The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-29
49, 0-

we are inclined to think majorities |
would have been the other way. We
do not pretend to say these officials |
have not acted as they thought best,
but this debt account is the result of
what some people call enthusiasm"
others enterprise" which, unchecked,
runs wild, gets away even with reason,
and would pile up annual debts
of $4,000, if not condemned THE
STATESMAN believes in the schools
for reasonable and just term, but
it is against this creation of debt, I'M
less the right were delegated by the
people TO the trustees to create it,
which is not the case. 1t were better,
far, to have an eight months school
term than this accumulation of debt.
In no case, either, should the trustees
have created this debt for buildings.
They had no authority delegated
to them to do so, and yet their
debts must be recognized and paid.
Therefore they should have avoided
their creation. Had they asked it
they might have been allowed to Gre
ate building debt, on obligations
maturing at the end of a number of
years, at reasonable, instead of an
unreasonable rate of interest. The
payment of II per cent interest on
most of this Indebtedness is beyond
any justifable public obligation. The
speculum through which the trustees
ask the people to look contains false
parabolic curvatures, which destroy
the perfection of the image beyond.
THE STATESMAN simply attempts to
present this object as it is, to show
that it is not so perfect as it might be.
1t does not propose to condemn
any of the authorized plans
and practices of the board, only to lay
bare errors. From all that is said of
the public schools they deserve en-
dorsement, but these unauthorized
practices of the board have combined
in presenting the people of Austin
with a proposition which could have
been avoided. This proposition to in
crease taxation is partly the result of
a supposed need-a ten-months' school
term-which an Austin school board
ought to know is unwise.
An eight months school term
in this climate is the
more reasonable. Uuder it's operation
there would be less of weakness and
of unhealthfulness, more of physical
and Of moral power, in our young
boys and girls tLan with ten months
term. Besides the tax was voted for
the current expenses of the schools,
while the trustees were not elected to
create debts, but simply to expend the
revenue for tuition and its annual in
cidents. In other words, the perfect
balance of 1882 was asequence of pub
lie duty, strictly adhered to; the indebt'
edness of 1928 is the product of
wrongful assumption. But what is
to be done about it? The people of
Austin are, constructively and NOR
ally, bound to pay the debts of the
trustees, and the only way to pay
them is through taxation. 1t is pref
ty clearly shown, because of these
debts, that the school system of Aus
tin is to be, in a measnS o;,o 10 -,
an additional tax - Nv
failure. il meant, the trus-
/ tees have made a debt which is not
good unless tax money be provided for
its liquidation; that the school term
must this year be cut down to about
seven months, or, without increased
revenue. debts maturing will default
in payment. Were 1t not for these
debts the schools might be run for a
greater period on present pros
pective revenue. This is the ques-
ton for Taxpayers to decide:
Whether they will provide the money
for ten months school term, and for
debt purposes as well, or whether
they will allow the school term to be
curtailed so that portion of the debt,
maturing this year, may be met. The
trustees make their appeal, and THE
STATESMAN leaves the question, with
the different lights thrown upon it,
for solution by the people, who are
presumed to know what they desire
in this relation.