The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-08
DEMOCRACY AND THE FREE SCHOOLS.

| SuplueSt 1alSllylHS OIL AlsgoIyJ IL AlS toAA'
Haute keynote, that has ever been uttered by
mortal man. We gave, few days ago, his
tory of the school fund Of Indiana, which
shows that the Democratic party of to-day, by
just as much as it represents the Democratic
party of fifty years ago, and much later
should be counted the eternal foe Of our free
school system at every stage. That it should
| lay any claim to the incipient measures Of the
present system is an absurdity too absurd tC
/ spend time on. The first and greatest acqui-
sition to the school fund, as already shown,
was the States profits on 'its stock in the old
State Bank. But that was Wing measure,
as we have shown, incorporated when Noah
| Noble was Governor, David Wallace Lieuten-
ant-governor, William Sheets Secretary Of
State, and Morris Morris Auditor of State-all
Whigs-and no measure ever endured more
persistent hostility from a party than that
bank and its management did from the Dem
ocratic party, all its days That party pur-
sued it with every possible unfriendly legisla-
ton, and kicked it in its old age when the
school fund was about to inherit that munif-
cent endowment from the sinking fund 50
wisely provided for by the Wings of 1884, in
day. They could not endure-a bank whose
notes had always been at par; hence, in the
madness of their hate, they ordained in the
new Constitution, over the protest of nearly
every Wing in the Convention, that the State
should never again become stockholder in
any bank and, of course, should never again
accumulate such sinking fund for school
purposes. The hundred or more free banks
of few years later with their history of
failures and commercial disasters, and never
a cent to the school fund, is a fair specimen
Of Democratic folly and incompetence, while
the brazen impudence Of Mr.. Voorhees,, in
claiming credit to the Democratic party for
the fund alluded to is unsurpassed; except in
his claim for the Democratic party Of being
the conqueror Of the Democratic rebellion Of
twenty years ago, with himself and Mr.. Hen
bricks as the best friends the soldiers ever
had.
There are salient points in the history Of
our free schools, the pride Of the State that
it may be well to bring forward, now. that Mr.
Voorhees, is SO willing to claim for his party
the paternity of the system, In brief, it. may
be said that the proceeds of the sixteenth sec.
ton, and Of the saline fund, and of fines, and
from all other sources, were quite in
sufficient to furnish adequate instruction
for the children of the State, the aggregate az
fording tuition for less than three months in
the year As early as 1910 the Wings, aided
bya few. Democrats, such as Robert Dale
Owen, John Petitand Able C. Pepper, be-
gan to agitate the levying of direct tax to
meet the expense of tuition and house-build.
ing. Until then all schools were maintained
by individual contributions, except so far as
the limited funds would 60, and the free
schools were regarded as only for the very
poor, and were in general disrepute. Year af
ter year the Wings brought forward measures
in the Legislature to supplement- the meagre
school fund by a direct tax, and to give vital |
lty to the systemif SO unsystematic thing
as the schools Of forty years ago might be /
called a system-by creating the Office Of
State Superintendent; but the Democrats ey-
erywhere and always opposed il, Except here and
there one, as before stated The Legislature of
1878 was Wing enough to formulate the first
law ever formulated in Indiana providing for
a special tax for school purposes. It passed
by the aid OF few Democrats, after being SO
worded that Democratic counties which were
not willing to pay such a tax might be exempt,
#, at the preceding August election Of each
year majority Of the voters should vote rtno'
in answer to direct question propodnded at
The election, The first vote taken under this
aw was at the August election Of 184S. The
result of that election casts an electric light
upon the claim Of Mr.. Voorhees,. The aggre
gate vote Of the State was n, 1852 for and
3, 900 against the tax showing majority Of
5,s32 in favor Of being taxed to support free
choOlsi but the taxation was binding only in
'ounties that had voted for taxation. LII the
trong Wing county Of Wayne, under the
Of such Wings as John s. Newman
nd James Rariden, the majority in
avOr Of tax was I07S, in an
ggregate vote Of 3,467. In the
trong Democratic county Of Rush, under the
Of the boss Democrat Of the State,
IOhn 1. Robinson, the majority against the
ak was $50, in an aggregate vote Of 1884 In
he strong Whir county Of .Inffarao,, ,,nda,