St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1907-09-21
The ScHOOLHOUSEs.
WHAT THEY MEAN TO THE PEo-
PIE or THE COMMUNITY.
AND HOW THEY ARE BUILT
II Es the Money That Stays at Home
Which Makes Good 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,
az 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 thousand hills; the
lightenment to the hearthstones of
the homes of thousand valleys?
;It is the taxes that you ,and your
nsighbor, and your neighbours neigh,
b6r 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
pyospers 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
EneW and more modern structure, in
which your children and your neigh
boris children secure their instruc-
tipn. 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
Isl your neighbor and your neighbor's
neighbor, whose contributions to the
school fund make the schoolhouses
possible? You, and your neighbor,
and your neighbours neighbor, are the
farmers, the merchants, the doctors,
TIE biacksmiths. 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
pp new schoolhouses.
And how shall you work collec.
lively?
By a simple system Of boosting one
another You. we will say, have
cats to sell-your neighbor buys them
Gf you. He, you will say, has dry
goods to sell-you buy them of him.
It is this system of mutual help that
snakes the town grow into the city,
that increases the price of real estate
10 the town and in the community sur
sounding it, that builds new school
houses.
The dollar that is Unnecessarily sent
sway from home never bought SO
fnuch as a nail for schoolhouse, never
but a single on it's roof.
But the dollars that are unneces-
5arily sent away from home send back
20 the community which they left
lbnly ruin. It is these dollars that
prevent the replacing of the leaking
IToof, the broken door hinge or the
worn out desk.
i It is the dollars that are unneces-
ISsarily sent away from home by you,
Eand your neighbor, and your neigh
Ebor's neighbor that decrease the value
Eof your, and your neighbours, and
Iyour neighbours neighbor's real es.
ktate. That makes the school fund
igrow less year after year. That forces
sthe discharge Of the competent teach.
Fer for less competent one. That re-
Educes the standing of your schools
Fin the educational system of thelcoun.
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
J. 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
i thriving little city but village, and
of the village but a cross roads.
Il Do you not believe, Mr.. Citizen, anG
do Won think your neighbor and your
;. neighbor's neighbor should believe
that it pays best to keep the dollars
: in the home community? Keep the
Y system moving forwards, help te
make a city of your village. Boost
your towns interests and you boost
! Your own.
WRIGHT a. PATTERSON.