The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-04-22
[coMMUEICATED.l
GOOD ROADS, CHRISTIANITY AND
EDUCATION.

The United States Bureau of Education has
for some years had under consideration the
question of the consolidation of public schools
and the transportation Of pupils to and from the
schools after consolidation. In the Report of
the Commissioner of Education for 19O0-19Ol the
subject is treated somewhat at length, and more
fully in the report for 1902 and that for 1903.
From these reports it appears that the policy of
small schools and transporting the
more distant pupils to a central usually graded
school at the public expense has been resorted
to in twenty-five states to a greater or less ex-
tent-as follows: Connecticut, Florida, Indiana,
Iowa, Kansas. Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota. Nebraska. New Hampshire. New
Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio. Penn
sylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota. Vermont
and Wisconsin. While the proposition may yet
be said to be in the experimental stage, the con-
census of experience in these states shows that
consolidation of schools results in a saving of
money in improved schools and in more regular
attendance. Summarized the following impor-
tant advantages are attained:
/. Consolidation and transportation decreases
the aggregate cost of rural schools or gives
greater efficiency at the same cost.
2. Secures to the pupils better instruction,
better buildings and equipment and longer
3. Insures closer supervision by officials and
stronger principals.
4. Conduces to better health and morals.
5. Continues in school country maidens llaOle
to remain at home because of vagaoond
tramps or large bodies of employed men In
certain localities.
curriculum and discipline of most small
schools.
7. Relieves mothers anxious about their girls
and children of tender years.
g. Eliminates truaucY and dimInisheS irregu-
9. Causes to attend many out of reach of a
school without transportation.
10. Enhances the. value of the. instruction.
because the larger the number OF pupils
the fewer the grades per. teacher, and the
more of himself the teacher Is enabled 10
give to each pupil.
IL. Awakens healthy rivalry through the inspira-
ton of numbers.
IL. Makes compulsory attendance more feasible
and justihable.
One of the most important problems for our
rural communities has been how best to secure
the benefits Of graded-school system so as to
enable the farmer to give his children instruc-
ton in the higher branches of learning without
leaving the farm. The writer believes that the
policy of consolidation and transportation of
pupils furnishes solution of the problem IL the
policy can be perfected. The next and most
important question is: how can this be done !;
in what way and after what preparation. can
perfect system be established or made possible
of establishment? We are firmly of the opinion
that the system of education outlined and which
means 80 much for the country will never be
perfected and become fixed policy until there
is national aid in the construction of good wagon
roads, say along the line of the bills introduced
in the House of Representatives by Hon. w. P.
Brownlow, of Tennessee, and in the Senate by
Mr.. Latimer, of South Carolina. In hearings on
the good roads subject before the Senate Com
mittee on Agriculture it was shown that of all
the roads in the United States there are only 8
per cent. good, 10 per cent. fairly passable and
IS per cent. bad that is stallers of teams in wet
weather, and the creators of insufferable dust
storms in dry weather. Fifteen per cent. are
roads, the remainder mere rights-of-way."
While striving after the best results in its own
particular field and studiously seeking improve
ments under functions that belong to it alone,
that very important branch of the public SER
vice known as the Bureau of Education has, in
its investigations, gathered practical facts and
detailed statistics that furnish irrefutable argu-
ment in favor of national aid to good roads,
because no government can prosper save by the
enlightenment of its people. President Roose-
welt. in a speech at st. Louis in 1908, declared
of the Middle Ages and the civilization which
succeeded it was the difference between poor
and good means of communication. On Bedloe's
Island in New York harbor stands Liberty En-
tightening the World. go We into all the earth
and preach the Gospel to every creature" means
now, as when first communicated to man, that
the highways and the byways furnish fruitful
field for Cody work. Following the construc-
l. IT, ox.1o
ton increases and Christianity widens and broad
ems its field of operation. But education is not
possible and Christianity is retarded where
school houses cannot be reached, and school
houses cannot be reached where the highways
are not at all seasons passable. No fixed policy
of consolidated schools will prevail until there
is systematized construction of wagon roads.
and no fixed policy of road construction is pos
sible except by Federal cooperation with the
states and the political divisions thereof.
The common or wagon roads are the primary
means of transportation and communication.
The railroads have their uses, and they are i'm
portant, but people do not use them to reach
church houses and school houses. Christian
civilization and education call for better means
of propagation. Public school work goes hand
in hand with the spread of religion. 1t needs no
argument to show that every church interest
and every school interest is closely connected
with the question of public road improvement
throughout the United States. We are Chris
tian nation, and we are an educational people.
The very life of the Republic depends upon the
influence of the churches and the schools, for
these are the certain promoters of high ideals in
citizenship and the inculcators of that fine
spirit of patriotism which enables good govern
ment and sustains it wherever established. If
there were no other reasons why the govern
ment should at once adopt and put into practice
a good-roads policy in cooperation with the
states, it should do so in support of public edu-
cation and the spread of the Christian religion.
We repeat that the United States Bureau of
Education, while working in its own particular
field has supplied one of the most forceful argu-
ments yet presented in favor of national aid to
good roads, and we should much like to see
every church and school journal in the land take
up the question and discuss it for the benefit of
the cause in which they are engaged
Lessening Accidents on Railroads.