The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1892-09-20

ofSlr1DuIaDle SclOOl Iunu- NOW. Wllle
Democratic administrations borrowed
from this fund 10 meet casual deficits
under authority and by virtue of law
Republican administrations did the same
thing without regard TO law. While
the
Democrats Have Rieidly Accounted
to the school fund for every dollar 50
borrowed, and have promptly paid ac-
crued interest thereon, the Republicans
kept accurate account of neither princi-
pal nor interest, and from the formation
of the state to the year 1866 they usea
both the general and free school funds
indiscriininately for general state pur-
poses in direct violation of law. In
support of this statement, let me give
you Republican authority. quote from
the report of Auditor McNNhorter. dated
Jan. 1, 1866, page 1. He says s.In as
suming the duties of this Office ON the
4th day of last March, found that no
account had been kept with the free
school fund or of the general schoc
fund.- Auditor McWhorter thereupon
opened accounts with these funds, aud
when the days of Repubicanism ended
in this state, five years later, the books
showed, as near as could be ascertained
from the imperfect accounts kept, that
a balance of $50. sos "a had been diverted
| from the school fund, on which no in
! terest had been paid and for which no
! note or other evidence Of Indebtedness
/ had been given and which sum Demo-
cratic administrations paid back This
is the sort of protection and care that
| was given by the Republican party 70
that fund which its present platform de-
clares was '.set apart sacredly for the
education 1.-THE children SO long as
that party's fingers We're in the treasury.
to be used for other than school pur-
poses, whether for the sacred purpose
of disfranchising Democratic voters or
increasing officers salaries by donations
of house rent
Tho Public Printing.
Ny friends, this remarkable platform
next charges extravaganza in public
| printing and stationary accounts. While
no department of the state government
is more carefully watched and econom-
ically managed, there has been
necessarily a gradual increase in the ar-
gregate cost of printing and stationary,
incident TO the establishment and growth
of our public institutions. But if COM
parison is made between present appro-
priations when printing is done for and
stationery supplied to the university,
agricultural board, experiment sta
ton, Colored Agricultural college, six
normal schools. hospitals for the insane,
the penitentiary, labor bureau and mine
inspectors, and the appropriations for
| printing made prior to the establishment
of these institutions and departments, to
say nothing of the large requirements of
/ the executive offices of the government,
a sufficient answer to the charge of ex-
travagance in this quarter will have
been found.
Partisan Boards and Teachers.
Another charge in this platform is
that our public institutions are run by
partisan boardz appointed because of
] partisan service. 1t strikes me that
this comes with rather bad grace from a
| party that was seldom, If ever, known
to appoint Democrat TO any Office or
upon any board. and even required of
school teachers the infamous test oath
before allowing them to teach school for
/ a living; but in defence to the charge
we plead that all of our state institutions
are in a most healthy, prosperous and
satisfactory condition, and better man.
aged with less reference to politics than
| they ever We're at any period during all
the years of Republican supremacy in
this state. So far, my fellow citizens,
as am authorized to speak for it, the
Democratic party viii decline TO apollo
gize for placing Democrats on guard.
The states Prosperity.
And now come to what must be re-
corded, in the light of our states splen-
did prosperity since she threw off the
yoke of radical Republicanism, as the
| ''joke," the ridiculous absurdity of the
Huntington platform. The Democratic
party is graYely charged through its adj
ministration of affairs with retarding
| the growth of the state. Ny friends. ]
invite your attention to our public insti-
| tuition, costing more than $1,000, 900, to
our spendid system of free schools and
educational Institutions, to our un-
precedented increase In population and
material wealth, to the astonishing in
crease in the states railroad mileage. her
mining industr. and every department
of commercial and industrial activity,
and ask that you follow me while ]
make some comparisons.
A Few Comparisons.
In 1871, after nine years of Republican
rule, we found the state with a free
school system crude and inefficient. Wa
perfected the law, enlarged and i'm
| proved the school work, and gave to the
state of West Virginia one of the best
educational systems in the country. The
| growth of our schools under Democratic
administrations has been simply wonder
ful. In 1871 we had 2, ,059 shcool houses;
In 1891 we had 500. In 1871 the school
| population of the state was 172, ,337: in
1892 it was 271 ,332. In 1871 the aver
age daily attendance was but 81 1856; in
1892 it was 123, ,9S7. In 1871 there were
only 2,468 teachers employed; in 1891
there were 5000 teachers employed. The
value of our school property in 1871 was
| $1,O64, ,717; in 1891 it was s., 15f, 1886. In
1871 we had an irreducible school fund
of only $27S, ,069. 90, and general fund
| aggregating only $174, ,s96. .35; in 1891 the
irreducible school fund had grown TO
1868, ,203.9 .93, and the general fund to
| 1851, ,4S7.89. In 1871 the entire amount
spent in education was $577, ,71S. ~, while
IN 1891 there was expended 81 800, Cos, 81.
This, my friends, is the splendid record
of our educational progress and grandly
vindicates the loyalty of the Democratic
party TO the bright boys and girls of
West Virginia.
West virginia RatIroads.
In 1870 we had $50 miles Of railroad IN
this state. The milage was made mp al
most entirely of the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad, completed. in 1876, under a
Democratic administration Of the old
mother state. During the entire period
of Republican rule in West Virginia.
from the organization of the state to
1871, less than twenty-five miles of rail-
roads We're constructed and put into
operation. What record for this party
of boasted progress that now in the face
l. of GT1cf rQrnr1 sforcro1 r-u