The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-09-29

900 worth Of property. No wonder we
oppose high taxes. Nc wonder we dis
like a school system, which is often our
greatest obstacle in educating our chill
dren.
But some may reply: Is not the for
nation Of districts in the control Of the
county board Of e~ducation-men from
the people and Of approved business ca
pacity? We rejoin they are from the
people and are people and, like the rest
Of us, subject to weakness and preju-
dice. AS to their fitness this does not
seem to influence their appointment so
much as their places in party politics..
No less an authority than DR.. Dabney,
in an address which has been read from
one side of the nation to the other, says
that politics is the curse of southern
education. That these words were ut
tered before a great educational confer
ence in a North Carolina city by a man
who had lived among US and who used
a statement from one of our former
superintendent of public instruction to
confirm his assertion raises an inquiry
as to our school management, that
many an official would fear to meet.
But it is not the membership Of the
board so much as the circumstances
T4AASiL ti4u oS l1iiS
give a cobweb f1imsiness to our educa-
tionaI structure. On limited time with
no court to review their acts o to alter
their decisions they are intrusted with
duties, varied and delicate, but of far
reaching consequence, with scarcely
any other restraint than the observance
Of such every day behavior as fits the
case Of any man, who would enjoy his
neck. AS to the county superintendent,
the manner of his selection puts him
under obligation to the board, which
has given him office and may do so
again. While our school law is cautious
enough in setting safeguard to protect
the rights of the members of the boards
of education, of the county superinten-
dents and teachers, it neglects to pro-
vide any way Of appeal for the we'll be-
ing of all others most concerned. 1t is
an unequal state of affairs where a man
may be thrice convicted OF murder and
in each case obtain appeal, while the
child, whose community is denied a
school must consider the door of hope
forever shut, unless it should open
from above.
[ have written of The school question
as one who has seen the workings of
it's laws in North Carolina and felt their
NNLO1lS- vi we IedltZS ludl II
is as necessary to properly organize as
to levy a heavy tax; that there should
be as earnest effort to give every child
an opportunity to go to school as of
making an equal distribution of the
school fund; that the right of the child
TO a free education ought to be as
sacredly guarded as that of an innocent
man to his liberty OF Ven his life.
Gould we not follow the example of
Kentucky in enacting a law by which
the people Of either race within a pre-
Scribed territory might levy a special
tax for the education of the children of
their color without being required to di-
vid the sum raised with the children
Of the other race?
We are aware hat North Carolina is
considered a poor state. Yet who has
not seen the run down farm under
the HAND of judiciouS method and con-
nuo care within a few years to have
its hill sides swelling with wheat or
clothed with cotton and even it's wood
lands wearing the hue Of thrift. In
this age of uncertainty there are yet
two things we are afraid to limit. One
is the productive capacity Of nature;
the other, the devising genius of man.
Who would have thought twenty years
ago that North Carolina's manufacture
ers would soon be worth more than her
agricultural products. If in one of the
great branches of industry, we ave
surpassed many states, W. ought to
equal at least a few of them in putting
our children to school. Like others We
we must climb to the idea hat the
e of education must be placed
within the reach of every child and
cease to advertise our zeal in spots, af-
ter the make-believe methods of the
road side farmer. Dur growth in good
morals the development Of our re-
sources, the upbuilding Of all that Is
intellectual, refined OF spiritual depend
upon our view of this question. Where
is the man who ever looked upon his
nil and did not wish such one to eX-
eel himself?
r. W. TOWNSEND.
Raynham, y. {.