The Portland daily press., 1880-01-17


than any anterior year, may safely be presumed to
be sufficiently adequate to defray all the ordinary
expenses of that year.
In 1860 the state assess
ment was. ............. S2O7, 1910
Treas. estimate of direct
taxes. .............. Iz,ouo.oo 80 m, ~
debt a and interest ..... $4,000. 90
Leaving for ordinary
penses -. .............. s1s6,6s1.7o
In 1873 state assess
ment. ................s $500, 712.7O
taxes. 272,ooo.oo
'''' LII, 712.7o
Less Apr. for public
fund and pensions % 4s6,oooOo
Leaving for ordinary
penSeS. ................ 6S6, l2.IO
1879, state assessment. 1896, 712.7O
Treas estimate of direct
1,171,712.70
Less app. public debt
interest, sinking
fund, pensions, and
officers heretofore
paid by county 6I7,134.OO
Leaving for ordinary
That of 1873 being an amount 3z3 times that OF
1860.
In these facts and figures will be found one, if
not the principal cause of the arrest of our State
in its career of prosperity almost unimpeded and
uninterrupted until the era of over taxation began,
the of the actual loss of population as shown
by the census of 1870. and of the popular dscon-
tent manifested during our last political campaign.
There can be no misinterpreting the popular mind
at this time; they desire to be relieved of all bur-
den of Taxation not absolutely and imperatlvely
necessary. The last Legislature though laboring
under great disadvantages began worthy and no.
BILE work. and it will be well fer to continue this,
and to require in all departments rigid economy an
strict integrity.
A careful examination of the items of expenditure
for the two periocs of time above considered, will
indicate what classes have been augmented and
what new demands upon the treasury have grown
up during those years. However desirable and nee
essary such new and augmented appropriations may
have been at the time it is within your province to
determine, and this comparison will suggest where
reductions may be applied without detriment to the
welfare of the State and in many instances to the
positive advantage of the objects and purposes
sought to be accomplished.
EDUCATION.
The great and comprehensive purposes for which
our people have formed themselves into body pol
itic known as he State of Maine concisely set
forth in the preamble of our constitution in these
words 'tO establish justice, insure domestic tran
guilty, provide for mutual defence, promote our
posterity the blessings of liberty. 1t is for these
paramount objects that our government is ordained
and that all the burdens OF taxation are imposed
upon and borne by the people. The attainment of
those objoots should oseI DO had in view whenever
law is enacted or public expenditure is author
lied.
Among the instrumentalities provided by the wise
men who formed our constitution for the accom-
plishment of the purposes named in the preamble,
none held higher place in their esteem than edu-
cation of the youth, and in the article of our funda
mental law, they declared that ga general diffusion
of the advantages of education essential to the
preservation of the rights and liberties of the peo
ple" and they made it the duty of the legislature
''to require the several towns to make suitable pro-
vision at their own expense for the support and
maintenance of public schools
To what extent is it the constitutional duty of the
state to provide for the education OF its youth 1t
seems to me that there is one safe and just rule
which should govern all legislation in this regard,
namely that ii is the duty of the public to provide
so much education as all the youth of the state
enjoy. What the limits of such an education are is
happily not left to theory and speculation they have
long since been settled by practical experience and
the general Judgment of the people, When the state
directly or through its requirements of the towns,
has given to all the children good practical Eng
fish Education has caused them to be instructed in
the fundamental and essential branches, it has per-
formed its whole duty so far as public schools are
concerned. When the legislature goes beyond that
and applies large amounts of the moneys raised by
taxation the support of Normal SchoAls and High
Schools and for instruction in all the sciences and
higher branches of study required in the learned
professions when it devotes the money levied upon
the mass for the superior education of the lew, L
am apprehensive it transcends the spirit If not the
letter of the organic law, and treads in path that
does not lead to the promotion of the common
welfare"
The wise and excellent comments lately made by
Governor Robinson of New York are quite as appli-
cable to this as to that State. He says, The only
good reason which be urged for taxing one class
of citizens for the education of the children of
another class is the necessity of giving the children
of all classes sufficient common school education
to enable them to understand their duties and ex-
ercise their rights citizens of free country gov
erned by the popular voice. When we go beyond
this and take from man the money necessary to
educate the children of another man in the arts and
sciences we perpetrate actfof injustice under the
form of law. What is worse than this, instead OF
educating the masses of the children SO as to pre-
pare them for the pursuits and industries upon
which they must depend for living, we educate
them in such way as to make them discontented
with their condition. unfit to discharge its duties in
manner most beneficial to their own interests and
take away the strong incentives which impede those
who are really able and worthy to win for them
selves high positions in learning and usefulness.
When the State has given to all the children good
common school education it should leave them to
their resources and to follow such callings in
life as their capacities fit them for. To go beyond
this is to injure rather than benefit them.
A comparison of school reports for 1860 and
1878 that of the last year not being before mel dis
closes the following facts:
No. scholars in the State. 243, 376 1877
Average No. attending dur
Average length of schools
for the year .21 w'ks Fl w'ks = dys
Amount raised by tax and
contribution, &c. S5O6,6J9 9U6,Zll
Amount of public school
expenditure. 6l6,0u3 l33,64Z
Amount paid Superintend-
ing School Committee. 1874 &c, 339
1t therefore appears that in 1860 there were 2S,-
$40 more scholars in the State than in 1873, with
an excess of average attendance of 1897 while in
1873 it exceeded in the amount of raised by nearly
$500 900, and in the amount of expenditures by
$416 1853, certainly very large increase to procure
only two days additional length of school The last
item though more properly calling for the attention
of the several towns and not especially falling with
in the province of your jurisdiction if indicative of
the practice of increased expenses which permeates
our whole school system These and other facts APP
pearing from such comparison will suggest to you
the necessity in considering our schools to inquire
what abuses if any have crept into our common
school system, which would tend to bring it into dis
repute, and wheeler the youth have had the full
hp
sions may be made will promote the greatest use
fulness of our schools.
FREE HIGH SCHOOLS.
The act creating free high schools, and suspended
by the action of the last Legislature will again come
in force without any action ON your part. Whether
it shall be revived, repealed or again suspended is
matter worthy of your serious elaboration. The
report of the Superintendent for 1873 the last one
l have seen, gives the following statistics in regard
to those schools:
The number of terms. .................. 314
Whole length of all weeks. ............ 3,417
Whole number of scholars attending. IL $40
Average. .,......... J,3U4
Total amount paid for instruction. s1O6, 55767
1t therefore costs average weekly tuition of So
cents, or for the academic term of twelve weeks a
tuition of $6.36, excess over the average tuition
in academies, and if to this add the usual neces
sary expenses in supporting schools such as fuel in
surance, &c., it would require tuition nearly, II
not quite, equal to usual college buttons 1t ap-
pears that this expensiveness Of high schools
will account for the constantly diminishing number
and length of the schools lessened number of scho-
and the growing disfavor with which the system
is regarded by large portion of our community.
NORMAL SCHOOLS.
There are now in operation three Normal schools
and branches the support of which the State APP
propriates about S1S,SOo yearly. They furnish
about $40 of the teachers in our State, while the
whole number employed is between 5000 and
1000. If it is within the constitutional power and
duty of the State to educate and furnish teachers at
all for common schools, it is clearly its duty to
so educate and provide teachers for all parts of the
State. At the time of their inception these schools
were considered a matter of experiment, and
whether they have yet fully answered the exPecta-
lions of their friends may be still Of some doubt
The number of teachers furnished by them though
small in proportion to whole number, may be
silently exertng an influence upon other teachers in
the methods of government and instruction OF our
schools which cannot be fully estimated SO that we
should not undertake hastily even nowto determine
whether this theory has failed to prove itself sue
cess and worthy of the continued patronage OF the
State. If however these schools are failure III a