The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-09-25
STATE ACADEMIES.

SoT WlmDrOuSn, is by no means SatlSleu
with the support given the school, by the
community who must be it's patrons if the
Academy is ever to be patronized to that
degree, as to make it self-supporting insti-
tuition, even with the $500 yearly donation
from the State. The price of tuition has
been lowered, but still there are not more
than half enough pupils attending the
school to make a living for the teachers.
This state of things can't last, of course.
If the school fails in this attempt, under
Prof. Wimbrough, the effort to maintain a
successful academy may as we'll be aban-
doned.
Every county in the State-Garrett we
believe excepted-has donations from the
State treasury for the support of facade
miles," Some Of the counties have three or
four of these institutions "endowed :" by
the State. The State in 1878 Eve had not
a copy Of the last Comptroller's Report to
refer toy distributed from its treasury among
these "colleges - and academies " $77,-
961. 92, which, from the best information
we can gain is well nigh a useless waste of
money. Of this sum the Agricultural Col.
lege received SIG, 1906 90, St. Johns College
at Annapolis, $4,000, and Washington
College at Chestertown, S3,375, leaving for
distribution among academies of the class
and style of Elkton Academy, 1913, 100.
The county academies of Maryland were
the creation of day when education by
public schools was just beginning to dawn
with kind of day break haze on the minds
of our statesmen, and these moety endow-
ments we're made to the counties coupled
with the provision that some five or six
envy free Of the customary tuition charges.
In the days of subscription schools, some of
these academies enjoyed occasional seasons
of prosperity, and for time became flour
ishing schools.
West Nottingham Academy. in this couu-
ty, under the management of DR.. Magraw,
was peculiarly fortunate in this respect, and
thirty years ago Elkton Academy, too, was
very useful institution. But since sue
cessful system of public schools has been
put in operation by the State, all of these
partially endowed academies and colleges
have been on the wane, and it is the opin-
ion of those best informed on the subject,
that at no distant day they must cease en-
tirely. In view of this inevitable result, it
would be an act of wisdom in the Legisla-
ture which will meet next January, to ap.
point commission to confer with the Board
of Education, to close all those academies,
which are but hindrance to the public
schools, while they linger along in feeble,
sckly condition, and apply their annual
appropriations to the public school fund;
or paying the public debt of the State would
be more advantageous disposition than
the present. The Agricultural College,
which swallows up so large a portion of
this fund is, as an Agricultural School, the
veriest farce ever organized. A complete
Agricultural College is an institution most
urgently demanded by the farming inter-
among the public schools, and subject to
that Board of Education. AS it is at pres
ent constituted, the State holdings divided
interest in it, the institution is only sine
cure for teachers and professors.
St. Johns and Washington Colleges are
venerable shams as colleges, and never will
or can be aught else, while they depend on
drawing feeble sustenance from one small
treasury teat. Any institution of educa-
ton that the State furnishes with funds
should be wholly embraced in the public
school system, and subject to its officers.
Divided authority produces waste, ineffi-
cheney, and barren results.
! There is another view of the subject which
is more important than the financial one
that we have been discussing. These State
academies are antagonstic to the public
school system. They hold position among
the public Schools and bear naughty rela-
ton to them, not unlike the penniless fossil
aristocracy to the rough industrious mil
lions, and while serving no very useful pur-
pose, do serve to keep up caste line; on
one side of which is the common schools,
representing the plebeian multitude, full
of work and usefulness; while the spar
ingly endowed academies on the other hand,
represent starved aristocracy, with plenty
of style and pride, eking out precarious
existence on feeble rents and ancestral an
nuities.
Let us have one undivided system of edu-
cation by the State, and let private enter
prise support all intermediate establish
LaAr kl.A Al -
lego. Then the efforts, the countenance,
and patronage of the better class, now d.
vided between the academies and the COM
mon schools, will be wholly thrown on the
side of the public schools, which would
then rise to the higher branches of educa-
ton with the step of young giants.
Seventy eight thousand dollars-the fund
might be made one hundred thousand-at
present scattered broad cast among null
titude of would be colleges and academies,
if converted into an annuity for an Agr-
cultural College, and the college placed
under the control of the Board of Education
as completely as any public school in the
State, successful institution of education,
Tor which there is crying want, might be
established, and the cost for the support of
such college would be composed of tho
fund which is now squandered among
host of institutions mismanaged by ire
sponsible individuals. The State has as
sumed the duty of educating the people,
let all the public funds appropriated for
that purpose be expended under the law
embracing one compact system. She has
Normal School to educate teachers, let her
have an Agricultural College to educate
farmers in the higher branches of their
business, especially when she could do it |
out of wasted educational fund.
Important Results Pleasantly
Achieved.
Although the days of irrational medication are hap
PLY passing away, and intelligent physicians have
ceased to the supposed efficacy Of remedy by