News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1912-01-03
The Page Educational Bill
montpelier Journal ]

days Journal furnish an excellent idea
of the widespread interest that is being
shown in this important measure.
In the senator's letter to prominent
educators he furnishes some very practi-
cal arguments in favor of the bill saying:
"In my Judgment the bill is arighteous
one and when perfected ought to pass
without contest but L am already as
on the ground of expense, and yet the bill
calls in all for only So, $40 900 prior to the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, this sum
to be expended in preparing for larger
work by the education of teachers quail
fled to instruct on lines of agriculture,
the-industres, and home economies.
"For the fiscal year ending June 30,
1915, and annually thereafter, the bill
calls for about $l2.OOO,O0O or less than
the cost of building and eq Tipping sim
gle battleship.
sit reaches down and takes the hand
of more than five million boys, largely
sons of men who work in the mines, the
mills, the quarries, and on the farm, and
gives tGrn an equality of opportunity
which We unquestionably owe them and
which they can have in no other way and
yet the entire cost means less than one
cent per month, per capita, for our popu-
lation when we shall have reached the
maximum of expenditure under the bill.
SIT means too, every Culns to the cause
of Agriculture, for unless we imp owe our
methods of farming we shall within ten
years find ourselves importers rather
than exporters of bread-stuffs."
1t seems pity to be obliged to build
over two battleships every year when the
money used for such a purpose might do
and other work. If six of the great
nations of the earth agreed to settle their
disputes by arbitration it is altogether
probable that the armies and navies of
the world might be reduced to the basis |
of land and marine international police |
force. If the price of one battleship put |
into Senator Pages statesmanlike policy |
would help to educate more than 5,000.-
600 boys for lives of greater usefulness
and independence than they could obtain
otherwise or train an equal number of
girls to make healthier and happier
homes, is any person prepared to say
that the money would not be invested
more economically than in the construc
tion of ship of war !?
Battleshps and standing armies are
not the only means of protection for a
nation. Danger from foreign foe is re-
mote possibility. Danger from ignorance,
inefficiency, and poverty is an ever pres
emit peril. The foes of our own household
are to be dreaded more than possible in
vasion from overseas. If every year we
fit several million boys and girls by the
study of manual training, scientific agri.
culture and domestic science, we in
crease the wealth of the nation by untold
millions of dollars, because we make
possible the earning of larger wages, the
of greater profits, and the more
economic expenditure of the earnings of
the man who works with his hands. BY
the possibility of securing
more of the comforts of life and reduce
thereby the army of the disconnected. we
lessen the number of misfts in our
system, and we make our coun-
try safer and better place in which to
dwell.
The comments by individuals and
indicate the need for just
such measure as that championed by
one of our senators. 1t is we'll worth the
best efforts of any man in public life to
attempt the passage of such a benefcent
measure. Public sentiment is the most
powerful force to be used in expeditipg
legislation Therefore the creation of
such sentim art is very important if the
bill is to be passed. The friends of the
measure will do we'll to give it all posi-.
ole publicity and to enlist general sup
port for one of the great educational
bills of the present generation.