The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1915-04-16
Cookeville School Denounced.

(ookevIlle School Denounced.
Tiptonville, Tenn, April at the
Lake County session OF Quarterly Court,
held here, several important questions
came up, one being the establishing OF
polytechnic school at Cookeville, which
was passed in the Legislature before the
recess. Each and every justice present
was loud in his denunciation of the act
A resolution was drawn up and passed
by the court asking that the Cookeville
Polytechnic law be repealed.
This was news item sent to the
Commercial Appeal, and we are repro
ducing it for the reason that the point
is well taken.
Probably the biggest and most inso-
lent lobby for some years in the Ten
nessee Legislature is the school lobby,
and probably the greatest curse of legis-
lation is the thing called courtesy"
between the members of the General
Assembly. You vote for my bill and
I'll vote for yours. This is the prize
used to secure the passage of local
bill, and the machinery of the Legisla-
ture has been constructed under this
principle.
A percentage of the county high
school money has been transferred to
this polytechnic school at Cookeville,
and the school lobby was successful in
railroading the bill thru.
Some of the counties have not yet
had the privilege of using their high
school money, but the Legislature took
ut for granted that as long as the State
had plenty of money to shovel out to
everybody and no State debt handicap
that we can have polytechnic and all
kinds of training schools, State fairs
and other public luxuries to be financed
from a full handed State treasury. This
is the attitude of the Legislature under
the influence of an INSCRIPTIONS lobby.
Tennessee needs great many things,
but if there is one thing more than an
other that we can afford to do without
at the present time it is polytechnic
school. The school children of Ten
nessee first of all need the rudimentary
branches of an education. They haven't
got that yet, and before our people arrive
at the point that public money can be
applied for vocational training the diff
ferent stages of the grammar and high
schools should be accessible to the great
of the school children.
Some years ago this school lobby,
drunk with its achievements, under the ,
of Governor Patterson,
'addled on the State the burden of ad-
iitional State normal schools for teach :
,rs. The State had one good teachers !
chool which needed only to be enlarged. :
No other school sites and expensive j..
we're needed, but the local :.
member was there with the money and !
willing lobby and appropriations of
hundreds of thousands were made for .
lore normal schools. This was not
ny more excusable than the polytech-
ic school. There was no excuse nor
9ason under the sun for it. But the
dditional normal schools were provid-
for at the expense of the State, as :,
e said, which had no State debt and
lenty of money to throw at the i
irds (?).
There was no excuse for another nor
lal teachers school. One is enough.
nd with all the buildings and teachers >.
7eded, could have been conducted at !.
far less expense than the system of :,
Hitting the school up into parts and
strlbuting it over the State as a sort
pork barrel enterprise. What did it =
after to the teacher whether he went q
school at Nashville, Memphis, Muir 'i'
eesboro, or Johnson City, and if it did ye
ny should the people be taxed to hui nj
or his whims and caprices? q
mn ba
This polytechnic school should be :
and if we had any way of do =,
: it the State normal teachers schools n.
uld be consolidated again atsome CEN -
! point. o e,