Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1902-03-15
MISSISSIPPI MATTERS
NOTES OF PAsT AND cURRENr EyENTs.
By KATE MARKHAM POWER.

against tuc Lc6loldluAt JuoI duJOuAAOU
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, it was a 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 a leaning to-
ward the hall wherein the grave and
reverend seigniors" sat, inasmuch as
she, too, sat there, as "a chiel 'amang
'em, takin notes." And just here she
desires to say that the long days Of
arduous labor and the wearisome men
tai strain we're made not only bear
able but very pleasant by the kindly
courtesy 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 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 Legls-
lature except the purchase Of Beauvoir
for soldiers home! Thus we see in
how great esteem the peoples repre-
sentatives 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 1908, one million dol
lars more than was asked forl
The Governor, in addressing them,
said:
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 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 35,736 pupils. The average
number of days taught in said schools
frO CT fn unrp c
| 1888, or more than eight scholastic
months. 1t further appears from the
Superintendent's report that the total
amount of money collected for these
schools for the last scholastic year
was $412, ,449.83, and l 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 fol
these institutions will receive specia
notice in another issue, we do moi
print here.)
The approximate total enrolment In
the rural schools for the scholastic
years 1900 and 1901 was 691, ,742, which
would make a per capita allowance ou
of their share of the $2,000,000 appro
priated by the Legislature for the sait
two years Of $2.62 per annum. The
average number Of days taught il
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 tina
the average salary paid to these teach
ers per annum out of the State com
mon school appropriation for the TIVE
years was only about $119 each, o.
S2425 per month for the school tern
of four and one-half months. 1t will
be remembered, however, that some o
these counties also derived assistanc,
from the Chickasaw school fund, anC
others supplemented the State allow
ance by county levies, and othe
sources, thus increasing to some exten
the general average paid to teachers
as will appear from the State Super
intendent's report.
l heartily approve the liberalit,
manifested toward the States college
and separate school districts, ant
glory in the success of these institu
tions, but l desire to enter a specia
plea in behalf of the country schools
History has fully shown that the dii
fusion of education among the masse
is one of the greatest sources of ma
terial prosperity to any common
wealth, and that where moral and In
tellectual advancement have kept pac
with the progress of the times, happi
ness has been most generally dis
tributed, and the higher wants Of MAJ
more adequately provided for. 1t
proper to mention in this connection
that in the rural schools are to
found 8915 per cent. of our educabl
children, who are to become so larg
a portion Of the citizenship of tn
! State. The vast majority of these chi
dren will never attend any othe
schools than these, and so with a.
average term of only ninety days the
must, in the very nature of the cast
grow up without proper education. w
have an army Of faithful, conscientiou
public school teachers, many of whoT
: cannot afford to follow teaching strtc
ly as a profession, but must supple
ment their meager earnings from tha
source, or else go unsupplied with an
: of the comforts and half the necess
| ties of life. These teachers, thoug
! overworked and half paid, render tn
State a service which none can gail
say. and which l trust the Legislator
will see fit to recognize by increa
ing the appropriation for the publ
schools so as to provide better sa
aries and longer terms. recommen
Z that this be done, even though tn
a Legislature finds it necessary to econ'
mize expenditures along other lines
i public work
It is my opinion that the Legsli
j ture should be vested with the powe
to reuuire the several counties to lev