The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-06-19
OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS;
DECLINE OF LIQUOR BUSINESS
FORMER HAS ADVANCED AND RosPERED IN PROPORTION AS
SALOON DECLINED


- - 81 8 r. ,--
: been in inverse ratio to the decline
J the saloon. The facts of history album
) dainty justify these statements anC
, the proof is easy to obtain The cole
stern facts of record testify without
exception to the growth of the public
schools in all their departments dur
ing the past thirty years at an unpre
cedented rate. During the major part
of this period the saloon has been in
its death struggle. With the advance
of the free school we have witnessed
the retreat of the saloon, as the num-
Der and revenues of the schools in
creased the number and revenues of
the saloons were decreased.
When the school system was organ
lied IN 1873 there were no restrictions
! in Tennessee upon the sale of intox.
icating liquors; there was a dram
shop at almost every cross roads. Pol
iticians courted the liquor vote; they
| looked with Indifference and at times
with i'll concealed hostility upon the
public schools. Then but twenty-nine
counties in the state levied a school
tax. Today every county in the state
levies a tax for this purpose. Then
the saloon was in every county and
the free school in but twenty-nine: to-
day the school-house is in every coun-
tv and the saloon is in but four.
Conditions as they existed in 1873
are best described by the late J. B.
Killebrew at that time assistant SUI
perintendent of public instruction. In
his report to the governor he said:
But it is for the children that we feel
the deepest solicitude. There are To-
1879 white children between the ages
of 10 and p who can neither read nor
write and 66,766 colored.
There is another lamentable feet
deducible from the census of 1870. 1t
is that while the white population has
but IS per cent the increase
In the number of white illiterates has
been so per cent. The white popula-
ton has increased from S26,722 to
,36,19a The number of illiterates has
from 71,114 to 1865 And
his illiteracy is today increasing at a
greater rate" 1T
There is small wonder that Prof
Zillebrew was alarmed at these con-
itions.
Think of it, out of white popula- +
ion of less than million there were :
early $4,000 white children between II
he ages of 10 and q years who could +,
either read nor write! Illiteracy r.
mong the white increasing at the n
ate of so per cent. a decade! This ii
as the condition that the state con- +,
'onted in 1878 when there were sa- a
IONS at every cross roads and public 10
,hool revenues were less than quar-
r. of million dollars. c,
In 1887 the saloon was driven into tn
e incorporated towns by the passage de
the original four mile law While es
~. Patterson poses as the great and 70
lily temperance reformer, 1t is la
,yertheless a fact that the four mile RI
W of 1887 made more dry territory w
ID relieved more people from the sa- w
On menace than any subsequent leg co
alton, | might add than all subse- es
ent legislation on this subject. eli
this fact ten years We
err in 1897, the schools were run Ad
lg for longer terms every county isl
the state was leyying a school tax tie
d the revenues of the schools had raj
creased 80 per cent Two years du
or another step forward in the On. the
nd march of the temperance column Tc
S taken and four years later fol- tn,
we'd the enactment of the Adams an,
, and the elimination of the saloon '
m all but twelve counties In the die
te. cot
Tow let us briefly compare condi- sin
rs as they existed IN Tennessee in sch
6, after the saloon had been abol- er's
ed IN all but twelve counties. and Of