The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-03-25
AN ESTIMATE OF VERMONT
A Comparison That Reflects Credit
on Green Mountain State

A Comparison That Reflects Credit
on Green Mountain State
The following estimate of Vermont
recently published in the Boston
Transcript is interesting reading to
residents of Vermont who have be-
come accustomed to the altogether
different style of many Of the Metro
politan newspapers:
Then, too, comparative criticism
often yields itself to a tendency to
minimize the small and maximize
the large. In comparing Massachus-
etts and Vermont it is easy to adopt
Boston and Heartwellville as stand
ards The identification of unlike
terms is a common fallacy. 1t re-
veals itself in the confirmed city
mans estimate of the things of the
country. His habits of mind and
life lead him to judge of the country
in terms of the city. Now, although
Vermont is not so alarmingly coun-
try as the casual visitor from the
city is apt to believe, its whole popu-
lation is less than half that of Bos-
ton proper and it is distributed over
an area greater than all Massachus-
etts. Under conditions of topograp-
by, wealth and population very diff
ferent from those of many other
states, Vermont has achieved sue
cess in social, educational, economic,
and civic endeavor which deserves
the highest praise. The comparative
critic ought to recognize that the city
and the country are not like terms
the one qualitatively superior to the
other, and ought to base his compari-
sons on the essential cumulative diff
ferences between the city and the
country.
Vermont is not all country any
more than other states are all city,
but the point is this: Take any
state in the Union and eliminate
from consideration the cities of over
10000 population, and then compare
the remainder with Vermont, and it
will be found that Vermont has done
more, and is more-very much
more-than most of it's outside crit
les would admit before the Greek
Kalends. Vermont's critics Of 5000
to 10000 population challenge CON-
parison with. cities of much larger
size in other states, as possessing
the advantages which make life pleas
ant and profitable. and the truly rur-
al districts have annexed many of
those same advantages, necessarily
altering the form of some of them
to suit the peculiar conditions. Yer
mont as whole. by tits faith and its
works, challenges comparison with
states of more favorable topography
larger population. and greater
wealth. The people of Vermont
stand behind the challenge which
the merit of the state makes of itself
their ambition being nothing daunted
by the size and riches of Massachus-
etts, New York, Ohio, and the rest.
In any list or table of the 4S states,
Offering comparison among them in
the aspect or that, Vermont has to
compete with wealthy urban states,
and il has generally come out of
the contest with exceeding honor
When the schools of Vermont are
rated by the Russell Sage Founda-
ton as twelfth among those of the
states of the Union on a basis of all
around excellence, surely a good rec
ord and great promise are to be
seen. The schools of Vermont in
its aims, organization, and means and
methods of service must be adapted
to the needs and conditions of what
may loosely and not very accurately
be called rural state whereas the
comparative standards in sizing up
the As states are usually those of
size and quantity. Sometimes it is
wise to substitute How well?' for
the question, How much?' Vermonts
record of educational progress and
educational legislation is admirable:
and as to teachers salaries, that has
been lately and is now a real live
issue throughout the state.
1T must be admitted that Yer
mont teachers are constantly leaving
the state. So do the teachers OF the
small towns of Massachusetts leave
for the large towns. So do men and
women in other occupations leave
the small towns for the large-and
IL is a current though erroneous be-
lief that such an exodus must neces-
sarily mean the decadence of the
small towns, this emigration in fact
meaning a need of more room as
much as it means a desire of greater
opportunity. In the case of the
teachers, there is at a given locality
both an emigration and an immigrat-
ion. There is not merely an exodus
of Vermont teachers to Massacuhs-
etts but in reality an interchange of
teachers. None of the teachers in
Vermont receiving less than $500 are
from Vermont institutions but nearly
all came from Massachusetts, col
leges. But comparisons are not so
profitable as they are advertised"