What is the principal cause of extravagant government spending? It Is\u00a0time we faced squarely up to that question, and we don’t like the answer. Because\u00a0the answer is human selfishness. Because you and I want some special\u00a0bene fit for ourse I ves or our own I oca I I tv more than we want the we I fa re of a II\u00a0the peop Ie, we expect representati ves to the legl s lature or our Congressmen to\u00a0trade the I r vote for another fe I low ‘s pet project I n return for a vote for ours.\u00a0MaIne people want some bIg spending done on QuoddYi Kansans want subsidIes\u00a0on wheat; Montana wants another big dam. So the log roiling gets under way.<\/p>\n
I n both houses of Congress the very same men who cry loudest for cutting down\u00a0expenses vate for one need less project after anothe r because on Iy by so voting\u00a0can they get votes for projects wanted I n the i r own states, good or bad. Attempts\u00a0to consolidate the very expensive work of the Veterans Administration have been\u00a0constantly thwarted because of selfish interests. Naturally no state wants to\u00a0lose a veterans hospital, but the government has the clear duty to choose the\u00a0most efficient plan of operation, regardless of what happens to one hospital.<\/p>\n
Let me give you an example of this sort of thing nearer hane. The State of Maine\u00a0now operates fiw teacher-trainIng institutions for the preparation of elementary school teachers. Not one of those schools is fl lied, and three of them\u00a0could each accommodate twIce as many students as they have. Maine needs five\u00a0teacher-training institutions about as much as a chicken needs five legs. But\u00a0you Just try to close one of those schools. You would have half the population\u00a0of the town where the school is located weeping down your neck. No, I suspect\u00a0we shall go right on speriding for five of these schools many years before any\u00a0legis lature has the courage to close one or more of theM,.,;”<\/p>\n
Now It is not the legis lators and the Congressmen who are to b I arne; it is\u00a0you and I. We a re the ones who I ns I stth at our rep resentati ves act that way if\u00a0they want to stay In offl ce. So there Is a lot of truth I n what E. A. Evans\u00a0wrote In the New York World-Telegram way back last spring. ThIs is what he said:<\/p>\n
“Suppose citizens bombarded their Congressmen with letters saying, In effect:\u00a0‘Forget our states, our districts’ special benefits for a while. It won’t\u00a0ruin us to do without federal money you’ve been trying to get for us. But inflation\u00a0can ruin us un less Congress stops mere Iy talking about government economy\u00a0and does something about It. That’s the job we want you to help do for us.’\u00a0Well, some Congressmen might drop dead of surprise. But those who survived the\u00a0shock might slash a whale of a lot of unnecessary spending out of the national\u00a0budget. It’s worth tryl ng.”<\/p>\n
Of course, nobody paid t.h8 slightest attention to Mr. Evans’ suggestion.\u00a0How do I know that? Because the words I have Just quoted were reprinted In the\u00a0July issue of the Readers Digest, where, I’ll bet, among some ten million people\u00a0who regularly see that magazine, more than half the folks I istening to this\u00a0broadcast read them. And what did you do about It?<\/p>\n
On several occasions I have mentioned the old-time schools of Watervi lie\u00a0and sane of the other Kennebec towns, but I do not reca” that I haw sa i d anythi”\u00a09 about the Fai rfle Id schools of long ago.\u00a0Recently, through the courtesy of Mr. Jotham Hobbs of Fairfield, an elderly\u00a0gentleman with whom I had a delightful visit last summer, I had opportunity to\u00a0examine a report of the supervisor of schools of the tOoln of Fairfield almost a\u00a0hundred years ago. It was the report for the year ending March 1, 1858.\u00a0let us see what the Fal rfle Id schools were like in that year when out in\u00a0III inols was he I d the most famous series of poll tica I debates in our history,\u00a0those between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham lincoln. Fairfield wasn’t much interested\u00a0in those far-away debates, he Id to determine who shou Idrepresent\u00a0Illinois in the U. S. Senate. Fairfield folks had concems of their own, among\u00a0them the ca~ of the town’s schools.<\/p>\n
It didn’t cost much to run the schools a hundred years ago. In 1858 the\u00a0town of Fairfield appropriated $1,500 for all of its schools; the State contributed\u00a0$386, making the total school expenditure for Fairfield $1,846. That\u00a0amount was divided among 25 school districts. There were usually a summer term\u00a0and a winter term in each district, but sometimes a district had only one term\u00a0In the year, and in the various districts the length of the term differed\u00a0widely. In the rural districts, removed from the settlements like Kendall’s\u00a0Mill s or Somerset MI lis (the 01 d names for Fal rfi e I d Vi II age and Shawmut), a\u00a0chi Id was lucky if he got more than a dozen weeks of school in a whole year.<\/p>\n
At Kendall’s Mi lis In 1857-58 there was a winter term of eight weeks, a\u00a0summer term of ten weeks, and — what was unusual for those times — a fall\u00a0term of six weeks — a total of 24 weeks. On the other hand in District No.3\u00a0at Nye’s Corner, there was only a summer term of ten weeks — only that one term\u00a0In the district during the entire year. In District No.4 at Plshon’s Ferry\u00a0(now Hinckley) there were a summer term of seven weeks and a winter term of five\u00a0weeks. In District No.9 at Fairfield ~eting House (at what is now Fairfield\u00a0Center) the~ were a twelve-week summer term with 72 pupils, and a winter term\u00a0of nine weeks. District NIO. 6 at Quakertown had winter and summer terms of\u00a0eight weeks each.<\/p>\n
The supervi sor of school s — the man who submi tted th is report for the 25\u00a0schoo I districts to the town — was E. K. Boyle. I n that far-off day he had\u00a0much to say about the disadvantages caused by having so many small schools. The\u00a0school bus was then 75 years in the future; so Supervisor Boyle had no solution\u00a0to the problem. But he presented the problem frankly In these words: “One\u00a0of two conditions must exist in our more sparsely populated districts; either\u00a0some of the scholars must walk to a school at considerable distance from their\u00a0homes, where they can have decent advantages for learning, or they have a poor\u00a0substitute for a schoolhouse nearby, where term after term a mere handful of\u00a0scholars assemble to drag out five or six hours a day, without any suitable\u00a0teacher, or any advantages to make the school hours interesting and profitable.<\/p>\n
There are too many schools scattered over this town. It is better for a scholar\u00a0to walk two mi les to attend a ,,::’School of sufficient numbers to make him emulous\u00a0of keepi ng pace wi th the smartest schol ars, than to wa I k ha I f a mi Ie to attend\u00a0a school where he is the only scholar in a class.”\u00a0These oid-time school reports were decidedly frank in their conments, and\u00a0this one of Falrfie Id in 1858 is no exception. Of District No.3 the supervisor\u00a0said: “In this district Is nothing that can be dignified by the name of schoolhouse.<\/p>\n
In the district are some fine scholars, though most of them are young;\u00a0and they go to school in 8 bui Id1ng hardly fit for a sheep pen. What seats they\u00a0have in the building are entirely unsuited to convenience or health, and in cold\u00a0weather nothing has power to render it comfortable against the cold except a\u00a0gigantic fire apparatus capable of warming all out of doors. If the powers of\u00a0evil could invent some prison-house, and make it as repulsive as possible to\u00a0the free and Joyous spirit of a child, they could not hope to surpass this\u00a0schoo I house.\u00a0“In District ‘No. 4”, continues the report, “there is another hut in which\u00a0the scholars attend school. It is not quite so bad as that in No.3, but it is\u00a0bad enough, and the schools in this district can never be the kind to keep young\u00a0people out of state prison or county Jail until there is a more suitab Ie bui 1-\u00a0ding.”<\/p>\n
Not all that Supervisor Boyle says atJout the teachers are words of praise.\u00a0“In Miss Fossett’s school at Kendall’s Mi lis”, he wrote, “there was manifest,\u00a0toward the close of the term, a lack of interest among the scholars.;’ Mr. Norton’s\u00a0school”, says the supervisor, “was not very profitable. He is quite young\u00a0and is too I nexperl enced to take charge of a schoo I. Mr. Johnson worked hard,\u00a0yet he wanted much of the energy requisi te to the successful management of a\u00a0school of this size. Irregularity of attendance had very injurious results,\u00a0and Mr. Johnson did little to cause the pup! Is to have a des I re to attend.<\/p>\n
James Freeman Is a young man of good parts, excellent character, and a fine\u00a0scholar. His discipline was not so good as could be wished, but his system of\u00a0instruction was excel lent. We noted to our regret, when we visited the school,\u00a0that The younger scholars seemed fl lIed with an Inordinate desire to exhibit\u00a0the I r powers of locomoti on.”<\/p>\n
The supervisor Is even more critical of the school at Fa! rfield Center\u00a0taughT by I. N. Richardson. “On our first visit to the school”, he says, “It\u00a0appeared satisfactory; the teaching seemed active and the scholars industrious\u00a0and orderly. Having occasion to visit the school again, at the request of parents\u00a0In the district, we found it, so far as progress is concerned, stationary\u00a0— the scho lars drl vi ng around at random among the i r books and stud I es, like a\u00a0ship set afloat without helm or rudder. Satisfied that the school was doing\u00a0the scholars little good, we advised the teacher to leave, which he accordingly\u00a0. did.”<\/p>\n
Supervisor Boyle often tempered his praise of a teacher. In Miss Rebecca\u00a0Norton’s school at Ohio HIli, he admitted were to be found some of the best mathematl\u00a0clians and best grammarians in town. “The scholars he17e”, he wrote, “rank\u00a0far above the average il,n <\/em>other districts. Yet”, he added, “there Is one great\u00a0fau It I n Miss Norton as a teacher, and that is want of energy.”\u00a0The suprevisor had an eye out for likely teacher material, however. He noted\u00a0that MI ss Marl a Lawrence at Oistri ct No. 7 was “a young I ady possess i ng a\u00a0refined and critical mind, who with experience will make a grand teacher.”<\/p>\n Mr. Boyle complains that It Is hard to get reports from the school districts.,\u00a0even accurate word-of-mouth Information about the schools. ‘~e visited the\u00a0schoolhouse at Somerset Mi lis three times during the winter term,” he says, “but\u00a0each time we found no school in session. It was with this school as with many\u00a0others; we had to guess when it would commence, when it would be keeping, and\u00a0when it was like Iy to be comp leted.”<\/p>\n “In District No.7”, the supervisor says, “we understand a winter term was\u00a0taught by Mr. Newell Hoxie, but since we had no notice of its commencement or\u00a0close, we did not visit it.” Of District No. 10, Mr. Boyle wrote: “We have now\u00a0received a register iaforming us that there has been a winter term taught by\u00a0Miss Marinda Jewett. It was our first notice of the existence of such a school,\u00a0and it was therefore not visited.”<\/p>\n What we today consider essential school statistics are missing from this\u00a0report. It gives us no inkling of the total number of pupils in the town:’,s 25\u00a0school districts. Only occasionally does it give the enrollment in anyone\u00a0school. The whole thing was quite haphazard, and the school supervisor evidently\u00a0had trouble finding out whether some of the schools held sessions at all,\u00a0to say nothing of how many pupi Is attended. It is difficult to determine how\u00a0much the teachers were paid, but the average appears to have been about two\u00a0dollars a week. One interesting fact brought out by this old-time report is\u00a0that, in the summer term, all the teachers were women, whi Ie in the winter term\u00a0all but six were men. Those male teachers were supplied by students from the\u00a0colleges, all of which had a long winter vacation for the sale purpose of giving\u00a0the i r students a chance to earn someth i n9 toward the i r co liege expenses by teaching\u00a0a term in the oommon schools. If the pay was two dollars a week, they\u00a0couldn’t have earned much toward college expenses. True enough, but they could\u00a0have made a start, for tuition at Colby was then $15 a term.<\/p>\n Among the possessions of Mr. Jotham Hobbs, who showed me this Fai rfield\u00a0school report for 1858, is a letter written to an ancestor of his concerning\u00a0teaching school in Fai rfield. The letter was indeed written in the very year\u00a0we have been talking about, for it Is dated Apri I 21, 1858. It reads: “Mr.\u00a0Hobbs. Dear SI r: Upon reflection with regard to the school In your district,\u00a0have come to The cone I us i on that I cannot take I t for less than three doll ars\u00a0a week. I would like it at that price, but should not feel that I was doing myself\u00a0justice to take IT for less. If you wish Ire to have it, please let me\u00a0know th is week. Yours tru Iy, Jenny T. Ware.”<\/p>\n Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #125, broadcast on December 2, 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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