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| General Henry C. Corbin. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, Oct. 19, 1901.
GEN. CORBIN'S REPORT.
Reviews the Work, Condition and Needs of the Army.
YEAR'S LOSSES TOTALLED 16,924.
Says Transport System Is Too Costly, Advises Philippine Cable, Placing of Two Major Generals on Retired List and Giving of Medals at Once.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19.—The annual report of Major General Henry C. Corbin, adjutant general of the army, comprehensively reviews the work, condition and needs of the military establishment.
General Corbin submits a table to show that the army in the Philippines is to be reduced by expired enlistments at the rate of about 2,000 a month from now on until June, 1902. The question whether the regiments thus depleted in strength are to remain so, or be recruited to their full roster, he says, is one requiring the very earliest consideration, for if the latter is contemplated it is already time to begin special recruiting.
The losses from all causes in the regular army and the volunteers from July 1, 1900, to June 30 last, totalled 10,924 officers and men in the former and 8,191 in the latter. The casualties to the troops in the Philippines since the date of the first arrival June 30, 1896, to June 30 last were 115 officers and 3,378 men killed and 182 officers and 2,646 men wounded. General Corbin dwells at some length on the subject of the volunteer army in the Philippines and calls attention to the promptness and dispatch with which these regiments were brought home and mustered out.
General Corbin invites special attention to the remarks of Colonel Mills, superintendent of the West Point Military academy, upon the improved discipline and generally excellent condition of the cadet corps. "It is safe to predict," says General Corbin, "that hazing of a brutal nature is a thing of the past at the academy and that it will not soon be again a subject for the consideration of the war department." General Corbin recommends "that the cadets of each graduating class be sent to Fort Monroe for practice and instruction in sea coast gunnery.
General Corbin believes that the army transport service on the Pacific is costing the government considerably more than the use of commercial steamships would, for the latter would have the advantage, denied to the government, of transporting passengers, freight and mails to the Orient. He therefore suggests that congress with safety could offer inducements to United States shippers to install a line of steamers under charters that would permit them, in time of necessity, to serve as reserve army and navy transports.
An equally important need of the service, General Corbin says, is a domestic cable from the Pacific coast to the Philippines. The present cable communication through Europe, Asia, China and Japans he says, for obvious reasons should be discontinued at the earliest possible date. The rates charged by the existing cable service are exorbitant, $2.38 per word being the regular tariff on messages between Washington and Manila.
This excessive rate, he declares, practically prohibits any really efficient service and the cipher code of the war department has had to be adjusted to better cope with the high rate.
He urges that more comfortable quarters for the troops in the Philippines be provided as soon as possible and that an appropriation be made for the erection of the store houses in and about Manila, where the government now pays $300,000 annually for the use of rented buildings.
If these suggestions are adopted, General Corbin says, the cost of maintaining the army in the Philippines will be scarcely more than if the troops were on home stations.
He strongly recommends that congress shall authorize the retirement of not to exceed two major generals on the active and on the retired list, with the rank of lieutenant general. He points out that the distinguished services of Major Generals Merritt, Brooke and Otis fully entitle them to this honor.
Justice has already been too long delayed, General Corbin says, in the matter of the medals for exceptional war service recommended by the late President McKinley in his message to congress in 1899 for the volunteers, regulars, sailors and marines on duty in the Philippine islands, who voluntarily remained in the service after their terms of enlistment had expired in order to serve their country in an extremity, and he urges that this matter be brought to the attention of congress with renewed emphasis. General Corbin also cordially approves a movement to give service medals to all officers and men of the regular and volunteer troops who honorably served in the war with Spain in the Philippines and China.
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| Lord Julian Pauncefote. |
PAUNCEFOTE COMING SOON.
Proposed New Isthmian Treaty Will Then Be Concluded at Washington.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19.—Lord Pauncefote will sail for the United States on the 26th inst., before the British cabinet council has had an opportunity to review the protocols which embody in principle the proposed new Hay-Pauncefote canal treaty. It is thought here, however, that that fact will not delay sensibly the final negotiations which will take place here between Secretary Hay and Lord Pauncefote, for it is the intention that the new treaty, like that which it will replace on the docket of the senate, shall be finally drafted and signed in the city of Washington.
It is said that when the new document is framed the "fortifications" clause will have been found to have been dropped out, leaving the United States at liberty to fortify the canal, but it is distinctly stated that it is not obligated to do so and in fact there is no present intention of erecting fortifications which, it is stated, would be much more expensive than a fleet of battleships and less useful.
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| Booker T. Washington. |
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| Theodore Roosevelt. |
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Inquiring Their Cause.
The southern papers which are abusing President Roosevelt for entertaining Mr. Booker T. Washington, president of the Tuskegee institute, at his table, says the Mail and Express, are injuring the race cause which they represent far more than they are the president. This is not the first time that a colored man has been entertained in some form at the White House. Mr. Cleveland was broad enough, as all who knew him would have known he would be, to meet Frederick Douglass and the Ministers to Haiti and Liberia on terms which contained no reminder of their color. The president's table, apart from state functions, is quite his own, and he is not subject to criticism for his invitations to it so long as the persons invited are honorable men. Probably it is perfectly true that neither Mr. Washington nor any other colored man would ordinarily be likely to receive an invitation to the average business man's table, even in the North, and the Southern papers which are criticizing the president are correct enough in pronouncing the procedure unusual. But this fact makes the president's action all the more creditable to him. The example is one worthy to be followed. Southern governors and mayors have sat on the same platform with Mr. Washington and introduced him to audiences of whites. They have been willing to co-operate with him in his efforts to elevate the negro race in the South. They can hardly complain if the president, who is quite without their race prejudice, treats Mr. Washington in the same spirit—even if he does go considerably further than they would go.
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| Ferdinand Smith. |
NEW SCHOOL BUILDING.
SUPERINTENDENT SMITH'S ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1901.
Made to the Board Education—Statement of School Attendance—Need of Additional Facilities—Why the Proposed Appropriation is Asked For.
To the Board of Education and Citizens of the City of Cortland, N. Y:
It gives me pleasure to transmit to you my fifth annual report.
I have compiled the reports of registration and attendance of the public schools for the year 1900-1901, and attached them to this report. The registration is the largest and the attendance the best that it has been my pleasure to report.
I wish to commend the work of our teachers. They have worked hard and with the right spirit. Many of them have done far in excess of their strength. The discipline in the various rooms has been uniformly good. I was pleased with the spirit of education which was manifest in the work of the pupils and teachers in every department. I am gratified to report these tendencies toward advancement in education.
First. I wish to submit the following table, which shows the increase in attendance of the public schools for the past three years:
Year. Number of pupils registered. Total days attendance.
1898-1899 1087 172,856
1899-1900 1172 184,861
1900-1901 1244 191,779
CENTRAL SCHOOL.
I beg leave to renew my recommendation of one year ago for an extension to be built to the Central school. I make this recommendation because I believe our attendance and the best interests of our school and the city demand it. I assume that the people of Cortland demand for themselves as good schools as are found in large villages and other cities of this state. The board of education, as I understand it, is in favor of the proposition. All the arguments which I present in favor of an extension to the Central school are based upon this supposition.
The board of education and the city of Cortland are face to face with this problem: How best to provide for the increased attendance at our public schools in every department, primary, intermediate and advanced. Is it better to build or rent? The answer to this question is the answer to the problem.
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
It must be remembered that in 1894 the legislature of this state passed a compulsory attendance act, requiring pupils to attend school until they are from 14 to 16 years of age. This law has been operative now for about seven years and the results are magnificent in Cortland. We register over 160 more pupils in the public schools above the fourth grade than we did four years ago. Here are people enough to fill four rooms, requiring four teachers. The question is: Will this increase continue in the upper grades for the next few years and how much? In my judgment it will be from fifty to 100 pupils, if the city does not grow in population. We registered last year (1900-1901) 1244 pupils in the public schools, and there were registered about 6,950 city students at the State Normal school. This makes a total registration from the city of about 1900 pupils.
Whenever there is an increase in the attendance, the city has to provide for it. The number to be accommodated at the Normal school is limited by the seating capacity, and this does not vary. If there are surplus children, the board of education must provide for them; the state does not do it. The law, as well as their oath of office, compels them to do this.
Thirteen out of twenty-four teachers registered over fifty pupils each last term. It is wrong to ask teachers to teach over fifty pupils in a room, particularly in the primary grades. It is a wrong to the teacher, and it is a greater wrong to the pupil. How can such a teacher give individual help to pupils who get behind and need her personal assistance and sympathy? Many pupils fail because of this lack of help, and parents wonder why? Our rooms should be limited to forty or forty-five pupils. Even in Greater New York the number is limited to fifty by ordinance. Supt. Kennedy of Batavia, said to me that it was not only wrong to place over fifty pupils in a room with one teacher, it was a scandal. Our teachers are doing magnificent work, and ask relief from these excessive burdens which make impossible the best results in their school work.
HIGH SCHOOL.
Much of the opposition which I hear to the proposed addition to the Central school is on account of the high school department. It has been stated by this board that one-half of the proposed addition was to be given to the lower grades.
I wish to say to our people that we have been doing academic work at the Central school since 1894. This is not a new venture for Cortland, it has been a matter of growth. High schools do not spring up in a night. The building of a building and the posting of teachers with equipment does not constitute a high school. The students are necessary, who are prepared to take up the studies offered in the usual high school courses. Since 1894 we have been doing the work simply which it was necessary to do to get our pupils into the State Normal school on our diploma. As the requirements have advanced we have advanced.
This year we graduated ten pupils with a full academic diploma, and this diploma admits them to the State Normal school. Who would abandon what we have done and leave our academic department with its 100 students in the streets?
In June 195 pupils took the regents' examination, and 500 regents' papers were sent to Albany as a result. Are not these results a matter of pride to our city? If we are able to keep children in school until they complete the high school course, ought this to be considered a matter of deprecation?
We have only two rooms on the third floor of the Central school for academic students. I believe our people will sustain the board of education in a request for more room for this department. It is not right to force students to a third floor in a city of the size of Cortland, where land is not expensive. It is against the laws of health, and it is against the safety of the pupils in case of fire.
I wish to add that these two academic rooms were not taken from the grade pupils, but were finished off from the attic of the Central school three years ago, to accommodate the academic students. The other space on this third floor can not be used for schoolrooms because of the lack of light, heat and ventilation.
RUNNING EXPENSES.
The running expenses after the addition is completed, in my judgment, will not exceed $1,000 next year over the present school year. We have three teachers teaching in rented or extemporized rooms, and these teachers can be placed in the new rooms when completed. The board of education is not embarking upon any new or extravagant school policy. This academic department has far out grown its present quarters, and we ask for suitable rooms for it. The plans simply provide for the natural and logical growth of our public schools. The care and economy which has been exercised in the administration of this department is indicated by the following statement.
HIGH SCHOOL EXPENSES.
The board of education employ [period usage—CC ed.] three academic teachers.
The expenses or this department are as follows:
Three Academic teachers at $500 each, $1,500.00.
Received from the regents of the universityof the state of New York for this department, $669.05.
Received from the state, $320.00.
Total: $989.05.
Net cost to the city of teachers for this department, $510.95.
The cost for fuel and janitor is pro rata with the other rooms. Unless the attendance increases much faster than we anticipate, we shall not ask for more than one other teacher for this department in the next five years. The city has absolutely nothing to fear from the increased expenses in this department.
PERSONAL.
It will not make one cent's difference with me personally whether this building is erected or not, except to increase my work. My salary is fixed for three years, and will not be increased or diminished during this time. I favor this building because I know that many of our teachers are overworked. The nervous strain upon the teacher, who has to teach fifty pupils and hear from sixteen to twenty classes per day is vastly more than the careless observer understands. I urge this building because I know that it is simply impossible for many pupils to get the individual help which their welfare demands. It is my duty to ask for the teachers and for the children of this city what I deem is best for their welfare, for their health and for their education.
COST OF ADDITION.
Let us examine the cost to the taxpayer of the proposed extension to the Central school.
Our assessed valuation is about $6, 000,000. Then a tax rate of one mill on a dollar will produce 10 cents on $100, $1 on $1,000 and $6,000 on our total assessed valuation of $6,000,000. The board of education ask for $19,500. A tax rate of three mills on our assessed valuation will produce $18,000. Now, with this as a basis, every man can figure his part of this expense if it were to be tomorrow. The man who is assessed $1,000 will incur a liability of about $3, $2,000, about $6, and so on up. Who is not willing to furnish this security for the sake of good and adequate school accommodations?
Taxpayers, just think a moment. Suppose we wipe out the city school buildings, will not your property depreciate in value as much as these school buildings cost? The first question of every thoughtful man of family is: Are there good and adequate school accommodations in the city? The answer to this question determines largely the value and sale of property in any place to an extent far in excess of the cost of the tax to support the schools,
Let the people assure the board of education of their support and that they appreciate their efforts to make our public schools the pride of our city.
The following table is a complete list of cities and villages in this state having between 7,000 and 15,000 population. It gives the population and cost per pupil in each case. This report is official and for each place made exactly upon the same basis. It is as follows:
There is just one village lower than Cortland.
I give these figures as a proof that the sums used for education in Cortland are not excessive, but much lower than in other places in this state; and to show that the board of education have administered the affairs of our schools very economically.
I also give below the cost of education per pupil in some of the large cities of our state, so that our people may get an idea of the cost of educating the children in a great city.
Albany, $25.97 per pupil.
Auburn, $26.24 per pupil.
Binghamton, $22.40 per pupil.
Newburg (home of governor), $28.00 per pupil.
New York City, $33.86 per pupil.
Rochester, $28.17 per pupil.
Syracuse, $20.74 per pupil.
Yonkers, $34.82 per pupil.
The following is a statement of the number of pupils registered and the total number of days attendance in [Cortland] each school and under each teacher for the year 1900-1901:
A PROFITABLE INDUSTRY.
Knapp Brothers Have Begun the Raising of the Chinese Ginseng.
Messrs. B. R. Knapp of East Homer, Willard H. Knapp of Cortland, E. H. Knapp of Fabius, A. A. Knapp of Preble and E. F. Knapp of Hempstead, L. I., five brothers, have bought 100,000 ginseng seeds for planting and for speculation. Of this amount B. R. Knapp takes 10,000 seeds. W. H. Knapp 30,000 seeds and the balance is divided between the other three brothers. Ginseng is a plant which is used almost exclusively by the Chinese as a medicine and the market is almost wholly among the Chinese in this country and for shipment to China and China gets nearly all its ginseng from this country. Ginseng has occasionally been found in the woods and could be picked there by one who knew where to look for it and whose eyes were sharp, but the cultivation of it is a comparatively new industry. It is said that there are now only about 600 acres under cultivation in this country for the raising of ginseng and that there is probably a demand for some 2,000 acres of it.
Up to about a year ago the seeds were worth five cents each. The price is now somewhat reduced, and buying in the quantity that the Knapp Brothers made this purchase they were worth 2 1/2 cents each. Ten thousand seeds make a gross bulk of only 2 1/2 pints. A very large number of plants can be raised upon an acre. When the seeds are planted they are placed in rows four inches apart and the individual seeds one inch apart in the row. When the plants are transplanted a little later they are placed six inches apart both ways. They need to be shaded the same as when they grow wild in the woods, and artificial shade has to be arranged over them. A plant at maturity stands about eight inches high. Each plant will during its lifetime produce about fifty seeds.
The producer has to wait a considerable time before be begins to get a return from his money. October is the season of the year in which to plant the seeds. It is a year after a seed is picked before it is time to plant it and before it will grow if planted. It is two years more before it will bear any seeds. Then for five years it will produce seeds. During this harvest time money flows freely into the treasury of the grower.
Mills Brothers of Rose Hill have been devoting their efforts largely for a few years to the raising of ginseng, and it is said that they have made large profits from it. It is said that one party in a neighboring county, who was out of health and unable to work his farm, turned his attention to the raising of ginseng. In the course of three or four years he deposited in a bank his total profits of $20,000 and then had on hand a quarter acre plot of ginseng in its full bearing period, and this he sold for $40,000.
A Cortland county raiser of ginseng is quoted as saying that for the past three weeks his average daily receipts from the sale of seed had exceeded $100 per day. There are only a few people in this county who are raising this wonderfully profitable plant, and nearly all of these in a comparatively small way. Indeed, it is said that an acre of ground devoted to this is the largest plot that any one raiser anywhere is known to have.
One Cortland county raiser of ginseng says that there is now a large profit in the plant, but since so many people are now turning toward its cultivation there is no likelihood that the price will stay up or the great profits continue. The price has shrunk nearly half in the last year. The parties who have already got plants near to the seed-producing stage will no doubt make a fine thing of it, but the man who buys green seed now must wait three years before he gets any return from his money, while if he buys dry seed be must wait two years. By that time there is no knowing where the price will be and how large the profits on the cultivation of the plant will be.
BREVITIES.
—Don't fail to register at once. Personal registration is required in this city. No register, no vote.
—Cortlandville lodge, No. 470, F. & A. M., will confer the first degree at a special communication Monday evening at 7:30 o'clock.
—About three hundred people were served by the ladies of the Home Missionary society of the First M. E. church at the supper given in the church parlors last evening.
—Tonight is the last chance to register. If you do not register you can't vote in the city of Cortland. Do not fail to get your name down if it is not already there.
—A lady's bicycle, which was let standing in a wheel rack on Main-st. For two or three days and nights, has been taken to police headquarters where it awaits identification.
—There are now three babies in the woman's annex of the Auburn prison, born since the imprisonment of their mothers, who care for them till they are old enough to be sent to relatives or to some public institution.
—Mr. E. H. Doubleday of McLean has just picked full grown peas from vines in his garden which grew from seed dropped in the ground while clearing off the first crop of peas grown on the same land this last spring.
—Teachers' institute occurs next week at Marathon. In connection with the expected gathering of teachers in that town the poem by Margaret E. Sangster which appears at the head of this column today win be particularly appropriate.
—The Empire State Telephone Co. has put in telephones at Harford and Harford Mills and connected them by a full metallic circuit from Cortland. The line runs through Virgil. It is now possible to talk with either of those places by telephone.
—New display advertisements today are—Mitch's Market, Meat, etc., page 5; Opera House—"Mr. Cameron Clemens Co.," page 5; W. J. Perkins, Johnson's Stomach Tablet, page 7; McKinney & Doubleday, Reference Library, page 6; L. M. Hopkins, Flowers, etc., page 6; Baker & Angell, Shoes, page 7.
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