The Forrest City times., 1900-01-19

~ Is with us yet. Any old book will do
for Arkansas" 1t was this reflection
that caused my rich southern blood
10 boil and made my state pride as
sert itself. The thought that Arkan-
sas children in these, the closing
days of the nineteenth century.
when progress, advancement and en-
lightenment are the order of the day.
should be compelled to learn orthog-
raphy from an antiquated and cum
bersome book, old in my boyhood
days, was most humiliating reflec-
tlon and fact most unwelcome,
Brethren of the profession, let us get
out of it. No wonder that they saw
of us that in some parts of the state
we are still voting for Old Hickory
Jackson for president.
L have been asked to discuss at this
meeting the question of school reve-
nues. 1t is momentous question,
upon the solution of which great re-
suits depend. We are, comparatively
speaking, without revenues and we
must have them in order to have
schools. In the language of Grover
Cleveland: ut is condition and not
theory that confronts u.s." It is, 1
apprehend, condition which can
only be changed for the better by the
unanimous, concerted and earnest ef-
forts OF the teachers of Arkansas.
They are today as they never were
before, power in shaping and
moulding public opinion and 1 appeal
to them as the makers and builders
of the citizenship that is to rule the
country, to use their power for the
improvement of our institutions of
learning of high and low degree.
There are some strong provisions
in the organic law of Arkansas relat-
ing to education and our public
schools. In the most solemn and un-
equivocal manner the state is COM
mitted to the maintenance of her
common schools. / read from sec
tion l, article II, of the constitution
of 1874: Intelligence and virtue be-
ing the safeguards of liberty and the
bulwarks of a free and good govern
ment, the state shall ever maintain a
general, suitable and efficient system
of free schools whereby all persons
in the state between the ages of six
and twenty-one years, may receive
gratuitous instruction" Is not this
a magnificent presentation of the OBJ
legation of the state to the children
of the state? Let me repeat it, and
/ ask that every teacher in this pres
ence shall bear it on the tablet of
memory as thing never to be effac-
ed or obscured.
BY this splendid declaration the
commonwealth is forever committed
to the cause of public education and
whenever the lawmakers of the
state, with uncovered head and up
lifted hand, swears loyalty and obe-
dience to the organic law, it is for
him to remember chief among the
provisions Of that law the solemn
declaration that the state shall sever
maintain a general, suitable and eff
cient system of free schools" There
are questions about which legislators
may differ-subjects of legislation
upon which they are left free to act
according to their ideas of policy,
or to different constructions of the
| constitution, but when it comes to
the maintenance of free common
schools, there is no room for differ
ence or for doubt. Whether they be-
lieve in public education or not,
whether they believe in the right of
the state to tax the rich for the edu-
cation of the poor, the right to tax
the man with no children for the ed
ucation of his poor neighbor with a
dozen children-whatever his ideas
of the justice or injustice of free
common schools, the constitution of
the state, the supreme law of the
land thunders its command, "The
able and efficient system of free COM
state shall maintain general, suit
mon schools"
Let us note the next provision of
the constitution: mo money or prop
erty belonging to the public school
fund, or to the state, for the benefit
of schools or universities, shall ever
be used for any other than the re-
spective purpose to which it be-
longs"
A most admirable provision indeed,
guaranty of the sacredness of the
funds drawn from the people for the
maintenance of their schools.
Next in order is that section of the
organic law which provides the ways
and means necessary to the success of
the system: Section 3. The general
assembly shall provide, by general
laws, for the support of common
schools, by taxes, which shall never
exceed in one year two mills on the