Radio Script #393

Little Talks on Common Things

November 9, 1958

Recently we have made significant advancement to improve education in Maine. As more and more communities combine into administrative school districts under the Sinclair Law, the influence of better facilities and a better curriculum will surely be felt. Not only the individual communities, but also the state legislature is constructively concerned about Maine’s low standing in the nation in respect to the support of education.

There is, however, one area of education that should cause some sober thinking allover the state. We all know that we are living at a time when a high school education is not enough. In order to take a proper place in our highly competitive society, most boys and girls need some training beyond high school — not necessarily the conventional four-year college, but some sort of organized post-high school study. Even some of the trades, that need to recruit newcomers chiefly by the apprentice system, are best entered today through full-time regular courses at such schools as the Maine Vocational Technical Institute at South Portland.

Now, one of the tests of any state’s attention to this growing need for post-high school education is how it stands. in comparison with all the other states, in respect to the proportion of its college-age youth attending some sort of school beyond the high school level. Many Maine people were ashamed when they learned, some time ago, that in 1952 Maine stood 44th among the 48 states. Now the figures for a school year five years later, 1957, are available. They reveal, to our utter chagrin, that Maine then stood, not 44th, but 47th among the states. Only the state of Mississippi has a smaller proportion of its young people continuing their education beyond high school.

Why are we in such an unenviable position? I think the chief reason is that, for many years, many of us who are citizens of Maine have tended to bemoan the poverty of our state far beyond what the facts warrant.

Of course we are not a rich, industrial state. But we are by no means the poorest. While we stand 47th in respect to the proportion of our young people in schools above the high school level, we stand 28th, only a little below the mid-point, among the 48 states in respect to per capita federal income tax payments. In personal income tax payments per pupil enrolled in our public schools, Maine stands 27th, but in current expenditures for public education from all sources, both state and local, Maine stands 41st.

Now look at some figures which make our position in 47th place in respect to post-high school training look even worse. Among the 48 states, Maine stands high, actually 15th, in the percent of population 25 years old or older with at least four years of high school, and 11th among all the states in the average school years completed by all persons over 25 years of age.

My personal opinion is that the blame for our low standing in respect to training beyond high school must be shared by both parents and teachers. Too many Maine parents have not yet been convinced of the value, even the near necessity, of such training. And too many teachers have taken a defeatist attitude, following the line of least resistance instead of encouraging boys and girls, especially in our rural communities, to seek further training.

I suppose many of you who are now listening know boys and girls who will be content with graduation from high school, who ought to get further education. I do not mean that they all should go to one of our four-year colleges. Some of these young people have aptitude for vocations that demand skill -skills taught in such schools as M.V.T.I., or in the Practical Nurses schools at Waterville and Presque Isle, or the Barber’s School at Lewiston, or the several schools for Beauticians, or the School of Retailing at Boston University, or hundreds of other courses. If we could get a thousand people allover Maine earnestly interested in this problem, we would soon get out of that unenviable 47th place among all the 48 states.

Now let us turn to some items of old-time days. At this time when the whole nation is paying attention to books and articles about all phases of the Civil War, it is interesting to note what the Waterville Mail of July 10, 1862 said about a young officer from Waterville, the very officer for whom the Waterville G.A.R. post was later named. The Mail said: “Confirmation of the death of Lt. Col. William S. Heath has cast a gloom upon all hearts in this community. He was one of the first to respond to his country’s call. At the head of a company which he personally raised for the Third Maine Regiment, he was early at the front lines. He was made Lt. Col. of the Fifth Maine and brought that regiment from its broken condition after the Battle of Bull Run to rank among the best.

“William Heath was the son of Solyman Heath of Waterville. He graduated from Waterville College in the Class of 1855. He fell in the early part of the Battle of Gaines Hill. Col. Jackson, who was wounded at the same time, says he last saw Col. Heath riding across the battle field. His horse returned to camp riderless. A letter recently received from Capt. Frank Heath, William’s brother, who is an officer of the Third Maine, says that the Colonel’s sword was recovered and that his body was buried in the field where it fell.”

William Heath was the youth whom Solyman Heath took with him on his trip to California by wagon train in 1849. The boy survived the dangers of that six. months’ trek, entered the college that is now Colby in 1851, graduated in 1855, and 7 years later was dead on a southern battlefield.

A high school had been started in Waterville as early as 1860. It was not a public high school within the meaning of that term today, but a semi-private school, to which the town contributed only a small amount, and in which tuition had to be paid.

When we think of the several hundred boys and girls attending the Waterville Senior and Junior high schools today, it is hard to realize that, in 1862-63 the high school had only 43 registered pupils, and the average daily attendance was only 31. The principal was Justin P. Moore, who had received his degree from Waterville College only two weeks before he began his principalship. In the Waterville Mail, Moore published the names of 12 students who had maintained excellent scholastic standing throughout the year. Then he published another list which reveals the frankness of those old-time school reports. It was a list of five pupils who, as Moore put it, “ranked excellent in deportment but not in recitation”. Conspicuous in that list is the name of a boy who later became one of Waterville’s most prominent industrialists, Frank Philbrick.

Moore didn’t like it because so many of his pupils left school, especially only a few weeks before the end of the year. He said: “I cannot so much blame the scholars as their parents for such a state of things. Not only in your high school, but in all the schools in town, there has been a loss of 40% of the scholars during the last three weeks. Too many parents are not sufficiently interested to send their children constantly. I trust the day is not far distant when indifference will give way to interest and we shall have more enthusiasm for our schools.”

It was so common for railroads to reduce their fares for people to attend annual events a hundred years ago that sometimes it was taken too quickly for granted. For instance a week before the Colby Commencement in 1864, the Waterville Mail announced that half fare would be charged on the railroads to persons coming to Waterville for the big event. When that commencement was over, the Mail had to apologize for being partly in error. Its statement said: lilt was no fault of ours that some of the guests who came to town for commencement had to pay full railroad fares. Having negotiated with the managers of the upper road, the Portland and Kennebec, the graduating class supposed they were safe in announcing a reduction of fare on the lower road, the Androscoggin and Kennebec, because the latter road had usually been foremost in adopting a liberal policy toward commencement travel. To everyone’s surprise the management of that road refused to extend any accommodation this year, and charged full fare. We believe it was an action the management will some day deeply regret.”

In certain issues of that sportman’s weekly, The Maine Woods, published in Phillips half a century ago, I noticed some especially lively ads. T. R. Wing advertised: “I can shoe your horse, iron your sled, or do your job work in record time. I have on hand, ready to hitch into two-horse sleds and light one-horse sleds. And don’t forget me if you need neck yokes, whippletrees, eveners and birch hooks.”

Here’s another ad: “Horse distemper is now raging. Before it hits your place, you had better get on the run to the store of Wilbur and Co., Phillips, for a copy of a book on Pratt’s Ford.”

And another: “Wouldn’t you like a pretty new shirt if you could get the latest fabrics at the lowest prices? Well, you can do just that at Norton’s, Farmington, where you can take your pick at 25¢ to 50¢ a yard.”

Here’s one of the best of all those ads: “Have a kiss? This is the best time of year for kisses and we are doing a bigger business than ever. We can supply you with most any kind of kiss. Harlow’s Golden Kisses still maintain their popularity, as do the Darlsies. We have two new ones, the Strawberry and the Walnut. If you want a real sweet one, try these, Norton Brothers, Farmington.

Half a century ago, Albert J. Beveridge, U. S. Senator from Indiana, and author of an important biography of Abraham Lincoln, used to come for a few days each summer to the Rangeley Lake House. This is what a Maine newspaper said about such a visit in 1903 and started for home last Sunday: “Sen. A. J. Beveridge ended his vacation He greatly enjoyed his outing here and gained several pounds in weight. His habit was to sleep 12 hours every day. He went to bed at 9 and got up at 8. After dinner he always took an houris nap. Next summer the presidential campaign will be on and the Senator will be doing the hardest kind of work instead of sleeping in a hammock on Haines Point or in a bed at the Rangeley Lake House. The Senator never drinks liquor in any form and is careful about his diet. While here he ate principally cereals, fruits and berries, and he drank cream as well as two quarts of Rangeley mineral water every day.”

There were plenty of accidents during the Maine hunting season 50 years ago, just as there are now. In the 1903 season the usual number of cows were mistaken for deer, but one accident more humorous than tragic occurred when a city sport hunting near Kingfield was treed by what he thought was a bear. It turned out to be a friendly Newfoundland dog. But a kind of accident not likely to happen nowadays occurred right here near Waterville, in fact in nearby East Vassalboro. Hearing the honk of wild geese headed south, a man in that village grabbed his shotgun and went after them. He returned with his trophies, three tame geese belonging to a neighbor.

Year: 1958