LOUISIANA. 



563 



It should be recollected that the funding act 

 was passed at a time when the bona fide own- 

 ers of the soil of this country had no say-so in 

 the affairs of this government ; and, poverty- 

 stricken to-day, they are unable to come for- 

 ward. No one seems to be benefited by this 

 state of things ; and while the taxpayers huvo 

 to apply for relief at the hands of the Legisla- 

 tiin-, I merely caution those who hold the ob- 

 ligations of the State, and are pressing their 

 claims, not to do so to the injury of the people. 

 That the interest now due will eventually bo 

 paid, I have no doubt. The only question to 

 be settled is, when can it be paid, and what 

 time will be granted to do so? Not invested 

 with any power in the premises, I am com- 

 pelled to refer the whole subject to your hon- 

 orablo body, and trust that, by wise legislation, 

 the State may be relieved from its present 

 financial difficulties." 



The exceptional causes which operated to 

 produce financial embarrassments in New Or- 

 leans during 1878 were such that even the 

 teachers of the public schools of the city re- 

 ceived no pay after the middle of August to 

 the close of the year. In a report to the Le- 

 gislature the State Superintendent suggested, as 

 the only remedy to be found, the withholding 

 of the contributions of the city to outside par- 

 ishes. By the State law New Orleans is re- 

 quired to keep open the public schools for ten 

 months in the year, and to pay annual salaries 

 to the teachers. During a course of years the 

 city has been contributing out of the State 

 school-tax collected from her property-owners 

 at least $120,000 annually toward the edu- 

 cation of the children of several poor parishes 

 in Middle and Southeast Louisiana. While 

 during periods of prosperity this generosity 

 was possible and proper, the Superintendent 

 was of the opinion that it was only justice 

 that, during the utter inability of the city au- 

 thorities to discharge the obligations imposed 

 upon them by law, owing to the profound 

 financial distress which crippled every branch 

 of industry in the community, so recently af- 

 flicted by a dread pestilence, this annual con- 

 tribution should, for the present year at least, 

 be voluntarily declined by the usual benefi- 

 ciaries, and returned to New Orleans, to en- 

 able the directors of the schools to rescue 

 their teachers from embarrassments and des- 

 titution. He urged, therefore, that a special 

 act should be passed by the Legislature author- 

 izing him to apportion back to the city of New 

 Orleans such an amount of State school-taxes, 

 paid by her citizens into the State Treasury 

 for the years 1877 and 1878, as will enable the 

 City Board of School Directors to discharge, 

 as far as practicable, all outstanding obliga- 

 tions for the month of December, 1877, and 

 the last four months of the year 1878. A bill 

 for this object failed to pass. 



The public school fund of the State includes, 

 first, the " current school fund," or State tax 

 of two mills on the dollar value of property in 



the respective parishes of the State, collected 

 and paid into the State Treasury. The amount 

 of this tax levied for collection in the year 

 1878 was $345,000, or about $1.20 per child of 

 school ago in the State ; but the amount col- 

 lected and rendered apportionable to the par- 

 ish boards was only $208,159.69, or about 76J 

 cents per child. This is but a small fraction 

 of the $500,000 deemed necessary in the gen- 

 oral appropriation act of March 22, 1878, as 

 the State's contribution toward the support 

 of good free schools in every locality of the 

 State where such schools were needed. Sec- 

 ond, the poll-tax of one dollar imposed upon 

 all adult male inhabitants of the State, for 

 school and charitable purposes. The amount 

 of this tax paid into the State Treasury dur- 

 ing the year 1878 aggregated only $14,620.60, 

 showing conclusively that only a few of " all 

 male inhabitants of the State " have been re- 

 quired to contribute this tax; and of this 

 amount the free public schools have been al- 

 lowed to receive only one fourth. The State 

 Constitution has required all taxation to be 

 equal and uniform throughout the State, and 

 imposed on the General Assembly the obliga- 

 tion to " levy a poll-tax on all male inhabitants 

 of the State over twenty-one years old " au- 

 thorizing it, at the same time, to raise this 

 capitation tax to one dollar and fifty cents per 

 annum. Legislation was therefore needed in 

 obedience to the mandate of the Constitution 

 to enforce payment of the poll-tax by every 

 male inhabitant, so that it might not continue 

 to be paid by property- owners alone, who are 

 required to pay other taxes also for the support^ 

 of the government and the schools. 



The system of schools in operation in New 

 Orleans is known as that of separate schools, 

 one set being for white children and another 

 set for colored children. The right of the di- 

 rectors to establish these separate schools was 

 brought to a judicial test in the case of Berton- 

 neau v. the Board of Directors of the city 

 schools of New Orleans and others, in equity. 

 The decision was rendered by Judge W. B. 

 Woods of the United States Circuit Court in 

 February. The Judge said : 



The grievance, and the sole gricvanoOj set out in 

 the bill, is that complainant's children, being of Afri- 

 can descent, are not allowed to attend the same public 

 schools as those in which children of white parents 

 are educated. Is this a deprivation of a right granted 

 by the Constitution of the United States? The com- 

 plainant says that the action of the defendants de- 

 prives him and his children of the equal protection of 

 the laws, and therefore impairs a right secured to him 

 and them by the fourteenth amendment to the Consti- 

 tution of the United States. Is there any denial of 

 equal rights in the resolution of the Board of Directors 

 or the city schools, or in the action of the subordinate 

 officers of the schools, as set out in the bill ? Both 

 races are treated precisely alike. White children and 

 colored children are compelled to attend different 

 schools. That is all. The State, while conceding 

 e<jual privileges and advantages to both races, has the 

 right to manage its schools in the manner which in its 

 judgment will lv<t promote the interest of all. The 

 State may be of opinion that it is better to educate the 



