Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-09-05
THE SCHOOLHOusES
WHAT THEY MEAN TO THE PEG
Ole OF THE COMMUNITY.
AND now THEY ARE BUILT
1t is 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 a 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-
~lightenmant to the hearthstones of
the homes of a thousand valleys?
1t is the taxes that you and your
%neighbor, and your neighbours 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 commll-
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
a new and more modern structure, in
which your children and your neigh
boris 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, n who
is your ~neighbor and your neighbours
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,
the blacksmiths. You are each and
every man who so 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 s~choolhouses.
And how shall you work collec.
lively?
By a simple system Of boosting one
another. You, We will say, have
oats to sell-your neighbor buys them
of you. He, vol 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. . y.
The dollar that is unnecessarily sent
away from home never bought 90
much as a nail for a schoolhouse, never
put a single on its roof.
But the dollars that are unneces-
sarily sent away from home send back
to the community which they left
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
neighbor that decrease the value
Of your, and your neighbours, and
your neighbours neighbours real es-
That makes the school fund
grow less year after year. That forces
he discharge of the competent teach
IF for a less competent one. That re.
the standing of your schools
n the educational system of the coun.
ry.
Work it backwards, send vour !
money for the things you need away l
rom home instead of spending it at /
lone, and the system that builds viii |
ages out of cross roads, and cities out I
# villages, that Increases the value of
our real estate and permits you to
your wealth in four figures !
where previously three figures were /
nough, and you will make of the 5
hriving little city but a village, and 9
I the village but a cross roads. !
Do you not believe. Mr.. Citizen. and =
o you think your neighbor and YOU
eighbor's neighbor should believe, b
1t pays best to keep the dollars ii
l the home community? Keep the Il
ystem moving forwards, help to a
lake a city of your village. Boost il
our towns interests and you boost
our own.
WRIGHT A. PATTERSON. IL
Es l ~