Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-09-14

taxes to'educate another mans children
1t is the same cry that was heard ii
1879, when a Democratic governor OF
Virginia said that the free schools were
a luxury that ought to be dispensed
with in the interest of the Shylock
bondholders. 1t is the same cry that
was heard in 188O-81, when Hon. John
w. Daniel declared that he would prefer
see the torch applied to every public
school house in Virginia rather than
protect them by a forcible read-just-
ment of the public debt of the State.
The Democratic leaders afterwards
made Daniel their chief, and subse-
quent Democratic record in the Legisla-
ture of Virginia proved that Senator
Daniel proclaimed the sentiment of his
party.
When the Readjusters :got complete
control of the State Government, on the
LIST of January, 1882, they found the
State treasury bankrupt and the free
schools languishing and dying. The
Readjusters passed the Riddleberger
bill for the forcible readjustment of the
State debt; they passed the Grandstatf
bill which protected and secured to the
free schools that portion of the revenue
dedicated to their support by the Con-
stitution; and they passed another Act
which provided for returning to the
schools over one million of dollars that
had been improperly diverted from the
school fund by the operations of the
Democratic Funding Bill. This million
of dollars was paid back to the schools
as promptly as possible, the Act pro-
viding that about half million dollars
due the State on account of the sale OF
it's interest in the Atlantic Mississippi
and Ohio Railroad should be used in
making the payment. 1t was the enact
ment of these laws by the Readjusters
that gave Vitality to the schools again
and saved them from total destruction.
If the Dispatch will consult the
Journals of the House of Delegates and
State Senate, it will find that all these
salutary, saving measures were fiercely
opposed by the Democratic members OF
the Legislature; and it is well remem-
bered that they were endorsed and ap-
plauded for their course by the Demo
cratic press and party in Virginia. The
Readjuster legislation is about all that
has been enacted that is friendly to the
schools since the system was put IN
operation under the Act of 1870. We
are fully sustained in this assertion by
indisputable Democratic authority. The
Hon. A. F. Thomas, member of the Sen
ate from the district composedof Camp
bell county and the city of Lynchburg,
is an ardent friend of popular education.
He recently published pamphlet on
Primary Education in which he discuss
es the history and quality of the free
school system in Virginia. In that
pamphlet he says that the much abused
Underwood Constitution and the law
enacted July II, 1870, are all that the
law books show that are in consonance
withthe spirit of our free school system;
and that all Democratic legislation
since 1870 has been hostile and injurious
to the free schools. After setting forth
every Act of Democratic Legislatures,
Senator Thomas makes the following
severe arraignment of his party because
of its treatment of and attitude toward
the schools:
'The foregoing is the evidence upon
which base the following deductiors:
LIST. That the Constitution adopted
July 6, 1869, and the act of July IL, 1870,
were the only legal enactments in Vir-
ginia that subscribed fully to the free
school principle.
End. That all legislation since that
time has been unfriendly to the public
free school system required by the Con-
stitution, and the legislature has done
what It could to throttle and destroy it..
9rd. That the legislature has by I'M
just and unwise laws Disseminated
against the public free schools in the
Counties and in favor of the towns.
4th. That the legislature has failed
utterly to discharge the moral obbga-
ton that it was under to foster and
support the free school system.
9Th. That it wrongfully and in defiance
of the Constitution and decisions of the
Supreme Court denied local authorities
the right to give the support that the
legislature should have given.
WHY so CONFIDENT?
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