The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1899-05-24
The Cut in ths school Fund

The Cut n me school Funu.
Philadeiphia Inquirer.
Politicians and newspapers of the in
surgent order will roandly abuse Gov
ernor Stone for raaking small cut in
the appropriation for the public schools
of the State. In fact they are at it
already They ARE denouneing him
for attacking the public school system,
and are holding Quay Legislature re-
sponsible for not affording a large
revenue, forgetful Of the fact that they
have been coDgratula,ing each other
for many months that the Legislature
was opposed to Quay, and proving it
by the fact that il did not elect Quay to
the Senate. Sensible men who can not
be misled by the partisan harangues Of
the Insurgents will have only praise
for the Governors action. Their sober
thought will be that Governor Stone
has done exactly right; that he could
not have done differently, and that he
strikes the keynote Of the situation
when he says:
~ State, like sn individual, can not
continue to pay out year by year more
money than it receives, and remain in
a solvent condition"
The Governor gave ample warning to
this Legislature. He said that there
was an actual deficit OF between s., ,OOO,-
600 and s., 100000 on account of the Hn-
paid appropriations, and he urged upon
the Legislature that it should either cut
down the heappropriatioBs or increase the
revenues. IL did neither one thing nor
the other. The unfortunate political
entanglements engineered by the Finn
boilers and the Democrats played such
havoc during the session that necessa-
ry legislation was not passed, and no
new revenue bill Of any importance
was adopted. The Governor has cut
wherever he could cut, and the only
place left for him to go was the school
fund. The appropriation is for $500
O00a year. He has reduced this amount
to 100000. That is ALL
IL 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
cur figure Before the new constitution
was adopted in 1874 various amounts
were appropriated under Sl,00O,00O.
The constitution placed the minimum
sum at Sl.OO00O0. From 1874 to 1887
this sum was religiously appropriated.
Then the Legislature raised the amount
to 81, 500, 600, where it stood for two
years. In 1889 the amount erePt up to
s.. COO 900, and in 1891 up to 3 900, coo.
In 1898 the free school book question
came up, aud the sum of 100000 was
appropriated for free books. From that
year to the present time the entire ap-
preparation for each year has been So
500,GO0. In topping OF the $500, 600 the
Governor 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 terri
ble waste and terrible destruction.
The annual income OF Pennsylvania
is about SlI,OOO. 600. 1t is impossible
to run this great State, and give more
than half Of this sum to single object.
We think the people Of Pennsylvania
will understand this, and they will dis
cover that no one is really harmed by
the slight reduction in the school ac-
count. As a matter of fact we are
rather glad that the Governor has tried
this experiment. 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 It's school fund
into other channels. 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 be-
coming 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 by the State and
use it elsewhere. Much money has
gone, too, into the capaeiOus 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 figure. In any
event, the Governor has acted wisely,
aud we have no doubt that when his
reasons are fully understood he will not
be criticised by any persons whose crit
ieisms are worth anything.