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Its income Is only two per cent of the - account expended for the support of our common schools, In Minnesota the income of the fund exceeds fifteen per cent of the same expenditures. The comparison above is a source of embarrassment. There is no consolation in it for Wisconsin taxpayers. It serves no purpose other than to show either dishonest management or want of business ability on the part of our republican officials. We had public lands sufficient in quantity and quality to produce a fund at least equal to thatof Minnesota, which relieves the taxpayers of that state from raising $679,-397.00 annually. Oar fund relievesour taxpayers of Jess than one-seventhof that amount. Is not the conclusion Inevitable that our people are obligedto raise by taxation annually the difference between those amounts, or $587,-698.00 in consequence of the bad management of the school lands by the republican party \ This is a sample of the business ways of the republican officials in this connection. Another comparison will be made,odious thoughit may be. Lands donoted by the United Slates to Cornell University were located in Wisconsin. These lands were sold by the trustees of the University at $10 to $30 per acre. Large sales of pine stumpage were made at $20 per acre and the land, after the removal of the pine, at $10 per acre. In contrast our school lands adjoining them were sold at $1 to $1.20 per acre and the pine stumpage whs had for the stealing of It. Various were the devices by which these lands * were made plunder. The lumber kings of the north would secure the p: ssage of laws authorizing tracts selected by them to be sold, At these sales the lumber barons woukl;not bid in competition with each other. The lands were purchased for a pittance and the profits divided. The whole proceeding was authorized and countenanced by republican legislatures and republican governors, Individuals became so wealthy that their independence developed a political bosslsm that dared to attempt the purchase of Wisconsin courts in order to cheat fcho people of hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from the state treasury.Much of the land disposed of at $1 por acre was covered with pine timber worth from $25 to $100 por acre, Thousands of acres wore disposed of on contract, which required the payment of one-fourth of the purchase money down, The lands were then stripped of their timber and allowed to fo.felt to the state for the purchase money that remained due, The lands now listed for sale consist largely of these barren tracts—-lasting monuments of republican misrule. Had republican oilloialR been mibliful to the people, our state school fund w.uild approximate $20,00%-000 and its annual Income would suffice to defray about one-fourth oh the total expenditures for common school purposes, Taxes would be lessened by inis amount.Here is a problem to be cleared up. It involves millions of the people’s money that should now be in the school fund. In Minnesota we find the money derived from this source in the school fund; in Wisconsin it is not there. But It is known that such men as ex-Benator Sawyer possess millions obtained from speculating in pine lands. It is evident that what the Bcbool fund lost went to them. A loss to the school fund Is a loss to the people.Jpyery taxpayer should insist upon an explanation of the great difference that exiBta in the school funds of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Will the henchmen of the convicted treasury looting gang consent to discuss this problem which savors of a rascality the same in kindas that of the republican treasurers which the supreme court deck-red to be the genuine article ? Is not the care of the school fund by a political party a safe measure ot the esteem in which that party holds the public schoolsystem ?ar
Newspaper Details
Eau Claire Weekly Leader
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US
Sun, May 27, 1894
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Jon P.
USA 20 Jun 2023
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