The Russellville Democrat., 1878-09-19
OUR "OLD TIMES" SCHOOL
 SYSTEIT.

SYSTEM.
 The following from the Little Rock Democrat contains food for SC lious reflection.
 When we said Arkansas had nc public schools prior to the war we knew just exactly what we were talk ing about. We might have qualified the language by saying no effect i've school system. There was a pre- tense of having public schools in Va rious counties, and school houses were erected in some localities, but in the main the system was farce, and tue school moneys were squan- dered. The editor of the Democrat knows more about this matter than either of the editors of the Gazette. He never attended school but three months and then walked three miles every morning over 8 rough country road,to reach the school house. That was a public school-and i'll Law, renee county. And it was the only one that was ever taught in that neighborhood. During the time we attended that school we advanced as far as pot hooks" Instead of em- ploying teachers and keeping the public schools going, the school mon ey was loaned out by the county commissioners to favorites, with in- adequate security, and that was the last of it. If the Gazette editors will walk right up to the state land office we will show them q record of ever $l00,000 lost Tn this way. The pa rents of the editor of the Democrat "being poor. but honest" (we be leive that is the usual phrase,) and owning neither negroes or mules, were unable to send him off to school and depended upon the boasted pub lie schools of the day to educate their children. All of them got three months schooling-and that s all. And now we have the record to show that if the school moneys had been properly applied, effective and public schools might have been taught all over the state. The edi- tor of the Democrat feels that he was swindled out of common school ed ucation by men who were in authori- ty prior to the war, and he has no de- sire to see any more such good old times" If we have q common school system, or pretend to have, in God s name let us have one that will do some good. Take from it head d- as Major Crawford suggests, and the Gazette seems to approye-and had as we'll have no system. That was the idea prior to war. We had Q sys- tenn without any head to it-and It was by such miserable demagogue ism that the editor of thls paper, and those who grew up with him, were swindled. Why as early as 1927 congress passed an act making a grant of 46,0S0 acres of land for 8 state seminary-but we take good notice the seminary was never built. The land has long since been dispos- ed of, and the proceeds 'gone where the woodbine twineth." :"
 In reference to tue swamp lands, if the state has ever been benefited the least by this grant, we are glad Of it. If true however, we have not been able to discover it. On that subject VIC will speak hereafter.
 Col. Smithee is decidedly and en- phatically correct about this matter. If there is anything in the whole past conduct of our State Govern ment under the regime of the "good old times" which are past and gone, that would make q man blush to look back upon, it is the miserable and contemptible management of our pubic school interests-not only miserable and contamptible, but we might almost say criminal. Scatter ed all over Arkansas, in every voting precinct in the State, there are to- AtRb GAphi Nt hlObs bA4N IGGtAo Si les4lA flies, who cannot read the ballot which they deposit in the box;- men, who, have been brought up thus in iIliteracy through the swin dle which was perpetrated upon them in their boyhood days by the men who had the manage mcnt of our public affairs. live un, derstand the matter correctly Arkan- sas had ample school resources to have sustained an efficient free school system, but it was subyerted from it's legitimate purposes and squondered without ever beneGting one child in ten thousand.
 We fully endorse Col, Smlthee wien he says we want no more sueh management, and when he says we