The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-12-04
after the public money is exhausted.

after the public money is exhausted.
The Charleston Ne,rs and Courier says
that my preference for school fees is "an
abstact question of superiority" and that
the popular vote would be for local taxa
ton. l hope I have shown that it is a
very concrete matter affecting very seri-
ously the popular pocket, which the pop
ular vote may be trusted to protect. This
certainly is very serious and by no means
an abstact question. Are we ready to be
taxed heavily enough to pay So or $40 a
year for every child in the State?
am glad to find that my suggestion to
LIMIT THE SCHOLASTIC AGE
from GIG to S-14 years has been so fav-
orably received and heartily advocated by
the press. This, 1 conceive, would be a
great and manifest improvement, letting
loose fully..one-third of the public money,
and there increasing largely the State
contribution per capita.
If time permitted should discuss other
important subdivisions of my subject, but
1 can only briefly refer to one or two and
then close this address.
If we ever shall have
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
in South Carolina, and if school matters
are to be discussed and adjusted therein,
it would be wise policy to set our pub
lie school system entirely free from the
Constitution in all but the levying of the
school tax. The system would work bet
ter and be more elastic if placed under
the control of the General Assembly.
The Constitution should create the pub
lie school system and provide money for
its support, but it should leave all the
details of its working to the General AS
sembly. 1t would also be wise policy
in a Constitutional Convention to free
the Office of State Superintendent of Ed
ucation and County School Commission
er, from the injurious influences of pop
ular elections. Men should be appointed
and not elected to such Offices, for OBJ
vious reasons.
The last thing I shall advert TO is the
miserable
HAND-To-MoUTH EXISTENCE
which our public schools and their tesch-
crs are having at the present time, be-
cause the work of the school is done be-
fore the school tax is collected. We are
just one year behind the taxes. The re.
suit is, that poor teachers cannotget their
pay certificates cashed at the County
Treasury, and they have to submit to the
usurious shaving process, whereby their
poor pay is made still poorer. Let the
public consider this question: Would it
not be well to stop our public schools for
one year. so as to get ahead of the school
tax? see no other way out of this great
trouble, and no other salvation for the
teachers.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, my
long address is ended. l thank you for
the close attention with which you have
listened to mean attention owing more
to your indulgent patience than to my
power to interest and entertain you. l
have tried to discuss our public school
system and its fund in a practical mau-
ner, and with the light of our own expe-
rience and the experience Of the North
ern States, where exist systems somewhat
similar. 1t is good for us at this time to
study our own and other school systems.
Ours is not yet thoroughly organized.
We must, therefore, try to insure it
against failure by making it not only as
good as but better than the other systems.
Defects in the Massachusetts system are
warnings to South Carolina, and advan-
tages in the New York system are exam
Piles for our imitation. The coat that fits
Connecticut may be too tight for South
Carolina. We have the raw material to
make our coat from and shape it as we
please. South Carolina is passing
through transit period in education as
in many other respects. Of the many
sad losses caused by the war, among the
saddest is the loss of those educational
traditions for which this State was dis
tinguished. 1t is ours to try to restore
her to her former high place among the
intelligent and educated Commonwealths
of the world. We can do so, in spite of
many difficulties, with a good public
school system. We can do so if we use
our enormous school fund so as to diffuse
elementary instruction and elevate the
masses, and also to encourage higher ed
ucation, even the highest, and give the
poor mans son the chance to acquire
complete education. We can do so if,
while spreading the genial warmth of
rudimentary instruction, we are careful
to keep alive the lamp of higher learn
ing. We need not be discouraged if in
our short life we shall not see the work
of our hands completed nor our whole
desire fulfilled. Good, solid work is
always slow. 1t may not be ours to
build the beautiful temple of knowledge
which is one day to rise in South Caro-
lima. Concerning the Temple at Jerusa-
lem, it was said unto David: "Thou
shalt not build an house for my name.
because thou hast been man of war and
hast shed blood" But it was permitted
to him to give to Solomon, his son, 'the
pattern" 1t may be that this generation
of ours likewise is forbidden to build the
temple of knowledge. But it is permit
ted us too to give to our sons the pattern.
1t is in our power, it is our duty, it is our
high privilege, to lay deep, broad and
enduring the sure foundation, and to col
lect and prepare the material for build
ing the temple that is to be.