Page Two
THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER
[Thursday, March 21, 1912.
&
A DECDAE OP EDUCATIONAL
PROGRESS IN NORTH CARO
LINA, 1909-1910.
The following extracts regarding
educational progress during the past
decade have been tabulated from
the official reports of the State Super
intendent of Public Instruction, and
are re-printed from Bulletin No. 18,
recently issued from the office of the
Superintendent of Public Instruc
tion:
(1) The annual expenditure for
elementary rural schools has been in
creased from $1,$018,157.34 to $2,-
126,695.50, more than doubled.
(2) The average term of the rural
white schools has been increased
from 76 to 93 days, nearly one school
month.
(3) The value of rural school-
houses and grounds has been in
creased from $1,146,000 to $3,094,-
416, nearly trebled.
(4) Three thousand four hundred
and fifty-six new school-houses have
been built since 1902, more than one
a day for every day in every year.
(5) Expenditures for salaries of
white rural school teachers have
been increased from $621,927.97 to
$1,126,059.83, nearly doubled.
(6) The average monthly salary
of white rural teachers has been in
creased from $25.39 to $34.47, and
the average annual salary from $98-
.77 to $159.79, an increase of more
than 60 per cent in the annual sal
ary.
(7) The enrollment in the white
schools has been increased from
293,868 to 360,121, an increase of 22
per cent. The total white school
population of the State has increased
less than 11 per cent.
(8) The average daily attendance
in the white schools has been in
creased from 166,500 to 235,872, an
increase of more than 41 per cent.
(9) The number of rural white
school teachers has been increased
from 5,570 to 7,047, an increase of
1,477.
(10) The expenditures for salaries
of County Superintendents have
been increased from $23,596.85 to
$78,071.75; the average annualsalary
of the County Superintendent has
been increased from $243.27 to
$796.65.
(11) The number of special local
tax districts has been increased from
18 to 1,167. In 1910 about $300,-
000 was raised by local taxation for
the rural schools. Nearly $900,000
was raised by local taxation for the
rural and city schools.
(12) Since 1905 the number of
rural schools having more than one
teacher has been increased from 851
to 1,355. No report of this previous
to 1905.
(13) The number of rural libraries
has been increased from 472 to 2,-
772. In addition, 914 supplementary
libraries have been established. These
libraries contain 265,752 volumes of
well-selected books, costing $9 6,870.
(14) Since 1907, when the rural
high school law was passed, 202 ru
ral public high schools have been es
tablished in 93 counties, in which
were enrolled in 1911 nearly 7,000
country boys and girls.
I’roportioiiate Development of All
Parts of a Complete Educational
System.
If our people are wise and just
they must construct a complete edu
cational system—elementary, secon
dary, vocational, collegiate—devel
oping it symmetrically, proportion
ately and cotemporaneously in all
parts according to their ability. This
we have been trying to do. If per
chance some mistakes have been
made in the proportionate develop
ment let us correct the mistakes by
increasing where the need is great
est, not by destroying or weakening
one necessary part to build up an
other. The educational task of the
future is the proportionate develop
ment of all the parts of a complete
educational system. The State has
already laid the foundations and pre
pared the frame-work of every part
of this system. It is able to continue
the proportionate development of al
its parts.
To put all of the money into the
elemenary schools, that cover only
seven grades of work, and none into
the other necessary parts of a com
plete educational system would be
about as wise as to force all the
blood of the body into the feet anc
lower limbs and leave none for the
head and other parts of the body
For best results in the growth anc
development of a man’s body, all the
parts thereof must grow and develop
proportionately at the same time
The following Scripturai quotation
is peculiarly applicable to my concep
tion of a complete and adequate
school system:
“For the body is not one member,
but many.
“If the foot shall say. Because I
am not the hand I am not of the
body; is it therefore not of the body?
“And if the ear shall say. Because
1 am not the eye, I am not of the
body; is it therefore notl of the
body?
“And if the ear shall say. Because
I am not the eye, I ^.m not of the
body; is it therefore not of the body?
“If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing; if the whole
were hearing, where were the smeli-
ing?
“But now hath God set the mem
bers every one of them in the body
as it hath pleased Him.
“And if they were all one member,
where were the body?
“And now they are many members,
yet but one body.
“And the eye can not say unto the
hand, I have no need of thee; nor
again the head to the feet, I have
no need of you.”
This is the Lord’s way of growing
men, and the same method is illus
trated in all the works of creation.
Men are wisest when they follow Di
vine precept and example. Let us
not have a system of education that
will be all feet of all head, or with
feet disproportionate to the head and
body. Either would be as great a
monostrosity as a man all feet or all
head. Let all the parts be develop
ed proportionately and symmetrical
ly in a complete and effective unit,
each helping the other and all help
ing the whole. The man or men upon
whom rests the responsibility of the
development of an effective educa
tional system must see things clear
ly, see them whole and see them in
their proper proportions.
A Six-Months’ Elemenetary Rural
School Term the Next Supreme
Necessity.
I believe that a six months’ term
in the elemeneary schools is a neces
sity now, to maintain the proportion
and symmetry of the parts of the
whole and to do equal justice to all.
The State is, in my opinion, able to
provide this without decreasing in
efficiency the other important and
necessary parts of the system. This
then is the next prime necessity in
the development of our system, and
towards its accomplishment all
friends of education should labor un
remittingly, unitedly and uncompro
misingly.
I believe that the reports for 1912,
when compiled, taking into consider
ation the increase of $350,000 in the
elemeneary school fund, resulting
from the increase of two cents on
the one hundred dollars valuation
of property in the regular school tax
hy the act of 1911, will bring the
average school term of the State to
about five months. The number of
counties needing aid from the second
hundred thousand-dollars for a four-
months’ school term this year has
been decreased by the increased
school tax and the increased assess
ment of property from 66 to 51 coun
ties. In the other forty-nine counties
the length of the rural school term
has been largely increased. It is
likely, therefore, that we may be
easily in sight of a minimum school
term of six months at the next meet
ing of the General Assembly with
out an unreasonable increase in the
State appropriation or tax for the
elementary schools.
The three following methods of in
creasing the elementary school term
to a minimum of six months are sug
gested for careful consideration:
(1) The distribution of the entire
public school fund from the State
Treasury as a State fund, equalizing
the school term in every county, and
a sufficient increase in that tax to
provide a six-months’ term in every
district of every county.
(2) A continuation of the present
plan of retaining in each county the
school taxes paid by that county, and
a sufficient increase in the special
State appropriation for public schools
to bring the minimum term in each
school district of the weak counties
to six instead of four months. This
wouid, of course, necessitate an in
crease in the State revenues by taxa
tion or otherwise sufficient to meet
this increased expenditure.
(3) A special State school tax on
all property and polls similar' to the
pension tax in addition to the twen-
ty-cent school tax levied by each
county to provide a permanent equal
izing State school fund apportioned
from the State Treasury, to bring
the school term in every school dis
trict to at least six months. This
would provide a permanent fund,
constantly increasing with the in
creasing wealth and the increasing
school population of the State, and
would also provide the permanent
machinery for raising the money. It
would not, therefore, be affected in
any way by the biennial scramble for
increased appropriations by public
institutions of all sorts out of a treas
ury usualy depleted.
The first plan would increase the
school fund hy increasing the school
tax and distributing the whole from
the State Treasury as a State tax to
equalize school terms in all counties
to six months; the second wouid in
crease the State tax to increase the
State revenue sufficiently to provide
a special appropriation to lengthen
the school term in all the weak coun
ties to six months; the third would
provide a special equalizing ele
mentary State school fund by levy
ing on all property and polls an an
nual specific special tax similar to the
special tax for pensions. Which is
the wiser plan must be determined
by the law-makers after careful con
sideration and calculation. By one
plan or the other we can and must
bring the term to a minimum of six
months as soon as possible without
crippling the other important inter
ests of the State. Longer terms could
still be provided by local taxation as
leretofore. J. Y. JOYNER,
Supt. Public Instruction.
STATE NEWS.
The Republican Executive Commit
tee of Guilford County have issued
calls for the County Convention to be
held in Greensboro, April 6.
Nat McLean, the negro who w'as
shot by Gus Holmes in a street fight
ast Saturday night, died Monday at
the Hlghsmith Hospital at Fayette
ville. Holmes is in jail.
A charter has been issued to the
Franklinton Lumber and Power
Company of Franklinton. The au
thorized capital is $15,000, with $8,-
)00 subscribed for by T. H. Whita
ker.
There is to be built in the near
I future a hoisery mill at Henderson,
by Mr. R. P. Freeze, treasurer of the
Fidelity Hosiery Mill, at Newton.
Gilbert McDouglad and Theo Lu
cas engaged in a quarrel in Fayette
ville a few days ago, when Lucas
shot and killed McDouglad. Lucas
escaped.
A negro, John Holleman, of Kin*
ston, brutaly stabbed his wife to
death a few days ago, near Pink Hill>
where the woman had gone to visit
her sister.
The thirteen-year-old son of
W. W. Gales, of Glendale Springs,
Va., formerly of Salisbury, was
drowned a few days ago, in a stream
near his home.
Lippard & Barriers’ grocery stoi’®
on Church Street, Concord, was eO'
tred and robbed one night last week-
An entrance was effected by way
o£
a window. A few articles were mis®'
ing.
Reports are that Prank Molcher>
who was wanted in Gaston County*
for the murder of a negro, Jo^^®
Ross, in February, 1911, was cap'
tured near Rutherfordton one da>
last week.
eut
Capt. W. H. Powell, a pronim
citizen of Tarboro, died suddenly ^
his home in that city a few days ag^’
at the age of fifty years. He wa®
president of the Farmers and
chants Bank.
Charles Ficker, a native of
dersonville, was found dead in t> ^
in a club in Greenville, S. C., a
days ago, with a bullet hole in
right temple, and a pistol lying
the fioor near-by.
Sam Whitfield, a negro emP °
in the saw-mill of the Kinston
factoring Company, was caught^^^
the machinery a few daj'S ago
received injuries from whicb
died in a short time.
im
[•gda)
A storm at Carthage Thui>
blew down many houses, ^ a
trees, and in one instance h
stable together with a cow whi^^ ^ jt
in same, away. Strange to s
did not kill the cow.
of
til®
Mr. St. Clair Pugh, one
most widely known merchan
”wancl'
lina, died at his home m W
Dare County, on the 14th *
He was fifty-five years old.
nsta
lit.
Mr. Zero Huffman, a
vvu
citizen of Hilderbrand, to
ck'
ory, was found dead, hang ^yay
standard of his wagon, daJ’^
home from Morganton, a
ago. Heart trouble is suppa
A check for $25,000 was received
by Salem Female College from An
drew Carnegie, a few days ago.
Mr. Block Harrison, a well known
and fearless Burke County officer,
was found dead in bed a few morn
ings ago.
Wilmington was successful after
a ten days’ campaign, in raising $75,-
000, the amount needed for the Y. M.
C. A. in that city.
1
/
the cause of his death.