Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1902-03-15

EsSSSstsGFtS S<Us sS.NSsSGs~S<SSGU < v
SO much has been said for and
against the Legislature just adjoui ned
that we feel constrained to tell our
readers just what was accomplished
for this great State Of ours through
the combined wisdom of our Governor
and our Legislature. Take it all in
all, 1t was mighty good Legislature.
Both bodies were strong and contained
men of great force, influence and in
| telligence. The writer may be par
| doned for somewhat of leaning to-
ward the hall wherein ''the grave and
reverend seigniors" sat, inasmuch as
/ She, too, sat there, as "a chiel amang
EN-, takin notes" And just here she
| desires to say that the long days of
arduous labor and the wearisome men
tai strain were made not only bear
/ able but very pleasant by the kindly
Z ourtesy and chivalrous consideration
/ OF these Mississippi gentlemen who
sat within the Senate. To relate here
| all that was done would be impossi-
BILE. Even to recount the matters Of
! great Importance suggested to them
| by our wise Governor would be too
great a task. But this we do say
| and as a compliment it works both
! ways-eVery suggestion made by Gov.
| LOnginO was carried out by the Legis-
! lature except the purchase of Beauvoir
for soldiers home! Thus we see in
! how great esteem the peoples repre-
sentatiyes hold their chief executive.
| Nor Is this confidence misplaced ever
so slightly, Upright, honorable and
wise beyond his years, this man Of
clean hands and honest heart has not
! disappointed the friends who expected
much Of him in the high place to
which he is called as in the simple
life he has lived as private citizen.
1t is our purpose, from week to week,
to refer to the work of the Legislature,
and the item for this weeks notice
is the Governors message relative to
our common schools. So well did he
do this work, and so effective has
been the school work of late, that the
| Legislature appropriated for the two
years, 1902 and 1903, one million dol
lars more than was asked for.
The Governor, in addressing them,
said;
F" The report of the State
Superintendent of Education recently
issued, shows that seventy-four of the
towns in Mississippi are organized into
separate school districts, and it is graf
flying to report that they, as a rule,
have commodious, handsome and suit
able buildings, and that during the
scholastic year ending 1900 the enroll
ment was approximately $4,000, and
for the year 1901 they enrolled in the
aggregate 1876 pupils. The average
number of days taught in said schools
during the last scholastic year was
1893. or more than eight scholastic
months. 1t further appears from the
Superintendent report that the total
amount of money collected for these
schools for the last scholastic year
was $4l2,449.S3, and | estimate the
same amount for 1900. The
approximate per capita of all the funds
received was $11.55 on the total en-
rollment.
Here follow statistics as to the
States colleges and the university, but
as the splendid appropriations for
these institutions will receive special
notice in another issue, we do not
print here.)
The approximate total enrolment in
the rural schools for the scholastic
years 1900 and 1901 was 691 ,742, which
would make ner capita allowance out
Of their share Of the $2,000000 appro-
priated by the Legislature for the said
two years of S2.62 per annum. The
average number of days taught in
these schools was ninety, and there
were employed in them during the
year 1900 approximately 1920 teach
ers, and during the year 1901, 1906
teachers. 1t will thus be seen that
the average salary paid to these teach
ers per annum out of the State COM
mon school appropriation for the two
years was only about $119 each, or
S24.25 per month for the school term
of four and one-half months. 1t will
be remembered, however, that some of
these counties also derived assistance
from the Chickasaw school fund, and
others supplemented the State allow.
anCe by county levies, and other
sources, thus increasing to some extent
the general average paid to teachers,
as will appear from the State Super
intendent's report.
| heartily approve the liberalty
manifested toward the States colleges
and separate school districts, and
glory in the success of these insutu-
tions, but | desire to enter a special
plea in behalf of the country schools.
History has fully shown that the diff
fusion of education among the masses
is one of the greatest sources of ma
terial prosperity to any common.
wealth, and that where moral and in
tellectual advancement have kept pace
with the progress of the times, happi-
ness has been most generally dis
tributed, and the higher wants of man
more adequately provided for. 1t is
proper to mention in this connection
that in the rural schools are to be
found S9la per cent. of our educable
children. who are to become so large
a portion of the citizenship of the
State. The vast majority of these chill
dren will never attend any other
schools than these, and so with an
average term of only ninety days they
!
grow up without proper education. We
have an army of faithful, conscientious
public school teachers, many of whom
cannot afford to follow teaching strict
ly as profession, but must supple
ment their meager earnings from that
source, or else go unsupplied with any
Of the comforts and half the necessi-
ties of life. These teachers, though
overworked and half paid render the
State a service which none can gain
say, and which | trust the Legislature
will see fit to recognize by increas-
ing the appropriation for the public
schools so as to provide better sal
aries and longer terms. | recommend
that this be done, even though the
Legislature finds it necessary to econo-
mize expenditures along other lines of
public work.
1t is my opinion that the Legsla.
! ture should be vested with the power
to require the several counties to levy
tax to be used in addition to the
State appropriation for the mainte-
nance Of their respective schools for a
longer term than four months. Sec
tion 206, however, of the constitution,
seems to leave it optional with any
county or separate school district to
make such levy or not and take
the liberty of suggesting to the Legis.
lature the wisdom of submitting an
amendment to said section, giving the
Legislature authority to require such
supplemental aid by the counties to be
voted on by the people.
| Thoro ,yaro napy ,,,or ,nd p,ony