The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-03-27
CONSOLIDATE THE DISTRICTS.
Nashville News.l

Nashville News.
ASH have been thinking of the pros and
cons in the consolidation of the civil and
country school districts, and as the first
ray of light has appeared in the eastern
part of our State, / could not forego the
opportunity OF giving it my hearty sup
port. perhaps you will want to know
who ! am that "Dares to beard the lion
in his den, the Douglas in his hall" AS
l have no fear of my identity, will ven
ture to give you part of my history: l
was born in 1884, reared in three of the
New England States, emigrated in 1857
to Sioux City, Ia, and remained in the
Northwestern country as citizen and sol
der till December, 1865, when set foot
on Tennessee soil and have remained
here ever since, with the exception of one
year spent in st. Louis, Mo. And in all
of my travels and wanderings have new
er found any place that suited me any
better than my home in Tennessee, with
mild climate, where we can raise every
thing to make life ENJOYABLE. And a more
hospitable, charitable, generous and sym
pathetic people than those Of Tennessee
would be hard to find.
What is the matter with us now that we
are so far behind in educational, industrial
and good roads improvement? 1t seems
to me to be plain question, and my an
swer is: We are too much congested in,
the civil divisions Of our State and the
men that ii takes to officer them make,
such a large army that if our State was
threatened with invasion, if our governor
could call out all the officers and line them
up on our borders, he could defy all com.
ers without the aid of volunteers.
And now what is to be done? As some
of our friends of economical government
have set the pace in East Tennessee and
our honorable governor, for whom | voted
and one which / have no regrets to offer,
has given his opinion that there ought to
| be a consolidation of civil and country
school districts, and the Hon. Jere Baxter
who mas demanded an open-door policy
of the transportation trade of our State,
has also allied himself With the cause of
education, / say that when we have such
men as these in the saddle, l have no
fears for the outcome.
WHAT'S cur condition today? We have
AZ. $50 square miles of territory, 96 coun-
ties, averaging 43S las square miles to
the county, Now if we compare these to
the more lately admitted States of the I'M
ion, where they have been surveyed be-
fore settlement, where the counties range
/ from JIG to sc townships, and each town
ship contains Sc square miles, we find
that if our State were laid off into coun-
ties of 36 townships each, we would have
but SO in the State, containing Just 1896
square miles each, and the State would
contain ,168 civil districts, and schools
to the district of 8 square miles each
would give us 4 ,672 schools.
/ am a citizen of Benton County and
lznowsomethiug of the affairs thatconcern
US. 1t has nearly 400 square miles and
contains Is civil districts and "a schools.
/ don't think any country school district
should contain less than 9 square miles,
and no civil district less than sc. IF we
adopt this plan Of consolidation, think
we will have revenue to lengthen ont our
schools and improve our roads, which
things are badly needed. But the way