Year: 1872

very long. A central head ana hahu
are needed to give force and direction
to all enterprises Of so much import,
ance, involving so large interests and
extending their operations so widely.
When you abolish the State Superln'
tendency Of public schools you cut OF
the head and leave the body writhlpg
in the throes OF dissolution.


And then look at the false economy
Of the proposition. II there are to be
any public schools at all, come person
must have in charge the disbursement
of the fund for that purpose, even If all
supervision of the schools themselves
be taken away. If this duty be placed
upon any other officer OF the State 1t
will uecessitate the employment. IN that
office of additional clerical force. The
clerk hire and contingent expenses OF
the Superintendent's office cannot be
lessened, no matter what new tangled
device may he adopted for dispensing
With the services of the Superintendent
himself, and thus at the expense OF the
efficiency and success OF the entire
school system we save to the State the
miserable sum Of fifteen hundred dollars
which is the mere pittance allowed by
law to the present Superintendent. VIII
it pay?


We believe that better course and
one fraught with more advantage to the
system of free schools would be to in
crease the salary of the Superintendent,
rather than abolish the Office. If there
be any other officer Of State who has
sufficient leisure, after the discharge OF
his own official duties, to perform the
functions Of State Superintendent OF
Free Schools, his is the Office that
ought to be abolished when sinecures





are swept away.


Since observing the disposition OF
some members of the Convention to
abolish the State Superintendency, we
have taken some pains to examine the
usage in other States in this respect and
ascertain the views of eminent educa-
tors concerning the necessity for State
supervision of Common Schools. We
have not found single State where the
SUPPLEMENTARY is not recognized as
necessary part Of the system. In
our neighboring States there is no dis
cussion Of the question. We have Ohio
reports for the past ten years, but during
that time no person in Ohio has thought
OF the abolition of the State Superln-
tendents office. The question has never
once suggested itself to any restless
taxpayer who has. children to educate
or to any person who claimed to desire
to improve the school system. Every
where, wherever public schools have
been adopted, (and that is in almost
every State in the Union) the State
SuperinteDdency is recognized as part
OF the system as necessary 10 its efficient
operation as the levying and collection
of the tax. One may be abolished as
easily as the other, and, we may add,
the result would be precisely the same.


The people Of West Virginia are not
disposed to sanction anything looking
to the destruction OF the free schools
The system has won its way more and
more into popular favor with each year
OF its operation, until there is no public
interest more jealously guarded or more
tenderly cared for than this. The Con-
stitutional Convention can do no worse
thing than impair the efficiency OF the
free schools, or adopt any unfrlendly
resolution whatever. The abolish ment
of the State Superintendency is an act
to the detriment Of the free schools. 1t
will be 30 viewed by the people,
and it's results will be full OF
disaster, not only to the schools,
but to the men whose mistaken notions
Of good policy and economy lead them
to favor such proposition. We beg
the members OF the Convention who
may have entertained such an idea, to
abandon it at once and leave the State
Superintendency of Free Schools un'
touched.


The County Superintendency should
also remain; it, TOO, is an important
part OF any system of instruction; but,
above all things, let the State Superin-
tendency be maintained, and if any
change be made, let its powers and its
compensation be rather increased than
taken away.





A FATAL accident occurred at New
Cumberland, w. Va, on last Friday