Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-12-22
A UNIQUE ARGUMENT.

An editorial in the Christmas News
maintained that high schools are ncces
sary to the education of all the pupils
such schools can be no longer regarded
as luxurles, but must hereafter bt
deemed necessities.
On the same day that the last pages
Of the Christmas News" were printed
the Utah Educational Review came
from the press bearing brisk and un-
answerable argument in favor OF high
schools
The article maintains.
| l. THAT the high school is the poor
mans college. Many youth can go
no farther than the high school in regu-
lar educational training. A vastly
| greater number would do we'll and
many would be glad to go as far.
?. That the high school opens the
door of opportunity to every youth and
should be brought within the reach
OF every one truly desirous OF attend
ing it,
g. That attending a high school far
from home Is always more expensive
and difficult and is open to objections
that readily suggest themselves. especi-
ally in view of the fact that the aver
age at which the grade pupils are being
graduated has been regularly becoming
lower for some years past.
4. 'That the intellectual life and
even the Industrial efficiency of the ma
ton as a whole. to say nothing of civic
responsibility and the education of the
future voter as one capable OF intelli-
gent political action. must rest largely
and perhaps mainly upon the knowl-
edge impaired and the training given
in the high school,"
The foregoing arguments may be al
ready more OF less familiar to many
people. being somewhat similar In i'm
port to those usually set forth on this
subject but the next argument, the
fifth. states fact not generally known
by men of wealth or by business corpor-
ations. This following unique PROPOSE
ton is well worth pondering. 1t de-
clares:
8. That the price of real estate In
any community varies directly with
the intelligence of the people who live
there. Schools are the best financial
guarantee of a continued rise in the
value of land. Ricardo's theory Is not
absolute. Mere numbers are not all
Quality makes values. The City %
Mexico with It's hundreds of thousands.
meets the value of real estate
IN Salt Lake City with its less than a
hundred thousand people. The "un-
earned increment" or rental of land
depends upon the number multiplied by
the intelligence and education of the
people. The best investment for land
holder Is more and better schools, for
.hese Increase the values of his land.
rhe worst OF all the devices of the rich
% escape taxation is TO resist educa-
ional progress. For a man of property
n any place to, vote against the build
ng or Improvement of tne high school
$ like killing the goose that lays the
golden egg"
If the foregoing proposition is correct.
Ind we are almost if not quite con-
'inced OF it, then investors in real
state and property holders of all kinds
hould be the last to vote against the
the improvement or the
of schools. and more par
icularly those of higher grade
That intelligence is a financial asset |
f the individual possessing 1t, Is, of
ourse undisputed: and that the gen
raj intelligence and education of the
eople lead to an increase in the mar
,et value OF realty is obvious enough |
lso, when we come to consider what |
t is that makes real estate valuable |
{ Is largely the desirabilsty of the |
lace as a home. and this depends upon
he culture and education of the sur
population.