The Oskaloosa herald., 1912-06-06


lof town, and the old Gospel Ridge
school house on East High street
were the sole institutions of learning
in the place.
/ have watched with the utmost
pleasure the growth of our city from
a period very near its beginning and
there has been no feature of it's growth
that has been of such interest as its
school privileges.
Oskaloosa and Penn colleges and
the Central Holiness University re.
place the Old Normal school, and five
fine ward schools and one splendid
High school building supply our young
people with opportunities for educa.
ton not granted to their parents.
Lincoln, jefferson, Webster, Grant and
Whittier are honored in the names of
these schools.
1t Is a rather dry matter to tax of
figures but | wisl to give you some
of the statistics which speak eloquent.
ly of the support of the public schools
in Oskaloosa during the year 1911.
There was paid for school purposes
in Oskaloosa about $4,000. Teachers
s26.435.59, contingent $13,33617, and
school mouse $4,000. q total of $64,-
I771,76, this makes over $1,000 a month
for the entire year Of twelve months,
or $3.50 a day. More than o1e-third
of all the taxes of Oskaloosa is ex-
pended on our schools. 1t is for the
teachers and pupils to make the eX-
penditures worth while and | believe
they are doing so.
The pupils present in the gradu.
ating class and those who are still a
part of the $500 children of school
age should appreciate the fact that
this large expenditure in their behalf
has been voluntarily voted upon
themselves by the taxpayers of Oska-
loosa. The pupils of these schools
will soon become the patrons and sup
porters.
The Anglo Saxon has always been
sensitive about his taxes, but has
made school taxes an exception.
But let me again grow reminiscent.
On May %, 1883, twenty-four years
ago, this neighborhood held its first
graduating exercises in this opera
house and the present speaker was
selected to make the graduating ad-
dress. | appreciated the honor and
especially rejoiced at the opportunity
of looking the young people of our
city in the face and bidding them God
speed on the rugged ways of active
life. The graduating class of that
year, if alive, are no longer sixteen
and eighteen years of age but are
men and women of forty.
hope the world has been good to
gilded their youthful days is now
beaming upon a prosperous middle
life
When ! was a boy in Virginia there
was no school house in my town. A
food had carried it away, but the jail
remained and was generally unoccu-
pied and the debtors prison in the
second story was always empty, so
the school was resumed in the Jail.
But it was not free school; the par
ents supported it by subscription.
! Rome furnished free baths, free
gladiator shows and free circuses, but
not free schools. She has gone with
her bloody spectacles and has left
in her great history things to avoid.
That night of twenty-four years
ago seems to me and to that gradual.
ing class as if 'twere yesterday. The
uir ri mi
that so much had been done and so
much had been discovered that there
was little left for achievement.
The class tonight, too, feels that
pretty much everything has been
done and that they are about to EN-
bark upon life in finished world.
To their encouragement let us re-
count a few of the events that have
occurred in these twenty-four years.
The Spanish-American war has
come and gone. Spain has lost all
her foreign possessions and the
driven into a position where she must
assume a position OF a world power,
and mas surrendered her detached,
isolated and Independent existence.
The dream of three hundred years, of
an Isthmian Canal at Panama, has
nearly come true and the graduating
class of 1915 viii see ii completed
once heard Ambassador Jusse.
raud say that France has had many
yesterdays" Our country, on the 9TH
er hand, has had but few. You are
not only living in your own days OF
sunrise, but still in the morning OF
our national existence.
y Twenty-four years ago we thought
we were in an era of peace and that
the nations would not make war any
more, but the bloody war in South
Africa startled all mankind and led
to the swallowing up of the Orange
Free State in the great and world
wide mass of the British Empire.
Then came Russia and Japan in
one of the bloodiest AID fiercest wars
OF recorded time, and new power
has arisen and taken its place
among the nations OF the world.
These are days of seedless oranges,
4 horseless carriages. wireless tele-
graphing and crownless kinds and
queens. The hOrseless carriage has
become practical and common vehi,