The Forrest City times., 1900-01-19
! STRONG ARGUMENT
n Favor of Increased Taxation for
Public School Purposes, by
Prof. James Mitchell.
|s1l1e CONSTITUTION SHOULD Be AMENDED
Permitting Special Districts to Vote .
seven snd Half Mill Tax-How the
Five Mill Tax Has Grown In Favor.
Present Average School Term.

| Present Average ScnOOl 1erms
Prof, James Mitchell, editor of the
|1ittle Rock Democrat, spoke as fol-
hows on "School Revenue at the re-
| cent annual meeting of the Western
arkansas Teachers Association, held
tn Little Rock:
Mr.. President and Teachers-You
|do not know how greatly 1 appre-
ciate the honor conveyed by the invi-
tation to address you on this occa-
sion. For l was one of your number
once in my younger, happier and bet
/ ter DAYS and l feel at home in your
company. Looking back on my life
rs travel rapidly to its sunset, am
persuaded that most of the little
good / have accomplished in this
world, and certainly the least of my
wrong doing, was in the line of your
work. 1t has been a long, long time
since | presided in the school-room,
nearly a quarter of a century, and
many changes and improvements
have taken place in the profession, or
rather IN that time teaching has
grown to the dignity of profession.
In all this long time that has separ-
ated me from active work in the
schoolroom / have never lost OF abat-
ed my interest in one of the noblest
callings to which men and women
consecrate their lives. In the days
when began teaching Git does not
matter how long ago. the average
teacher belonged to the school of the
Peripatetics. He was a nomad and in
the majority of cases he was from
New England. Fitz Greene Halleck
describes him accurately, thus:
"Or wandering through the southern
countries, teaching
The A B C from Webster's spelling
book;
Gallant and godly, making love and
preaching,
And gaining by what they call
hook and crook"
And what the moralists call over
reaching,
A decent living. The Virginians
look
Upon them with as favorable eyes
AS Gabriel on the devil in Para
! disc"
l still look back to the administra-
ton of the old-time teacher, "wan-
dering through the southern coun-
tries" with feelings of fear and ven-
Grafton, for it was one of them, a
scholar and a Christian gentleman,
that guided my youthful mind
through the tangled labyrinth of
early Latin, through Historic Sacra
on through Viri Romae, down as far
as the fourth book of Anten's Caesar,
where he unfolded to me all the in
tricacies and complexities of the
bridge which Caesar constructed for
the purpose of crossing the Rhine.
Speaking of teaching the A b c
from Webster's spelling book" re-
minds me of little incident which /
beg to relate in order to point a NOR
al on the status of education in Ar
kansas. One day last summer, on
opening my mail, came across a let
ter from an old and highly esteemed
friend, DIR. John C. Branner, formerly
state geologist of Arkansas, but now
holding the chair of geology in the
stanford University of California.
The letter, as / recall it, read about as
follows: Dear Prof. Mitchell, you
VIII find enclosed fifteen cents in
postage stamps. l want you to
go to the nearest book store
In Little Rock and purchase for
me copy of Webster's SPELL
ing book, the old blue back
that you and / studied when we were
boys, when we had spelling matches
ana stood up and spelled each other
down in the good old days of Tennes-
see and Arkansas. i have sought in
'aln for this book in California but
l am sure it can be had in Arkansas" :"
NOW DR.. Branner would never inten-
uonally cast slur upon Arkansas,
out there was in this letter what
seemed to be a reflection upon the
state. Here was an old book, obso-
ie'e and discarded in nearly all of the
states OF the Union, but he was sure
l could find it in Arkansas. And so
oid; and at the first book store that
entered. And as took the book to
'he postoffice to mail it / said to my
seii; This old book passed out of
use more than thirty years ago in
most OF the states. and was followed