended |
as to give us an election every two 4
ha al,vyf 10 fax
payers would be great, as would be the /
advantages to be derived from dispens- /
ing with the yearly political canvass /
with the loss of time to the labOrer ard /
the attending dissensions and animosi- |
ties. Our party has also asserted in its /
platform that honesty, capacity and 4
fidelity shall be the test Of political pre- /
ferment. To which 1 most heartily /
agree. As courage is the first requisite ,
of a soldier, so should be honesty in a |
public official; as cowardice on the part /
Of the soldier meets with the most de- |
grading punishment, so should dishon- |
esty in an official be visited with re- /
moval from from Office, and if it may .
not be Imprisonment, the contempt and .
scorn Of the too confding constituency /
by whom he was elevated to position /
through which they were plundered.
The HIGH PRICE OF COTTON
these recent years has caused the plant
ers to devote their attention almost .
exclusively to its production to
the partial or entire neglect of other
crops. With broad acres of the richest
lands in the world, with the best of
climates and unlimited herbage for cat
tie, we are buying in other States and
transporting to ours at great expense,
9rnr of 1cfr ]
and the products of the dairy, for all
which our single crop must pay. But
what is, il possible, still greater evil,
and perhaps a natural consequence of a
single product, is the credit system upon
which all planting interests are con-
Quoted. Not only is the planter embar-
Tassed by mortgage on his crop almost
q year before it is ready for market, but
he is also burdeneG with high rates of
interest on advancements and charged
exhOrbitant prices for supplies by the
merchant, who thus protects himself
against possible losses. This man.
ner of planting is fraught with
much evil, experience teaching that
an unpropitious season necessarily
causes financial ruin. That our plant
ing may be independent, and success
follow their labors, their present system
OF agriculture should be abandoned, and
the system whereby they raise what
they consume should be adopted.
LARGE PLANTATION PLANTING,
which has come to US as one of the con-
sequences Of slavery, where the few own
the land and the money to cultivate it,
and which bears no slight resemblance /
to the method Of tilling the soil in .
monarchical countries, where it is done .
a., sa lsxr-s l., -
the spirit of free people. A State bears, |
of necessity, marked similitude to the |
individuals who compose it. To be free .
and independent its citizens must be so. /
But men are not free and independent /
who are liable to expulsion from their |
homes, and to be deprived of the oppOr-
tunities to provide bread for their fami
lies, by a landlord, be he kind .
and considerate, or the reverse.
II the men who titled the |
soil owned it, the present system of .
agriculture would be modified, and they /
would find themselves in the enviable .
position held by the farmers of those
sections of country which have not I
known slavery. More especially is this .
necessary when the labOrers were but /
recently slaves, and where a system of .
peasantry or tenantry might so readily
anu naturally result. WIN pOpula- j
ton of nearly a million, we have none, /
comparatively speaking, engaged in
MANUFACTURES.
With unlimited supplies of raw mate /
rial at our doors, we send abroad for our
farming implements, our household fur /
niture, and the thousand and one Ar
ticles used in daily life. The cotton we .
raise is returned to Us as manufactured I
goods, for which we pay in addition to /
the cost of manufacture, the trans
portatiOn to and fro, and the
charges of the many agents through
whose hands it passes. Missfs- /
sippi might become an important
Manufacturing State if the people willed
it. Capital and skill are necessary, and
will come if properly encouraged. But
that is no encouragement which invites
them here and imposes unnatural re-
strictions. While all are ready TO make
changes imagined to be to their own adj
vantage, no true American can consent
20 forced silence IS to his political
convictions, nor viii capital venture On