The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-01-17


elsewhere some of these plans have been
put in operation and have been found to
work we'll | most respectfully recommend
the enactment of similar legislation for
| Wisconsin.
| THE INITIATIVE, REFENUNDUM AND
| RECALL.
| The proDosed initiative, referendum and
recall amendments 70 ane constitution are
! mission to the people for their approval
| The ideas embodied in them are no longer
new In their present ssnIut form they are
| subjects adopted by any state legislature
All parties are pledged to the constitu-
tional changes they propose l therefore
| recommend that they be passed at this Ses-
| sion without unnecessary delay.
THE COUNTRY SCHOOL.
Education is one of the principal func-
! lions of government. That the people of
| it has upon them is strikingiy shown by
| the fact that more than half the expenses
| of the state is incurred on this account.
In 1910 there were 7S0,1S1 children of
| school age in this state nearly equally
divided between city and country. OF
| those between seven and fourteen years
tended no school whatever while only
about two per cent absented themselves
in the cities. This is but one fact out
Of many that might be adduced to show
that the country school is inferior to the
more highly organized city educational sys
ten.
Since the adjournment of the last legis-
lature various committees and boards have
been active in the investigation of rural
school problems with the view of making
recommendations for enriching the courses
or study, vitaliZing the instruction and Sc
curing better results.
In November 1911, the Board of Pub
lie Affairs invited the Training School for
Public Service of the Bureau of Municipal
Research of New York City to conduct an
Investigation of the country schools of Wis
consin. In response to this invitation and
al very trihing expense to the state TINS
investigation has been made. 1t Included
q general examination OF educational con-
d1tlonS in twenty seven counties in widely
separated portions of the state and more
detailed examination of the facts concern
ing 131 schools in thirteen counties. The
report presents vivid pictude of all
tlonal and sanitary. |! IS vigorous, I'M
biased statement of the facts the ex-
perts of the Training School saw them, in
clear, untechnical language. The recon-
mendations given at the end of the re-
port represent also the judgment of lead
ing wisconsin educators and the members
OF the Board of Public Affairs. L most re-
spectfully recommend this report to your
careful study and consideration.
1 am personally well satisfied that no
Of education nj in Wisconsin at the present
time than the establishment by law of the
county board system of school adminlstra-
ton This is the key to the whole prob
form must begin
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.
Among the educational institutions of
America none more frequently calls for
who live outside our borders than the
University of wisconsin. This preemin
ence of our University is due not to its
dowment, but principally to its willing
ness to serve all the people of the state,
especially those who have never been with
in its walls as resident students.
Wisconsin
ing extension work upon a broad and in
elusive basis has already been followed by
recently copied by number of privately
endowed institutions, such as Columbia
and Harvard.
AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION.
The federal census of 1910 showed a
substantial increase in the total .popula
ton of the state. This increase however
was not uniform but due largely to q
gain in the population of cities and towns.
Many country districts actually lost in
population and others made but slight
gains. Nineteen counties, mostly devoted
to farming, declined in total population
and twenty nine in rural population. Mean
while the city of Kenosha, largely devoted
TO manufacturing, doubled in numbers and
the city of Milwaukee, the chief industrial
population than all the rural districts OF
the state combined. But the citywarG
drift of population is not confined to Wis
consin or any particular section of the
country. It is nationwide and is due to
numerous and complex causes, Some of
these represent social progress but others
indicate the existence of serious defects in
the economic and social conditions of coun-
try life.
SO far as it is within our power there
fore. steps should be taken to aid people
who live in the country 70 improve their
business methods their systems of mar
keting and their credit facilitieS-in short,
their general economic and social condl-
ton.
The legislature of 1911 took this matter
up. in very commendable way. 1t crea,
ted the State Board of Public Affairs and
directed it to make an investigation of CO
operation and marketing This work has
been done. Among other things it covers
co operative buying and selling and Co
operative credit.
Cooperative marketing is not new in
Wisconsin. It's history is part of the in
dustrial history of the state With us it
has been a group movement. not a cen
tralized ordinate undertaking; aud the
success or failure of each group has de-
pended almost entirely upon the initiative,
resourcefulness and business ability of the
members themselves.
COOPERATIVE RURAL CREDIT.
There is real need for agricultural CO.
operative credit. The farmer often finds
it difficult to secure a loan to tide over
the period between seed time and harvest,
to buy stock and machinery or to make
permanent improvements upon his land 1t
is even more difficult for him to buy and
pay for a farm especially in the thickly
settled sections of the state. INDEED this
drive them to other states where land is
cheaper to other occupations where more
immediate if less substantial rev ards are
offered for their labor.
At the present time the average farmer
is denied the credit advantages enjoyed by
the merchant or manufacturer even though
he be equally honest, equally trustworthy
and equally able to meet his financial obli-
cations. His credit moreover is always an
Individual matter. Until recently the col
lectiye credit of group of farmers had
not been thought of in America and even
now it is employed only to a limited extent
in one two states. In Europe this prob
lem is solved by system of rural banks.
Under the auspices of the Southern Com
mercial Congress and the International In
stitute of Agriculture a delegation made up
of two representatives from each state in
the Union will go abroad in April of this
year to study the operation of rural banks
in Europe Wisconsin has been invited to
send representatives. Believing as I do
that agricultural cooperation IS of the
big things of the future. too large and sig
nificant to be ditched by it's short ighted
friends and destroyed by it's own m0men-
sufficient sum of money to defray the ex-
penSes of two delegates from this state, as
requested by those who have the matter in
charge | believe we have sufficient in
formation to enable US to make beginning
in the organization of land mortgage banks
of the German Landschaften. These asso-
Citations should be under the supervision
and control of the state banking depart
ment and their powers should be carefully
limited to what is necessary to accomplish
the purposes here mentioned
PRICE DISCRIMINATION
Equality of opportunity in industry and