The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-01-10

thr buniDtr VI puplis enTOileu II
? nine hundred and fifty thousand
) To these extensive agencies we may
/, add the numerous academies, col
! leges, and universities which are
! supported by voluntary contribu.
tons and private patronage, in
wi ich other thousands of Young
men and women are making prepa-
J rstions for the various calling and
professions of our social life.
As the Superintendent well says:
This work is going on without
pomp or glitter. in the small houses
that dot our hills and valleys, un-
seen and unbeeded by the gadding
world; yet it l. felt at every hearth
stone of the Commonwealth, and
holds quiet possession of the home
hearts of our communities, and, if
rightly directed and sanctified by
the truth, its benison there must be
its best recognition and reward"
1t is happily made to appear that
the common school and high school
provided for by State and local tax
alton, are intended, in no sense, to
exclude, or come into antagonism
with, the academic culture provid-
ed by the voluntary educational
tendencies of the people The State
compels a certain amount of ele-
mentary training, aud, in the flexi-
hility of the system, permits school
directors to carry their high schools
to any grade of scholarship demand
ed, or assente,l to, by their local tx
payers. They are in these regards,
entirely in the discretion of the peo-
Pile of the several districts. Upon
this basis, extensions of the work
are to be made by private enter
prise. But nowhere are these agen-
cies in conflict. The bond of con-
nection between them, while not a
legal one, is vital one, and comes
through the popular impulse to-
wards education. The estate of
learning throughout the whole Com
monwealth thus comes to have or
ganic wholeness. and to be pervaded
by one common life.
| concur in the recommendation
of the superintendent that the mini
mum time during which the public
schools should he open each year
should he enlarged to six months
as also, that the appropriation made
10y the State to each district should
be distributed on he basis of the
average number o hildren in at
tendance, rather tDan Oh the basis
of taxahles in the respective dis
tricts, as is now the law.
The State Normal schools will
doubtless be constrained to present
their condition and their claims 70
the legislature. Some Of them are
badly involved in debt. and others,
which have contracted no serious
Indebtedness, are without adequate
equipment. These schools are an
important and valuable part of the
educational work of the State.
During the past four Years the APP
preparations to these schools, bv the
State, have been distributed to them
on the apparent equity of each case.
The payments thus made have not
been absolute, hut for their amounts
liens have been taken, in favor of
the State, again-t the property of
the schools. | think this policy |
should be continued until all the
schools are relieved of any indebted
ness, not improvidently contracted,
aud their equipment fairly equalized.
In that event these normal schools |
should be brought, to greater ex-
tent, under the control of the State
Thereafter they should be self-sus-
and not expect that the
State should come to their aid in
definitely.
The Soldiers Orphans schools are
now, by law, under the superintend-
ency of the Department of Public
Instruction. The reports show them
in a healthy condition physically.
and morally. There
are now two thousand nine hundred
and sixty three children in these
schools By existing law it is pro-
vided that they shall be finally
closed on June /, 1885. 1t is esti-
mated that at that date there will
be on their rolls seventeen hundred
aud seventy children. Whatever
action this OF future General Assem-
blits may take III EMERGING the
classes who may receive this form of
the State bounty. some provision
ought now to be made for the chill
lren who will he actually in the
charge of the State in 1885. 1t can
scarcely be contemplated that they
are to be dismissed sumnaiily with
put homes or help, and the schools
closed abruptly. Such response to
The grateful and humane instincts
which inspired this magnificent
form Of the States beneficence,
would make its ending unworthy of
he years of effort and expenditure
which have been so grandly sus-
aimed, without regret, by the peo-
pie.
REFoRMAToRY AT HUN
TINGDoN.
Bv an act of the General Assem-
lly, approved on the Sth day of
June, 1881, it was directed that a
State Industrial Reformatory should
,e constructed and erected on the
property ofthe State at Huntingdon,
md which had been purchased for
he purpose of a peniteI tiary.
In carrying out the terms of this
Ict, a Board of Commissioners has
,een appointed, which has deter
mined upon and adopted suitable ;
,lans for the necessary buildings, ,
md has made contracts for some of
hem. When completed, they will .
about ten acres of the prem
ses enclosed by a guard wall, four 7,
Yards for the dormitories for five :
inmates, chapel, school
ooms, and the various buildings
nd structures In which different
Industrial and mechanical pursuits
re to be carried on. Ofthese, the
of the walls have been s
aid. The exterior walls of one ward 1