| Show DEBATE ON THE SCHOOL BILL BY far the liveliest session of the present assembly was that held on Sa saturday march 8 the ruling of the speaker that consideration of the school bill was the pending business at the opening of the session was a bar to the p purposes Ir poses of the liberali liberal members who wanted tu take action on the revenue bill and to defer consideration of the other measure so late as to kill it if possible there were two provisions in the school bill which were ostensibly at least very objectionable to the liberal members these were the revenue section and the provision prescribing the qualifications of voters at school elections the former is as follows and appears as section I 1 of article see sec 1 there is hereby levied and directed to be assessed and collected annually be beginning with the year 1890 an ad azo valoree valorem rem tax lax on all the taxable property in the territory of utah as follows two mills ou on the dollar for A territorial purposes three mills on the dollar for distri district dt school purposes such sums as the county court of the several counties may designate for district school purposes in such counties riot to exceed two mills on the dollar anti and such sums as the county courts of the several counties may designate for county purposes not to exceed three mills on the dollar the territorial treasurer ahal receive and hold as a special fund all public school moneys paid into the territorial treasury and pay them over on the warrant of the territorial auditor issued upon the order of the territorial rit orial commissioner of schools in favor of the county tres treasurer aurer of each county for the amount due said county t the reasons for introducing a territorial rit orial and county revenue provi vision in the school bill are am given as follows taxes for schools and for other purposes are inseparably connected and the provisions respecting them can therefore with perfect consistency be embodied in one section this was waa done and the section was made a point of the school bill because there were grave doubts respecting the passage of the revenue bill members of both parties being so divided upon it that it was deemed to be in great danger the above section if made law would it was believed obviate the most important objections to the present revenue law and it was thought that it would meet with lose less opposition than any revenue measure yet proposed the provision prescribing the qualifications of voters at school meetings is part of section 1 article V and as amended reads as follows every male person of the age of twenty one years and over who has been a resident of the school district for ninety days immediately preceding tre preceding ceding the day of election and w who 0 is in the parent 8 rent of a child of school age residing F an fn tho the district or who paid a territorial or county school tax in any such district during the preceding year or who has been assessed for any territorial or county school tax in in any such district for the year in which any such election is hold held shall be entitled to vote at say any district school election 1111 memo allen alien and ferry both hail from michigan and during the discussions that have been had upon the school bill they have both made repeated references of a laudatory nature to the schools and laws of that state in fact the impression has obtained that these gentlemen regard the wolverine school system as the pink of perfection on saturday night in reply to a speech by mr ferry in which he denounced the above provision in unmeasured terms mr hammond exploded a petard which completely shattered the bulwarks bulwa of his position by reading the fol lowing section motion from the michigan school law seo sec 17 every person of the age of twenty one years who has property p y liable to assessment for school taxes in any school district and who has resided therein three months next preceding any school meeting held in said district or who has resided three months next preceding such meeting on any territory belonging to such district at the time of holding said meeting shall be a qualified voter in said meeting upon all questions and all other who are twenty one years of age and are the parents or legal guardians of any children included in the school census of the dis tj let and who have for three months as aforesaid been residents in said district or upon any territory belonging thereto at the time of holding any school meeting shall be entitled to vote on all questions arising in said district which do not directly involve the raising of money by tax I 1 I 1 As will be seen at a glance the provision which mr ferry so vehemently bement ly opposed is p radically practically identical with one contained in the school law of his own state a law to which he had so frequently mado made allusions of praise underline michigan law females vote at school meetings so BO they do in kansas vermont new hampshire and we believe in a number of other states in massachusetts women hold offices that pertain to the schools all this proves the position formerly taken by the NEWS and recognized by the school bill namely that school elections are not elections of the kind included in the meaning of the term as used in the constitutions and laws of the states named and of the states of the union and of congress generally it did not appear from the debate that the liberals would vote against the bill on any other grounds than their opposition to the sections relating to revenue and electors above reproduced we are not conscious of misrepresenting their position therefore in stating that they voted against the bill because ot of those sections such is the conclusion produced by their remarks on the passage of the bill we are thus specific because we deem it proper to place on record the only apparent reasons why the liberal members of the assembly have voted against a free school bill after the long years of clamoring by their party for such a law jaw in n a speech in opposition to the section relative to elee tom mr ferry injected an element which approached pro ached the pathetic he pictured himself as a native born american citizen the father of children attending tend ing school bia arut t not in this territory the manager of a number of heavy financial concerns and the present occupant of the office of school trustee stripped by that outrageous provision of the right to vote at a school meeting for no other reason than that he was not a taxpayer while his chinese cook who might happen to have a little chinaman or a moiety of taxable property could so vote and was thus placed upon a level so much higher than that to which abic h the obnoxious section reduced him the case of the able affable and eloquent gentleman from park city as portrayed by himself threw a shade of disfavor upon the section he was attacking to T read the section made it seem all but impossible that such a case could arise under it yet there stood the member from summit now a school trustee and lawmaker law maker whose doom seemed sealed so far as school voting was concerned if the bill became law without amendment but in further examination of mr ferrys ferlys case it became apparent that he was mistaken true he was not building up the territory pry in a financial way by paying taxes but bu he was strengthening its resources by a method equally as commendable in its ultimate results he was raising a fan family itly he had children at school the school they were attending was not in utah but he was the father of a school child and that gave him the right to vote in his school district whether the chile was found there or not it is assumed that thac at least one of his children is of school age and re sides when at home with the parents in park city thus fades into nothingness the reason why mr ferry voted against the free bill |
