The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-08

| existing, and a saving of several hun
dred thousand dollars directly and
several million Indirectly. during the
! last two years, we should not hesitate
to take large strides in an effort to
| catch up in appropriations for these
institutions.
The Barnes Law.
To witness an extension of high
school opportunities to the boys and
girls of the state has long been one
| of my cherished ambitions. Six years
ago; with the cooperation of some
prominent educators I assisted in the
preparation of a bill with this purpose
| in view. but it failed of passage. Two
years ago a bill fathered by Hon. J. S.
| Barnes was enacted, conditioned how
ever upon the approval of the people
of each county before it became oper-
alive. am now gratified to report
that this excellent law was approved
by the people of forty-three counties
at the late election, and 1 believe it is
only a question of a few years when
1t will be in operation in every county
| in the state.
Text Books.
Kansas, leader in real reform, was
one of the first states to require uni
formity of school books in its public
| schools. The law was passed in 1897
and has worked wonders. About
twenty states, in some form and to
some extent, have followed our good
example. The large school-book pub
trust have stubbornly opposed this law,
but it is more strongly entrenched
than ever in the minds of the teachers
and school patrons of the state. I'm
der the old system, school boards and
school teachers were constantly an
noyed by a horde of book agents seek
ing to install their books and displace
others- Prices were extortionate and
changes frequent. Parents moving
from one district to another were COM
PEELED at great expense to equip their
children with an entirely new set of
books. 1t is conservative estimate
that state uniformity has saved to the
people of Kansas during the past ten
years one million dollars. while the
character of the books has not deter
iorated. A comparison of prices in
Kansas with those in California, where
the state prints its own books. shows
that the people of California pay from
100 to 200 per cent more for their
school books than do the people of
Kansas Plausible schemes will doubt
less be submitted to you for the pur-
pose Of weakening this law and I warn
you against them. If any change is
made. let it be only after the most
careful study and thorough investiga-
ton.
State School Tax.
Among the other suggestions made
by the State Teachers association 1
would call especial attention to the
proposition to levy a state school tax.
L
increase school taxation. 1t is rather a
proposition to better equalize the dis
tribution of school taxation and the
school facilities in poor districts. Only
RADIO, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Kansas and Iowa are without such
law, and Iowa has a county-tax law.
Kansas should catch up with this pro-
cession.
Additions to the School Course.
tural state, with horticulture looming
into most gratifying prominence. These
are our permanent interests. Our sub
terranean wealth may some time be-
come exhausted, but our agriculture
and horticulture, like Tennyson's
brook, will go on forever. Wisconsin,
Nebraska, Missouri, and perhaps other
agricultural states. have made the
teaching of elementary agriculture and
horticulture part of their common
school curriculum. Many of our edu-
Gators think that Kansas should follow
this excellent example, and 1 heartily
agree with them, and with the senti-
ment expressed by one of these promi-
nent educators in a recent private let
ter, in which he says: I'm our schools
we should introduce our boys and girls
to the fascinating material that crowds
Gods out-of-doors and that enters so
thoroughly into our rural life" Scien-
tific farming is to be the farming of
the future, the rudiments of which,
at least. our boys and girls should
learn in the common schools.
High School Fraternities.
Superintendents and principals of
our city high schools are confronted
with a new difficulty, the growth of
high school fraternities. These frater-
mites should have no place in our high
schools. 1t is difficult enough to keen
them within wise limitations in colleges |
and universities. The essential charac-
ter of our high-school system is demo-
cratic. There should be no caste in
these schools. All should be on COM
mon level. Fraternities in these in
situations are in conflict with this fun
damental character of the high school |
system. They detract from the studi-
Gus life of the pupils and cultivate a
social life among the children that
does not contribute either to their !
moral, intellectual or physical good.
believe they should be forbidden by
law and boards of education given all |
possible power to suppress them.
State FIR and SemicentenniaI.
Two propositions have been earnest
ly ana extensively discussed upon |
which you will doubtless be called to |
take official action, namely, the pro-
ject of semicentennial. exposition, and |
the Inauguration of a permanent state |
fair. 1 wish to combine these two pro-
the 29th of January, 1911, Kansas will |
reach its f1ftieth milestone as a state |
The proposition to celebrate this his |
toric and important event in an eiabor- |
ate and appropriate manner when first |
suggested met with response remark |
ably hearty and unanimous. The |
newspapers of the state with singular /
unaninity Endorsed the project, and on |
January %. 1906, a convention was
held in Topeka, composed of delegates |
by various commercial |
clubs, county commissioners, city |
councils, and other municipal and cor |
porate bodies throughout the state, !
and was a remarkably enthusiastic |
body of men. President Mckinley, in |
his great Buffalo speech, his last pub