Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-06-14
Colonel w. @. FOlkes, The School
Board Spokesman.

speech delivered by Colonel Folkes at
the public schools commencement on
Friday last. Like all neophytes, Colo
mel Folkes permitted his zeal to outrun
discretion, and ignorance, malice and
hypocrisy are freely charged upon those
! citizens Of Memphis and Shelby county
who have endesvored to stay the tide Of
ruin sweeping over us through the reck-
less folly, extravaganza and corruption
of the city and county officials and the
Memphis City School Board. More than
a year since our city had been brought
to hopeless bankruptcy, having a debt
estimated at more than six millions of
dollars, taxes nearly six per cent, IN a
high valuation; and still our servants,
drunk with power and filled with eager
greed, drove on, needless Of the brink Of
ruin before US. In this state Of things
the people united for protection and
formed an association called the Peoples
Protective Union. This association
numbers nearly eight hundred members,
composed of men of all political
| creeds and ~nationalities, q few men OF
wealth and a great many men Of very
limited property, and some whose names
do not appear on the textbooks at all.
1t is composed of merchants, mechanics,
day lsborers, lawyers, doctors, men of
all vocations-all interested in the gene
raj welfare of the community = the
poorest of them, while nominally paying
no taxes, suffering from the burdens Of
taxation more g%rievously than the rich.
This association, through its executive
committee, which has labored Hncess-
ingly without compensation, set to work
to Investigate the causes of our oppressed
condition and devise. if possible, some
remedy for it. In December last the
management of our city schools was
overhauled and exposed. The public is
familiar with the sickening details Of
folly, extravaganza and favoritism
developed by that investigation.
Reform was demanded of the School
Board, but they turned a deaf ear to the
cry for relief. The people appealed to
the Legislature, and succeeded in put.
ting a check in some measure upon the
reckless extravaganza of the School
Board by limiting the amount of taxa
ton. Colonel Folkes, who was elected
to the School Bosrdin January last with
the indiscreet zeal of the new convert
and doubtless ignorant of the repreben-
sible conduct Of former boards, rushes
in to their defense and accuses those
who sought these reforms Of ignorance,
malice, hostility to education, and a co.
vert design of oyerthr0wing the public
schools, d~enouncing them as self-consti-
tuted guardians of the public purse, and
accuses the Legislature, which tied the
hands of the School Board, of timidity
in listening to the cry of the people for
relief. Colonel Folkes will find that in
shouldering hat School Board and its
acts he has undertaken a herculean task
Judge Wright, his father.in.law and part
ner, was a Jealous advocate for the mea-
snres Of retrenchment urged by the Peo-
pies Protective Union. and rendered
important service to the cause. II is
true that many members of the Union
pay small taxes, but they have a right
to require their proper application, how.
ever small, at the hands of their SER
wants, and the School Board is mistaken
il they imagine tsunts OF self constituted
guardianship flung in their faces will de.
ter the Protective Union from pursuing
and exposing all misuse of public reve-
nue., Whatever else may be said
Of the Legislature or Of the Shelby
members at whom it was aimed they
cannot truthfully be accused Of timidity.
In the face OF a storm Of abuse and ridi-
cule, in the discharge Of what l think
was a mistaken conception Of duty, they
resolutely voted for Andrew johnson.
In the face of the denunciatious of the
press, and the howl of ofice-holders and
%bond-holders, they stood by the people
and resolutely and un~hinchingly upheld
their cause against those who sought to
plrnder them. While many people were
at frat disposed to censure our members
bitterly for voting for johnson, they now
overlook and forget that error, and think
only Of the great good done aud their
fearless discharge Of duty to the people,
whose interest they sought to protect
against the vampires.
With the pride characteristic Of and
begotten of power, the people who
sought to put a check upon extrava-
gance are tainted with suffering pangs
Of agony at having to pay for the rent
Of the Opera House on commencement
night. Until suggested by Col. Folkes
| had not heard the cost Of that idle
pageant (perhaps Two or three hundred
dollars) discussed. But the people now
very naturally inquire, when the hard
worked teachers are yet unpaid, Why
this expenditures Why, under the pre-
tense Of a school commencement, is a
hall rented at the expense of the public
and occasion seized TOR the delivery of a
distribe against those who have sought
to put a check rein on the School Board2
The school tax in Memphis under the
present law is twenty-five cents on the
hundred dollars, and with the interest
fund and Peabody fund, will yield about
S75, 600. Some time since a committee
waited on the School Board and sug.
gested certain reforms by which about
$4,000 of useless expense could be
saved without impsiriRg the efficiency
OF the schools or disturbing the pay Of
any efficient teacher; but the School
Board ring had fixed a salary Of $4,000
cut and dried for their pet, Mr.. Picket
and imported him to fill the place. when
the services OF such meu as Colonel
Leath could have been commanded for
$1,000, and then knowing the people
would rebel, they elected him last July