The sun., 1919-11-05
DELAWARE FOES
FLOUT LAW AND
| STUNT SCHOOLS
Officials Fail to Levy Tax
Needed in Educational
Reform System.
FUNDS NOW EXHAUSTED
ssWhipping Post" Element Call
Child a Chattel; Want No
"New Tangled Learning"
sy a star Correspondent Of THE Sun.

(DovER Del, Nov. An the mlust
OF all the wrangling as to whether or
not Delaware is to have educational
reform something In the nature OF
sand seems to have been thrown into
the State machinery. At the time OF
this writing officials of Kent County,
in which Dover, the State Capital is
located, have levied no taxes for the
support and maintenance of the new
school system, over which the State
wide controversy RACES. This tax
should have been sought two months
ago and by way of explanation the
officials are protesting they simply
can't get their assessment sheets all
In. Because of this the schooh of
Kent. one of the three counties In the
State, are running on faith.
This is highly pleasing to the enc
niles of the new school law with its
strong provisions for compulsory edu-
cation. An editor is quoted as hav-
ing said Of the attitude Of the people
toward the new school law, "They
don't want 1t and they are not going
to obey it,
This sentiment seems to be echoed
by the clique that bitterly opposed
Gen. Coleman du Points plans for i'm
proving the roads of the State and
that has tied up work of the du Pont
boulevard in certain sections until the
present day.
Lax Tax Action Praised.
It is encouraged by representatives
Of absentee landlords who own large
tracts in Delaware. but live in other
States and have no interest in the peo-
pie here. 1t also finds favor with the
landlord who in the past was obliged to
pay school taxes only on the rental value
Of his property which represented but a
very small part of his interests. and
must now pay taxes on all of his land.
1t has the support OF the people who
are afraid that the money collected in
their own district may be used to build
school houses in other parts Of the
county.
One basis for the opposition to educa-
tional reform is to be found in the fact
that Delaware Is ''the last of the Colo
Mes and that there still survives among
the old English families of Sussex. Kent
and part of Newcastle the ancient be-
lief that child Is the property Of its
parents until II becomes of age, and
that no one has any right to compel
those parents to send 1t to school or to
do anything with 1t that they do not
choose to.
For many Of the enemies Of the new
school law are indeed Economists" They
most heartily approve of Dover's public
whipping post at which miscreants are
fiogged as in the good old seventeenth
century. They may try to intimidate
the Supreme Court into declaring a law
unconstitutional when II is not to their
liking. and many of them may be per
fectly willing to "work'' for a candidate
at election time for a cash considera-
tion; they may also have no scruples
against working orphan children as
dawes on their farms and denying theiI
own young ones an education. But they
are orthodox church people: "meetin
men" They would be ordinarily classi'
Ned as law abiding. They are extremely
bitter in their opposition to profanity
gambling and intemperance, Even the
negroes in their localities rarely throw
dice.
But II is strange and noteworth,
fact that while these people have beeI
IA many cases fighting against any an'
all expenditures proposed for improve
ment of their school houses, Delaware
negroes have ' u working in the oppo
stte direction While many white schoo
officials were making no efforts for ad
vancement of education in the past ne
power to give their children a bette
training than they had themselves
While wealthy white people in some sec
tons were paying but rs cents on ever!
hundred dollars worth of taxable prop
erty toward the upkeep of their schools
and were protesting that expense, poo
negroes were voluntarily paying twic
that rate, and one colored district wa
paying eight times that rate per hundre'
dollars worth OF taxable property.
was found on inve estlgation that in man,
negro districts the colored folk loane'
their coal oil lamps to the schools ant
volunteered to chop wood and maxi
repairs. although in most cases thei
schools were unspeakably bad becaus
OF the impoverished condition of thos
who were obliged to support them.
Importance of School Fight.
The pending fight is made additionally
important because the Delaware Stat
elections are to be held next year, an
the terms Of office of Governor Justice
of the Supreme Court, legislators an
other officials all expire at the end o
1920. 1t is with this in mind that bot
the exponents and opponents of the ney
educational laws are vigorously cam
paigning the State. The former are Il
o condition of considerable anxiety be
cause of the recent mobbing OF tn
court house here by enemies of schoo
reform. They feel that such action ha
violated Delaware's most sacred tradi
tions. and that If Justices should be re
fused reappointment because they woul,
not be swayed by mob clamor, the Stat
will find itself in most deplorable con
dition.
George b. Miller President of tn,
State Board Of Education, is trying I,
win the public over to support of thu
new laws, just as Pierre s. du Pont, tn
vice-presdent of the board, is endeavor
ing to. Gov. Townsend has thrown tn,
force Of his administration into tn,
light for Improvement
In answer to the argument that edu
cation would lure the children ava,
from the farms, much data Is being dis
seminated to show that the states o
Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas ant
other parts OF the union have both SooC
schools and good farms, and the schools
can really train the children to be bet
ter farmers
The Delaware State Programme, ,
department formed for the purpose o
arousing public interest in state i'm
provement and affiliated with the stat
Board of Education and other depart
ments' Is urging the people to read tn
newspapers and study the situation Il
order that they may be able to appre
eiate the benefits which the new law
will bring TO them
IL Is calling their attention to the fac
that Delaware has been paying teach
ers an average salary OF $36727 a yea