The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-03-20
Annapolis Letter.

of the Mountain Democrat of March
9Th, the editor of that paper takes
exceptions to the bill introduced in
the Legislature to provide for the
erection of school house at Nc
Henry. If it were not that the state-
ments are made in such manner as
to mislead the readers of that aper.
l would abstain from making any
reply. There are numbers of bills of
the same character in the House, and
and if this one should he passed it is
not establishing precedent, as the
editor of that paper states, nor is it
doing anything far different from
what has been done in our county
before. The editor of the Democrat
knows very little about the school
affairs of our county, or he would not
indulge in such statements. The
County Commissioners at one time
levied five hundred dollars with
which they built schoo! house in
dependent of the School Board, and,
that too, without an act of the Legis,
lature. The reason this bill has been
introduced is that there is no use of
asking the School Board to build it,
as it is not in condition to do 80.
The Board at one time purchased
lumber to build the house, but after
wards removed part of it to build an
other house, and let the balance 90 to
waste. The Board annually pays rent
for houses at McHenry that are not
suitable for school purposes, and to
build house is to save the county
money. When this bill was intro
duced the interests of the children
were taken into consideration, and
those interests are of more vital i'm
pOrtance than a few hundred dollars
are to the county. The people Of
McHenry know how much prospect
there is of getting school house in
the usual way. They have been for
years trying that. But the most re-
markable part of the EDITORS state.
ment is the following sentence; Gar
rett county has already placed herself
under special obligations to the State
in asking and receiving school funds
not properly her due" Now, the
editor of the Democrat would know
better if he knew anything about the
history CT the schools of the county
or State. Such declaration is an in
suit TO the honest people of the coun-
ty. The fact is that the State of
Maryland is annually cheating the
county out of money justly due her,
by the unjust appCrtionment of her
school funds. The money to which
he refers is what the county received
for having lost on account of not
having kept her schools open seven
and a-half months in the year. That
the county should not have lost that
money is evident to any person hay
ing common sense, According to law
the Taxpayers must pay as much to
the State for school purposes if they
have their schools open only one
month. as if they had them open for
ten months; then why should they
not receive as much in return,
By the unjust appointment ofthe
State School Tax Garrett county re.
ceives at least sixteen hundred dol
lars less annually than she should re-
ceive, and it may possibly be much
more. Now this, since the county
has been created, amounts to more
than twenty-five thousand dollars.
This money has all been paid to
other counties of the State, hence to
reimburse Garrett county or put it on
an equality with the counties that re-
ceived this money the State would be
obliged to pay the county double
that amount of money, viz: Forty
four thousand dollars.
If the county would have received
what was justly due her she would
not be burdened with the enormous
school debt that is now hanging like
black cloud over her dearest inter-
est and resulting in the mental starva-
tion of the poor children of the coun-
~. / will not accuse the editor of
the Democrat for wilfully doing or
saying anything that will create the
impression in the minds of the people
either in or out of Garrett county
that the county is under any obliga-
tons to the State for money not
justly due her, and thereby injuring
that which is of more interest to her
than any one thing else, for l do not
believe that he would do anything of
the kind, but the person that does
wilfully do any such thing is not the
kind of citizen that the people of
Garrett county needs or desires. be-
lieve that the newspapers of the
county would do well to give more
timn and offantion m cobnnI rooftaro