The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-12-11

Bear them to peaceful home.
Many in the still of midnight,
In the streets have lain and died,
While the sound of human footsteps
Went by on the other side.
"WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT ~
REPORT OF THE " COMMITTEE OF DEFENSE"
PROF. NJ. A. NEWELL, CHAIRMAN.
For several years past the Committee on
Defense have reported to the Association,
annually, that nothing had taken place dur
ing the year to call for any action on their
part. "All was quiet along the Potomac. :"
And to-day the same report may be made
in all truthfulness. All is indeed quiet in
our educational work, not only along the
Potomac, but on both sides of the Chesa-
rett to the storm-vexed sands of Worces-
ter. Even the outposts of our public school
system have met with no assailants and
needed no defenders. The citadel seems
impregnable. Founded on the rock of the
Constitution, and strongly intrenched in
popular favor, there was nothing to encour-
ago an enemy to make an open attack; and
yet, while no violent assault on the public
schools would seem to have any chance of
success at present, the eye that can read
the "signs of the times" may see indica-
tions of future danger. The sentinel placed
upon the watch-tower, whose duty it is to
rlot
of the night? Waterman, what of the
night?' can give no assurance that the
quiet which has prevailed so long will con-
tinue without interruption. At present the
ragged black clouds on the horizon make
it prudent to raise the cautionary signal"
From what quarter do these threatening
clouds come? What dangers do they por-
tend and how shall we protect ourselves
against them? The answers to these ques-
lions must necessarily be brief.
list. The first source of possible danger,
and one which we should prepare ourselves
to meet, is the Claims Of Property. The
property holder does not deny the value,
the Importance, the necessity of schools
He says the people should be taught; but
he wants to add proviso: prouided, they
can be taught cheaply. These demands of
property for cheap education are especially
urgent and especially dangerous in times
of financial and industrial depression, like
the present. 1t is curious sociological
fact land one which hope Herbert Spenser
will some day condescend to EXPLAIN that
whenever people take it into their heads to
economic in their expenditures, they al
ways begin with the schooling of the chill
dren. For this reason private schools re-
spond, like sensitive plants, to the first
breath of business depression. For SINH
lar reason, when the County Commission
ers wish to prepare for reelection by offer
ing reduction of taxes, it is the school
tax into which they first seek to plunge
the retrenchment knife. Their economi-
cal hankerings recur every two years, but
they seldom issue in practical results, for
the very simple reason that there is point
below which economy means starvation.
The horse in the fable was brought down
to the simple diet of a straw day, but he
did not remain long at that point so near
to zero on the economic scale. He quietly
went out of existence. There are hun
dreds of schools in the State, there are
some in this very county in which we
stand, where teachers cannot earn the
wages of common day laborers. This is
not, in general, the fault of those who have
the direction of our public schools. They
have always been hampered, and in some
quarters are now more than ever hampered
by this pressing demand of the public for a
false economy. Toprovide cheap schools in
our cities, children are some times crammed
into small, crowded, unventilated rooms,
where the very air they breathe generates
contagion. For this purpose, in the coun-
try school houses are sometimes located on
the edge of swamp, or on the slope of
the highway; for this purpose repairs are
neglected until the house becomes not worth
repairing; for this purpose many of our
country schools are kept without proper
supplies of maps and globes, and even
copy books and writing material; for this
purpose the legal school year of ten months
has been shortened to nine, eight, and seven
and half months; for this purpose the
salaries OF teachers are, in some places,
kept systematically as near as possible to
the starvation point. All this, not because
the School Commissioners do not recognize
the error, or are not willing to do better,
but simply because they have not the money
to do what is necessary. 10 put our schools
in good working order, and keep them sup
piled for ten months in the year with every
requisite for success, would require an in
crease of school tax to the extent of proba-
bly, fifty per cent. Such an increase it
would be at present impossible to obtain;
/ it would be highly imprudent, perhaps,
even to ask for it. But the people must be
made clearly to understand that the schools
are not what they ought to be, and cannot
be made what they ought to be, without
the expenditure of more money. True
economy does not consist simply in the
sHallnesS VI tAe opIi~y. ~ conslstS III
spending all that is necessary for the attain
ment of our object, and not a farthing
more. Our object is to have good schools
for no other schools are worth having
all others are dear at any price; and if We
do not spend money enough to accomplish
this object, we are extravagant, for we
| give away our money ana get no adequate
return. Let those, therefore, who wish to
see education prosper, and who pay their
taxes for that purpose, clearly understand
that there is point below which economy
! in school administration becomes the wild