The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-10-16

cent. inceease of the available school fund
derived from the sources that have been
mentioned. II ncein a short time one. fourth
of the revenue, 1.-THE constitutional limit added
to the other sources, will not run the schools
four months in the yei The expenses of
the asylums must increase with the increase
OF population, irrespective of the increase of
taxable wealth. In view of these consdera.
tons and others that might be added, urged
the legislature in ms inaugural and messages,
to set apart and sell public lands TO pay the
public debt, and thereby relieve the people
from being taxed to pay the public debt, and
thereby relieve the pe0pla from being taxed
TO pay the interest to sell the school lands
ana moro rapidly invest tho proceeds
IN sl-hearing bonds, ind Thereafter tax
the lands, thereby increasing the sources
from winch the schools are maintained,
which will be found AN absolute necessity
unless Weresort tu additional taxation to sell
more rapidly the asylum lands for the same
purpose; TO set aside the lands ms prescribed
by the constitution for q new capitol and loG
state university which would have 20 be
provided in future by taxes on the people,
1t we neglected TO secure lands for these OBJ.
lects while we could. | recommended also
that the policy OF selling only To settlers in
small quantities (as 100 acres) should be
abandoned, and that provision should be
made TO put the lands IN the market at n fair
valuation in any quantities 10 suit the p r
chaser, without requiring Il settlement By
them.
These recommendation wero adopted
only in limited uogreo by laws passed by
the legislature. The capitol and university
lands have been located and surveyed. A
law passed authorizing the sale Of one soc-
t on Of arabic and three sections of pasture
land belonging to the public free school
fund within the organized untles to one
person. Under this law there has been more
land sold, aud II greater increase in the
school fund since the law went into elect ON
the 9TH day OF Oc!obe', 1879 up to the pres
ent time, being about one year, than for five
and one. half years previously rs here shown
school lands applied for from April, 1874, to
October eth, 1879 SO 800 acres. and from
October 7lh, 1879, to October 18th, 1880,
300 600 acres, beng five times AS many acres
| In one year rs had been disposed OF in five
and ono.halt years. If there had been no
limit Ms to amount, have reason to b,lievc
that the school fund might have been in
creased one million of dollars by selling land
in large quantities in coriuaclion with sales
made by railroad companies owning the
alternate sections.
Over eleven millions Of acres of lands have
been reserved, one.hNlf Of the proceeds of
which are to be applied to the payment of
the public debt-a small portion OF which
have already been sold.
One leading reason, not to mention others,
why there must be n change of policy in the
selling Of our public lanes, is that most of
them are located in n rogon whera tho single
settler cannot go GU, on the broad plains and
settle on Il small piece of land, rs he could
and formerly did when there was plenty Of
timber aud water, and therefore large Dor
tons Of the country will have to be settled
by colonies backed by capital, or by ranches
for stock
| have dwell. at some length on this sui inct
for two reasons: First, to show that thoy all
had reference to the establishment and to tho
perpetuation of good financial system, and,
second, to show that we must sell those lands
more rapidly than formerly, or in few years
we will be compelled to increase the taxes to
maintain an efficient government and to per.
feet AN efficient system Of public free
schools" a. required by the cons titution of
the state. We would have the public free
schools upon sure foundation, with pros
poet OF future Improvement
Tho teachere are paid according to MORT
and are made Interested in getting the schol-
ars to attend school, and not MS formerly
paid by tho list that they could get whether
the scholars came to school or not
We have II Normal school 1T Huntsville
with soventy.four yholars last year and MIN
ty'threo this year, maintained by the State
Except clothiug) drawn from all parts of the
state to be sent back to teach after ono yeSr' $
tuition in learning how to teach well.
This is in part maintained by Md from the
Peabody fund, and we hope ard expect To
get additional MD so us to establish two M ne
| such, one in the northern and the
other in the southwestern portion of TcXts.
We have Normal school for cOlored pu-
pills at Prairie View, hear Hemps.eud, with
thirty five students last year and torty.six
this year for tho education Of colured
teachers. There has been grand success ia
both of these schools. Texas, il practicable.
ought to turn out from such schools four
hundred teachers annually for tho next
would inspire 50 great aspirit of education
rs this would. Towns gnd cities would Gs
encouraged to assume control of their schools,
and by an additional tax, send their children
to school eight or ten months in each year,
and the public funds if properly increased
would MAINTAIN free schools IN the rural dis.
;rlcls as long, generally, as the children
could be spared from home to get to school.
In pursuance Of the same policy directed
my etfJrts 10 get our members of Congress
to carry through two measuIe', by furnish
ing them al the information could collect,
One OF them was TO prevent tho reserve ln-
dams from coming into Texas for any pur-
pose; which WAS passed through Congress
and became " law ut the last session. III q
VIII enable us, when y operly enforced, TO
diminish the exp nses Of the frontier u d
police force; which, however, cannot ba EN-
tirely dispensed with as long AS We have ex-
tenave regIons of unset led territory. The
other measure us bill which was intro
ducedby Col. Epson, TO allow Texas
an opportunity to prove up aud
establish her claims for moneys expended Nv
her in frontier protection, which if obtained,
will argely reduce our bonded debt il 50 ND.
piled, This did not pass, but We may rea-
sonsbly hope that the industry and inllu-
ence of our able delegation in congress will
secure its passage us soon us il is reached in
the course oflegislation.
Should be elected governor l shall en-
deavor to follow up this policy in its appli.
cation to the various sub ocis that have beeo
mentioned, and also 10 others which | can
now but refer to in order to solicit thought
and Investigation on the part of Others,