Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-08-18
ROADS AND EDUCATION.
Consolidation of School Districts De-
pendent on the Character of
the Highways.


One of the most important problems
for our rural communities has been how
best to secure the benefits of a graded
school system so as to enable the farmer
to give his children instruction in the
higher branches of learning without
leaving the farm. The writer believes
that the policy of consolidation and
transportation of pupils furnishes a So
luton of the problem if the policy can be
perfected. The next and most impor-
tant question is: how can this be done;
in what way, and after what prepare
ton, can a perfect system be estab-
lished or made possible of establish
ment? We are firmly of the opinion
that the system of education outlined
and which means so much for the coun-
try will never be perfected and become
a fixed policy until there is national aid
in the construction of good wagon
roads, say along the line Of bills intro
duced in the house of representatives
by Hon. w. p. Brownlow, of Tennessee.
and in senate by Mr.. Latimer, of South
Carolina. In hearings on the good-roads
subject before the senate committee on
agriculture it was shown that of all the
roads in the United States there are only
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 Improvements under functions
that belong to it alone, that very impor-
tant branch of the public service known
as the bureau of education has, in it's
investigations, gathered practical facts
and detailed statistics that furnish ire
futable argument in favor of national
aid for good roads, because no govern
menttan prosper save by the enlighten-
ment OF its people. President Roosevelt
| in speech at st. Louis in 1903. declared
| that the difference between the semi
barbarism of the middle ages and the
civilization which succeeded it was the
difference between poor and good means
of communication. On Bedloes Island
In New York narbor 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 high
ways and byways furnish a fruitful field
for Cody work. Following the con-
struction of good roads civilization ex-
pands, education increases and Chris
tianity widens and broadens its field of
operation. But education is not possible
and Christianity Is retarded where
schoolhouses cannot be reached, and
where the highways are not at all sea-
sons passable. No fixed policy of con-
solidated schools will prevail until there
is systematized construction of wagon
roads, and no fixed policy of road con-
struction is possible except by federal
cooperation with the states and the po-
litical divisions thereof.
The common or wagon roads are the
primary means of transportation and
communication. The railroads have
their uses, and they are important, but
people do not use them to reach church
houses and school houses Christian
civilization and education call for bet
ter 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 i'm
provement throughout the United
States. We are Christian nation. and
we are an educational people The very
life of the republic depends upon the in
fiuence of the churches and the schools.
for these are the certain promoters of
high ideals in citizenship and the incul-
Gators Of that fine spirit of patriotism
which enables good government and sus-
tains it wherever established. If there
were no other reasons why the govern
ment should at once adopt and put int o
practice a good-roads policy in coopera-
ton with the states, it should do so in
support of public education and the
spread of the Christian religion.
We repeat that the United States bu-
reau of education, while working in its
own particular field, has supplied one OF
the most forceful arguments yet pre-
scented 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