Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-07-29

The Boston Transcript published on
April - an article signed IS" reviewing
a paper by William S. Rossiter, former
ly of the census bureau, printed in the
Journal Of the American Statistical as
ISOLATION, in which he analyses the re-
turns of the census of 1910 in Vermont
and draws some most disheartening con-
illusions from government figures. In
deed, he does not hesitate to say that
these Vermont figures offer perhaps the
gloomiest statistical picture to be found
at the present time in the United
States"
1t is sometimes easy to read into any
analysis of census statistics a precon-
ceiNed theory of their meaning without
consciously deviatng from the truth.
This appears to be what s. has done
in his hasty and superficial generaliza-
tion, based on Mr.. Rosters figures.
He does not emphasize at all the credit
able things that even Mr. Rossiter is
careful to show He emphasizes only the
gloom that he reads into his figures
and has helped to spread broadcast once
more the cruelty unjust and mournfully
msrepresented report that lit has now
been officially demonstrated that Yer
mont is retrograde state" And he
continues: This announcement is all the
more interesting because Vermont is the
only apparent exception to the normal
progress of the normal American state.
And Vermont has backsid with a VEN
geance. While it is not true as in the
case of Iowa that the actual population
OF Vermont has decreased, yet such
rious and fundamental economic changes
have been working as to warrant the
announcement that Vermont Is in the
immediate need of a policy of conserva-
'tion of the most radical and far-reach-
ing sort-conservation and development
of its resources natural as we'll as HUI
man"
This is a most serious Indictment of a
state, and one not lightly to be framed,
much less to be lightly circulated from
one end of the land to the other in the
certain knowledge that irreparable dam
age to the reputation of a region and
the people that dwell in it can be the
only result of such publicity.
But after all the statistics of popula-
ton that the census bureau can muster
have been scrutinized and analysed with
the most expert skill, the simple, funda-
mental fact remains that the spirit and
morale of the social order of any peo-
pie never were and never can be reduced
to figures. And the true test of the
condition of any state the only true
guide to the social status of any peo-
ple-whether they are prosperous and
progressive, whether they are of stand
ard intelligence and average human am
bitions-is not the number of white,
colored and Indians not taxed" that the
census adding machines will show for
them, but how they are living, what
they are doing and how much better
they are planning to live and how much
better they are hoping to do. 1t is not
a question of numbers, but of quality,
and one does not have to invoke the doc
trine of Malthus to prove that to any
sensible reader.
The Bright Side of Statistics.
, There are several ways of making eff
fective refutation of the conclusions of
"SV because there are several aspects
of the situation in Vermont that mere
census figures cannot show. Perhaps
for the purposes of this article it may
be of interest to review briefly how the
progressive spirit of Vermonters has
manifested itself through their laws in
recent years Let us take the very same
ten years covered by Mr.. Rossiter's fig !
ures. Let US glance at a few of the
evidences of the constant evolution of a |
higher social order in Vermont as ex-
pressed in the acts of the legislature |
during this period And, doing so, let |
us remember at each ster that the leg |
islature of any state is always the last |
and most reluctant agency to voice the |
progressive thought of the community |
units that make up that state. Let us
keep in mind that the growth OF a more |
ambitious and loftier sense of social re- |
sponsibilty and desire must start with !
the people back in the towns and devel- |
,op to the point of tremendous pressure |
before it finds expression in the legisla- |
ture. Let us remember that, however |
progressive a state legislature may APP |
pear to be at times, it is almost always |
behind the standard at which the rank |
and file of its constituencies have al |
ready arrived, even al that.
First of the achievements of Mr. Ros- !
,siter's gloomy decade. because the most |
radical manifestation of progressive |
thought and purpose, comes the atop- |
ton of the local option liquor law For |
half century previous TO 1902, Vermont |
was a prohibition state, so-called. and |
generations of her people had grown UP |
under a regime that, catering 10 what
was once a high moral purpose of the !
multitude, found in the growing laXity |
of popular sentiment opportunity to
make fetish of the statute for political |
purposes, and eventually came to toler- |
ate the utmost hypocritical looseness and |
actual corruption and fraud in the ad-
ministraton of the law. In the period |
covered by Mr.. Rossiters mournful |
specu'lations, the habits of thought of half !
a century were uprooted, and local ]
option law very similar to the Massa- /
chusetts law was enacted. This change
was made by Vermont while New Hamp- |
shire and Maine We're still Joined to
their prohibition idols. New Hampshire |
followed soon after with the same kind
of a law, but Maine is still struggling
TO be free of it's ancient prohibition in
cubus. Poor old "decadent' Vermont!
One OF the most noteworthy manifes
tations OF progress in these ten years
has been the practical reconstruction of
the educational system. Some time be-
fore, the old district school system was
abandoned and the town unit plan sub
stituted. In the past decade the state
has put into successful operation laws
consolidating schools in the various
towns and providing for the transpor-
tation of pupils from remote parts of
the town to central schools; providing |
for the expert superintendent of schools
with the larger part OF the expense
borne by the state; requiring all towns
where there is no high school to pay
tuition of qualified pupils in high schools |
outslde the other similar things all
tending to the betterment of educational |
conditions along modern lines. An an
nual school of superintendent is held |
under the direction of the state superin- |
tendent of education in order that the |
character and methods of instruction |
may be made and kept uniform through |
out the state, and every energy is bent |
toward affordlng the children in the |
small towns as good an education, all |
things considered, as Is provided for |
children in more DOpulouS and wealth. !