Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1913-03-12
Return Good Men.

Return Good Men.
We wish to emphasize the statement
of DR.. w. j. Aldrich and some of the
state papers that so long as Vermont
continues to send inexperienced men to
each session of the legislature we shall
have long and expensive sessions.
People should realize this now and
while the record of their representa-
tive is fresh in mind decide whether
they cannot do themselves and the
state valuable service by returning
him two ears hence. If his record is
not good it is none too early to think
who in your town is qualified to give a
service that would justify reelection
and experienced effort. Johnsbury
Caledonian.
Vermont Background for Page Educa-
tional Bill.
Senator Carroll S. Page of Vermont,
has accomplished a parliamentary vic
tory that rewards his two years of
earnest labor. in the passage by the
Senate of his vocational education
bill. Aside from the difficulty of NOV
ing measure of a new order carrying
large appropriation, Senator Page
has had to meet the opposition of men
with rival proposals and at the end had
to secure substitution of his bill for
passed by the House. 1t has now to
go into conference, and if its emer-
gence before the end of this Congress
is not likely, at least advantage is
gained for its consideration in the
next.
! The Vermont senator evidently came
to the framing of this measure
through a close observation of certain
serious lacks in the American educa-
| tional provisions. His recent state
ment of the design and probable work
ing of the bill shows the thoroughness
of, his study of present conditions.
Vermont won distinction long ago by
the championship of national aid for
agricultural colleges by one of Senator
Pages predecessors. and he wears
worthily the mantle of Justin Morrill,.
The present senator has observed that
the provision for vocational training
cannot be postponed to the college peri
cd nor even to that of the high school,
if it is to be effective for the great
majority of boys and girls. Less than
2 per cent of the pupils of the public
schools reach college. Less than per
cent even reach the high school. The
SO per cent who go from the grade
schools out into career are the ones
to be reached by the new measure of
national aid to state effort.
In his recent statement of the case
for his bill, the Vermont senator put
emphasis, as might be expected of one
from an agricultural state, upon the
need of national effort to repair the
soil, which the farmers too often have
mined rather than titled. Nationa
. protection against the inability of the
land to yield the necessary food fol
the people is the main justification Of
the agricultural instruction this bill
provides.
AS a national recognition Of the neet
} of vocational training the Page bill
has significance, but it is as departure
of the nation into direct support Of
public schools that it marks distinc
t and almost revolutionary movement
7 i is that vital feature of the measure
that has brought out against it the op.
position Of men like Henry S. Pritch
EFT Of the Carnegie foundation, who il
t the last days before the passage Of the
bill pronounced strongly against it OF
f the ground that it opened the way tt
demands upon tue federal treasury fo
school support which would overrun al
t bounds. But these opponents have
sighted the essential feature of thu
Page plan, that it exacts a local sup
port equal to the amount of the nation
al aid, and opens an>approach to thu
! nations strong box to cooperators bu
r not to beggars. christian Science
Monitor