The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-02-14
sAcRAFIcING EDUCATION TO
SUGAR BEEys.

cultivated by lot /bf good peopl
here, who are industrious and fruga
in the extreme, and Through their in
dustry and frugality are making |
necessary to continue to be SO at tn
expense of some oftthe things Vhicl
cannot be neglectedNwithout a great
err loss. We refer II the raising o
sugar beets to the extent of keepin,
children out of school. Ut is all RICH
for children to work, and help maxi
the family living, but LASH fall whel
school officers attempted to- enforc'
attendance at school, they had t,
compromise matters, because labol
was scarce and the beet crop must b.
harvested by child labor or be lost
Permits were issued in many cases
to cover the emergency, and If par
ents deliberately bring about a SINH
lar contingency this year by putting
out such large acreage that children
must again be kept at home from
school, 1t is likely that some sugar
beets will fail to get into the mill.
There Is a difference between hav-
ing children work to support invalid
parents and keep actual want and
distress from the door, and in having
them stay out of school to help till
big farms to make money. 1t is the
old story of the Iowa farmer raising
a big corn crop and buying hogs to
eat 1t. He sold the fat hogs and
planted more corn to feed more hogs.
He sold the hogs and took the money
to buy more land to raise more corn
to feed more hogs and buy more
land, keeping up his policy of ex-
pansion until the chief ends of life
were forgotten, and his wife and
children were familiar with nothing
but hogs.
In this locality the danger is in
raising more beets to make more
money to buy more land, and the
state has right to demand of every
citizen that he SO arrange his affairs
that he give his children fair share
of education as we'll as teaching them
to work. The following clipping
taken from the National Farmer,
while it has some commendable feat
ures, was probably written by one
who thinks only of one side of the
question:
Idaho Boy Wonder.
Whitney, Ida.-We have chal-
lenge to offer any beet grower in any
part of the section, and that is this:
There is a 12-year-old boy here in
Whitney (Delorus Beckstead), who
drove four-horse team and dumped
into the cars over 35 tons of sugar
beets in less than nine hours work;
these beets were hauled in less than
u of a mile, were loaded by Japs and
by team at the dumping sta
lions.
Zone afternoon of five hours work
he loaded on the cars better than 25
tons.
This same boy plowed 35 acres
since beet digging, driving four
horses hitohed to John Deere pillow.
Has any beet grower son who
has done better than this?"
1t is all right to develope a system
Of handling crops SO that as much as
possible may be done in a short time,
but We read between the lines in this
article that the boy was led to be-
ieve that the hauling was one of
he chief ends of life. If he was |
hauling beets for the purpose of MAX
ng money to pay his way through a
good school, then his work is the
more commendable, but in the last
ines he says the boy has plowed IS
lcres since the beets were harvested,
md here we find the preparations be-
ng rushed for the next years crop,
III ambitions running into beets aud
10 mention Of his getting into school
vhen the crop of 1907 was rescued
rom freezing!
He is twelve years old, and subject
o the compulsory education law, and
the school officers at Whitney do
heir duty they will find out why
)olorous Reckstead was not In school
asst fall instead of driving that four
orse team and the John Deere pillow.
he attention of County Superinten-
ent R, H. Hill of Oneida County is
directed to this case.