The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1913-01-23
ARE THERE ANY
PAUPER COUNTIES?
Answer to the Talk That Some Counties
Are Paupers = State Owes Equal

Chance.
/ III. B. Dougherty in Charlotte Observer)
[ have read with regret your editorial
of December l3, and also one of later
date on "The Pauper Counties
No county in North Carolina receives
aid from neighboring county for any
kind of running expenses. Every county
receives aid from the state for public
schools. After all the money has been
appropriated any county not having
four months public school may levey a
special tax to raise one-half of the de-
fcit and then apply to the state for one
| half; therefore, it is to be seen that
every citizen living in a "pauper county"
pays higher educational tax than the
citizen living in a rich county.
i Everyone knows that a county must
| levy enough tax to meet the county
expense and it cannot do this without
! corresponding tax for the public schools
must have restricted salary list, swcrn
to by the board of education and pre-
sented to the state board of education
So it must be seen that the opportunity
| for graft is not SO great as may first
appear.
| North Carolina issued first and last
| 100000 in bonds to construct the now
Southern railroad. Many of the cites
and towns connected have grown rich.
They have enjoyed the opportunities for
the building of factories, the starting of
many enterprises and the coming of out
| side wealth. They have not only had
the advantages of the railroad, but have
prospered from the local tax of this rail-
! road property for the most part owned
| by the state itself, and yet the "pauper
counties" have never murmured.
This is an age Of prosperity. The in
| vestments made in railroads many years
ago bring, great revenue to the
state treasury. The counties having
the railroads and the local tax
ought to be willing to allow out
| lyin counties to share more liber-
ally in the dividends. There can be
ward in the development of the public
school system. There is a widespread
| feeling among the farmers that no bet-
ter use can be found for the states
money than using it for the education of
all the children. -F
An increased school terms is coming.
| If the present legislature increases the
appropriation directly to the public
do the most popular thing it can do.
|
pie what they want and need-a six
months school
Again, if the county is the unit and
must provide it's own school fund, why
not the townships? Why not the school
! district Why not the family ~.
If the logic of the Observer is correct
the opportunity of every boy or girl in
North Carolina must depend upon his
proximity to wealth. This is not in ac-
cord with the North Carolina spirit.
When the late Governor Aycock made
his great campaign in this state he said
there should be an educational test for
voting, the standard to be the same in
every county, and, therefore, an equal.
opportunity for education in every coun-
! ty. So far as the state was concerned,
the boy in the mountains or on the plain,
in the city or in the country, should
| have an equal chance. To this he pledged
the state and the states wealth. He
was applauded on the stump as no man
ever was before. After establishing the
educational standard shall we, this early,
condemn this policy of equality, this pol
icv of building and strengthening the en-
tire state?
While we would not press the view
lust here, there could Oe produced an
abundance of good argument to put all
the educational money into the state
treasury and appropriate it in such
way as to give every child an equal
chance. North Carolina is unit.
County lines should not interfere with
the education of our children. No state
can be great when even a part of her
children are neglected. In spending
money for education we must consider
4ho noaIc NOT tho from which
money comes.
| The building of the railroad by state
aid to Durham aided the Carrs and
Dukes to make their millions. The city
of Durham now pays about 90 per cent.
of the taxes of Durham county. Does
anyone suppose that the legislature
would have made the county of Durham
to give better court facilities to the men
| if they bad thought that by so doing
| they would forever discriminate against
the boys and girls left in the county of
| Orange?
Two years ago I had the opportunity
of investigating Wake county. the home
of REPRESENTATIVE Simms, who introduced
the bill providing for the aid of the
"pauper counties" To this mars mem
orv 3 monument should be erected!
Let every county make fair calcula-
! tion and this issue will be at an end. l
should be glad to see the time come
when the state could let every county
keep every cent of taxes and maintain
the states expenses from the corpora
tions
Our state now has more than $1,000
900 income. One-half of this comes from
corporations. Five hundred thousand
dollars, or one-fourth the income of the
state, goes to the Confederate soldiers.
who sacrificed the best days of their
! lives for the honor of our state, who are
now slowly but surely stepping from the
stage of action. The very counties that
furnished the largest numbers-that
took the greatest part in the war-must
now be stigmatized by a new name
"pauper counties"
Il submit that the1county that levies a
tax on it's own property to meet the
state on halfway ground to better the
opportunities for her children. is state
| ond not a "c4afn nda13