Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1908-03-06
AN AGRICULTURAL
SCHOOL FOR COUNTY
NO REASON WHY JEFFERSON
co. SHOULD NOT GET ONE.
Argument That Farmers Would
No Stand BY County Board is a
Very Poor One-GOOd Chance
For WdtertOWn to Land Such
an Institution.

During the last session of the JEFF
ferson county board of supervisors,
The Leader published an article to the
effect, that the present was at appro
priatetime for this county to reach
out fer one of the many agricultural
schools now being erected throughout
the state. 1t would be wise move
on the part of the Watertown super
visOrs to lead in the movement with
view of landing such a school in
this city which q certainly entitled to
that much recognition from the coun-
ty board in view of the large proper
ton of taxes this city pays and the
few benefits it has received in return
in the way of public improvements.
The Jefferson County Union in COM
mentlng upon the chance of securing
one of these schools, says:
"The La Crosse County Board of Su-
pervisors have voted q sufficient ap-
preparation to build an Agricultural
School. There are four now in oper-
alton and four mure authorized by
law. La Crosse county is composed
very largely of Germans. Indeed the
German farmers in all the counties
where these schools have been built
are strongly in favor of them Jeffer-
son county must lag along at the tail
of the procession and see ether and
more enterpcising counties walk off
with these great advantages because
we have Board Of Supervisors that
cannot see as lar AS ordinary men do
in other counties. In every county
where these schools have been built
they are proving very popular with
the farmers and tue townspeopIe.
The state bears three-fourths of the
expense OF conducting them. IS it
true that Jefferson county farmers
are so low in the scale of intelligence
and enterprise that their supervisors
dare not build an Agricultural School?
That is what supervisor told Us last
fall. He said this:
81 believe that such a school
would be splendid thing for Jeffer-
son county. | agree with you in all
that. But you see our farmers are
not the same kind of men as are the
farmers in those counties that have
built their schools. We cannot trust
them to back us if we vote for it.
''That ia the opinion the supervis-
ors have of the intelligence of Jeffer
Sun county farmers. We wonder if it
IS really true?'
The Leader does not for moment
believe that the farmers of Jefferson
county are so bereft of reason that
they would not stand by the county
board on such a proposition, but are
all aware of the benefits that would
accrue to the county in the way of en-
lightenment to their children, thus
enhancing the chance of keeping them
On the farm and making them better
and more enlightened citizens. 1t
would be an injustice to the farmers
of our county to hold them in any such
thought and The Leader freely ex-
presses the belief that ninety per cent
of the farmers of the county would
readily sanction such a movement
There is not a county in the state
more ripe to the necessity of such
school than old Jefferson, and it is rea-
sonable to believe that it would not
take much argument to convince the
state authorities of this fact.