The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1898-12-16
IS OPPOSED TO PRESENT PLAN OF
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.
A DISADVANTAGE TO TAXPAYERS.
Favors Home Teaching But Ia willing to
Help Educate Poor White
Children.

seems impossible to elect a legislature
that will relieve the people from the
overburden of'taxation, and hence it
is good philosophy for us to be recon
ciled to what we cannot help. We old
men are back numbers and must acqui-
esce in the modern methods and let the |
procession proceed. But I shall die
In the faith that it is wrong in princi-
pie for us to pay for the education of
children whose parents are better off |
than we are, or to pay. pension money
to those who could buy us out at a |
sheriff's sale. You see, my brethren,
l wasn't raised that way and am too
old now to be raised over again. My
private opinion is that some
of these gentlemen who speak
so gushingly about these poor,
dear children, who with out
stretched arms are pleading and beg
ging for education, are talking for
buncombe and want to be reelected
or else they haven't got any property
to be taxed and don't care darn
what becomes of the rest of us. MY
tax now is more than one-tenth of nv
l.
injured person, for l don't see how I
can pay it; and some of my nabors are
in the same fix. L have educated our
ten children and paid for it and got no
help and now if the new principle is
right I want the state to refund. II
my part of the tax went to educate
poor white children only 1 would say
amen and amen, but when I see it
going to educate rich mems children
and to educate negroes for the chain
gang, 1 am disgusted beyond measure.
1t fatigues my Indignation to read
the gush of those orators who profess
to be the guardian angels of the chill
dren of the state. l can form a home
syndicate right now in this town who
Will agree to give common school
education to ev,ry child in Carters-
vile whose parents are unable to- pay
the ordinary tuition. The Se.,stitutionaI
is ripht ~. ,1'reconsider the oual;6-
catloh OF voters and it should reorgan.
i-e the school system and require all
VINO are able, both white and black
10 pay Tor the education Of their chill.
uren. III the pensions are put upon
'he lhalgent basis, why not put the
schooling? tell you, nv brethren
this taxation business bos co.,
to stop. Those who are abIe
to stand it cannot realize what
burden it is to those who are not r.
Is the straw that breaks the comeps
sack. Captain Neal said this morning
fr;ar,, E..a-oaid-his-.c .city. taxes but
..i1 hort, VINO said he tried afS8'
,iieo 10 sell his house and lot to some.
oo"y so as to pay his debts, but he
couiunt find buyer, but one dnv tbo
easy. '''' as
A great deal of this stnfr about ed
ncation and the dear children plead;no
ior IL is sentimentalism. Tbev ore
not pleading for it around here bnt
had rather dodge it and stov ~
nome or hunt persimmons and VOL
nut or rabbits and black haws or
shoot sparrows and squirrels. IF tho
P"rehts are any account and love their
children they will help to educate tbsm
a' home. L can say with trutb tbo.
got more and better education from
my father and mother than I ever ala |
at school, for about all the teocbar I;i @
was to hear me recite.
:, ''eoc sentiments Will shock
'nese Paternaists who are so croxy,
about the public schools and will Lo
especially horrible to the ,rmr &c &c
Sehooi teachers, for they are desper.
i'eiy In earnest, and like Paul
milne 'bn..o. "Arv son
making n bigger thing of our sys-
tenn OF public education than it de.
serves to be. Public morals are of far
more importance, and Mr.. Stetson, the
of Massachusetts,, in his
able report t0 the legislature, declares
that the system has been tried and
found wanting; that moral training is
in the background and crime is rap
idly increasing; tnat public educaton
is but n frigid training of the mind,
while the heart is neglected and the
prisons are filled to overfowing with
convicts, 70 per cent of whom have had
n liberal public school education.
AS Judge Miner well said in re-
cent article published in your col
umns, the average parent turns his
children over to the public for ali edu-
cation and dismisses them from his
mind. 1t is no longer any of his bus
mess. But if the parent had to
pay for and had voice in the
selection of teachers he would take
more interest in the education of bis |