Improvement of rural schools [Sept. 1906]

THE PARAMOUNT
QUESTION
Improvement of ~ Rural Schools
GEORGIA
'SEPTEMBER, 1906

Improvement of Rural Schools
GEORGIA
1906
INTERSTATE PRINTING CO., ATLANTA; GA.

Educational Campaign Committee
c. DAVID BARROW,
wARRE:N A. CANDLER,
HoKE SMITH, W. B. MERRITT,
W. J. NoRTHE:N,
M. L. DUGGAN.

LOCAL LTAXATION FOR SCHOOLS IN ITS RE.
LATION TO AGRICULTURE.
"It is no longer disputed that the wealth, the power, the greatness and the success of a nation, are proportioned upon the degree of education that it possesses. The same rule applies to communi
ties." Sometimes we hear it said that our people are too
poor to increase their taxes. The fact is, they are often too poor not to increase them.
"Twenty years ago Denmark was one of the poorest kingdoms in Europe. Today in the per capita wealth of its people it is, with one exeeption, the richest; and in the general distribution of wealth, it stands first. The Danish farmers sell every year to England butter that brings them $30,000,000; and eggs from Denmark bring in the markets of London 30 per cent more than any other eggs bring.
"These results have been brought about through the improvement of their schools; and their schools
have btoen improved by higher taxes. "The Danish peasants 'have taxeo themselves 'til
they have made themselves rich." Georgia farmers may do the same thing.

THE EFFECTS OF RURAL SCHOOLS ON THE WEALTH-PRODUCING POW~R OF A NATION.

"In the competition among nations, the most in-

telligeRt will have the mastery."

Germany educates its masses; Russia does not

In a work on the future of Russia recently pub-

lished (1905) by an official of the Statistical De-

partment of the German G-overnment it is said that

"the financial and commercial future of Russia is

determined by t'he condition of Russian agricul-

ture."

"'What this condition is at present

may be inferred from the fact that the acre in

Russia produces only ONE-THIRD of what it pro-

duces in Germany.

"Twenty-five billions of money and a century of

time are required to set agriculture on Hs feet and

give it the requisite scientific training." Why?

According to the latest statistics accessible to the writer "Only 8 per cent of Russia's population of

130,000,000 can read and write.'

and cities. 'Many of its proprietors reside in the towns, but the property itself lies in the country, where it may become subject to that servitude which it owes to every institution that tends to improve the country.
"On the first impression it may appear unjust to require individual proprietors who do not reside irt the country district to aid in the sup]Jort of two
Friendship Academy, Rural School, Gwinnett County, Ga.
Mr. 3. B. Naeh, a prospProus farm<Jr of the community, contributed over $1,000 to the building of this house.
sets of schools, one for the country and the other for the towns. But that which contributes most to the value and security of property is an enlightened citizenry.
"Every dollar expended in the support of good schools is an investment in property as well as in
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brains, and if education is sufficiently diffused to raise a community to a higher intellectual and moral level its effect will conspicuously appear in the enhancement of values. Besides its contribu-

tion to the inherent qualities of a man, and ifs power to evolve that is good and great in him, education induces a craving for better things-for im-

proved conditions, for the possession and enjoyment of comforts and luxuries. An educated family will never cease to labor until it secures an elegant home and attractive surroundings.

"Such a community is an anchorage to every one

reared within, and an invitation to every homeseeker to cast in his lot there. What follows: Lands

appreciate in value, population becomes more dense,

more stable and more contented, and the facilities of intercommunication are multiplied. Good schools, therefore promote material prosperity and non-resi-

dent .proprietors have no cause to anticipate the depreciation of their property by the imposition of

a school tax.

"On the contrary, the event to be feared is that the tax may not be generous enough to prove

efficient, and to produce such a com,plete transformation in social conditions as to assure the ad-

vantages that ought to accrue from it. Half-hearted and cowardly measures will not answer the purpose. The tax should be high enough w secure a

teacher of first-class qualification for each grade, and to furnish annually to every child of school

age full nine months of honest and earnest schooling.

"Among the emigrants from the country are thrifty landlords who surrender their fertile and wealth-providing farms to the control of the unskilled and improvident negro. Soon thereafter his

buildings and other improvements become dilapi-

dated, his land wasted, his livestock deteriorates and a lack of thrift, industry and intelligent oversight mars the perspective in all directions. Deterioration and decay are written on every object thRr. meets the eye.

"The only effectual cure for these evils is a thorough system of common schools wnich makes the

country as desirable for residence as the towns, and surely the waste and deterioration iE> far more

costly than a moderate tax for their support.

~.

"Thoughtful managers of corporate interest are

rrupidly 'becoming advacates of taxation for rural

schools. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., says: 'We get a better return from the taxes .paid for schools than

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for any other taxes imposed upon our interests. We contribute largely to educational institutions, because it is good business policy to uphold the standard of intelligence in every community in which we have inevstments. Property values in crease more rapidly than does the diffusion of intelligence; though all values rest on an educa tional basis.'
Union School House, Putnam County, Ga. The !Seaboard railroad system recognizes this principle of increase in value. It is giving free transportation for libraries along its lines. Mr; E. B. Heard, Middleton, Ga., has charge of the circu lating libraries along the roads of this system. The effects of this experiment are already felt in so favorable a manner as to guarantee a continuance and an expansion of the work."
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IS LOCAL TAX A NECESSITY?
"The propriety of local taxation may .be argued alsa from the necessity of the case. A long trial of the existing system assures us that if edueation is to become universal, if all our young people are to be qualified to assume the responsibilities of citizenship, if illiteracy is to be driven lirom bur border-s, an improvement of the system is imper-
ative. "People of moElerate fortunes can patronize the
boarding schools, or secure for their sons and daughters a scientific and classical education at the universities, but these schools are not accessible
to vast numbers of the laboring poor. H the means of education are not brought to their doors, they can not derive any direct benefit from them.
"Every child born within the jurisdiction of the State is entitled without discrimination to like privileges and immunities. Each one should at least be taught to read its constitution and it; lawR, else how can the State be justified in demanding obedience to them from all?
"Children whose parents are unable to furnish them with a primary education are in a measure the wards of the nation, and the money expended in their education is not wasted; for the ranks of its most illustrious and most useful men are recruited from the nurseries of humble country homes.
"The discovery of a child who is gifted by nature with extraordinary mental endowments is an epoch of more importance to the welfare of mankind than the discovery of a gold mine. One transcends the other as far as spiritual thi-ngs transcend temporal things.
"Good schools are the instruments by which we discover talents, they are the diviner's rod if they are planted in the remote country district we have reason to expect that they will enrich the natioR by revealing hidden talents now perishing in obscurity.
"One who has thoroughly mastered the elementary branches of an English education is prepared to follow the common business of life mtelligently, is prepared for the ordinary duties of the citizen, is prepared to become the head of a family, and to meet a}] his social duties successfully and honorably.
"The purpose of those who favor local taxation is not to supplant the present system of commori
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schools, but to improve on it, to nuild on it and to enlarge its operation and usefulness."
. EFFE,CTS OF EDUCATION ON PROPERTY
RIGHTS AND VALUES.
"In a democratic form of government, a 'government of the people, for the people and by the people,' the general diffusion of education is one of the main pillars on which its stability rests-the virtue of the people to which education is contributory 'being the other. A weak and corrupt govern-

I I
Plains School House, Sumter County, Ga.

ment is the product of an illiterate people-weak-

ness and sla\ery characterize the people and op-

pression and tyranny its rulers. The man who par

ticipates in the government of this country ought

11-t least to be familiar with its structm'e, with the

duties and powers of its offices, the spirit, and

general character of its laws, with his own rights 8



and duties, and with the general principles of ju,;tice that grow out of the relation of onE' citizen to another.
"Every fourth year, or oftener, the people may revolutionize its political administration and change or reverse the direction of its affairs. When wisely made, the change is follqwed by prosperity. When unwisely made, is followed by disaster. The value of enlightenment to a self-governing people is therefore beyond all computation. Each elector should be able to form his own conclusion intelligently, and to act upon his own convictions, to express his opinions fearlessly and honestly and to fortify his mind against prejudices, partisan passions and the seductive tongue of the oily demagogue.
"All self-governing people will differ in opinion concerning the most vital questions, an_"\. out of their differences will arise opposing political parties, each striving for supremacy, and every citizen should be able to understand their contentions and to decide for himself on which side a patriot ought to align himself.
"Added to these considerations every citizen is expected to aid in the administration of justice, either as an officer of court or as a juror. In the whole range of civic duties no one is more vital than the duty that devolves upon the juror.
"The dearest rights of property, of inheritance, of trade, of commerce, of personal security and ,personal libeity often depend on their verdicts, and when interests of such magnitude are committed to the arbitrament of an ignorant jury they are placed in great peril. On the other hand, an intelligent and upright administration of justice is the sheet anchor of social order and the safeguarr of life and property."
THE EDUCATION OF A FARMER'S BOY.
Most people think that a child must be sent to school to "learn things," and therefore as soon as it has learned to read, write and figure, everything has been acquired that the school can give whicll will be of use on a farm. Children do .earn things at school, but this is merely incidental.
"The real object of education is to train the mind, build up the mechanism of the brain and to lubricate it so that it will run smoothly. Tho result of this training is intellect. The intellect evolves ideas and ideas run the farm, the factory, the bank; in fact, ideas run the. whole civilized world.
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"The problems involved in agriculture are com!Plex and difficult to solve, and every farm has its own, to which solutions must be found, in order to obtain the best results. The farmer must know the nature of his soils, chemically- and physically, and he must understand thoroughly the nature o! his crop, the kind of food its needs, the protection it must have and the care that must be bestowed upon it.
"He must be versed in fertilizers, their use and abuse. Tons of fertilizers are wasted every year by giving a soil something that it does not need, and tons of crops are lost because the prover plantfood was not given to it. The intricate questions involved in stock raising and breeding are not be mastered .by an ordinary, untrained mind.
"The men who have made great successes in the various agricultural pursuits are men who have had educated ,brains. My closing injunction to the farmer is: 'Educate your boy as much as you can, and to the boy: 'Take all the education you can get and stick to the farm.'
"If a l0cal tax for schools is not a good thing for communities which have tried it, IVby don't they repeal the law after it has been thoroughly tested? How many have you ever heard of being repealed? 'They are not repealed, but each year swells their number in an accelerat~d proportion. The rural communities, grown weary of seeilig all the good from this source reaped by cities, and towns, are themselves levying- a 'local tax,' for the support of their schools.''
LOOOK TO THE WELFARE OF YOUR DAUGHTER.
What father lknows where his daughter will spend her life. Farmers' sons are doing the leadership work of the world, with only here and there an exception that merely serves to prove the rule. Shall the daughters of farmers not have an equal right with their aspiring brothers?
"Must the girl be left in comparative ignorance, fated to narrow environments, and obscurity, while the boy goes away to college and the wider work of the world? Is that fair or wise?
"Oll, she does not need education, she will soon get married.' Yes? But to whom? Does she not deserve to be vrepared to become the wife of whom she will, and not the wife of whom she must?
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--
"An honest dweller in the city, the worthy son of a city father, is just as good a man as is any farmer in the land; but there is something in the atmosphere of the farm-is it healtll?-that seems to fit for success the ;boy or the girl reared there and afterward educated and living in the city.
"Nor is this an argument for leaving the farm after the education is obtained. Better not, as a rule but if it is better to go than to stay, then sureiy the farmer's daughter ought to be prepared to meet successfully and without embarrassment the demands of a new environment.
"Education is happiness. The father who desires the highest happiness of his child will, therefore, not deny her the joy of education, that blessed mother of helpful meditation. A lover of books can be indifferent to solitude. The prepared student of deeper truth can be happy without the help of a crowd.
"The trained musician is always m good society, even though her only companion is her .piano and her own sweet voice. The so-called book of nature, never so wide open as in the country, is a new and precious book to the truly educated mind."
WHAT IT WILL COST.
"Your children can not receive the training that is theirs by right in our five months' schools. They will not have equal opportunity with tile boys in town who go nine months.
"Perhaps the chief objection that will be raised against the idea of local taxation for common schools will ue that of the extra cost. 'We are already taxed as much as we can .bear,' some one will say, 'and 1 am not in favor of increasing the taxes.'
"It already costs quite a sum of money for the very imperfect system, and in many cases the county gets back less than it pays into the treasury. Is it not better to pay a little more and have a good system under local control like your neigh~ boring city?"
"A reasonable local tax for the .support of public schools is a good thing for a man without both property and children, but it is a better thing for the man with property, whether he has children to educate or not. This is true, because taxation for education insures ultimately first-class schools.
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"It. is the history of good schools that they cause a direct increase of from 25 to 50 per cent. in the value of property, and a greater increase in intelligence of the citizens of the community, while crime and poverty are lessened. This statement can be verified by those who care to invesugate for themselves.
"The people of all communities are taxed to build jails and court-houses, and to prosecute criminals, and yet, there is hardly ever a word of complaint, but when a small tax for education, the greatest crime reducer the world has ever known, is proposed, some people complain tliat they are ruined, and are opposed to such despotic methods.
"Willing to be taxed to punish crime, but not willing to be taxed in a less measure to prevent crime and increase greatly the intelligence, integri ty and wealth of the community! Why is this!
"Why are all people not willing to accept what has been so often successfully demonstrated? Why does not the broad, philanthropic spirit pervade every heart when it is certain that no one can ever take anything out of this world, and can live in the future only in their children, grand-children and in the children of others?"
THE COST AND THE PROFIT OF LOCAL TAX.
"In a school district four miles square there are more than ten thousand acres of land. If the salary of the teachers is fifty dollars a month, a tax of one cent per acre would increase the length of the school term more than two months.
"One extra stalk of cotton, or corn, or an egg, would pay this tax on an acre. One fruit tree, or a row of cabbage fifty feet long, or a bushel of turnips, would pay this tax on a hundred-acre farm.
"This does not include the tax on personal property, railroads and other corporations. Half as much may be derived from these sources as from the land tax. Then a levy at such a rate as would tax the land at an average of one cent per acre would yield sufficient funds to increase the school term three months.
"The white tenant could better afford to pay this tax for the owner of the land than to fail to have local tax. The landlord could better afford to pay the tax on the personal property of his tenant than to be without a first-class long-term school in reach of his farm. The reasons for either proposition are too obvious to need much comment.
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"The tenant may feel that he will not be able to leave his children much property, but he knows that if they are well educated, they will be able to compete with their more wealthy brother, who has undergone the misfortune of never having been thrown on his own resources, or having ,been reared in a town, has been deprived of those snrroundings and influences that develop the strongest and best features that go to make up true manhood.
"The man is wiser and leaves his boy a richer heritage, who puts his labor or his land in the boy, than is the man who ,puts the labor of his boy in land or money.
"There is no guarantee so safe that a farm will always be in demand, and that the owner may choose his tenant, as the location of that farm near a good school. The preservation of one tree on the sure the success of the school. Many times the value of one tree would make the difference belaud each year would pay the tax necessary to intween the occupancy of the farm by a tenant too shiftless to care for a school and the one who would seel{ that farm on account or the school facilities.
"The conditions in several counties in Georgia bear out the statement that landlords are assured their lands will not lie idle, for want of good tenants so long as good schools in easy reach are kept up eight months of the year."
"Can we provide adequate equipment, bette courses of study, long terms, tra{ned teachers, efficient supervision, without local taxation?
"The white school population of Georgia in 1900 was 365,570. The average white daily attendance was 190,368.
"Georgia's male ronulation of voting age in 1900 was 500,,572; of these 15;;,:247 were illite1ates.
"In 19,00 Georgia had a native white population 10 years of age and over of 841,200; of these 100,431 were illiterates.''
"The census of 1898 showed that there were 22,917 children in the state over ten years of age that could not read or write. The census of 1903 showed that this number had been reduced to 13,539. This was a decrease of more than forty per cent. Let us resolve that this good showing shall be improved when the census of 1908 is taken. A little effort on the part of every friend or education would bring the desired result."
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WHERE THE LOCAL TAX MONEY WILL GO.
"Teachers are employed on a salary .basis. The funds raised by local tax are paid out by local officials on salaries fixed by them.
-'~Is there any reason to believe that your county board or district trustees would pay more than a just part of the fund to the colored schools?
"When a man uses such an argument against lo cal tax, he indirectly admits a lack of confidence in these officials.
"See the boolcs of your county commissioner. He will galdly show you how the public funds are now being paid out.
"The talents of the teacher, like other commodities, are worth what they will bring in the marlc ets. It would be extravagance to pay them more than they could secure for their services elsewhere.
"If you wish the brightest men and women to give instruction to your children, you should be willing to pay them as much for their talents as they could earn in some other profession. Why is it that. people want the best, and not the cheapest doctor, when they are sick? 'The mind should have the best trainer available."
",Men of means, as a rule, show their ibusiness sense by advocating measures which will add to their prosperity. The majority of such men in a community are safe leaders when it comes to a question of taxation and the expenditure of public funds.
"In every case in which local tax has been defeat~d in Georgia it has failed on acconut of the adverse vote of men who own: but little property. The larger number of children to be educated is more often found in the family of the small tax-payer.
"You are acquainted with the school conditions in 'your county. If they are not as good as you could desire, then you should be patriotic enough to give a little thought to some method by which they might be improved.
"If you have not investigated the effect of local tax for schools in those counties and towns where it has been tried for a number of years, you are not in position to say that it is not just. what your community needs. If it was burdensome or in any way injurious, some community that has tried it would insist on its repeal. There is never a demand for its repeal when once it is given a trial.
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"The only counties in the State that have shown an increase of .property values every year during the last sixt~en years, are the counties that have had lecal tax for public schools for that length of time."
"Our town and city children get eight or nine months schooling each year by local taxation. If the children in the country do not get equal chance with the children in the towns, they are going to fall behind in the future struggle for existence.
"President Roosevelt recently told the people of North Carolina that the greatest or all the re sources of that wonderful State was the children of North Carolina. This is true of Georgia as well.
"Give us informed and properly developed child. hood and place it to work in this great State of
ours, and there is no way to estimate the glory of the civilization and wealth that Georgia may produce.
"The proper training of the children of the State is the one thing so needful that it should su;bmerge every other aspiration and interest of our people.
"A complete public school system, good roads, and the free delivery of mail, taken together, settle a thousand national and local problems. This condition of affairs, wherever existing, assures a growth in population in the county equal to that in the city.
Most men do as well as they know. An ignorant mind is a pernicious mind; or to say the least, is an incapable mind. As men grow in intelligence and become broadened in culture, they become more capable of self-government, and better capacitated to exemplify the teachings of good citizenship.
"The school and its influences, however mucb we may be unable to trace effects to direct causes, have a large part in molding the standards of life and the benefits of the civilization of this country."
ABILITY TO EDUCATE CHILDREN.
"The most important factor in determining a State's ability to provide schools for its children is found in the relation of taxable propert.y to the number of children to be educated. If in one State the amount of taxable property for each child of school age is only one-half or one-third the amount for each child in another State, then the people of the first State must tax their property two or three times as much as the people of the second State
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in order that the child of one State may have as large a school-fund as the child of the other State.
"The following figures show the amount of taxable property for each child of school age (from 5 to 20 years old) in some of the Southern States and in a few States in other sections: South Carolina, $337; Louisiana, $559; Georgia, $51 6; Tennessee, $509; Florida, $494; Iowa, 714; Wisconsin, $1,966; 'Missouri, $1,982; Michigan, $1,996; Maryland, $1,597; New York, $2,661.
"Georgia has less than one-third as much taxable property per capita of school population as Maryland, and the tax rate must, therefore, be three times as large, if the school funds are to be equal.
"But this does not form a valid reason why Georgia should not undertake to provide for the fullest, freest and most perfect education of all its children.
"Poor States like poor people may find it necessary to do without luxuries, but they may not deny themselves the necessities of life except at the peril of life. Education is an individual, social and civic necessity. Again, poor States, like poor men, must ilHest their meager capital and little savings for the greatest safety and the largest dividends. Both may be had by the State in good public schools, rightly managed and well taught, and probably nowhere else.
''The croaker who would warn the crusaders against illiteracy by cries of poverty, should first divest himself of ignorance and selfishness. His horizon is too narrow. He dwells in the shadow of the valley, not upon the sunlit hills. He must be educated up to the fact that money expended in the education of his children is the most profitable investment that he can make, and that an educated mind and an upright character are worth more than all of the gold and silver on the earth.
"He does not know that the making of a man is a God-like work. He does not know that education means wealth, that it means dignity, that it means power, and that it arouses and vitalizes all the activities of intelligence, volition and emotion in the soul of man."
"For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his soul, or what shall a 'man give in exchange for his soul."
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