USA > Arkansas > The aftermath of the civil war, in Arkansas > Part 16
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Having resolved to recommend to the Legislature the adoption of an entirely new system of free schools, open to all, and upon a complete reformation of the old system so graphically described by Governor Rector, after much deliberation I brought the matter to the atten- tion of the Legislature in my message of July 4, 1868, as set forth in the following extract :3
"Your attention is respectfully invited to a question that is perhaps more important than any you have been called upon to consider. It is that of universal education.
"To the ears of the oppressors this is a startling and dangerous subject, for wherever the ennobling influence of education is felt the shackles fall from the limbs of the oppressed; the slave becomes a freeman. To the lover of freedom it is the very 'philosopher's stone' that changes the base metal of the ignorant and slavish mind to the pure ore upon which the light of liberty is caught up and reflected upon other minds until the whole becomes illumined. To us it is the keystone of the grand arch
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upon which rests the fair structure of our free govern- ment. No State founded upon the principles on which our government is based can prosper where ignorance prevails. The people cannot rule successfully unless they are educated and informed.
"Free schools and free labor are necessary adjuncts ; they go hand in hand. The one produces from the gar- den of the mind its choicest fruits, the other causes the wilderness to blossom as the rose.'
"The wicked and shameful manner in which the ser- vants of the people have neglected their educational inter- ests and appropriated to their own selfish uses and the un- hallowed purposes of treason the magnificent endow- ments of a generous government subjects them to the merited condemnation of all true patriots. In regard to the advancement of the common school interests, the question heretofore seems to have been, not how to do it, but how not to do it.
"A comparison of the condition of common schools in this State, as shown by Governor Rector's message de- livered to the General Assembly, November 15, 1860,- heretofore quoted,-with that of the State of Michigan, which became a member of the Federal Union at the same time as Arkansas and under circumstances less favorable, is calculated to create a sickening sensation in the breast of one having the interests of education at heart.
"In 1855 Michigan maintained 3,255 common schools and employed 5,078 teachers. In 1860, as shown by the message above referred to, but twenty-five common schools were organized and kept up in this State from the common school fund. I am unable to give you cor- rect information of the number of common schools now in operation, but for practical purposes it would be safe to proceed as if there were none.
"From reliable statistics obtained from the list of registered voters, made last fall, it is shown that thirty per cent. of the white and fifty per cent. of the entire
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voting population were unable to write their own names. Nothing but a due sense of my constitutional obligations, and an earnest desire to promote the educational inter- ests of the State, induces me to make this shameful disclosure.
"Fortunately, after thirty-two years of ignorance and misrule, a way is at last opened through which the light of intelligence can enter and shed its beneficent rays over the whole State. The framers of our present Constitu- tion have placed themselves in enviable comparison with past legislators, and merited the approbation and grati- tude of posterity by that one act of far-seeing statesman- ship, which secures to future generations the inestimable boon of education and gives life and perpetuity to the State by providing the means whereby its future sup- porters and defenders may be prepared for the proper exercise of the duties of American citizenship.
"You are expected to take up this work, which has been so well begun, and at an early day devise and estab- lish a wise system of common [free] schools; one that will not be out of proportion with our limited means, but will be so adjusted as to grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength. After a system is estab- lished, the work of execution should be put into the hands of competent men, depending more upon efficiency than numbers. The work that under the present system is entrusted to nearly sixty-five officers, could, in my opin- ion, be more efficiently performed by ten. I, therefore, respectfully suggest the propriety of abolishing the office of county school commissioners, and creating in lieu thereof district superintendents for each judicial district that is now, or that may hereafter be, established.
"These district superintendents should be charged with the work of organizing school districts, and estab- lishing schools; they should have immediate supervision over the school directors of the various school districts, and see that said directors perform their duties properly and according to law; they should examine and license
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teachers, and organize teachers' institutes; they should provide rules and regulations for the government of schools, and visit the schools frequently for the purpose of ascertaining the efficiency of the teachers; they should examine the titles of all school lands that have hereto- fore been disposed of, and report to the proper officers such, if any, as are illegally held and their condition. "In short they should have full supervision of all matters pertaining to the school interests in their respec- tive districts. In addition to these duties, the district superintendents, with the State superintendent, as presid- ing officer, should constitute a board of education, which should meet at the Capital yearly, and have conferred upon it such legislative powers as may enable said board to make such amendments in the school system as the application of theory to practice, or the exigencies of the educational interests, may demand.
"The present condition of our school interests is unprecedented. A large portion of the community is known to be antagonistic to the principles of universal education. The prejudices that exist against a certain class of the people will tend to embarrass the situation. Obstacles will doubtless be thrown in the way where active support should be given.
"The establishment of the school systems of the older States has been the work of years. We cannot expect to apply successfully the elaborate plans that they have slowly perfected and adjusted to suit their enlarged views and peculiar localities and conditions at once to our State. Before we can arrive at such a degree of perfection the people must be educated as well as the rising generation.
"Any system that we may agree upon will, doubtless, require frequent adjustments before it will be found to work well in practice. It is for this reason that I recom- mend the establishment of a board of education."
My recommendations were embodied in an act of the Legislature passed unanimously by the Senate on July
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16, 1868, and by the House, July 18, 1868, by a vote of 37 to 19. The negative vote in the House did not indicate opposition to the bill as a whole, but only to that part of it that provided for separate schools for the races. To have provided for mixed schools, under the existing conditions, would have been destructive of all we were laboring to accomplish. In making my rec- ommendations to the Legislature I had to provide for conditions as they were and get the best results I could out of the new system, which provided for absolute segre- gation of the races.
From my message to the Legislature, January 2, 1871, relating to the progress of the educational work, I quote as follows :4
" . The report of Hon. Thomas Smith, Super- intendent of Public Instruction, however, furnishes sta- tistics showing so much more accomplished than many of you are aware of, and, moreover, contains so much matter of general interest, that I subjoin some state- ments from it, referring you for full particulars to his able report :5
"Number of children of school age, 1869 176,910 Number of children of school age, 1870. 180,274
Increase 3,364
"Number of children attending school in 1869. . 67,412
Number of children attending school in 1870. . 107,908
Increase 40,496
"Number of teachers employed in 1869. 1,335
Number of teachers employed in 1870. .. 2,302
Increase 967
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"Number of Teachers' Institutes held in 1869. . 12
Number of Teachers' Institutes held in 1870. . 41
Increase 29
"Amount paid to teachers in 1869. $188,397
Amount paid to teachers in 1870. $405,748
Increase $217,351
"Number of schoolhouses built prior to 1869. . 632
Number of schoolhouses built 1869 and 1870 657
Total
1,289
"Number of persons subject to per capita tax, 1868. 71,891
Number of persons subject to per capita tax, 1869 79,454
Increase 7,563
"Amount of tax collected from this source in 1868 $52,090
Amount of tax collected from this source in 1869. $61,465
Increase $9,365
"Apportionment of school tax in 1868. $190,492.86 Apportionment of school tax in 1869 $187,427.08
District tax in 1868. $105,235.00 District tax in 1869. $320,583.79
Increase $212,283.01
"So encouraging a statement of the work accom- plished in this direction cannot but be a source of con-
*
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gratulation. It is impossible to estimate too highly the importance of good and abundant public schools in any community. To educate the people is one of the highest duties.
"Every effort made for the accomplishment of this object should be encouraged. Every interest and every industrial pursuit will be aided and promoted by its oper- ations. Every man who is educated is improved in use- fulness, and is in every respect more valuable to society. That this subject is being properly agitated is evident from the rapid advance made in the past two years, and we may now confidently anticipate that in a short time the means of obtaining for their children a good free school education will be within the reach of every family in the State."
In stating the total number of schoolhouses built prior to 1869, Supt. Thomas Smith, in his foregoing report. should have enumerated the schoolhouses built out of the Common School Fund, the Peabody Educational Fund, and the Freedmen's Bureau Fund.
By the Common School Fund I mean the fund raised from all sources to support the common schools, which were not free schools. The Peabody Educational Fund and the Freedmen's Bureau Fund were, at the time of the winding up of those institutions, turned over to the Ar- kansas Common School Fund and became a part thereof. Doubtless all the schools established, of every descrip- tion, were included in those given in the Census report of 1860.6
The Gazette, true to the Democratic policy, under the pretext that the salaries of the circuit superintendents were exorbitant, persistently attacked the whole school system. The facts were that it was becoming too popu- lar with the illiterate Democracy of the State and it had to be checked.
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The salary which the Circuit Superintendents received was $3,000 a year. At first thought that may seem ex- cessive to some of my readers, but when it is known that all the expenses incurred in the performance of their duties-covering a territory of from five to seven coun- ties each, with but forty-five miles of railroad in the entire State-were paid from that amount it will be evident that the execution of their duties entailed extraordinary ex- penses.
It is to be regretted that the School Law, providing for the Circuit Superintendent System, did not fix a spe- cific amount for the salaries of the superintendents, and provide by separate appropriations for all expenses in- curred in the administration of the law, thus removing the unjust criticism of the entire system,-a criticism that was persisted in so strenuously by its enemies.
I watched closely the official work of each superin- tendent, and when I found a lack of zeal and efficiency the official ax immediately fell upon the neck of the slug- gard. Two examples proved sufficient, and thereafter the whole body worked effectively and harmoniously, en- titling them to the highest meed of praise.
Twenty-two years after the establishment of the new system Superintendent Thompson, in his aforesaid re- port, used the following language :7
"When Superintendent Smith took charge of the office in 1868 the unsettled and disturbed condition of society during an excited political canvass operated greatly against the advancement of free schools, but from the date of his administration we may also date the be- ginning of popular education in Arkansas-schools free to all, and every child entitled to the same rights and privileges ; none excluded; separate schools provided for the white and the black; many schools organized, houses built, and efforts made to employ more efficient teachers."
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This noble recognition from an officer of opposite political views could not, in my opinion, be improved, except by fixing the date of the passage of the act as the "beginning of popular education in Arkansas."
Superintendent Smith was opposed to the system, but not on account of excessive salaries, and he was really entitled to no special credit for its success. If the law had given him the appointment and full control of the circuit superintendents, the matter would doubtless have appeared to him in a very different light.
Up to the time I vacated the Executive Chair in March, 1871, the work had been a complete success, but from that time onward the annual enrollment of school children fluctuated very considerably, with a pronounced downward tendency. The wonderful success of the sys- tem, as shown by the enrollment of 107,908 pupils dur- ing the year 1870, caused the Democratic party at once to make unrelenting war upon it, and, as a party measure, induced many of the Democratic parents and guardians, in their blindness, to withdraw the children under their control from the free schools.
Then came almost a death blow to the whole sys- tem-the enactment of the law by which the Auditor was required to issue warrants against the Treasurer for all audited accounts against the State.8 These war- rants were called State Scrip, and resulted in the organi- zation of a "scrip ring" of speculators, who bought up scrip at low prices, according to the necessities of the impecunious holders of the scrip, including circuit super- intendents with moderate means and large families de- pendent upon them, teachers, and school district trustees. Employees whose necessities compelled them to turn their monthly payments into cash had to go to the local county ring, which offered them the alternative of buying the scrip at its own price, sometimes as low as 40 per cent on the
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dollar, or to look elsewhere. Of course if the owners of the scrip could have waited until the time came for the collectors of taxes to make their settlements with the State, when this scrip was redeemable at par value, they could then have gotten full value for their warrants.
This act caused the most efficient school employees to seek employment elsewhere, and lowered the standard of the teachers and the local trustees. It also affected the efficiency of the circuit superintendents and compelled several of them to bow their heads to the scrip ring, or to look for other employment. In such cases a re- moval from office for inefficiency carried with it no reme- dial effects.
Under the Democratic administration the schools were closed during the years 1874 and 1875, and the attendance in 1876 was only 8 per cent of the school population,9 but from that time onward it gradually in- creased from year to year until in 1890 it had reached about 50 per cent of the school population, which shows that the hunger among the masses for education-a hunger that was so clearly manifested during the first scholastic year of my administration in 1869-70-in spite of all adverse conditions and plundering of the school funds under the Democratic régime, had not abated. The year 1870 remained the high-water mark in school attendance for a period of at least twenty years.
I trust that this hunger that I have spoken of will so grow in intensity as to compel the Democratic govern- ment, as now administered, to change its whole policy of antagonism to the education of the ignorant masses. A party founded upon the ignorance of its supporters may prevail through the corruption of the ballot-box, but it never can, in my judgment, under free and fair elec- tions where both parties have proper representation on the election boards,-a representation that has been ab-
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solutely denied the Republican party in Arkansas by the Democrats since their advent to power in 1874 down to the present time, a period of forty years.
ARKANSAS INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY
Kindred to this question was the establishment of the Arkansas Industrial University, which owes its origin to the act of the Legislature, approved March 27, IS71.1º The passage of this act was soon followed by the appoint- ment of the Board of Trustees provided for by it, and the city of Fayetteville, having subscribed the necessary lands for the site and $100,000 in bonds, was selected for the location of the University.
For the information of the reader as to the grant of land made by the general government for this pur- pose, and the date of the formal opening of the insti- tution, and the preliminary measures resulting in the re- ceipt of the land scrip, I extract the following statements from an address 11 made by Gen. A. W. Bishop. June 22, 1872, at the formal opening of the University- which, I believe, are correct :
"By an act of Congress approved July 23, 1866, the time within which a State might take and claim the bene- fits of the act of July 2, 1862, was extended five years, and the formal assent to it and acceptance of its provi- sions by the State of Arkansas was made on the 3 Ist of January, 1867.
"On the 12th of February in that year a certified copy of the act of acceptance by the State was filed in the office of the commissioner of public lands, a fact that fixed the date from which the five years began to run. before which expiration at least one college must have been established. On the 8th of February, when thirty were in attendance, the executive committee of the Board
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of Trustees telegraphed to the Secretary of the Interior that it had been formally opened. Its right to the con- gressional donation was now completely and properly asserted, but upon attempting to obtain it we were met with this objection from the Secretary; that we could not have it until the State of Arkansas should pay an indebtedness due from it to the trust fund of the Chicka- saw Indians, amounting now, principal and interest, to at least $250,000, and as security for the payment of which the government held bonds of the old State Bank.
"Shortly after Arkansas was admitted into the Union, it borrowed from this fund a large sum of money. On the first day of January, 1842, the amount of unpaid principal was $90,000. Up to that date the interest had been met, but since then nothing has been paid, either of principal or interest, and the sum that I have mentioned is now due. The Secretary informed us, how- ever, that if Congress would authorize him to receive the new funded bonds of the State for the bonds held by him, funding principal and interest, he would deliver the old bonds and issue college scrip.
"To that end a bill was introduced in the Senate in January last, and in March another bill in the House of Representatives, that contemplated the issuance of the scrip without any reference to the payment of this debt due from the State.
"The House bill, introduced by the Hon. James M. Hanks, of Helena, passed that body near the close of the session, and taken to the Senate was there the sub- ject of an animated discussion that resulted in an amend- ment to the effect that this scrip should not be delivered to the authorities of the State of Arkansas until the State should have made some satisfactory arrangement by which the bonds of the State, principal and interest, now held by the United States as Indian trust funds, should be funded in the new bonds of the State, authorized to be issued for this purpose. This, as was announced on the floor of the Senate by Senator Clayton, the State is
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ready to do, and to use his language, 'The very moment the Secretary of the Interior comes forward and pro- poses to have these funded the State authorities will do it.'
"With this amendment, the bill passed the Senate the day of the adjournment of Congress, and being hurried into the House, where it was compelled to go in consequence of this amendment, it was there, through the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Hanks, and amid the hurry and confusion of the closing hours of Congress, pressed to a vote and the measure is now a law."
This institution has in the main proved a success, and with ample buildings, lands, and other facilities, it offers to over 600 students now in attendance unusual facilities for the acquirement of an education in the arts and sciences, including scientific agriculture and the best methods of industrial pursuits. This number of students does not include the attendance of the branches located at Little Rock and Pine Bluff.
I believe that the establishment of the branches of Law and Medicine at Little Rock was a mistaken policy, and that it would have been wiser had all branches- except, perhaps, the colored branch at Pine Bluff-been maintained at Fayetteville, subject to the general super- vision of the proper officers, whose duties require them to reside there.
To the prompt action of the Government of 1868 are due the life and the vitality of an institution that was so long neglected by preceding State Governments. If it has not always realized the full expectations of its friends, the failure is perhaps attributable to the great evil of injecting politics into its management. The school interests are those of the entire people of Arkansas, and should be kept absolutely free from all political influ- ences.
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FOOTNOTES FOR CHAPTER X
1 Arkansas House Journal, 1860, p. 102.
2 Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ark., 1889-90, p. 20.
3 Arkansas House Journal, 1868, pp. 296-299.
4 Arkansas House Journal, 1871, pp. 27-28.
5 Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ark., 1868-70.
6 P. 222.
7 Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ark., 1889-90, p. 19.
8 Gantt's Digest of Arkansas Statutes, Sec. 2782, p. 531.
9 Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ark., 1887-88.
10 Arkansas Senate Journal, 1871, pp. 345 and 373.
11 Published in Daily Republican, July 12, 1872.
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CHAPTER XI
STATE AID TO RAILROADS
In my first message to the Legislature, on the sub- ject of "State Aid to Railroads," I used the following language :1
"A railroad bill should be passed before you adjourn which will provide for the loaning of the credit of the State to such roads as are now, or may hereafter, be incorporated, which shall be shown to be of sufficient benefit to the State to justify such loan, and which may not have received from the general government, by grant of lands or otherwise, sufficient assistance to insure the completion of the same without the aid of the State."
The Legislature promptly acted on my recommen- dations by the passage in both Houses, with practical unanimity, of a bill that was approved July 21, 1868.2 This most excellent and well guarded measure, involv- ing the loan of the State's credit, was in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, submitted to the people for their consideration at the general election of Novem- ber 3, 1868, when it was ratified by a large majority. Less than six thousand votes were cast against it, and it immediately went into full effect.
The Board of Railroad Commissioners therein pro- vided for was promptly organized and, from time to time, in strict conformity with the law, granted State Aid to the following railroad companies :
.....
-
--
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RATE
ROAD MILEAGE
PER MILE AWARD
Memphis & Little Rock
R. R. Co ... . I20
$10,000
$1,200,000
Little Rock, Pine Bluff & New Orleans Railroad Company . 120
$15,000
$1,800,000
Mississippi, Ouachita & Red River Railroad Company I30
$15,000
$1,950,000
Little Rock & Ft. Smith
R. R. Co. 150
$10,000
$1,500,000
Little Rock & Helena
R. R. Co. . 30
$15,000
$ 450,000
Cairo & Fulton Railroad
Co.
300
$10,000
$3,000,000
$9,900,000
The railroad companies that finally participated in the issue of the State Aid Bonds during my administra- tion were the first four mentioned in the above enumer- ation. The control of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad Company was purchased from the B. F. Rice Syndicate by H. C. Marquand and Thomas Allen, as shown by an affidavit made by Marquand under date of Septem- ber 18, 1872, and published in the Gazette, October 8th of the same year. The amount paid the Rice Syndicate for the franchise was $500,000. The immense grant of land by the United States to this company gave it great value, and as this new proprietorship had ample funds at its command it wisely relinquished the State Aid that had been granted under the Rice ownership, and the road was completed with reasonable dispatch.
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