Manchester Democrat., 1909-02-10
Rockefeller, who justified his fathers

this proposed statute corr
rectly, one of its chief objects is tc,,,
sacrifice more than a thousand of
our country schools and establish in
the stead few institutions of learn
ing which are to be conducted accord
ing to the wishes of seven eminentlyT
gentlemen, who have no
confidence in the common people, un-
less they are~1huch better than the
statute under which they are given
power to act.
And the proposed statute is craftily
drafted. A few pots of pottage are
offered to the teachers. ito induce
them to support measure designed
to deprive the fathers and mothers of
Iowa of one of their most sacred
A story is being circulated that al
number of persons, pretending to|
represent the teachers of Iowa, met
somewhere. and with their eyes glued
upon this promised pottage, passed a
resolution approving the proposed
school code before it was written and
before any Of them knew what it
was going to contain. This story
seems to us incredible, seems to us
libelous, and we hope that it is false;
yet we are creditably informed that ii
is true.
And another sop is offered for the
support of the churls, who love nc
music, except the clink of dollars il
ltheir own pockets. The members o1
these managing boards, except the
state and county superintend
ents, are to serve without com
pensation. That part of the bill
should make a great hit with the fel
lows for whom it is intended. The
old game of trying to get something
i. .for nothing has a very poor record
4llt should never be resorted to b,
any honest person, much less by
sovereign state in matters pertaining
), to- its public schools.
:. A few years ago, when the peopl
of Iowa were counting up their trea
sures, did they not place at the hea'
of the list, "a school-house on ever,
hilltop, and no saloon in the valley?
4 Does not the little school at tn
crossroads still hold its place a
THE country's greatest agency in na
tion making?
Has it not taken millions of hetel
ogeneous emigrants and moulde
: them into homogeneous nationality
\ Were it not for this little schoc
4 would not we be like Austria, a nj
+ ton composed of some half doze
e eFdifferent nationalities,a each sspeakin
O a different language, and each el
r yious of and quarreling with tn
/ others?
: Do we not learn in the Book
!, Books that tree should be judge
G by it's fruits?
d And who can truthfully say tn;
C our common schools have not mad
" good?
% Who can say that they have nj
returned sheaves better than gol
u for all the gold expended in their su
port?
A short time ago the writer WI
i called upon to examine some lant
lin North Dakota. He was told th
l. the county in which the lands wei
e located was largely inhabited i
3 slams were only Russians in name.
= was surprised to find that the Ru
r SLAMS were only Russinas in name.
y seems that several hundred years az
IL Russian ruler, who desired to pr
< mote the agricultural interests of h
country, gave free lands, freedo
u from taxation and other priviledg
~ to German farmers, who would sett
le in Russia, and very. many of them d
~ So The Germans were good farmer
Is and they were expected to, and j
9 doubt did, teach the Russians how
70 farm. But Russia had no comm,
e school system, and these Germa
vi never became Russians. For hi
NJ dreds of years they retained the
So own language, their own custom
OF their own religion, and when troub
u some times came to Russia tn
10 left that country. But the childr
Is of those who came here will nev
70 leave this country, because North Z
N kota has a common school syste
4 that Is rapidly transforming them
u to American citizens. Every two
le three miles in the well settled p:
~ tions of North Dakota there is a |
W tie school house, and in many
g these little school houses the childr
~ whose forbears worshipped Th
III and Odin on the shores of the Bait
H. sit side by side with the childre