USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 62
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With the tremendous increase in governmental expenses for the various purposes growing up since the Civil war, in both the states as
5 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1893, P. 423.
6 Ibid., 1896, p. 375.
7 Ibid., 1873, P. 401.
8 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, P. 415.
9 Ibid., 1885, p. 515; 1897, P. 436.
10 Ibid., 1883, P. 462. 11 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1884, p. 423; 1887, p. 410.
12 Ibid., 1878, p. 472; 1881, p. 470; 1885, P. 515; etc.
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well as the nation, Kentucky has been in more recent times hard pressed for the funds necessary for education, good roads and other lines of development. Much thought and discussion has been given to a revision of the whole scheme of taxation. In 1917 there was a general property tax of 55 cents on the $100 of property, besides an inheritance tax and numerous business and license taxes.13 The present receipts and ex- penditures would have made an ante-bellum statesman stagger with amazement. In 1917 Kentucky received $14,399,943 and expended $14,- 289,171.14 The state has been prevented from running into burdensome debts on account of both constitutional provisions and the characteristic conservatism of the people. The county organizations have showed commendable foresight and restraint in contracting debts.15
The impetus that Zach. F. Smith gave to the common schools after the Civil war was continued by others, but the system was far from what it ought to have been or what the people deserved. In 1869 there were 4,447 schools tattght, with 169,477 children in attendance out of a total of 376,868 of school age. By 1877 the number of schools had increased to 5,800, with 208,000 children out of a total of 470,323 of school age enrolled. The long continued lack of proper common school facilities was now showing itself in the illiteracy of the people. In 1883 more than 250,000 people could not read, or over 15 per cent. This con- dition set many to thinking, and one result was a meeting in April of the same year in Frankfort. More money and more facilities and better teachers were demanded.16 The following year the Legislature sought to help the situation by increasing the length of the school term, in such a way as to encourage larger attendance. Schools having 35 pupils or less should continue for three months; those having from 35 to 45 pupils, for four months; and those having over 45 should run for five months. Night schools were provided for under certain arrangements in cities of the largest class, and to these, adults over the school age but under forty were allowed to go.17 This was designed to decrease adult illiteracy, but there was nothing so far to forcibly tap the root of the trouble. In 1896 such an attempt was made, when a compulsory education law was enacted which declared that every child of school age should attend school at least twelve weeks a year or be disqualified from working in certain occupations.18
During this period there was a steady increase in the funds available for the common schools. The educational fund was supplemented by direct appropriations, and efforts were made to secure a portion of the funds set apart in 1867 by George Peabody for education in the South. In 1884 the Legislature invited J. L. M. Curry, an agent for the fund, to address that body.19 The constitution of 1891 set apart for the com- mon schools any money refunded by the United States Government on account of the direct taxes levied during the Civil war. This amount, when received, totaled over $600,000.20 The per capita appropriation for each pupil was steadily increased. It amounted to $1.55 in 1884; in
13 A scientific discussion of the state's revenue system may be found in Anna Youngman's "The Revenue System of Kentucky: A Study in State Finance," in Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 32 (1917), pp. 142-202.
14 New International Year Book (New York, Dodd, Mead and Company), edited by Frank M. Colby, 1918, p. 350.
15 In 1890 the debts of all the counties totalled $5,741,636, which represented a decrease of $582,766 during the preceding decade. Nearly one-third of the counties were free from debt in 1890. American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 474. 16 Ibid., 1883, p. 463.
17 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1886, p. 466.
18 Ibid., 1896, p. 377.
19 Acts of Kentucky, 1883, I, 198.
20 Constitution, 1891, sec. 188; Lewis, History of Higher Education in Ken- tucky, 339; American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892.
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1855, $1.65; in 1887, $1.90; in 1889, $2.05; in 1890, $2.15; and in 1899, $2.70. In this last year the amount appropriated was almost $2,000,000.21
Before the negroes were given full civil rights, it was seen that, since they were a part of the permanent population of the state, they should be given the advantages of an education. By 1874 a separate school fund and school system had been set up for them. This fund was made up principally of taxes collected from the negroes, including a tax of $1 on each male over twenty-one years of age. This fund was to profit on a pro rata basis from any donations or grants from the United States Government. The state was districted, with no division to have more than 120 children between the ages of six and sixteen. Three colored trustees managed each district, hiring the teachers and providing for the general facilities. The law specifically provided that no negroes might attend schools for white people and vice versa. Schools for the whites and for the negroes had to be at least one mile apart in the country and 600 feet in towns or cities.22 In 1877 there were 532 schools being taught for negroes.
But it was soon evident that little headway could be made in edu- cating the negroes from merely the taxes they could pay. Although it seemed unfair to many to use taxes paid by white people for negro education, the more progressive saw the general good to be gained by raising the level of the colored population. The governor said in his message of 1878: "There are, without doubt, material benefits to be derived from the education of all human beings ; and it is to be hoped that the colored people will show their appreciation of the system pre- sented to them by cultivating a healthy sentiment in favor of education and by sending their children to school so as to prepare them to exercise the privileges of voting intelligently, and enjoy to the fullest extent all the sacred rights of freedmen." 23 The negroes owned $3.541.369 of property in 1878 and paid $14,878.51 in taxes, while the white people held property valued at $354,019,676 and paid $1,416,078.70 in taxes. In order to supply better negro teachers the state set up a negro normal school in Frankfort in 1886 and appropriated $3,000 annually for ex- penses.24 The negroes themselves awoke to their needs and their lack of facilities, and in different meetings and conventions asked for equal school opportunities with the whites.25 The law on the division of the school fund was soon changed so as to include negro children on an equality with white children in a per capita division of the money. In 1888 the negroes received for school purposes almost $166,000, although they paid in taxes little more than $12,500. In 1890 they were given almost $240,000 for school purposes. The principle of equality in the division of the school fund was incorporated in the constitution of 1891 in the following clause: "In distributing the school fund no distinction shall be made on account of race and color, and separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained." The negroes of today are well abreast of their opportunities in the schools of the state. In 1916 there were 33,789 colored children enrolled in the elementary schools.
With the coming of the twentieth century an educational awakening took place remarkable in its strength. In 1908 J. G. Crabbe fired this new interest, and, in the words of one commenter, awakened "a popular demand for advanced educational legislation, the greatest change in public sentiment in two years that has ever been known in any state
21 Ibid., 1885, p. 516; 1887, p. 410; 1889, p. 486; 1899, pp. 407, 408.
22 Ibid., 1874, pp. 400, 401.
23 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, P. 419.
24 Ibid., 1886, p. 466.
25 Ibid., 1875, p. 417, for example.
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in the Union." 26 In 1909 the amount spent for education was more than $5.000,000, and high schools were voted for each county, with the county as the unit for school purposes, rather than the district.27 In 1912 further legislation was passed on the compulsory attendance of children.28 About this time there began a most remarkable educational movement, known today throughout the nation as the "Moonlight Schools." It began in 1911, with Mrs. Cora Wilson Steward the superin- tendent of schools for Rowan County. Conducting her school work in a county where 25 per cent of the inhabitants were wholly illiterate, she saw the pity and the tragedy of an excellent people denied the most rudimentary advantages of an education. She decided that the adults could be reached in night schools most easily, and so, with the coopera- tion of the teachers throughout the county, she began her campaign for enlightenment on September 5th, with 1.200 pupils ranging in ages from eighteen to eighty-six. By the end of 1913 Rowan County had been all but swept clean of illiteracy; only twenty-three illiterates could
KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON
be found throughout the county, and only four of these were stubborn cases, the others being invalids, imbeciles, or otherwise incapacitated. The idea now quickly grew and spread. Governor McCreary called for a State Illiteracy Commission, which was granted unanimously by the Legislature, and the campaign was now on to drive illiteracy out of the whole state by 1920. Various organizations, such as the Kentucky Edu- cation Association, Kentucky Press Association, Kentucky Federation of Woman's Clubs, Kentucky Society of Colonial Dames, lent every effort to further the movement. On September 27, 1914, the governor issued a proclamation on education declared by United States Commissioner Claxton to be "one of the most important issued by the governor of any state since the beginning of our national life." Two thousand teach- ers volunteered their services to work in sixty counties, and soon 100,000 illiterates from fifteen to ninety-five were being taught to read and write The women of the state raised over $10,000 to carry the work forward. In 1915 a campaign of popularization of the movement was entered into,
26 "Education in Kentucky" in Journal of Education, Vol. 82 (October, 1915), P. 348.
27 New International Year Book, 1909, p. 405.
28 Ibid., 1912, p. 355.
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with 120 speakers enlisted. Posters, badges and other devices were used and various catch phrases invented, such as "Everybody Reads and Writes in Kentucky by 1920," "No Illiteracy in Kentucky after 1920," and "We Want a Pen in Every Hand in Kentucky." 29
Higher education also has not been forgotten. Besides the activities of a number of private colleges, the University of Kentucky has been built up since the Civil war to carry forward instruction and investiga- tion in the higher branches of learning. It grew out of donations of public lands made to the states in 1862 by Congress, was first attached to the old Kentucky University under the zealous and able leadership of John B. Bowman, was set up as a separate institution in 1878 on a spe- cial tract of land donated by the City of Lexington and, after various titles, was in 1916 designated the University of Kentucky. Today, under the able direction of Pres. Frank L. McVey, it is one of the leading universities of the South.30 In 1906 two normal schools were estab- lished, one at Richmond and the other at Bowling Green.
During the period since the Civil war, various social reforms were agitated and enacted into law. The temperance movement, almost as old as the state itself, soon sprang into life again after hostilities ceased, and, with a driving power that would not be denied victory, produced the first general local option legislation in 1874. In response to this insistent demand for liquor reforms, spectacularly evidenced in a me- morial submitted by the governor from the Blue Grass Temperance Con- vention and the Grand Lodge of Good Templars, containing the names of 147,000 citizens, the Legislature passed a law allowing local option in any civil division of the state, upon a petition of twenty voters to the judge of the County Court.31 With this legal weapon the temperance forces now began a campaign to clear the state little by little of the saloons. In 1893 Bowling Green, amidst an all-day prayer meeting and the ringing of church bells, went dry by twenty-eight votes, while in Breathitt County the dry forces won only after a bitter fight, in which a newspaper, the Hustler, was blown up.32 The campaign was con- tinued throughout the state until almost every county was voted dry, when the question of prohibition became prominently before the nation. In 1916 the submission of the proposition of statewide prohibition to the voters was defeated by a small margin after a bitter fight, but two years later Kentucky added her ratification of the Eighteenth Amend- ment to the Federal Constitution, and with its promulgation the policy of prohibition was settled.33
Full suffrage for women was long considered ludicrous in Kentucky, although it stood as a pioneer in partial suffrage when in 1838 it gave widowed mothers in country districts a vote for school trustees. In 1914 the Legislature refused to submit to the people an amendment to the state constitution granting full suffrage to women, and later it re- fused either to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the Federal Consi- tution or to submit it to a vote of the people. However, it finally adopted it on January 6, 1920, being the twenty-fourth state to so ratify. Other reforms were more successful. In 1890 an anti-cigarette law was passed prohibiting the sale or gift of cigarettes to persons under eighteen years of age ; and today, despite the tremendous economic value of the tobacco bus- iness to the state, a movement to outlaw tobacco is raising its head.34 The
29 See Wm. F. De Moss, "Wiping Out Illiteracy in Kentucky" in Illustrated World, Vol. 24 (1916), pp. 828-832.
30 Catalogue of the University of Kentucky, 1920-1921, pp. 43, 44; Collins, History of Kentucky, II, 185, 186; New International Year Book, 1918, P. 351.
31 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, p. 440.
32 Ibid., 1898, p. 424.
33 New International Year Book, 1916, p. 364; 1918, p. 350.
34 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, P. 474 for anti-cigarette law.
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worst evils of child labor have been dealt with. In 1908 restrictions were placed upon children under fourteen laboring during school terms, ex- cept on farms and in domestic work; and children from fourteen to sixteen were forbidden work in occupations injurious to their health or morals. Restrictions have been further extended, as in 1910.35 The reforming spirit and the desire to protect the people from all harmful influences has in recent days been carried forward by a powerful element into fields not generally entered by the law-maker, which has stirred up a strenuous fight within the state and has produced widespread inter- est throughout the nation. Many people believing that the teachings of the Darwinian theory of evolution are irreligious and dangerous to the youth of the state have succeeded in having the Legislature, after an address delivered before it by William J. Bryan, to introduce a bill to prohibit "the teachings of Darwinism, atheism, agnosticism and evolu- tion as pertaining to the origin of man." The bill was first defeated in the Senate by a bare majority, and was finally disposed of in the House on March 9, 1922, by a vote of 42 to 41, with the representative from Breathitt County casting the deciding vote.36
There has been much other legislation of a social or reforming char- acter, designed for the general welfare. As early as 1874 vital statistics, records of birth, marriages and deaths were required by law to be kept, and in 1878 a Board of Health consisting of six members was created, with the duty of keeping these statistics and of looking after health con- ditions generally.37 A few years later all cities, towns and incorpo- rated villages were required to establish local boards of health; and progress along health lines was brought down to date by the enactment of an elaborate health law in 1918. About the same time more stringent rules were provided for in connection with the licensing of pharmacists and doctors of medicine.38 Not only have the evils of slowly creeping disease been dealt with, but also the losses from sudden catastrophes and disasters have engaged the attention of the state at different times. In 1884 flood sufferers were aided by an appropriation of $75,000, and a half dozen years later, when cyclones brought devastation to Louisville and other parts of the state, $40,000 was appropriated for the sufferers.39 Attempts have also been made to protect the people, whether it be from the shrewdness of the wandering peddler or from the tyranny of combined wealth and brains. Lightning-rod agents were taxed $250 a year in 1886, and later insurance companies were made subject to prosecution for combining to monopolize the business of life and fire insurance in the state. 40
The same high sense of economy and sound principles in public finances which characterized the state since the days of the money heresies in the '20s has continued. When Congress in 1873 passed a bill increasing the salaries of members of Congress and of certain members of other departments of the Government, and popularly called the "Sal- ary Grab," the Kentucky Legislature voiced its protest against the law as being "in violation of good faith, and contrary to the principles of equity and justice," and commended those who voted against the bill.41 The unwise practices of James W. Tate, long the treasurer of the state, in handling the state's money, with the consequent temporary loss of almost $250,000, brought about a close scrutiny of state officials entrusted with state funds.42
35 New International Year Book, 1908, p. 146; 1910, p. 401.
36 See New York Times, March 10, 1922.
37 Acts of Kentucky, 1873, p. 13; American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 468. 38 Ibid., 1874, p. 440.
39 Acts of Kentucky, 1883, p. 203; American Annual Cyclopaedia, p. 473. 40 Ibid., 1886, p. 466; 1899, p. 408.
41 Ibid., 1873, p. 401.
42 Ibid., 1888, pp. 462, 463 ; 1894, p. 394; 1898, p. 355.
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The penitentiary and prison reform, old subjects of interest, have not failed to attract attention during this period. This was largely due to the increase in crime and to the consequent overcrowding of the state penitentiary. The most spectacular and foreboding growth came from the suddenly liberated negroes. In 1865 there were 20 negroes and 18I whites in the penitentiary ; a dozen years later there were 533 negroes and 453 whites. It was believed that public executions did more to excite a morbid curiosity than act as a deterrent to crime, and so after 1880 executions were privately carried out. For petty crimes and thievery, many held that the whipping post was far preferable to impris- omment. A movement grew up in the latter '7os for the reestablishment of this method of punishment. It would be a more potent terror to evil- doers and would relieve the state of the burdensome expense of imprison- ment. An instance was cited where a person who stole a brace and bits worth $2.75 was jailed for almost a year, at an expense to the public
CITY LIBRARY, LEXINGTON
of $200 or $300. Another person stole $7 and was imprisoned at a cost of $900 to the state. A member of the Legislature said: "Crime has been on the increase since the passage of the present law on petty larceny-to simply feed, clothe and keep in jail petty thieves at the expense of good citizens." "Our criminal law," he declared, "should have the rope at one end and the lash at the other." A bill for estab- lishing the whipping post passed the House by a vote of 63 to 21, tied in the Senate, and was killed by the vote of the lieutenant-governor.+3 Luke P. Blackburn, elected governor in 1879, became greatly interested in prison reform. He found the penitentiary badly crowded, with 969 prisoners in 780 small cells, disease rife, and many prisoners dying. He immediately began to pardon those most deserving it, and thereby made room for the constant incoming stream. A legislative commission, ap- pointed to visit the prison, recommended that 100 more be pardoned. Prison reforms were studied, and, due to a general awakened conscious- ness induced by Blackburn, conditions in the prison were soon on a
43 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, P. 420; 1878, p. 469; 1880, p. 422.
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better basis. But the practice of hiring out the convicts had not been changed, and this evil soon came in for remedying. The working of prisoners in mines was prohibited in 1886, and the feeling soon grew up that prison labor should not be brought into competition with free laborers at all. Ultimately another prison was built, where prisoners under thirty years of age and not yet hardened in crime were to be educated, later paroled, and eventually discharged.44
The Kentucky character, which became so definite and exact dur- ing the early days when the people were almost an isolated unit within themselves and which so often attracted the attention of the visitors and provoked their almost invariably sympathetic comment, has not been lost completely in modern days when state lines are supposed to be of little concern except to the map-makers and the politicians. Kentuckians are still proud of the land of their birth, and "My Old Kentucky Home" has a very definite meaning to them, whether they still enjoy its hos- pitality or have migrated to other states. Many have left the state, but few have forgotten it. In 1881 the governors of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Nevada and Utah were all native born Kentuck- ians. In 1906 the happy idea came to Miss Louisa Lee Hardin, a Kentuckian living in Denver, that the 600,000 Kentuckians living in other states should have a home-coming and renew their old associations. The plan was immediately embraced, and June 13th to 17th was set aside for their entertainment. Henry Watterson welcomed the wanderers back, and the country was given the unique spectacle of thousands turning again to the land of their nativity.45 In literature, James Lane Allen and others have not forgotten their own state as an inspiration for song and story.46
The economic progress of the state was slow but consistent for the period directly following the Civil war. The labor situation was far from satisfactory, with the negroes yet enjoying their freedom and long in settling down as dependable laborers. The impatience of many Ken- tuckians with this situation was instrumental in producing the movement to secure foreign immigrants for the state. There were also many acres of land that awaited the settlers who were willing to work for a good living-why not induce thrifty foreigners? Then there was the added advantage of bringing more capital into the state in this manner. Thus by the early 'zos there was a well-formed movement on foot to secure state aid in bringing foreign immigrants to the state. The promoters met defeat time and again when they brought their projects before the legislatures, but finally in 1880 they won a partial victory by having the promotion of immigration included as one of the duties of the Geo- logical Survey, established this year. The law made the state geologist the commissioner of immigration and provided that he "shall collect, com- pile, publish and circulate, in such manner and by such agencies, and
44 For various points on this subject see American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1880, P. 423; 1885, P. 515; 1887, p. 411; New International Year Book, 1910, p. 402.
45 Cook, Old Kentucky, 257-288; Magasine of American History, 1881, p. 309, for Kentuckians in other states.
46 See Library of Southern Literature, I, 41-45. L. G. Giltner, "Kentucky in Re- cent Literature" in The Midlond Monthly, VIII (1897), 483-492, said, "A claim on the part of Kentucky to a place in the annals of literature would have been regarded as preposterous in the extreme; for then there existed the belief (does it still exist, perhaps?) that her spreading bluegrass pastures offered better pabulum for the fleet thoroughbred and the blooded trotter than the winged steed Pegasus; that her hills and vallies were accustomed to echo to the sound of the six-shooter rather than the plaintive pleasing of the Pipes of Pan: and that in lieu of drinking at the Pierian Springs, her denizens were wont to quaff a far-famed product of old Bourbon County which might have tempted even Minerva to become Bacchante." Irvin Cobb in "The Glory of the States, Kentucky," in American Magazine, Vol. 81 (May, 1916), pp. 19, 20, has some witty but very true characterizations of Kentuckians, of whom he is one.
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