St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1909-06-19
FACE no FACE.

On next Tuesday the citizen tax
PAYERS Of the school district COM
prising the city Of 0pelousas and a
large area from the country, will be
called upon to vote for or against a
proposition to levy a tax Of three
mills on the dollar for the purpose Of
providing adequate school facilities
FOR The school children Of the dis
trict.
It should not be necessary to urge
the citizens to go to the polls and
vote in favor Of the tax.
There should be as much Unborn,
Inherent patriotism and love Of child
rem in a community like 0peIousas,
as there is in other communities in
the State, where every time a tax
for public education is submitted, it
means that it is voted.
The citizens Of 0pelousas should
have as much enterprise and school
enthusiasm as the people Of IAnse
Bleu, a section af Mamou, which only
last week voted a five-mill tax
unanimously.
There should be no need Of an APP
peal to the %titizenry Of the city in a
cause like that Of public education,
but unfortunately there has develop
ed an opposition that while it will
fail Of its purpose to defeat the tax,
viii give the friends Of education a
strong fight at the polls Tuesday.
This makes it necessary for those
who favor the tax TO bestir them
selves and recognize that they have
q fight on their hands.
The opposition to the tax has no
argument that is not spurious and
foreign to the question.
They tell you they want a Normal,
when they know themselves that it
viii be many, many years before
Louisiana will need another Normal.
Can the children Of this section CON
tinue with the present hampered
school facilities for twenty years
aye, may be fifty years-waiting for
a Normal? And then a Normal
school is not for the education Of.
children. It is mainly for the prep
aration of teachers to teach. What
we need and want is our children
educated. and that is what the pres
ent tax is for.
They complain that the times
are too hard This is the argument
Of the coward, The man who will
admit on the one hand that 0pelou-
sas needs improved school facilities
land there can be no denying this)
and in the same breath will tell you
that Times are TOO hard" for him to
pay So a thousand additional on his
assessment for these improvements,
is making an admission that a manly
man. a man who loves his children
and his people and believes in educa-
tion, would not want credited to him.
It is a crime he is committing against
his children and against the commu-
nifty, for it is a crime to withhold
from the children Of this land proper
educational facilities-a crime to re-
fpse to give them that which viii ct
them to go into the worlds battle on
an equal footing with others.
Others contend that that the loca-
zion Of the school house should
have been determined before the
election for the tax. How absolutely
incomprehensible that a man should
advance such an argument! What
difference where it is located, in a
town the area Of 0pelousas, where
children from the extreme North can
easily attend a school at the extreme
South. And again. how was it pos
aible. in the name of common sense,
to pick out q place for the new
school house before it is known
whether Or not there would be money
voted by these people for the erection
of this school house? And who had