The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-03-29

or political scalawag. In it,
where IL says II majority Of |
all the householdes residing in any dis
trict, file their remonstrance with the
township clerk against the employment
of any teacher before they are hired,
they shall not be forced upon them.
Gracious privilege! When forced TO
resign to proxy and relinquish directly
the guardianship over the public educa-
ton OF your own children, the right Of
petition is not denied. I suppose the
advocates of this bill may have learned
a lesson from history, and feared the
consequences Of q rebellious tea.party.
1t is looked upon as an outrage to de-
prive any portion Of our people Of the
fullest right Of selfgovernment in all
their political relations. When it is at
tempted to regulate even the worst ele-
ments of our cities by statutory enact
ment, however lightly it may touch
upon individual liberty, If it is only to
restrain vice, what warning goes up.
Yet here is bill which proposes not to
strike down or abridge the political
rights of the vicious elements in any Of
our cities, but it lays its hand upon and
strikes down, the dearest rights of more
than twenty-five thousand of the bone
and sinew, and will say, the moral
worth Of our country. Will any gentle
man upon this floor say these men have
not done, and are not now doing their
duty. Nearly eight months of school
per annum upon an average is now pro.
vided in every district in the State. If
some new counties are careless or un.
systematic in the management of their
schools, will this bill remedy the defect ?
If three men aie neglectful and careless
of the interest of the education Of their
own and of their neighbors' children,
will one do any better? When you inn
pose double the labor on one man than
is imposed upon three, and that without
pay, will it make him any more atten.
tive or industrious? We say twice the
labor, because under this bill he will
have more than three times the number
of meetings of the township board to
attend than the clerk now has, beside
all the district business at home to at
tend to. Will any board Of visitors that
can be appointed, be more interested or
attentive to the schools than the fathers
and mothers of the pupils
But the outrage of robbing these men
of the dearest rights that men are called
upon to exercise, is only equaled by the
pernicious effect it would have on our
public schools. The wall over political
favoritism and corruption, which goes
up from every part of our country, the
discharge of old and tried employees
from every department Of our govern.
ment, upon the change of political par.
ties-even though the public welfare ID
not subserved, and the unfortunate and
afflicted suffer thereby,-yet the misera'
BILE doctrine that "to the victors belong
the spoils' is enforced, from the lowest
to the highest position in the Nation
with scarcely an exception. Under oul
present system of employing teachers
no such vicious practice has ever OBJ
tanned footing, and it is to be hoped that
no such vicious and demoralizing practice
will ever disgrace our people, in the &C.
lection OF those who are to instruct the
rising generation. But concentrate that
power in the hands of a township board
and you relegate it to the domain o.
politics. To deny this, is to raise thest
men above all the balance of our public
servants; to assume that these boards
in the distribution of more than si1
millions of dollars annually in the Statt
OF Ohio, would be exempt and abov,
the political frailties of all the rest o
our officers. Much as I respect and ad
mire the toiling millions of our country
for their honesty and integrity, an
compelled to deny to them any sucl
disinterested virtue.
Let us have one class Of public ser
wants in our State uncontrolled in thei
distribution of public moneys by an.
political consideration. This bill strike
down this body of officials, not becaus'
they are political bummers, not becaus
they are licensed, irresponsible rabbl'
trampling upon the rights Of their fel
lowmen; not because they have not wei
and truly administered the trust reposet
in them, but forsooth, we want to try .,
experiment. Iffor no other reason tina,
this, I would vote against this bill.
Another reason the friends of this bill
urge for its passage is, that teachers
wages should be uniform. The publi
is wronged by the employment Of teach
ers at different prices. In the construc
ton OF every conceivable kind of uten
sill and piece of machinery, whether o
clay, stone, wood, or metal, from tn
days of Tubal-C Cain and Hiram down +
the present, it has been the universa
custom to grade wages according to th
skill and ability necessary TO the accom-
plishment of any undertaking. In tn
face of these facts and their indisputsbl
justice, the advocates of this bill com
forward and urge a. one of their argu
ments against our present school syi