The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-26
THE MORNING NEWS: THURSDAY, OCTOBER &c 1899


the state to provide for the gallant men
who in their vigorous manhood stood
wall of fire between her people and an in
Vading enemy. and see 20 il that Dona of
them in their Old age and decrepitude, nor
their surviving widows who made equal
sacrifices for the common good suffer
from want or be driven TO the poor house
then there is no room for retrenchment
here. On the contrary. if we are to pro-
vide for these two classes, the INDECENT ex-
Confederate soldiers and their surviving
widows, and every dictate of gratitude and
humanity demands that we do this, there
VIII be for a few years a necessity for
larger appropriations for this purpose, and
the only retrenchment possible in the pen
sion department would be to withdraw
pensions from those of the invalid class
those who were wounded in battle-and
from the widows who are Independent
financially and do not stand in need of the
states bounty to protect them from want.
The amount that could be saved in this
way would be small at best, and would cut
but little figure in reducing the states ex-
penditures
The only place, therefore, for further re-
trenchment is in reducing 10 minimum
the appropriations to the various institu-
lions supported wholly or partly by the
state, and in Withdrawing The remaining
100000 of the extra 10000 voted to the
free schools by your predecessors. Should
you do this you will stih have school
fund of 81 23G, 900, exclusive of the hire of
convicts which is still unappropriated, and
which may be added to the school fund. If
this is done the fund win reach nearly
thirteen hundred and fifty thousand dof-
lars. which will be sufficient to run free
schools for at least five or six months IN
the year, in which every child in the state,
while and black, may be taught what the
trainers Of the constitution intended should
J. 10 g branches OF an
English education only" This term OF
five or six months in the year is as long
or Jonser than most of the white children
in the country can be spared from work
to go TO school, and these studies, the
elementary branches of an English educa-
ton" are ali that can be lawfully taught
at the expense of the state and all that
is necessary TO prepare our youths for the
ordinary business of life. Every dollar OF
the public school fund applied TO the
teaching of anything else is palpable Vio-
lation of the constitution.
Besides these provisions. there are in the
state many high schools and colleges main
tanned by individuals and organizations,
which cost the state nothing.-institution
for the whites sustained by the churches
and phianthropic persons among our own
people, and institutions for the negroes,
sustained for the most part by their friends
! at the North. Thus we have ampie
I
Of all who desire it in the higher branches
without burthening the state, and without
! discrimination against anybody. 1t rs
| true that the state appropriates annually
! to the University at Athens 5000, but she
| at the same time appropriates to the
| school at Savannah for her colored people
! the same amount. The appropriation to
the University is a debt-that to the Sa-
vannah school a donation. Thus both
| races are provided for equally from the
/ state treasury; but the schools for the
| higher education of the negroes supported
! by churches and other organizations are
| richer than those for the higher education
| of the whites. The value of the property
| of the negro schools in the city of Atlanta
alone, it is said, is greater than all the en-
| dowmens of all the schools and colleges
! in the state for the education of the
| whites.
If by education in the textbooks taught
| in the schools crime was diminished as
many of US at ore tine hoped would be
the case there might be some reason for
imposing even heavier taxes upon our peo-
| pie for the support of schools. But this Is
| not true for il Is a startling fact, estab-
! hshed by the experiences of thirty years,
that while under our system of free
schools hliteracy has rapidly decreased,
/ especially among our cOlored population,
| crime has much more rapidly increased
among them, and with the increase of
crime the expenses of admins tering the
criminal law have Increased in the same
ratio. All of these expenses have to come
out of the Taxpayers, not out of the men
who commit the crimes. 1t is estimated
| that the expense of adminiSt ering the
criminal law in Georgia is $500 900 per an
mum; the records of the courts show that
So per cent. of this expense is chargeable
TO negro criminals. Thus we have a bur
then on the shoulders of the taxpayers of
100000 incurred in protecting innocent ne
groes and in Furnishing guilty ones, Add
to this the money expended in the educa-
ton of the Chi dren of the race, and that
necessarily expended when the militia have
10 be called into service to protect them
from the mob, Infatuated by crimes COM
>nitted by them, and we have a sum eX-
Continued on Seventh Page.)