Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1904-12-30

tlon every 0ay. ne remote parts OF
the county are rapidly filing up, nota-
bly, the northern portion of the county.
In many of the counties now main
tanning county high schools the school
IS located at smaller town and not
at the county seat Why should not
County High School be located at
the growing town of Claflin or Pawnee
Rock, to say nothing of Ellinwood or
I1oisington? Why should any of
these localities vote tax upon them
selves to maintain such a school at
Great Bend, when they would still
have their own high schools to main
tain! We must not presume that
they would abolish their own high
schools just for the privilege of send
ing their children to Great Bend, with
the additional expense of board,
lodging and other incidentals. No,
we would meet with a united and bit
ter opposition from all parts of the
county remote from the county seat.
Even when the enabling act was
passed. authorizing the commissioners
to use the money then in the treasury
to build our county Jail delegation
of business men from another town
went to Topeka and would probably
have defeated tie bill had they ar
| rived in time. Great Bend is not the
only town in the county. There are
Others and they are rapidly growing.
Hoisington has as much right,
under the Law, to ask for a County
High School as has Great Bend.
When she needed new school build
ing did she halt and hesitate and cavil
and fuss about high school sup
ported by all the people of the county?
No, she promptly voted bonds and
built the finest school building in the
county, and she has since voted bonds
for system of waterworks and is
n5w talking of building a fine high
school building. They do say there
is talk over there about building
court house. Where are we ''at?'
Are we falling behind the process
sion?
Another element to be reckoned |
with in the question of voting a |
County High School at Great Bend is
the very large and respectable por-
ton of our population who from re-
ligious scruples or denominational
loyalty will oppose such measure.
This alone will be of sufficient strength |
to defeat the proposition. 1t is not
confined to any one religious sect
There are several.
We must. then, conclude that this
County High School argument is
without merit in the present contro-
versy, and that its primary effect will
be to postpone indefinitely all action
for the betterment of our schools. 1t
is species of fllbustering. Any
thing to hinder, obstruct and delay.
Mr.. Banta further states that in the
proposition of the Board it it is pro-
posed to destroy the old brick build
ling. By referring to the Boards
proposition. now being published in
this paper, it will be seen that Mr..
Banta does not quote correctly. The
Board declare that ''on this subject
they will be guided by the advice of
their architect and the wishes of the
people" and as a matter of fact sew
eral members of the Board are out
spoken in their opposition to the de-
struction of the old building and it is
almost certain that this will not be
done.
Again, Mr.. Banta says the Board
have t'juse expended about six hun
dred dollars for repairs on the brick
building" This statement only mag
nif1es the actual truth about ten times.
The amount actually expended in re-
moving the partition wall and in
papering and repairing and for all
purposes was exactly $92.12, and of
this nearly one third was paid from
! the salvage from the old wall so