Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-05-18
The Cut In the School Fund.

| GontlclanS ana newspapers OF the ln-
surgent order will roundly abuse Gov
ernor Stone for making small cut in the
appropriation for the public schools of
the State. In fact they are at it already
They are denouncing him for attacking
the public school system, and are holding
Quay Legislature responsible for not
affording a large revenue, forgetful of
the fact that they have been congratulate
ing each other for many months that the
Legislature was opposed to Quay, and
proving it by the fact that it did not
elect Quay to the Senate. Sensible men
who cannot be misled by the partisan
/ harrangues Of the Insurgents will have
only praise for the Governors action.
Their sober thought will be that Gov
ernor Stone has done exactly right; that
he could not have done differently. and
that he strikes the keynote of the situa-
ton when he says:
GA State, like an individual, cannot
continue to pay out year by year more
money than it receives, and remain in
s0lvent condition"
The Governor gave ample warning to
this Legislature. He said that there
was an actual deficit Of between S3,000,-
600 and S4,00O,OO0 on account of the
unpaid appropriations, and he urged
upon the Legislature that it should either
cut down the appropriations or increase
the revenues. 1t did neither the one
thing nor the other The unfortunate
political entanglements engineered by the
Finn boilers and the Democrats played
such havoc during the session that nee
cssary legislation was not passed, and no
new revenue bill of any Importance was
adopted. The Governor has cut wher-
ever he could cut, and the only place left
for him to 90 was the school fund. The
appropriation is for S5,500,000 a year.
He has reduced this amount to So ,OO0,-
600. That is all.
1t must be taken into consideration
that the State of Pennsylvania is far
more liberal in school appropriations
than any other State in the Union. New
York does not even begin to touch our
figure Before the new constitution was
adopted in 1874 various amounts were
appropriated under S1,O00,G0O. The
constitution placed the minimum sum
at 81 100000. From 1874 to 1897
this sum was religiously appropriated
Then the Legislature raised the amount
to 81 100000, where it stood for two
years In 1889 the amount crept up to
$2,000,000 and in 1891 up to
S3,0O0,000. In 1893 the free school
book question came up, and the
sum Of S500,000 was appropriated
for free books, From that year
to the present time the entire appropria-
ton for each year has been S5,50O,000
ln looping off the 100000 the Gov
ernor has but taken off the free book
account, and if by this time there are
not enough school books in the State to
pull through for another two years then
there must have been terrible waste and
terrible destruction.
The annual income of Pennsylvania Is
about Sl1 100000. 1t is impossible to
run this great State, and give more than
halt of this sum to a single object. We
think the people OF Pennsylvania will
understand this, and they will discover
that no one is really harmed by the
slight reduction in the school account
As matter of fact we are rather glad
that the Governor has tried this expert
ment. We think that the schools will
be better conducted on the whole with
this smaller amount for the reason that
county after county in the State has
diverted its school fund into other chan
nels. Schools have been run for only six
months in the year in many counties,
poor salaries have been paid, and much
of the money used for other purposes.
Instead of becoming self-reliant in school
matters, as communities should be, the
tendency has been in many of them
to become dependent entirely and
then to skin the money received
from the State and use it else
where. Much money has gone, too into
the capacious maws of the book trust
and into the pockets of directors, who
were willing to make all sorts of changes
for whatever financial dicker there might
be in them.
The Governor declares his readiness
to uphold the full appropriation in the
future shall there be sufficient revenue
when the next Legislature meets, but
we fancy that this break having once
| been made, the Legislature will not care
to return to the old figure. In any
event, the Governor has acted wisely,
and we have no doubt that when his
reasons are fully understood he will not
be criticised by any persons whose criti-
cisms are worth anything.-Philadelphia
Inquirer,