This is our last broadcast of the season. If all goes well we shall be back\u00a0on the air September 14th. But for the next three months you will get relief\u00a0from hearing our talk about inflation and taxes, corruption and deficit spending, as well as about clock reels and ox slings and narrow\u00a0gauge\u00a0railroads. But\u00a0don’t forget that I am still looking for such material. I hope, during the summer,\u00a0our many helpful listeners will put me on track of a lot more interesting\u00a0items of the olden days.<\/p>\n
It is well to keep reminding ourselves that the taxes which hurt most are\u00a0not the open ones like the state sales tax, nor even the federal income tax. They\u00a0are rather the taxes hidden away in the price we pay for commodities. Just\u00a0think what the price of certain articles would be if there were no tax on them.\u00a0Coal would be $9 a ton; a 50\u00a2 pack of playing cards would be 29 cents; gasoline\u00a0would be 12 cents a gallon; bread 9 cents a loaf; milk 14 cents a quart; and a\u00a0$28 auto tire would be $19.<\/p>\n
We don’t eat a mouthful, buy a single thing, or go anywhere that these hidden\u00a0taxes do not take their toll. After a thorough study the Tax Foundation produced\u00a0the figures to show that a family of three persons with an income of $70 a\u00a0week pays a federal income tax of $300, and is likely to complain a lot about it;\u00a0but the same family spends $800 a year in hidden taxes, and says nothing. Ignorance\u00a0is bliss.<\/p>\n
We hear a lot about the cost of our schools and the underpaid status of our\u00a0teachers. There is no question about it; compared with other occupations our\u00a0teachers are grossly underpaid. We ought to spend a lot more money on our schools.\u00a0How are we going to do It without making the tax burden worse than It already\u00a0is? That is the $64 question.\u00a0Let us take a look at the standing of Waterville among Maine’s 21 cities in\u00a0respect to the support of public schools. In per capita expenditure per pupil,\u00a0Waterville stood ninth in the school year of 1950-51, the latest for which complete\u00a0figures are available. It cost us $142.10 for each pupil in our public\u00a0schools. The most expensive school system was in Bangor, where the cost was\u00a0$154.42 per pupil. The cheapest was Belfast, the only one of the 21 cities with\u00a0per capita cost under $100. Belfast’s was $99.04.<\/p>\n
That we don’t strain ourselves for our school expenditures in Waterville\u00a0is shown by a comparison with Presque Isle. We have more than twice Presque\u00a0Isle’s valuation, $17,159,000 compared with their $8,251,000. Yet Presque Isle\u00a0must care for 1,960 public school pupi Is compared with our 2,125. In 1950-51\u00a0our total expenditure for school maintenance was $301,970; Presque Isle’s was\u00a0$272,098. We had a 45 mill tax rate; Presque Isle’s was 38.5 mills. We had only\u00a09 more teachers than Presque Isle, 98 compared with their 89. Yet our per capita\u00a0cost was $142.10 wh i Ie Presque I s Ie’s was on Iy $138.83. What is more, in the\u00a0year since 1949-50, our per capita cost had increased by $4.50, while Presque\u00a0Isle’s had decreased by $3~42. In respect to state valuation Watervi lie is the\u00a0sixth city, crowding Biddeford for fifth place. Biddeford’s valuation In 1950-\u00a051 was $17,247,000; ours was $17,159,000. But in respect to total school expenditures\u00a0we stand a poor seventh, and are pretty nearly pushed into eighth\u00a0place by Bath, whose valuation is only two-thirds of ours.<\/p>\n
In Waterville we are doing better for our schools than we did in 1940 -a\u00a0lot better — but we haven’t anything to crow about when we set our accomplishments beside Maine’s twenty other cities.<\/p>\n
Mr. D. E. Decker, 80 year 01d resident of Clinton, reminds me that the old\u00a0records of the town of Canaan are worth looking at. If I can get permission of\u00a0the town authorities, I want to examine those records some day. At first Canaan,\u00a0Skowhegan and Bloomfield were all one town. Early town meetings were held at\u00a0farm houses, frequently at the home of the Weston fami lyon the west side of\u00a0the Kennebec. At one time the town hired a minister, who came all the way from\u00a0Massachusetts on horse back and then rode circuit over the three towns. A part\u00a0of his pay was an agreement to help him put In his crops and to plow a certain\u00a0number of acres of land for him. One year Canaan raised $300 for all the bridges\u00a0in what is now all three towns. In another instance the town persuaded a land\u00a0owner to al low public traffic through his pasture, provided the travelers would\u00a0close the gate behind them. All of those things Mr. Decker tells me, What he\u00a0says whets my appetite for a look at those Canaan records.<\/p>\n
As we close our broadcasts for the year, I want to pay my respects again to\u00a0a town far away from Waterville, the town of Peebles in Scotland. Last fall I\u00a0told you about their famous Beltane Festival and Riding of the marches, now\u00a0want to tell you how they finance it. There is no public commitment; all is\u00a0paid by income from the various events the sports, the dances, the concert,\u00a0the fancy dress parade, the flag day, the Cross Kirk service, and other features,\u00a0And as we would expect from honest, frugal Scotsmen, every expenditure is carefully\u00a0watched.<\/p>\n
Last June the events of the week brought in a total of 1,622 pounds, 1 shilling, 7 pence. The expenditures came to 167 pounds less than that; and that this\u00a0had been the case year after year is shown by the treasurefts report of the total\u00a0balance in <\/em>the festival fund of nearly 1,500 pounds.\u00a0The Beltane Festival, with its full week of activities each June, is conducted\u00a0by an official group called the Peebles Festival Committee, and they are\u00a0very busy right now preparing for their 1952 celebration.\u00a0No matter how carefully finances are conducted and no matter how large a\u00a0surplus, there are always complaints about the management of any public affair.\u00a0As Benjamin Franklin once said, “There are croakers in every country always boding\u00a0its ruin.”<\/p>\n When the treasurer of the Peebles committee offered his report at their\u00a0annual meeting last winter, he said: “One person could not understand where the\u00a0expenditure came from in connection with the dances. All he could see was that\u00a0we had bands and halls to pay for. He did not seem to appreciate that to provide\u00a0hundreds of dozens of bottles of minerals and trays and trays of cakes, pies,\u00a0etc. a I so entailed the paying out of money.”<\/p>\n The town provost also put in a word designed for the ears of the critics.\u00a0He said: “The treasurer’s report has been explicit, and the expenditure for the\u00a0various Items speaks for itself. The public does not fully recognize the amount\u00a0of money which is required annually to carry through the ceremonies.”<\/p>\n In Waterville we find it a tremendous job to carryon a week’s celebration\u00a0once in fifty years. What would happen to us if, like the folks of Peebles, we\u00a0had to do it every year?<\/p>\n I wonder if persons in Waterville and vicinity who like to sing fully appreciate\u00a0the opportunity offered by the Waterville Sesquicentennial. On Sunday,\u00a0July 20, the opening event of that week’s celebration is to be a great sacred\u00a0concert, in which all religious faiths will cooperate in recognition of Freedom\u00a0of Religion Day. Every person who likes to sing is asked to enter the chorus,\u00a0which it is hoped will number 150 voices.<\/p>\n The nucleus will be the Waterville Area Chorus of which Mrs. Edward Colgan\u00a0is the head, but her group will be augmented by church choirs, other singing groups and individuals. No one is excluded; every singer is welcome. The chorus\u00a0will be directed by Prof. Peter Re, the man who di reeted the Colby College\u00a0Glee Club for its several public appearances during the past year, including its\u00a0notable Monsanto broadcast.<\/p>\n The proposed sacred concert to inaugurate Watervl lie’s celebration of its\u00a0150 years will succeed or fail in accordance with the response of singers and\u00a0groups to Join the huge chorus for this one event.<\/p>\n More than once I have referred to the old-time schools. I have given you\u00a0information out of the old school reports of Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield, Oakland,\u00a0and Vassalboro. Tonight let us examine a report of schools in Albion nearly a\u00a0hundred years ago. It Is a report of the superintending school committee\u00a0of Albion for the year 1861-62. The report begins: “The schools in town for the\u00a0past year have been in a very flourishing condition. Not withstanding we have been visited by the malignant disease, giptheria, and 17 of our scholars, from\u00a0various districts, have found a youthful grave, still the school interest has\u00a0been kept up and all have done well:<\/p>\n As in other towns of that time, Albion had several school districts — 14\u00a0to be exact — each presided over by a school agent, Just the way Elisha Wood\u00a0was agent for a Freedom school district in 1858. The three members of the committee\u00a0in charge of all the districts, and to whom the 14 agents were responsible. were George Wilson, O. O. Crosby and W. C. Crosby.<\/p>\n As I have told you before, these old school reports contain very frankstatements. For instance, in this report we read that in District 7 the winter\u00a0term was taught by Atwell Taylor of China. The comment is: “We <\/em>think Mr. Taylor\u00a0is a good scholar and strove for the advancement of his pupils; but being\u00a0young and inexperienced, he failed to maintain the order essential for the best\u00a0interest of the school.”<\/p>\n Of District 13 we read that the teacher tried with all\u00a0her power to make the school interesting, but the pupils did not respond very\u00a0well. In District 14 we are told that Miss Anna Hanscom of China, who had the\u00a0summer term, tried hard to keep a good school, but the pupils, being rather\u00a0roguish, progress was not sufficient from making the school appear backward at\u00a0the end of the term. Of District No.3 the report says: “This school commenced\u00a0with good interest and continued about eight weeks. But with so much ice,\u00a0the fondness for skating got the ascendency, and the parents seemingly willing\u00a0to have it thus, the latter weeks of the term were not very profitable.”<\/p>\n The report for District 5 was decidedly mixed: “Several of the scholars,\u00a0the teacher told us, had not whispered during the term, and all had been marked\u00a0high for deportment. The improvement was good, but if anyone should see the\u00a0schoolhouse, we think they would wonder how school could keep going, much less\u00a0make any improvement. In our opinion that schoolhouse is a disgrace to any community.”<\/p>\n In the same pamphlet with this school report is printed the report of the\u00a0Selectmen of Albion for 1861-62. The total income of the town for that year was\u00a0$2,190.30. Its total expenditures for ordinary maintenance amounted to $1,907.26\u00a0showing a credit balance of $283.04. But, alas, that was only a paper balance\u00a0as we shall see in a moment.<\/p>\n The evil War had now been waging a little more than a year. The towns\u00a0were becoming hard pressed to supply their quotas of soldiers. As yet there\u00a0was no draft, and the only way the towns could raise their quotas was to pay\u00a0bounties to volunteers. In that one fiscal year between the town meetings of\u00a01861 and 1862 the little town of Albion had paid out $2,800 in such bounties,\u00a0$900 more than all the maintenance expenses of the town. This left the town more\u00a0than $2,500 in debt on the one year’s transactions.<\/p>\n It was this policy of paying bounties to volunteering soldiers which nearly\u00a0bankrupted the Maine towns and which caused the state to place a constitutional\u00a0debt limit of five percent of valuation on all Maine municipalities. Then when\u00a0we realize how uneasy the Maine boys were when they returned from southern\u00a0battlefields to the rocky Maine farms, how eagerly they answered the call of the\u00a0West, we can understand why in the five years between 1865 and 1870 Maine lost\u00a0ten per cent of her population.<\/p>\n But 80 years afterward Maine is still here and doing pretty well, thank you.<\/p>\n We Maine folk are a sturdy breed and don’t quit easily. We may live in a climate\u00a0that consists of two seasons, winter and the Fourth of July. We may have pastures\u00a0where they have to sharpen the sheep’s noses so they can graze between the\u00a0rocks. Some of our villages may be so small that they are accused of taking in\u00a0the sidewalks after dark. But, believe me, we are still proud to live and work\u00a0in Maine. And you can’t beat that notion out of the head of a Maine-iac with\u00a0the tire of all creation flattened out for a crowbar.<\/p>\n And with those solemn words, we bid you good-night until September.<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #152, broadcast on June 8, 1952<\/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":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7337"}],"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=7337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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