Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-03-17
MAINE LEGISLATURE.
CONTINUED from Page Two.)

country schools IS most sfldlcuiouS
proposition. How much benefit do you
think the schools of my county would
receive from a man who gets $500 a
year and expenses coming down
through there and going in and look
ing over those schools. Just think of
it. When the salary of the superintend-
ent has been fixed, I can find hum
dr2d men in the, State of Maine. who
are Just as well qualified as he is and
who VIII be glad to take it at It's pres
ent salary and to do the work. But
it is one of the fads, it seems of this
Legislature that every man who holds
Office wants an increase or an extra
clerk | do not know much about the
increased work of the department. y
great many laws have been placed on
our statute book. making the super
intendent do certain things that would
be better left undone for the better
ment OF the schools. We have too
much red tape for the schools-too
many Offices If you leave it to the
towns YOU will find that the schools
VIII be better off than they will be if
interfered with by outside parties II
YOU let them alone and let the people
OF lllt IONllS anu llitiI cIiiItto Noi'iOA
them. YOU will have q grade of schools
to be proud of for 20 years to come In
the State of Maine. That is from my
personal knowledge. [ do not think
it is for the interest of education to
have this knew office created. | be-
lieVe that the superintendent, with
the clerk that he already has, can per-
form all the duties of the department.
Mr.. kNOWLTON of PiscataquIs:
Mr. President, 1 certainly if l wanted
profound legal advice, would go to the
senator from Knox
Mr.. STAPLES: Thank you, sir. You
will get it.
Mr.. KNOWLTON: T should pay
more than 50 q day for 1T too. but
do claim that ! know more about the
educational matters than he does.
think you would do about the same
kind of work in my class that | should
do in your law office.
There is condition of things exist
ing today that did not exist when the
venerable senator and myself We're
boys [ do not ask that this new man
be, empowered to visit the town schools
| but to visit those schools where the
State is sending out money and where
| there is fraud perpetrated against the
State today; and l do not say it is in
territorial fraud. You know, gentlemen,
| how easy it is when we are examining
| some scholars, to discover whether
| thew belong to the High school grade
| or not-how easy it is to get, when our
| sympathies are all in favor of 1t, a
| boy off our hands, and when we are
NO
| call it 30 when 30 would have been
| nearer the truth.
think, gentlemen, that this is not
a matter of wasting money. 1t IS one
| OF those wise resolves that prevents
| the waste of money. One senator has
| said that they had been raising the
salary of the superintendent-not since
he. had been i'll office. And he was put
| in the Office after the administration OF
| the previous man, and his duties are
| additional duties. The senator from
| York SAYS, let him do his duties, He
cannot do them 1t is an utter, sheer
imposSibiity. The duties increase as
opportunities and time go on. The
teacher in school today is required to
teach things he never dreamed OF %
or 80 years ago. This is a day when
practical education is demanded and
we are obliged every day to teach
electricity and all those things that
We did not know anything about when
I was a boy. Our schools have to be
of that order and the whole arrange
mnnt of the school system is IN the
order of the 10th century. Do we
want to go back to the old "Dcestrict'
system as they call it, when we used
to board around, and | ate buckwheat
cakes and molasses for breakfast eV-
crv morning ana when ] had to send
half The children homo occasionally to
have their faces washed, and some
times they would come home smelling
n little Of birthstone? BY no means
This is a day when these things have
to he looked after by all means, and
il takes money and time to look after
thom. and this new office that has been
mentioned-it is not q new one, 1t
simply helps to carry out what hither-
to has been established and what the
state of Maine established. It is sim
ply. gentlemen, the proposition: VIII
Won spend a million dollars or more
blindiv or spend it under the dlrec-
tion of a man skilled i'll its distribu-
ton?
The pending question being upon tho
motion Of Mr.. Hamilton, the senator
from YORK, that Senate Document NO.
212. he ind Atinitcly postponed, the yeas
and rava were called for and ordered;
and the vote being had, resulted as
follows: Those voting yea We're
Mcssrs. Colcord. Donigan, Gowell,
Hamilton. Hill, Howes, Kellogg, Lowe,
Macomber. Reynolds Shaw Smith
staples. Wyman OD. Those voting nay
wore NIcesrs Baxter, Boynton, Eaton,
Emery, Hastings, Irving, Knowlton,
I.ooney. Milliken. Minott. Mullen,
Theriault, Warren, Wheeler, Wyman
90.
So the motion to indefinitely post
pone was lost.
On motion by Mr.. Knowlton of Pts
cataGuis, the bill was passed to be
engrossed.
On motion of Mr.. Hastings OF OK
ford Senate Doc No 365. bill to amend