Omaha daily bee., 1909-03-08

properly constituted body.
In opposition to the Chase bill is q meas
ure by Harrington OF Brown county pro-
viding for an appropriation OF s5 5000 and
the location OF the normal at Ainsworth,
the home town of Mr.. Harrington. Still an
other is the Henry bill, contemplating two
schools and the purchase OF the old college
building at Wayne to be used as one, the
appropriation being 100000.
Frank Currie Of Gordon, Charles Naylor
of Chadron, P. G. Cooper of crawford and
John Brewer of Crawford nave been to
Lincoln to urge the passage of the Chase
bill.
Their side Of Matter.
Currie and Cooper. acting as spokesman,
submitted this argument for their case:
I'VE believe the school should be estab-
lished at a point accessible to the greatest
number of pupils. The seven counties for
which we speak are the growing, agrees
sive counties of orthwestern Nebraska.
They. with their population, are:
SCOTS Bluff, 1900
Cherry, 1900.
BOX Butte, 1900.
Sheridan, 1900.
Dawes, 1900.
Morrill,. 1000.
Sioux, 5000.
Here is a population of over $1,000. 1t
may be off 1000 or 1900 either way, but it
is approximately correct. Now, then, here
is our proposition: This new school should
be located at one of three towns-Alliance,
Chadron or Crawford-we don't care which,
but located at any one of these towns the
school would be within easier reach Of the
children of these sO,0OO than it would be II
located at Ainsworth or any other town in
the state.
IF located at any of these towns the
school would be yithin a radius of seventy
five miles of this 1000. population. or in
other words, a radius OF seventy-five miles
would include a larger population than a
radius Of 900 miles would include II the
school were located at Ainsworth. Should
Mr.. Harrington's bill carry and the school
be located at Ainsworth 80 per cent of the
pupils would have to travel a distance Of
200 miles to reach it. .
Towns in the Territory.
The largest and most rapidly growing
towns of that section are In the district
where we want the school located. There
is Alliance, with a population of 5000. Chad
ron 1900, Crawford 1000, Gordon 1000. Rush
VILE 1000, Hays Springs 800. and five or
ak towns of at least 500.
"Ainsworth has a population of less than
1000. And you travel east sixty miles on
the Northwestern line to O'Neil before you
strike a town of any size, and about 200
miles east to Broken Bow on the Burling-
ton before reaching a town of consequence.
And II the school were located at Aims
worth the people Of the towns west OF
there would be little better off than they
are now. II is $50 miles from Ainsworth
10 the first Of our group of towns, and
the others are all further away.
Northwestern Nebraska. the counties we
represent, has never asked or received
anything of this sort from the legislature.
We have been content to boost for the
counties east of us and help build up the
state. We have paid into the state treas
ury as taxes in the last ten years over
81. 500. 1000. 1851. 900 last year, and have never
been given even an experimental station.
We are steadily increasing in population;
Sioux county polled 800 votes more last fall
than 1t did two years prior to that time
and the full vote was out in 1906. and
Dawes count increased its voting popula-
tion by over 400. Our land values are ris-
ing. We have land that brings all the way
from SIS to $50 an acre. We are not In or
a part of the famous sandhill country, It
should be distinctly understood. That
country lies to the east of us. Our hand
is good and 200, 900 acres Ia under irrigation.
As to Railroad Facilities.
AT Crawford we have two railroads, the
Burlington and Northwestern, and nave
access to every part of that great empire.
We are going to keep on growing. but we
shall need the help OF the Legislature. We
must have schools for our children.
THE very fact that we do not specify
I nnxr AnA faNuH fnr tho 9ffa 90 NkN. 49,,
normal ought to cpmmend our proposition
as a fair one. in addition to the argument
we have offered. We are willing to submit
the matter to any duly constituted COM
mittee or board to locate the school. pro-
vided It will place 1t within that vast ter
ritory OF the seven counties we have mem
toned. We don't believe that the fact
that Mr.. Henry and Mr.. Harrington are
democrats. and Mr.. Chase, the author OF
the bill we favor, is a republican. should
cut any figure with the Legislature, which
Is also democratic. 1t Is certainly not a
question of politics.
Committee Visits Wayne.
WAYNE, Neb., March ~7.-(Special TeIe-
gram.)-The committee appointed by the
state legislature to visit Wayne TO investi-
gate the proposition made by Prof. Hile
and the trustees of the Nebraska Normal
college Of this city for its sale to the state
of Nebraska for the purpose of making IL a
state normal, arrived here from Norfolk
yesterday morning. The committed. Messrs
Leigh, Holmes. Fogarty and Bowman, dem
ocrats, and Killen, McColl and Bushen. re-
publicans, were met at the depot by the
mayor and members of the Wayne Com
mercial club and taken In carriages to the
college. where they were shown through
the buildings and about the grounds. That
they were very favorably impressed with
the showing made in behalf of the Ne
braska Normal college there is no doubt.
The cornerstone OF the handsome new
high school building now in course OF con-
struction here was laid at noon today.
Youth Wanted in D~eadwOOd.
PLATTSMOUTH. Neb., March ~7.-(Special