The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-07-05

one month and a half. In spite Of
the increased expenses and growing
demands of the school it would be
unnecessary now to ask for an ad-
ditiona. levy, if the dispensary had
not been voted out This is not an
argument for or against the dspen-
sary; but a statement of fact in con-
nection with the districts financial az
fairs.
The levy of this additional mill
will enable the Board to meet its
financial obligations and to add those
features, whose addition will directly
benefit every child within the dis
trict.
If the result of this election is ia:
vOrable, q citizen who returns prop
erty to the value Of $1,000 will pay
one dollar per year, or eight and one
third cents per month, for the ad-
vantage that will accrue TO him either
directly or indirectly.
Experience has established the
truth of the statement that the local
tax is the most effeCtiSG means of
the maintenance Of the public Schools.
a truth that is just as potent as this
is, the more money a school district
spends upon its schools, the more it
will have to spend. There is no in
vestment that compounds interest so
rapidly as that which a district in
vests in it's schools
Local taxation is self-help, and self
help has even been, and will ALWAYS
be, recognized as the ideal of growth
and development. Local taxation is
intended to benefit children in fur
nishing means for the maintenance
of schools, but back of this practical
end, and above it, there is an id cal
the cultivation in the hearts OF a pso-
pie or the virtues of self-reliancc and
manly dependence. It seems
visionary to speak of the soul culture
l, L.
taxation means self-help and self
help develops spirit Of self-rcliancc.
and If through these virtues there
arise self-knowledge, self-reverence.
self-control, which, says Tennyson.
alone lead life to sovereign power"
what is clearer than that when a
people taxes itself for the benefit Of
its children, it grows by growing and
acquires strength by moving. By
giving it enriches itself and TINS IS !
able to give more and more. 1t real I
ICES the truth of the poets rebuke |
Of selfishness: "All that one may hold !
in his dead cold hand is what he has
given away"
When one contemplates the posi- !
bllities Of that system, that success
fully inaugurates, maintains, and per- !
fects common school, ones imagina-
ton is staggered by the bright prom
ises of hope. That such a system in
sures; and a government that can
justly claim that it has discovered
such a system may with no i'm
modesty but in a sincere outburst of !
victory exclaim: Il shall not wholly !
die; for l have erected for myself
monument more enduring than
brass" a monument! Nay, rather a !
countless number of monuments, for
each child redeemed frC, the bond
age Of ignorance becomes a living
monument and each little mind lc-
leased from the thralldom Of error
becomes star in it's crown Of re-
joicing. Call this a tax, We are con-
fused in our terms. Is it a tax when
the result measured solely and mater
tally yields more than an hundrel-
fold? And adding TO this the BLESSINGS
that accrue to the recipient in his pre-
paration for citizenship and to the
benefactor by increasing its power
for good by every enlightened soul
that is added to it's sons, the word fax
seems to be a msnomer and it would
De more appropriate to speak the
local privilege--a most precious priv
ilege indeed for community to
make annually an investment whose
dividends in money. light, and life are
S. III. EDMUNDS.