The Newtown bee., 1900-05-04

the condition of the schools of Cornwall. All he askg.is the pure unatiularatea- reason of any man of this town to yindi- cate and substantiate him in the facts that have been related. The facts speak for themselves and If committee of the representative men or the state were to investigate the sohoolhouses of this town they would necessarily come to the conclusion described by Progress
 The tax necessary to build & sspalace'' in this village has been the subject of enormous contention. Examine these facts. We have about $550, ,0OO worth of taxable property in our town. The amount of money needed for the con. struction of the schoolhouse would be $1lO0; $4OO being received for the old one. The clause of the vote proposed read as follows:
 Voted: "That the selectmen be direct ed to draw three orders on the treasurer each for one-third of the net cost of such schoolhouse, such orders to be payable in one, two and three years from date, and to bear interest at four per cent, the proceeds of which shall defray the entire expenses of such new schoolhouse,n
 This would leave to be paid annually by the town the amount of S3e6 for 8 period of three years. Take your $I, 100 and divide it by $55O. 900 and it will give you the rate per cent tax upon $1 that this ''palace" would cost; which would be two mills on $1 for three years. Then divide your two mills by the time, three years, and you get the amount of tax which would have to be laid upon the grand list of the town as the result of building thls schoolhouse and which would be two thirds of one mill. In other words the tax upon the individual tax payer Of the town would be sfxty-six and two third cents upon each 5000 of taxable property for the period before mentioned, viz., three years.
 Is it to be wondered at..that "Pro. gress" arraigned the citizens of Cornwall for taking the course pursued? Ia our town go selfish that it cannot afford to spend the paltry sum needed for decent scnoolhouse in the place where the lar gest percentage of children reside. There are at present about 60 children in West Cornwall. The whole number of chil- dren in our town on October l, 1899 was 234. The enumeration returned to the State Board last February showed that there were 54 in the 15sh school. Since then number of families have moved into the village which increases the num- Der to 50 or more. The town report of last fall shows that we maintained in the town II schools. We have one fourth of the school children of our town in our little school community. The remaining three fourths are scattered about in nine other school communities.
 The average attendance of the entire town was 15l 8. The attendance on the
 West Cornwall schools was 40 or again more than one fourth of the entire aver age attendance of the schools of our town. Yet with this array of facts be- fore the townspeople and also the fact that great many of the large taxpayers of the town reside in this vicinity, the rural element of Cornwall refused to vote suitable building. One objection that has been injected into this question is that it has served all the purposes for which 1t has been needed for in the past, and particularly the fact that 1t has seated some 50 pupils. This Is true, but In what manner? There was at one peri cd 60 children crowded into this room, which has an actual seating capacity of 40. The children had to bring chairs for seats and the room was crowed to such an extent that it WAS uncomfortable to move about. The work of the teacher was so great that the older scholars as- sisted her in hearing 8 number of the smaller classes all through the term. There certainly has been criminal neglect in the manner in which the schools of our town have been allowed to dilapi- date, but 1t rests not upon the individual community of West Cornwall any more than it does upon the entire town. We are one of the units of great state. We re one or the units of great republic We are bound by tie that war itself cannot dissolve. We are part of the in- dividuals who compose mighty nation whose principles of justice should be founded upon the precept that an injury to one should be the common concern of all. Our oath of allegiance says that we must act in such manner as will con- duce to the best good of all without re- spect or favor for any person. Can we then wilfully deny the school children of our town suitable and proper means of obtaining an education which will fit them for any duty within the scope of their existence when the rower rests in our hands? Your schools must be main tsined and higher standards of education or the future existence of kkNTn ~kxf f$<. fn