Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-03-11

who move from district to district fire.
q~uently, nj especially poor people, are
by necessity required to invest in
books which purchase in time becomes
a hardship.
With many kinds of books in use.
it often occurs that a supply of books
are kept by no dealer in the county
and the purchaser is often required to
wait a long time before he is able to
secure the book sought. When the
books are uniform, the work of the
teacher becomes more efficient on ac-
count of the familiarity of arrange
ment of the text matter. The use of
two or even three or four texts in the
same class takes the time of the teach
er and renders the work of the pupil
unsatisfactory, both to himself and
to the teacher.
The last ten years has brought about
a revolution in the making of books,
from an artistic, financial and pedagog-
ical standpoint, though it does not fol-
low that because a book is of recent
date that it is necessarily a book of
merit. The conditions in all other
lines of achievement have materially
| progressed and the same has been true
in educational affairs.
We are DESTROYS of doing all that is
possible to be done for the betterment
of our schools and hope that all inter-
ested in schools will give this matter
full consideration before the matter
shall be passed upon in the near fI-
ture. We believe that the books will
be somewhat cheaper to the consumer,
that the five year contract will result
satisfactory and will avoid the many
inconvenience, systematic the school
work of the county, and stop the indis-
criminate change in books.
We are aware of the notoriety that
is often made in the selection of text
books, We are aware that there will be
some criticism whatever the result
may be, but as one member of the
board, familiar with the conditions of
the county we feel that something
should be done, and therefore ask the
fullest consideration of this PROPOSE
ton. The matter rests wholly with
the electors; if the proposition should
carry and it should prove unsatisfac-
tory, at any annual election, the old
system car be restored. Assuring you
of my earnest endeavor and co-opera.
ton, | am, Respectfully,
Beniah Dimmitt,
County Superintendent.
I Editor Courier:-In one of my pa
pers recently | read the following pur-
porting to come from the Hon. Will
liam Dudley Faulke, which seems so
permeated with a true sense of justice
that l ask your indulgence for space
to quote, he says: 1T makes no diff
ference whether all women want to
vote, so long as there is one woman
who insists upon this simple right, the
Justice of man cannot afford to deny
it. Would it be an answer to my
claim for suffrage hat a majority of
the men of the state or town do not
want it? So long as l need it to pro-
ltect my interests it matters not how
many of my fellows are Indifferent to
this. In matters of business woman's
experience may not have been so wide
as ours bSt in the matters of moral
purity her standard is higher. Is it,
II ask, the best system of government
which gives a voice to intemperance
and violence, and denies it to the vir-
tue and purity of the home? Ought
government to include the types of it's
better as we'll as it's baser qualities?
The constitution of Indiana gives a
vote to the pauper and the idiot, as
we'll as the criminal after his term is
up and his period of disfranchisement
has expired. In one election there
the imbeciIes on the poor farm at In
dianapolis were brought to the polls in
a body, and a nan who, when asked
his name, declared he was Jesus
Christ, was permitted to help make
the laws which should tax the prop
erty and control the future of every
woman in that state. / do not UNDER
stand the logic of the lawmakers who
prefers legislature by male idiots than
by educated women"
When l read of such things being
done for the sole purpose of putting
certain men and measures into pow
ers regardless of moral principle I
feel like exclaiming in the language Of
the man who in his supplications said
something like this: ooh, Lord, let us
not despise our lawmakers and rulers,
and Oh, Lord, do not let them act in
such a way that we cannot help it.
Emily Phillips.
Highland Center, March SD.
Courier:-I notice a query in a recent
issue of the Courier concerning a book
giving the climate, rainfall, products.
etc, of this country.
By reference to the physical charts
in any good advanced common school
geography that information can be OBJ
tanned. Such books are or should be
in every school. There is. no excuse
for any one to go blindly unless he so
chooses. A Subscriber. ;,
&
SERVES $50 PEOPLE. M
Rural Route Necessitates Discontinue