The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1880-06-24
GOVERNOR ROBERTS AND PUB
LILO FREE SCHOOLS.

One of the best reviews Of Governor
Roberts position on public free school
matters was contained in letter to the
Galveston Netcs. Though published some
time ago, it is worth reproducing at this
time, and it is therefore subjoined:
GEORGETOWN, May 1.-As taxpayer,
! have preserved the various messages OF
Governor Roberts on the subject OF pub
lie schools, and am astonished at the
bald-faced effort now made by patent IN
terviews, to misrepresent him on that SUD
ject. / assert land desire small space
in your paper to prove the assertlon),
that no governor of Texas has ever dis
played more thought and sound states
manship in his efforts to have established
an efficient system of free public schools
than o. NJ. Roberts.
In his inaugural address to the legisla-
ture he used the following language:
THE true policy of the state, in my
opinion, under the present state junction
Of affairs, is to retrench expenses from
top to bottom whenever it can be done
consistently with the public service, and
inaugurate the policy of now disposing
of the public lands at fair value as soon
as practicable, to any purchaser who will
buy them in any quantity, so as TO meet
the various obligations of the govern
ment, increase the school fund, and asy-
lum fund, and thereby, if possible, re-
lieve the present generation from the on
erous burden of taxation imposed upon
them for the dim prospect of a future
good which will never be realized"
In his message of January 30, 1879, af-
ter showing that the fund resulting from
the sale of school lands did not increase
so fast as the scholastic population, he
used the following language: while we
should, as we have Gone, recognize the
duty imposed by the constitution to sup.
port a system of free schools, it is
equally our duty to use the means in our
power to raise fund which will suspend
the necessity of imposing so extraordi-
nary burden of taxation upon the peo-
pie of the state for that purpose What
ever citizen of Texas may complain of
the heavy burden of taxation of the pres;
ent day, he should know and fully I'M
derstand that it is not imposed on him to
defray the ordinary expenses of the gov
eminent. That alone would make his
burden so light as to be hardly felt. He
is weighed down with the extraol binary
burden imposed on him for the support
of free common school system and
other schools, frontier defense, the asy
lum and penitentiary, and the payment
of interest on bonded debt, mainly con-
tracted for these objects. We have the
means in the shape of lands of getting
rid of these burdens, and they can not
be devoted to better use now or here
after"
In his message of February 10, 1879,
Governor Roberts said:
1.-The common free schools have their
foundation in the constitution of the
state The mode and means of creating
permanent fund therefor, and of an
available fund, with the manner of its
distribution annually, are presented in
the same instrument. 1t results as fixing
as duty upon the government of the
state, and not as charity, to educate
the rising generation.
1.-THE present school law, it is believed,
is foundation upon which may be built
system, as far as practicable adapted
to the wants of the country. 1t is to be
remarked, however, that it proceeds up
pom the idea of providing for the COM
pensation of teachers more effectually
than for the teaching of the scholars, for
whom the money has been distributed
to the counties. A teacher employed by
the trustees of a school community to
teach certain number of scholars, gets
his pay whether all the scholars come to
school or not, and indeed it is for his
convenience that half of them should
not come. The punctual attendance of
the scholars depends upon the efforts of
the teacher to SECURE it, and if practical
BILE, he should be made pecuniarily inter
ested in making the effort"
This suggestion was adopted by the
legislature and it has resulted in the in
creased efficiency of the school system.
In the same message he urged upon the
legislature the necessity of establishing
normal schools to educate teachers.
On this subject he said: ga normal
| school might most properly be regarded
as public school in connection with and
auxiliary to free common schools. The
greatest want in our common schools is a
supply of competent teachers who would
teach upon the most improved plan of
| Teachings;
This Recommendation was also adopted
and two normal schools are now in sue
cessful operation in Texas.
In his memorable veto message of April
| 90, 1879 after showing that the existing
laws, which tied up one fourth of the en-.
tire revenue for public schools as spe-
cial fund to be first paid, thus creating
| arrangement in the fiscal affairs of the
state and depreciating state warrants, he
said:
with no public lands sold to extiu-
guish or diminish the public debt, with
the school lands not put upon the market
so as to increase rapidly the common
| school fund, end with such enormous
appropriations for the benetit of teachers
from year to year, the prospect before, us
is to continue to pile up deficiency upon
| deficiency, and thereby increase continu.
ally our public debt, until it shall reach
an amount that will be reputation in
fact, OF burden the people with onerous
taxes, leaving Texas all the time with q
crippled and inefficient state government
for the want of adequate means to defray
the necessary expenses of it; such des-
tiny should now be arrested while it can
be safely done"
N his message of June 10, 1879, Gov
ernor Roberts said: 81 also recommend,
not as mere formality, but as means
OF indicating what regard as my official
duty to recommend, that whatever amount
can be safely spared, after the necessary
expenses are certainly provided for car
rying on the government economically
and efficiently administered, and rea-
solable provision for the public institu-
tions, be appropriated for the support
and maintenance of the public free
schools"
4 CARRIED ATTRACT from that message,
in which Governor Roberts said that the
best system Texas ever had was before
the war, when the state aided the peo-
pies school by paying for INDECENT schol-
ars, has been scattered all over the state
to prove his opposition to free schools.
With the same propriety it might be
charged that those of us who believe that
the negro was better fed and clothed be-
fore the war, when slave, would be in
favor'of again enslaying him, Governor
Roberts remembered that our people were
then independent, and nearly all men
able to educate their own children. Lieu
tenant Governor Sayers, in his interview
with your correspondent, quoted the pas
sage to which have referred. Now, in
plain justice, I ask you to publish the
following language from that message,
which appears on the same page, and
which Lieutenant Governor Sayers did
not quote, viz:
In that same message Governor Rob
erts said at is hardly necessary now
to indulge in speculations as to the best
modes and means of promoting common
school education in this state The con-
stitntion, which must control legislation,
indicates both the mode and the means
| by prescribing that . il shall be the duty
of the Legislature of the state to establish