The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-05-17
SHALL OTTAWA HAVE A HIGH SCHOOL,

| mat Il uucstoH 'hc Pcopic vi Ct'""" WI
decide today by their vote on authorizing
loan of $4,000 to erect II high school buil'
ing. Nothing is clearer than that we ca
have no high school without suitable buil'
ing for its accommodation. The TOWNSHIP
may possibly work along IN sloppy, cripple
way year or two more by renting; but tn
process will he found so expensive and unsh
sfactory that finally the school will peter on
and he abandoned,
Can Ottawa afford to be without "a higl
school? Can Ottawa afford the disgrace, asid
from every other consideration, of being tn
only city in the state of over 5000 inhabitant
that has no high school, Can we expect east
ern people, or families Of respcctabihty an'
wealth from any quarter, to come ana NV
among us if we can offer their children NJ
higher school privileges than are included II
the three Rs-Rcadin, Ritin and 'Rithmctic
But there are a thousand infinitely highe
considerations that should prevail with our PEG
pie to make almost any sacrifice to MAINTAIN
a frstclass high school. Says the Prcsldcn
OF the French Educational Commission to tn,
Philadelphia Exposition, IN the report to hi
government
So far as social equality can possibly be
reached on this earth, it Is attained by the
American high school, In other countries II
IS to be feared that the children Of different
classes of society, though brought together iol
n while in the public school, must soon find
themselves separated by the whole distance
between their respective families; indeed, il
must be 50, since one child enters on his ap
premiership and thus stops short in his intel
icctual development at the very time when the
other is lust beginning his. In the United
States every effort is made to delay and to iii.
mlnish this separation, to carry as far as pos
slble, and as high as possible, that common IN
strucion which cilaces the distinction of rich
and poor. If it be true that the prosperity OF
a republic is in the direct ratio Of the replen.
ishmcnt of its middle classes Of the abundance
and facility in the indefinite recruiting of these
classes, then the high school of the United
States whatever it may cost, is the best invest
mcnt of national capital that can possibly be
made.
But the sacrifice our people are asked to
make in the way of money and taxation to es-
is really rtling The cost of the proposed
building and lot, as we showed in our last, will
entail an annual expenditure of sum so triil-
ing in a town that now pays over 100000 in
state, county city and town taxes each
year, as to be really unappreciable even by the
heavy taxpayer. Why, it won'tsmake ten dol.
lars difference "A year in the taxes of men as
wealthy as Judge Cation or William Rcddick
aud to the average taxpayer will not exceed
he cost Of an evening at the theatre or at a
'ourth of July dance. And beyond these $4,000
year for lot and building, there is no expense
hat will be avoided by voting down the high
,chool for the two or three thousand dollars
hat the teachers cost above the foreign tut
ions the school can earn will have to be eX-
pended on the ward schools, in which there
must be increased room and a higher grade IN
of the loss Of the high school.
The cost, therefore, can cut no serious hgure
n the question, and surely our people are not
'oos enough at this late day, with the expert
,nce Of the past year before them, to allow the
question Of location to influence them in this
vote
The past years experience has shown what
sort of high school we can have. With all
its drawbacks, hindrances and disadvantages,
less than $50 Of our young people,
the sons and daughters Of the poor as well as
wealthy, have enjoyed all the advantages Of a
Iirstclass grammcr school. Four.fifths of
these could have enjoyed the same advantage
in no other way. Their parents could not at:
'ord to add to the reputation and wealth of
lcighboring cities by sending their children
here, and they would have remained, like the
lower classes" Of halfcivilized countries,
'hewers OF wood and drawers of water" to the
more educated and wealthy classes Ottawa
We hope is not ready thus to lower its grade
Ter people will manifest at least decent self:
aspect, not to speak of "A becoming pride and
lignlty, by casting very decided if not unani-
nous vote to-day in favor of establishing here
trst-class high school