Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1915-01-15

Without specific case OF am
particular board IN mind, we pro
coed to analyze, and dissect our
State School system
LIST. Our State Bonds, which
form the nucleus of Our endow-
ment fund was originally be
queathed 10 the State for the edu
cational purposes. Il was Ken
tucky's share of proceeds OF pub
lie lands. amounting To neatly
million and Il hall dollars.
Only seven hundred ftly thous-
and dollars Was covered into the
treasury and State Bonds secured
for it,
1t has been increased latlerly.
by government paying to he state
a sum, about $4,000 excess OF
debt collected IN civil war.
This with other resources has
increased cur Sttte Bonds tol
public schools TO a Very respect
able endowment fund. Thee
bonds j. our Investment in per,
petui'y. No time limit for their
re Iemp.ion, with interest at g pei
cent per annum.
This interest is part, the sum
for which Jones pays the
Fre;gt.'
"Who IS Jones? You ask"
Jones pays wha?" Well you
and [ are pert Of Jones. and the
Jones We are telling you about is
tie taxpaying public. Ses:
Over ole halt OF advalorem tax,
paid annually, by Jones goes into
the state treasurery, solely for the
payment of teachers.
Add to this the county taxation
for school pun poses, and we have
an aggregate Of a sum consider
ably more than half of the entire
sum collected to detray expenses
OF State administration.
Space, common courtesy and
time forb'as gong into details, re-
garding efficiency or inef1icjency
in the State department, or coun-
~ boards OF education.
When We stop to consider the
length of, time, that elapsed since
We began to prepare. to get ready
to begin. TO formulate a school
system; when we note the long
torteouS way over which the pro-
cess has BEEN dragged, we do not
wonder at our blot of illiteracy,
that c0nfrOnts US on every side.
The greatest wonder is that our
system has not more signally fail
ed than it has.
If our ancestors, and the time
of honorable defendants had put
that estimate Oh our educational
growth and development, that we
then and now place on our material
and commercial interests we
should to day stand as the peer of
the most advanced State, in all
that goes TO make a great people.
If the energy and effort, that
has been expended to build up
registered. strain Of fine stock or
TO produce The champion bloOded
animal of the state or nation, or
to produce the finest brand of
Bourbon Whiskey or Burley to-
bacco, [ say. if one half the
energy and enterpri-e that has
been bestowed on these, had been
expended on books, and buildings
schools and colleges, and the same
pains taken to train high class,
cleared eyed, sharp witted, clean
bloOded, boys and girls, the year
1915 would not have found US, SIT
uated as we are, with 50 few
Schools and school buildings
worthy of the name.
More than this. our system of
internal Improvements has not kept
pace with our other interest as
they should
For example we have only to
point to our material resources,
rich beyond computation, for the
building and maintaining a system
OF roads unsurpassed into the
world.
In any direction, for hundreds
of miles, the material fer tuil ing
macadam, concrete, or gravel
road is we'll nigh inexhaus,ible
and in a majority of cases reaCy
at band or easily accessible.
We perish for a lack OF knowl-