538 



KENTUCKY. 



regarded as one of the defects of the existing 

 Constitution that some of its provisions oper- 

 ate against the progress of internal improve- 

 ments. The Legislature is not expressly em- 

 powered to levy taxes, contract debts, or make 

 appropriations for internal improvements. The 

 consequence has been that a local system of 

 taxation has been adopted for internal im- 

 provements, and such numbers of counties and 

 towns in the wealthier sections of the State 

 have levied taxes and contracted debt to make 

 their own improvements that, if they are not 

 absolutely unable, they are at least unwilling 

 to submit to further taxation, should it be pro- 

 posed under this general provision of the Con- 

 stitution, to construct internal improvements 

 in those counties in other sections of the State 

 unable to provide the means by local taxation. 

 By reason of this the Legislature has become 

 powerless to levy taxes and contract debt on 

 behalf of the State for improvements in those 

 counties and parts of the State where they are 

 necessary to develop their resources, or else- 

 where for the general benefit of the State. 

 That this local system of taxation has reduced 

 the State to this helpless condition is evidenced 

 by the failure of the last Legislature to vote a 

 dollar to repair river improvements. This has 

 led to unavailing petitions to Congress for aid. 

 Another defect is the present mode of organiz- 

 ing the judiciary department. 



The receipts of the State Treasury for the 

 fiscal year ending on October 10, 1879, were, 

 with the balance on hand of the previous year, 

 $2,166,192; the expenditures were $2,095,321. 

 Although this presents an apparent balance of 

 $70,870, there was really a deficiency, owing 

 to the amount of outstanding claims unpaid. 

 This was ascribed by the Auditor to a reduc- 

 tion of the revenue tax from twenty to fifteen 

 cents on the hundred dollars, the increase of 

 litigation and crime, the multiplication of 

 courts and asylums for the relief and protec- 

 tion of the unfortunate, etc. 



The total amount of the bonded indebted- 

 ness of the State, exclusive of the school fund, 

 which is a permanent loan, is $180,394. The 

 ample resources of the sinking fund to pay 

 this indebtedness are as follows : 



Net proceeds of the redemption of the 5-20 gold- 

 bearing interest bonds of the United States, 

 purchased under the act of March 19, 1873, by 



the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund $2*5,671 72 



406 shares of stock in the Bank of Louisville. . . 32,480 00 

 Stock in turnpike roads (estimated) worth 500,000 00 



Total resources $768,151 72 



The amount of bonds due and unpaid, to wit, 

 $6,394, it is supposed will never be presented 

 for payment, judging from the length of time 

 they have been due, and from the additional 

 fact that the interest ceased on them after ma- 

 turity. It is supposed they have been lost or 

 destroyed. 



The condition of the schools and school 

 system of the State is rather unfavorable. The 

 resources of the school fund are : a bond of the 



Commonwealth held by the Board of Educa- 

 tion, $1,327,000; bank stock, 735 shares in 

 Bank of Kentucky, valued at $73,500; total, 

 $1,400,500 ; besides dividends on Bank of Ken- 

 tucky stock, tax on capital stock of the Bank 

 of Shelbyville, Farmers' Bank of Kentucky, 

 Farmers' and Drovers' Bank, fines and forfei- 

 tures for gambling, tax on every $100 worth 

 of taxable property in the State, tax on dogs 

 over six months old (one dollar on each dog in 

 excess of two owned or kept by any lona fide 

 housekeeper, and on each dog in excess of one 

 owned or kept by any person not a house- 

 keeper), and the non-transferable bond for the 

 surplus bearing interest at six per cent, per an- 

 num, the whole bond aggregating $345,447.30. 

 The total receipts from all these sources at the 

 end of the fiscal year were $826,426.67, and 

 the warrants paid amounted to $819,887.25. 

 Of the collections, the dog tax amounted only 

 to $965.70, and the tax on billiards to $2,605.57. 

 The total collections only give about $135 to 

 each of the six thousand school districts into 

 which the State is divided, and this is not 

 enough to keep a school in operation three 

 months out of the year. 



The number of children of school age in the 

 State is placed at 400,000 whites and 50,000 

 colored. The per capita has fallen to $1.60 

 for white and 52 cents for colored children. 

 At the same time about 200,000 white and 25,- 

 000 colored children do not attend the schools. 

 The negro tax collected by the sheriffs amount- 

 ed only to $25,716. Nevertheless, 1,800 school- 

 houses have been built during the last eight 

 years, while there are 7,000 school districts in 

 the State. The Superintendent says : " The 

 school-buildings of Louisville alone are worth 

 nearly as much as all the school-houses in the 

 rural districts. Louisville, with a population 

 of about 175,000, expends $250,000 annually 

 on her system, almost one third the whole cost 

 of education to the State. If our people, in 

 the same proportion with those of Louisville, 

 would patronize education, we would expend 

 annually $3,750,000 on our common schools, 

 which would be about seven dollars to the 

 pupil child included in the census, and almost 

 seventeen dollars to every one in attendance 

 at any time during the scholastic year." 



At a State Convention of colored teachers 

 held in Louisville on August 27th, a memorial 

 to the Legislature was adopted, in which they 

 say: 



We, the colored teachers of this Commonwealth, in 

 convention assembled, do, after having given the sub- 

 ject our most careful study and attention for the past 

 two years, most respectfully represent : First, that the 

 present colored school fond is wholly inadequate for 

 the purpose of securing to the colored children of the 

 Commonwealth general elementary instruction ; that 

 in a great many school districts schools are not held at 

 all, and in many others the pro rata of the school fund 

 is not sufficient to allow trustees to obtain any Tbut in- 

 competent teachers, who squander, as it were, the pub- 

 lic money without securing to the children those edu- 

 cational advantages designed by the creation of the 

 colored common-school system. In this connection 



