The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-07-11
BILL ARP'S LETTER:
He is KiokIng Like a Mule Against Edu
cational Tax.
atlanta Consultations.


He is Kicking Like a Mule Against Edu'
cational Tax.
Atlanta Consultations.
We see that the call is made on the
State democracy for increased educa-
tional facilities. How far is this
thing to go2 It stands now at 5000
teachers and a million and d quarter
dollars annually. The few who are
very rich and the many who are very
poor can stand 1t perhaps, but how
about the common people who afb
worth from 81 900 to $1,000 in prop
erty and who are the bone and sinew
Of the State 2 Can they bear addi-
tional burdens Of taxation to educate
other peoples children !? Where is
paternalism to stop If the princi-
pie is right, Why not run it to the end
on that line ? Why not give a high
school education and a collegiate fin
ish to every boy and girl in the land
and tax the people to pay for it Z
While we are seizing railroads let us
seize the colleges, too, and run them.
Why not make the system universal
and complete and build college In
every town ? Why not furnish books
and globes and charts to the pupils OF
all the schools ? If boy is lame and
can t walk, why not furnish q horse
and huppv. for him to ride to school In
or else provide tutor or a governess
to teach in the family Where did
this fad, this new departure, come
from, anyhow !? Our forefathers
thought it honest and Fair for man
to pay for his children's schooling
just like he paid for their clothes and
they would have been shocked ct the
idea of being forced to pay to educate
other peoples children. But New
England got up this thing on the idea
that education made good citizens and,
therefore, it must be universal. And
so the new system worked it's way
down South and it looks like it is not
only a fixture, but must be enlarged.
New England would take the back
track now if it could, for it has been
demonstrated that public school edu-
cation does not make good citizens,
but, on the contrary, increases crime ;
"not just little, but immensely, !"
says Mr.. Stetson, the statistician OF
Massachusetts. That State has now
five times as many white criminals as
Georgia in proportion to population,
and another DR.. Parkhurst is now in
Boston exposing its municipal corrup-
tion. The old-fashioned school, where
the teacher was directly responsible to
the patrons, has never been e1celled
and the private schools in every town
and city. is q proof that the people are
not satisfied. But how are the poor
children to be educated /? In the same
good old way. We never knew one to
be turned off for poverty, but it left a
debt behind and it ought to. The
doctor does not refuse to attend the
poor, but he keeps books and charges
it up and they pay when they can.
The obligation is upon them. Pater-
nalism has run mad in this country
and it is the foundation of incidence
and communism and anarchy. Heard
a good man say yesterday that his
school tax was a burden, an oppres:.
sion, and amounted to Z per cent Of
his income, and it was flched from
him by law to support 5000 teachers
and educate other peoples children
black and white. And it WAS worse
than that, for nearly half of it was
carried off to. other counties and spent,
perhaps wasted in the piney woods, or
on the mountains Of Hepsidam, where
the lion roareth and the whangdoodle
mourneths for its frstSss born. Well, it
is an outrage upon human rights. Our
school tax in this County is s27 900
and $40, 900 Of it is transferred else
where. I would rather give my part
Of that surplus to my wife for the
missionary society, for then she could
keep track Of it and know who got 1T.
j saw a big, black negro the other day
who pocketed $500 out Of our school
fund and carried it off to Atlanta,
where he lives, and another man car
ried more than that to Tennessee,
where he lives. They will want a
horse and buggy after awhile, or free
transportation over the railroads that
are to be seized and run for the public
benefit.
I / tell you that we are tired. The
only excuse offered is that; it makes
good citizens. But the records don t
prove it. The penitentiary reports
disprove it. Go to New York and
New England and Illinois and see;
Mr.. Stetson says that so per cent OF
their conyicts have high school edu-
cation, and IL per cent are graduates
of college, and only 4 per cent OF the
whole number are unable to read and
write. What is to become Of our col
lege boys, anyhow What are they
going to do2 We see that some OF
them went back to Athens last com,
mencement and got on a tare and tried
to bulldoze the chancellor into taking
drink. Well, of course, they are not
sample Of the graduates, but what
are the well-behaved boys going to
do {? The teachers occupation is
about full, unless, indeed, we are to
have more educational facilities. Law
and medicine are full and loafng is
running over. Heard good, kind,
indulgent father say the other day
0It is the most anxious trial of my
life to determine what to do with my
boy, who has just graduated" !" What
then ? Shall we not send our boys to
college? Not as a matter Of course.
More than half who have been sent
were unfit for the trust to risk the ex.
pertinent. If eight years OF school
life, from eight to sixteen, and four
years of college life, from sixteen to
twenty, does not uoit boy for work,
then he is an extraordinary youth,
and deserved college education. The
trouble is that parents are loving and
hopeful and ambitious for their boys
to make their mark in the world, but
I can prove by FIVE parents out Of SIX
who have boys in college that there
was but one Of the six who was ftten
to 60. OF course, I am not alludlng
to business colleges nor the techno-
Logical NOR industrial schools, for they