The Virginia enterprise., 1907-09-06
THE SCHO0LHOUSES'
WHAT THEY MEAN TO THE PEO.
PIE OF THE COMMUNITY.
AND HOW THEY ARE BUILT
It 10 the Money That Stays at Home
Which Makes Good Ones Possible
"A Simple System That
Works,

"nlch Makes Gooo OneS Possible
"A Simple System That
Works.
Your schoolhouses. Those of the
town and those of the country dis
tricts. You know what they mean to
you and to your children.
They represent the difference be-
tween ignorance and enlightenment.
They mean to your children the differ
ence between signing their names
with mark or in writing. They
represent the difference between the
civilization of the twentieth century,
as this country knows it, and the bar
barism of benighted Asia or Africa.
You want the schoolhouse, do you
not?
You would willingly make sacrifices
to keep it, would you not?
You glory in the free educational
system of this country, do you not?
But, Mr.. Citizen, did you ever sit
down and consider carefully what
it is that makes possible the school
houses Of this country; the school,
houses that stand as beacon lights on
the tops of a thousand hills; the
schoolhouses that carry cheer and en-
lightenment to the hearthstones of
the homes of thousand valleys?
1t is the taxes that you ,and your
neighbor, and your neighbor's neigh.
Dor pay into the school fund year after
year, is it not?
And why do you pay it?
Because you own property-real es-
tate, bonds and mortgages-and be-
cause that property is valuable.
What makes your real estate val
liable?
1t is the prosperity of the commu-
nifty. AS the community grows and
prospers the value of your property
increases. AS your property increases
in value and you write your wealth
In thousands instead of hundreds, the
amount you pay into the school fund
increases. When the school fund in
creases the old building gives place to
new and more modern structure, in
bors children secure their instruc-
ton. And, again, the erection of the
new building but adds more to the
value of your property.
1t is an endless chain system that
builds villages out of cross roads,
and cities out of villages.
Who are you, Mr.. Citizen, and who
is your neighbor and your neighbor's
neighbOr, whose contributions to the
school fund make the schoolhouses
and your neighbor's neighbor, are the
farmers, the merchants, the doctors,
the blacksmiths. You are each and
every man who go to make up the
community in which you live, and it is
only when you work collectively that
you accomplish results-that you build
up new schoolhouses.
And how shall you work collec-
lively?
By simple system of boosting one
another. You, We will say, have
oats to sell-your neighbor buys them
of you. He, you will say, has dry
goods to sell-you buy them of him.
1t is this system of mutual help that
makes the town grow into the city,
that increases the price of real estate
in the town and in the community sur
rounding it, that builds new school.
houses.
The dollar that is unnecessarily sent
away from home never bought so
much as nail for schoolhouse, never
put q shingle on it's roof.
But the dollars that are unneces-
sarily sent away from home send back
to the community which they left
only ruin. 1t is these dollars that
prevent the replacing of the leaking
roof, the broken door hinge or the
worn out desk.
1t is the dollars that are unneces.
sarily sent away from home by you,
and your neighbor, and your neigh
bor's neighbor that decrease the value
of your, and your neighbor's, and
your neighbors neighbor's real es-
tate. That makes the school fund
grow less year after year. That forces
the discharge of the competent teach
er for less competent one. That re-
duces the standing of your schools
in the educational system of the coun-
try.
Work it backwards, send your
money for the things you need away
from home instead of spending it at
home, and the system that builds vii
lagos out of cross roads, and cities out
of villages that increases the value of
your real estate and permits you to
write your wealth in four figures
where previously three figures were
enough, and you will make of the
thriving little city but village, and
of the village but cross roads.
Do you not believe, Mr.. Citizen. and
do you think your neighbor and your
neighbors neighbor should believe.
that it pays best to keep the dollars
in the home community? Keep the
system moving forwards, help to
make city of your village. Boost
your towns interests and you boost
your own.
WRIGHT A. PATTERSON.