Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-03-27
For the CHRONICLE.
THE SCHOOL FUND MUST BE IN.
CREASED.
To the Magistrates of Montgomery
County.

To the Magistrates of Montgomery
County.
The time for levying the taxes for
the present fiscal year is at hand, and
it is made the duty of the Counyt Court
by law, to fix the rate of taxation for
school purposes. Sec. 80, of the school
law provides: THAT when the money
derived from the school fund and tax
es imposed by the State on the counties
shall not be sufficient to keep up a
public school for five months in the
year. in the school districts of the
county, the County Court shall levy an
additional tax sufficient for this pur-
pose, orshallsubmit the proposition to
vote of the people, and may levy tax
to prolong the schools beyond the five
months, etc. Ithas been demonstrated
conclusively that the State tax, amount
ing in the aggregate to a fraction over
seven thousand dollars is not sufficient
to meet the requirements of the law,
and that the additional revenue sup
piled by the County Court, with the
most rigid economy in expenditures,
has enabled the school officers in the
county to prolong their schools on an
average little more than three and a
half months-more accurately 81
months.
That the school fund has been judi
ciously used, and has accomplished all
that could have been expected: that
the school officers in the county have
faithfully apportioned it, and have con-
scientiously used it to the accomplish
ment of the greatest good to the people
of the districts under the existing cir
cumstances, will be denied by no one.
That the district Directors of the sew
eral districts have rendered me efficient
aid in the administration of the school
interests of the county by the uniform
regularity established in the manage
ment of the pecuniariy interests of the
county, over which | have no direct
control by their adapting the meagre
fund placed at their disposal as nearly
as possible to the educational wants of
their respective districts. should be a
matter of extreme qualification to ev-
cry one. Yet it is evide 1T that the eff
forts of the friends of public schools
have been only partially successful
from the failure of the County Court
to levy sufficient tax to meet the re-
quirements of the law. Sec 45-49, of
the school law provides for a district
to supplement the State and county
fund in prolonging the schools beyond
the FIVE months required to be provid-
edfor by the County Court. Yet the dis
tricts have refrained from taking any
action in connection with this provis-
ion of the law, waiting for the County
Court to make provision for the five
months required to be provided for by
it. It is realized by the friends of ed
ucation that a system of common
schools however well conducted during
five months ofthe year will eventually
work an injury to the cause of educa-
ton; for many friends of education
imbibe the idea that they can educate
their children by giving them five
months schooling during the year.
This idea, though grossly erroneous,
will of course, work to the injury of
the cause until, by State, county ard
district taxation, sufficient revenue is
raised to carry on schools during the
entire scholastic year.
On the fourishing condition of our
schools rests the hopes of the present
and the deStinies of the future. The
startling events of the past four years
admOnish US that we should look with
deep solicitude to the education of the
young to fit them for the responsible
duties which will ere long devolve
upon them as citizens and conservators
of the public good. The signs of the
times clearly and unmistakably indi-
cate that those duties and responsible
tiles will be far more serious, demand
ing more enlarged intellectual and NOR
al development than those which char
acterize the present time. The writer
is solemnly impressed with the belief
that the only hope of security to the
free institutions of the South rests In
her common schools, which from their
universally, reaching every neighbor-
hood, shedding its influence upon ev-
cry family and into every mind, will
expel the primary causes of vice and
crime, and erect affairs to patriotism
and virtue The instability and inse.
curity of republican institutions, with
out the proper moral and intellectual
restraining influence are fully exempli-
fed in the results of the late war, in
the demoralizing and debasing infu-
ences of victory on the part of the
North, in the insecurity and uncertain
ty of property and life in the South
caused by the presence of an overaw-
ing soldiery. Physical force generates
hatred, fear and repulsion but it can
never produce union. The question
then naturally presents itself; is it not
better through the proper develop
ment of the intellectual and mora
powers of the masses to insure guar
anty for the permanent maintenance Of
rational freedom than to live under q
government held together by the stern
restraints and crushing force of mill
tary power? We have had warning
enough if any was needed in the sad
and lamentable history of some of our
sister states during the last few months
to induce prompt action throughout
the entire South, to increase facilities
for the education of the people. Edu-
eation furnishes morn abiding security