The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1907-01-16
BUSINESS VIEW Of
SCHOOL QUESTION
CHEAP BUILDINGS OFTEN COSTLY
Good business Policy TO Provide Ade-
Guatc High school Room and Ta-
ciIities-Some Suggestions.

Editor Herald: There is such a
panorama of event passing in Yakima
that it is an easy matter for some of
us to wake up and find some things
already passed into history when we
had scarcely thought they were being
even seriously considered. 1t may be
SO with the school proposition to be
voted on next Saturday afternoon.
There is nothing so important to a
community as schools; nothing so eff
fects the future Of a community as the
schools of the present. An institute
ton at once so important deserves the
most careful consideration by all the
people. True, paving, street cars,
sewers, railroad projects, the Y. M. c.
A.. the federal building, the Elks' hall.
the Masonic temple, ETC., command and
demand attention, and that rightly.
Still the welfare of the schools is of
greater vital interest to more people
than any of these projects. The pub
lie school is the one institution the
welfare of which all the people de-
serving the name of citizen are united
in their support. Another character
istic of the public schools that is
strictly American, is the fact that the
apportonment of support is left to the
suffrage of the people In exercising
this right Of suffrage there is no prop
erty qualification. This is as it should
be, and this country is the only one
that can boast of such Il provision. The
more property one has the more valu-
able is that property because of the
schools, and the better the schools the
more valuable is the property of that
district.
| Looking at the school buildings of
| North Yakima, it is at once evident
| that there has been false economy
| both in building arrangement and
equipment. The Columbia school is a
comparatively new building. Had the
board a little more money that build
| ing might have been made safe, COM
modious and sanitary at the time Now
we are compelled to spend much more
| to make 1t so. The same applies TO
| the Central, but to a less extent. No
doubt the board did the best it could
| with the means at hand. The Lincoln
| was lost for want of a better heating
! system Is it economy at present to
continue this policy. or are we ready
for something better? That is the
question that is before US next Sat
urday. At the public meeting on De-
cember 81 the board reported that in
a year from now we would need a
high school building that would ac-
commodate 400 students. After care
fully considering the problem with
those present familiar with the condi-
tions it was decided best to ask for
$3.50, 900 now rather than for 800,
now and another 100000 a year from
now If we do not put up modern
high school building now we will
have it to do in year or two The
high school is the college of the COM
mon people, the finishing school for a
great many of our young people. and II
left to a vote of the people it is bound
to come. If not this year very soon.
With all due respect to the business
college, it is evident to any thinking
man that the business college is built
on the failure of the high school. The
better the high school the less need of
business college. With a modern
high school, with space enough to give
every department room and equip
ment that it deserves we would have
a school that would command a part
ronage from far and near. 1t is but
good business policy to provide ade-
quate high school room and facilities
The Yakima high school properly
equipped would draw from the entire
valley, and when these ranchers are
looking for a city in which to spend
their declining days efficient school
facilities for their children is what de-
termines the choice. This has been
demonstrated in so many cities that
business men generally admit that
good schools draw business There is
no spot in the United States where the
study of biology. the study of plants
and animals, means more in dollars and
cents to the community than it does
here. A thorough knowledge of hor-
ticulture here means more than any
where in the United States. because
here is scientific farming, and the
sooner the science is mastered the