Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-05-09

| school fund Is collected and paid into the
| state Treasury. and appears In our Au-
ditor's report. The county school fund,
| which is a tax of 10 cents on the $loo In
this county, and the district school func.
| which is tax OF 10 cents on the 500 IN
this county. do not appear In our Au-
ditor's reports. but are collected, retained,
and expended In the respective counties
/ and corporations. just as the school tax
| In North Carolina is expended. Now, TINS
| tax for county and district school pur-
| poses varies IN the respective counties,
| but will guarantee. II you will ascer-
| tain the amount OF taxes, In virginia,
levied annually for these two schoo,
| funds, they will be in excess OF the totai
| amount expended In North carohaa io'
/ school purposes, leaving Vtrginias ex-
.penses for educational purposes fully
| 81 152 25i13 in excess OF The expenditures
| OF North Carolina for the same purposes
AS have stated above. ] am desirous
| that our peop,e should understand why
| Virginia's expenses are heavier than the
| exnenees of North Carolina, and there
| fore | hope you will examine this SUBJ
| feet further and correct your statement
| so as to show the facts. With regards
| Yours truly.
| pENJAMIN WATKINS LEIGH.
| We fail to see where Mr.. Leigh has
! pointed out any error OF ours.
He quotes our Auditors last report to
show that s7ii,le5 had been paid out In
interest upon our public debt whereas
we had stated that the annual interest
charge Is $4,000 He also thinks we
have overstated. the amount this state
pays for educational purposes. EVIL
I IDENTIFY. Mr.. Leigh has forgotten all about
| the "excess Of interest" upon the
college bonds" The Auditor includes
| this sum lover a hundred thousand dol
| lars) under the heading OF interest PAID.
In order that our old Commonwealth
may have due credit for all that she Is
doing for education We have included
this hundred thousand and over IN the
expenditures for education. Moreover, we
called attention to the fact that we had
so included it,
Our State, be Il known, pays on the
COLLEGE bonds considerably over hum
dred thousand dollars OF interest more
than she would have to pay were those
bonds in private hands.
1t is a policy that has been pursued
good many years and is likely to be
long continued. But really 1t makes no
sort of difference whether we charge the
payment to the interest account or to
the cause OF education-the result is the
same. We prefer to charge 1t to the
latter account, so that the world may
see what we are doing to further the
cause of higher education.
TIE discrepancy that Mr.. Leigh finds
between our statement of North Caro-
lina's interest charge and that which he
has. may be easily accounted for by pre-
suming that some part Of one years In
terest reported as paid was really due
the previous year. North Carolina has
outstanding of ~ per cent. bonds
50, S6l, $50, and of 6 per cent. bonds,
81. 72O 900. making a total annual inte-
rest-cbarge of S297, 662-just as stated by
us.
That North Carolina has some very
productive investments in railroads must
be a cause of much congratulation TO
her people. Virginia might have had
more such investments than she has,
but for the fact that she allowed herself
to be persuaded TO part with her hold
ings in what is now the Norfolk and
Western Railroad Company and in other
work of internal Improvement Still,
we have something left. Our interest in
the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Poto-
mac road, which is possession Of the
Sinking Fund, is very valuable, and
yields over $4,000 year.
Now, as to the school taxes Of the
two States. Our information is that the
IS cents on the 500 levied in North Caro-
lima is in the nature of a State tax,
though the proceeds thereof are left in
the several counties and cities. Further
more. we are advised that cities and
towns and townships of North Carolina
may levy additional school taxes. But
1t is needless to go into this-we have
been discussing State expenditures only
1t may be true, as Mr.. Leigh be-
lieves, that the aggregate of taxation
for schools in Virginia is much larger
than. in North Carolina. Yet we-ha
heard OF no proposition to reduce these
taxes. On the contrary, many favor cur
failing other taxes so that our school
taxes may be increased.
1t is an unfortunate, but an irremedi-
able fact that Virginia hasn't the large
and profitable railroad investments that
North Carolina has; but on the other
hand Mr. Leigh might have stated that
our taxable values are about twice as
large as North Cardinals. And this is
due, in large part, TO Virginia's greater
urban population from which is gather
ed, by long odds, the heavier part
of our State taxation. Right there we
have an Investment" that vastly out
weighs any that North Carolina has.
So we cannot see where Mr.. Leigh has
convicted us of any error, while, for his
part, he has entirely overlooked the Eek
cess Of interest" and also the divi-
dends that we receive from the Freder-
icksburg road. He may be right in as
sorting that Virginia pays vastly more
than North Carolina does for purposes
of education; but we have never made
any statement to the contrary
We mean TO give the facts as we
understand them. With thousands of
Virginians. constitutional convention
was originally looked forward to TO
dilOiu itltl Oh tiic 5uiidSc ducStlOn,
but it is no longer advocated upon that
ground-certainly not by the leaders in
the present movement. For this reason.
and because our party is all at sea as to
what convention would be expected to
do, we cannot think 1t would be well TO
call convention now. That there are
expenses of our State, county, and city
governments which should be reduced, We
cannot question. Furthermore, We be-
lieve that such pressure may be put
unon the Legislature that Is TO be elected