Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1876-06-16
THE AmENDMENTS-LF TIE
he Hatfield.

to be kept separate and apart from
each other in the public schools. They
propose to strike out section A of this
article and in It's place to insert two
new sections. The difference between
that part proposed TO be stricken out
and that part proposed to be inserted
is substantially as follows:
Under section 4, as it now stands, ali
monies, stocks, bonds or other pro-
perty belonging to any State fund for
the purpose of education are required
to be securely Invested and the princl-
pal thereof to tie sacredly preserved
| as an irreducibIe educational fund.
The annual income only, arising from
this investment, can be used for keep
ing up our public schools. The prin-
cipal is not allowed to he touched
under any circumstances. The pro-
posed amendments give to the Legis-
lature the discretion to devote both
principal and interest of this edu-
cational fund to the maintenance OF
our public schools in such a manner
as may be deemed most conducive to
their support.
And there is plain reason in the
present condition of our people why
both principal and interest of all edu>
cational funds should be at the dis
pogaI of the Legislature. The educa-
tionaI necessities of the State of North
Carolina are far greater to-day than
ever before in her history, bat her
ability to meet such necessities was
never less. If all the funds in the
treasury of the State for educational
purposes, were spent upon the present
generation of school children, it would
not meet their requirements, for they
are nowin the utmost need Iof all posi-
bic educational facilities. If these needs
be promptly supplied, when the child
rem of to-day take charge of the affairs
of the State, as in the course of nature
in very few years they will do, the
State will be in the hands of educated
Intelligent men who will have both
the Will and the means to provide for
their children. If the needs of the
present generation be not met anu met
promptly, it will be but few, but q
very few years ere the State will be
Inhabited by totally unlettered and
ignorant population who will neither
know nor care anything about the
value of education.
Think for moment of the condition
Of things if but single generator
shall grow up in ignorance. # this
shall happen, another century will
have passed ere the pernicious conse-
quences Of SO great an evil will have
ceased to be visible. 1t will be curse
to the land, comparable to which al
other evils that have befallen it, war,
pestilence, conquest, subjugation and
reconstruction will seem almost bless
ings. The interest or annual income
of all our educational funds even whex
added TO such annual appropriations
Of monies arising from direct tax.
alton as we may be able to make, il
utterly inadequate to meet the re
quirements of the present generation
Of school children.
There is pressing necessity then
to give to the Legislature power to APP
propriata to educational purposes The
principal as we'll as the interest of sucl
educational funds as we may have. I
is like the prudent father who, whel
he has but little to give his son, spend
that little in giving him an education
wisely considering that if a young mar
( has al education he has an estate tina
cannot be taken from him. Sufficien
unto the day is the evil thereof. Il
the matter of education our first dut,
is to our own generation rather thar
to posterity. In the matter of educa
ton we can afford to have no gaps fol
they become chasms that long, very
! long years only, can bridge over.
Under the Constitution, as it nov
penalties and forfeitures are all re
CURED to be paid into the State Treas
ury and securely invested as perma
nent fund, the interest on which is &c
be divided among the several countie:
in proportion to the number of schoo
children living therein. It matters moi
how much a county may have contrib
uted to the principal of this fund, il
can only receive it's proportional part OF
, the interest. For example, from Zines,
penalties and forfeitures" the county
Of Edgecombe III five years, paid into
the State Treasury the sum of S., 1876 IL
while the county Of Craven during thu
same period paid IL from same source:
the sum of only one dollar; yet when the
interest on that amount came to be PAID
out for support of schools, the county
of Craven, having about the same
number of school children living in il
that Edgecomb be had received about the
same amount. IN other words Edge
combe paid in very near twenty-five
hundred times as much as Craven did
but for all that she got back no more
than Craven did. The county Of
Brunswick paid in three times as mucl
as did the county of New Hanover
yet New Hanover received near foul
times as much for its proportion Of
the interest as did Brunswick.
A system that permits such gross
inequalities as these, is manifestly
wrong and ought TO be broken up, and
this the amendments will do. If they
shall be ratified all the fines and pen.
alties annually collected will remain
IN the several counties and the whole
amount, not the interest merely, but
both principal aud interest will be ex-
pended in the support and mainten.
ance OF the public schools in that
county, and when this shall be done
we may expect county commissioners