The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-07-09
LOOAL TAXATTON FOR DEDICATION.
The Cheapest and Best Results are to be
Had Alone in this Channel.

The Cheapest and Best Results are to be
Had Alone in this Channel.
Rev. A. D. Mayo has performed
the most effective educational labors
at the south and his work has been
so marked as to attract the attention
of the department at Washington
and his lectures are printed and sent
out at government expense. One OF
his most comprehensive addresses
touches upon matters that are now
paramount in Pulaski and he bases
his conclusions upon such impregu-
able grounds that we think it profit
able to transfer large part to these
columns. He reveals a fact that
ought to make our cheeks Jungle
with shame for the damage we do
our children: The average school
life of children in New England is
six years, at the west five, and at
the south three This statement
should arouse every energy within
US. After discussing the history
and absolute necessity for better
public schools at the south, deeming
the first step to be to GaOaken proper
ty oaOners and nsonied men to the fact
that it is to their pecuniary interest
to aid in making the system perfect,
whether they have children or not,
he goes on to discuss the very ques-
ton that agitates Pulaski
LOCAL. TAXATION,
The second condition OF success
in 'building for the children" is to
thoroughly arouse and inform the
public mind on the radical impor-
lance of general local taxation for
the support of schools. The aver
age man always finds it difficult to
take up one good thing without
dropping another. Our southern
states, for the next generation, need
every agency fer the support of
schools, individual, corporate, local
and state, with all the aid that the
national government can be induced
to give. But it is very important
that the people should know where
the real pinch must finally come,
and who can justly be held respon
sible for the success or failure of
their new education. A community
that buttons up its own pocket and
waits for private beneficence, state
or national aid, to educate it's chill
dren, will certainly be disappointed
and remain in ignorance. So, what
ever may be our individual opinion
on the supplementary aids for the
public school. all thoughtful men
must agree IN this, that the burden
must finally be shouldered by the
community whose children are
taught in the schools.
l know the uncertain ground on
which l tread when l press home
this point of local taxation. One OF
the most painful signs of ignorance
and selfishness in public stfairs is
the prevalence of the notion that
taxation, at best, is disguised des
potism and the community that gets
off with the least is most to be con-
graduated. The most fruitful field
for the demagogue is a community
demoralized by this fallacy, for he
has only to raise the cry of 'reduc
ton of taxes" to carry a majority of
deluded people, who, to save on the
tax bill, will put the knife to the
throat of every sacred interest and
| willingly drift back to barbarism.
The poorest speculation in financial
affairs is to knock out the brains of
a community to save money. The
| American idea is that taxation is q
voluntary assessment of the people,
according to their ability, to pay for
things indispensable to the existence
and progress of the community.
And wisdom in public tiaance con-
sists i'll taxing most generously for
the most radical public necessity.
The state or community that taxes
bravely and amply for public educa-
ton will find itself more and more
relieved from the thousand perils of
public dishonesty, public corrup-
ton and the hateful charge for crime
and pauperism, and the manifold
curses that, like a flock of buzzards,
hover over an ignorant people.
hdbCNCL may OG O1- y vi
public finance, it must be evident
that the one place where local taxa
ton can be most forcibly urged is
in behalf of the children. All men
give money freely for what they love
best; and surely the school tax
should have in 1t the most of the
heart and mind of the people. There
may be reasonable doubt concerning
the outcome of expenditure for
many objects of public concern, but
no competent man for moment will
question the wisdom of the most
generous in vestment in that educa-
ton which is the development of
power and the training of every
kind of ability that will insure the
highest prosperity for every sort in
the years to come; for public money
wisely expended in a good school is
money loaned to the one creditor
who always pays, who inherits what
we must leave, to whose charge
must be committed everything for
which men toll, suffer and fight in
this world. The real treasury Of
every commonwealth, of any city or
county therein, is the child. Every
thing, at last, depends on our sue
cess in making him intelligent, in
dustrious, refined and good. The
character of q town, county, a
generation hence, is the character
we pay for by what we give to the
upper story of the child to-day, TIC
leave him in mental and moral
darkness, ignorant, superstitiousi
brutal, quarrelsome and shut up tc
his own little narrow life, is the sur
est way on earth to blight the com
munity to which he belongs. Sc
every dollar wisely expended on the
child is''treasure laid up in heaven,
and heaven always pays compound
, interest, while hell was Reputation
and bankruptcy from the begin
niDr Whatever may he left undOn(