Montgomery County Sentinel

For the Montgomery County Sentinel
Mr. Editor: In your last issue, there appeared a communication signed "Medley’s," in opposition to the School Law recently passed by the Legislature, setting forth that "four-fifths" at least "of the votes of that and the western portion of Rockville District" were opposed to said Law; that the Delegates to the Legislature acted "impertinently" in maturing this measure. Does not "Medley’s" know full well that the convention that placed those gentlemen before the voters of the county, passed, by a unanimous vote, instructions to them to enact such a Law? Medley’s District was fully represented in that convention, and did not raise her voice even to ask delay upon the subject, but suffered said instructions to stand as the express will of the party. Knowing this, and seeing the action of their Delegates for more than three weeks prior to the passage of the Bill, they did not offer the least objection by letter or petition against its passage. It is a well known fact, that in this portion of the county the question of Primary Schools has been agitated, and candidates pledged for such schools, for more than four years past; and, also, that no party could get the votes of the people without such pledge. The candidates being fairly and fully committed to the measure, standing upon that platform, and asking the endorsement of the people upon the issue, were elected by a large majority of the voters—this Law being the only one to which they stood committed and pledged to their constituents; yet, according to the opinion of "Medley’s," they are "fast gentlemen," and acted "hastily" and "impertinently!" The facts in the case do not prove it, nor does "Medley’s" opinion make it so.

So far as to the details of this law, none of its friends claim it to be perfect; they expect to find in its operation many defects. These can be remedied at future sessions of the Legislature. But that it is preferable to the old system, few will undertake to deny. What may have been the operation of the old system in Medley’s District, the writer of this will not undertake to say; but that it was little better than no system, in Berry’s, he knows full well: and so do "nine tenths" of the voters. Without the party being committed to this measure, or a similar one, no ticket could have been elected last fall; and in opposition to it now, no man could get a respectable vote here. It is now a Law; let us give it a fair trial, and should it fail to meet the wants of the people, it will be an easy matter to alter and change it to meet their wishes.

Mr. Editor, this is an age of progress and he who adheres to old things, and old systems, will be swallowed up and crushed in its onward march. Montgomery is, (with one exception,) the last county to abandon the old system of schools. Go into any of them and ask how they operate? They will tell you that they would not be without them. Should any candidate dare to go before the people of any of those counties upon an issue of this kind, he would be laughed to scorn. So it will be here. All that this system wants is a fair and honest trial. If the teachers are not paid enough, the people will soon be willing to pay more. The benefits to result from its proper management will be so manifest, that, in less than five years, I verily believe all parts of the county will heartily endorse the principle of the Law, and could not be induced to abandon it.

Yours, &c.,
BERRY’S.