The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1910-09-15
Letter from Hon. j. v. Calhoun.
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 8, 1910.

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 8, 1910.
Mr.. w. H. Scanland, Bossier Banner:
Dear ,Sir-On my return home
l find in a copy of the Bossier
Banner of August 9th quotation
of a Baton Rouge correspondent
of the State press who, in his effort
to awaken public sentiment in
favor of Mr.. j. B. Aswell, says
that on Mr.. Aswell's becoming
State Superintendent of Public
Education, she turned the Office
from the dusty den of a do MOTH
ing to that of a busy workshop of
great activity towards the good of
the public Without wishing to
disparage the work of Mr.. Aswell,
| feel emboldened to say that the
Police Juries, the Parish School
Boards, the Parish Superintend-
ents, and the public school teach
ers, who labored in the field of
public education before Mr.. As
wells term, will hardly agree with
his eulogist in stigmatising his
predecessors as "do nothings."
Those who have followed the
history Of our State in its spheres
of government, industry, and
education, from 1879 to 1898, will
bear testimony to the discourage
ing condition that, during these
years, prevailed in each of them.
At the beginning of this prriod,
when Mr.. Nichols and his asso-
ciates undertook the government,
the State groaned under the
weight of an immense and unjust
debt, from which, after the lapse
of thirty years, she is not yet fully
relieved. The fountains of her
revenue were exhausted, and the
channels Of her wealth were dry !;
and the question was, not to re-
form the existing, but to create a
new, condition; not to heal the
diseased, but to reanimate the
dead. The Constitutional Con-
vention of 1879 was unable, in the
impoverished condition of the
State, to do more than outline a
system Of public education, but
could not provide for its support
at the public expense. 1t settled
no fixed revenue upon the schools;
it gave to the parishes and towns
the right to tax themselves for
material improvements, but not
for their schools; it authorized a
poll tax for the benefit of the
schools, but provided no penalty
for its non-payment; it compelled
the schools to pay yearly out of
their slender revenue, the sum of
S54894.34, which was the annual
interest due to the schools by the
State itself for the schools money
borrowed by the State. Finally,
it made the schools depend for
their support upon what little was
LETT of the public fund after the
civil list, the enormous interest on
the State debt, the one-m mill tax
for levees, anu all other exigen-
cies had been provided for. Like
the Moabites, the schools had to
go into the field and CLEAN the
ears that escaped the hands of the
reapers.
In this condition nearly the
whole burden fell upon the police
juries and the good people of the
parishes and municipalities; and
the vigorous constitution of the
schools to-day is entirely owing
to the rearing it received in the
parishes at that early and preca-
rious period. The principal duty
OF the superintendent was to visit
the parishes and assist with his
advice the parish officers and
parish teachers.
Every superintendent, from Mr..
Lusher to the present incumbent,
has been able to report to the Leg
islature the happy results of the
Jealous labor and sacrifices of the
parish people in the upbuilding
of their schools. This has been
more especially the case since we
succeeded in having the Constitu-
tional Convention of 1878 remove
the distractions placed in the way
of school progress by the Consti-
tuition of 1879. was superin-
tendent from 1896 until 1904. I
have only two copies of the bien-
NAL reports which presented to
the Legislature in those years.
From the report of 1901 notice
thatthe increase in the enrolment
of pupils from 1895 to 1901 was
4,579, or q per cent. The COL
lection of the poll tax increased
from $4,000 in the year 1894 to
s131, 900 in the year 1901. was
an earnest advocate, in the face
of strong opposition, of the en-
forcement of the poll tax under
the penalty of loss of suffrage. 1t