The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1883-10-06

pose we hold q convention Of school
boards Of the several school towns and
try to adopt the best, and also to SC
cure them as cheap as we consistently
can.
The convention will be called at as
early day as possible, when l hope to
meet every man of every school board
in the county, and, not only the school
officers, but q goodly number Of the
parents Of the children and those inter-
ested in the schools of our county. Let
every one come as well posted in all
matters pertaining to public schools as
possible. BY studying the School Law
well you will see that its intention is
to further divide the school towns into
districts, and, to that end, it provides
that at first no school house shall be
placed nearer than one mile of the
boundary of the school town, and also
that they shall be at least two miles
distant from each other, showing that
the intention of the law is that each
School district shall, when developed,
contain an area of four sections of land,
or IS nearly as may be convenient.
Now, if we take all these things into
Consideration before locating our first
school house, we shall have but little
trouble in moving school houses and
reconstructing schools.
But, whatever we may do in all these
matters, let us try with all the powers
vested in us to lay aside all selfishness
and so act that the least school child
will have no occasion to say that we
have robbed them of their rights. To
the officers of the school towns I would
say, you will, in all probability, be Wis.,
tied by little army of agents from all
parts Of the east, telling you that their
goods are the best, if not the cheapest.
My advice to you is: Hear candidly
what they have to say and bring their
propositions before the convention that
we may be all benefited in the result;
but, by no means, become under obli-
cations to any one of them, but come
to the convention with clean hands and
an unprajudiced heart that you may be
able to Judge properly in each item of
the account which may be laid before
you without fear or favor. This may
seem To some small matter, and yet
it may resolve into saying thousands
of dollars in our towns and in our
county. But, whatever we do, may it
not be said of us as is reported of our
neighbors, that one individual or one
town gets an inferior, or pays more for
the same article, than any other town
or individual. AS we are Just COM
mencing in q new county and in new
ly revised system, let us each stndy
well and assert our true courage by as
sisting the weak and innocent little
ones and doing the greatest good to
the greatest number, that it may be
well and truly said:
or all the institutions In the East or in the West
Our glorious institution of the schoolroom is the
There's room for every scholar, our banner Is I'M.
furied
With general invitation to the people Of the world:
SO come along, come along, make no delay;
Come from every Nation, q, come from ev ry way;
Bring your slate and books along don't be fool
Uncle Sam is rich enough to send all to school.
As the new law intends graded or
high school in every school town, it
will be necessary to take into consider
alton the location of such before or at
the time, OF locating the first primary
school, in order that the inhabitants of
the whole town may be' convened.
There may be some points in the new
law that may at first seem difficult to
understand, but l think by careful
study it will become plain to all, and
it is my opinion that when we have
become familiar with the system we
shall all say with one accord: 1t is the
best system yet devised in any of the
States. As to our finances, they are
yet, of course, small, but as we become
developed into State we shall have
fund in the school that will be an honor
to any State or any country. l am
truly in hopes that large minded men
of integrity and business capacity
have been elected for school officers,
who will let their school pride and en-
terprise be wider than the farm and
larger even than the neighborhood;
then there will be a general advance
from the old local selfshness that will