The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-07-22
SCHOLAR At RED SCHOOLHOUsE
Governor Learning from Experience
Now Insists on Giving the Rural
Schools Of the State the Same Care
AS Is Given to Higher Institutions.

This is the story Of a governor who
wants to do something for the chill
dren.
1t is the story Of governor, grown
rich and powerful through his own eff
forts, who has not forgotten the little,
red school house.
1t is the story of governor who has,
not forgotten his boyhood days in a
country school and the hardships
which were his, and who thinks more
of the boys and girls Of this genera
ton who are pupils in the country
schools than Of any other problem fac
ing the state.
Mamie Philip left the farm in
Sank county, Wisconsin, thirty five
years ago to make his way in life, sad
ly equipped in the matter Of education.
Winters in country school-his sum-
mers were devoted to work on the farm
and one winter in the high school of
Sank City summed up his educational
advantages.
When he was elected governor thir-
ty-fve years later and newspaper re-
porters began to clamor for interviews
and sketches of his life he passed
quickly over the accounts of brilliant
successes in the business world and
honors which have been bestowed upon
him and went back to the days of his
boyhood.
He had begun to plan for the coun-
try boys and girls when he first became
a candidate for governor, and he made
that prominent issue. He has been
in office six months, working harder
than he ever did in his life, and a
great part Of his time has been devoted
to study Of this problem.
That is, how to help the rural
schools. Politicians have beset him on
every side, place holders have obstruct-
ed his movements in every way, he has
been misrepresented in newspapers,
and, sad to state, he has been opposed
by many educators from the high
places Of learning. He may not be able
to carry out his plans in full during his
two years of office, but the other day
he Said II may be defeated in my eff
fort to aid the rural schools, but wheth-
er in office or not I shall devote as
much of my time as / can spare to a
campaign, to the end that the boy and
girl in the country will not be obliged
to face the world handicapped as was
thirty-fve years ago. -
To benefit the rural schools Govern
or Philip evolved plan for a central
board of education. His idea is that
all educational institutions of the state
from the smallest rural school to the
university of which the state is proud,
should be. under one governing board
His experience in legislation has
taught him that when the legislature
meets the higher, institutions of learn
ing always are well represented. State
appropriations, he has found, natural
~ drift to the institutions which are
represented before the legislature. In
that respect, therefore, he believes that
the country school should have repre-
sentatives on the same boards which
represent the higher institutions of
learning, to the end that there shall be
no partiality in favors shown.
He believes in better teachers for
the country schools and he does not
haI1 10
try school teacher is better satisfied
He believes that the profession of
country school teaching should be
made more attractive and he has de-
duced from his business life that the
best argument in that direction is bet
ter salaries.
Here are some figures which he has
compiled touching the rural schools of
Wisconsin:
He finds that $1,000 children be-
tween the ages of seven and fourteen
in communities under county superin-
tendents attended no school at all in
1914.
He finds that $4,000 boys and girls
between the ages Of fourteen and
twenty who live in common school dis
tricts attended no school in 1914.
He finds that $1,000 children in the
public schools of the state attended less
than the legal number Of days without
any excuse
He finds that 16,400 children, or
nearly ten per cent Of the enrolment
in the rural schools, attended fewer
than forty days in 1914.
He finds that of the $685. rural
school teachers nearly -two-thirds, or
1927 were teaching for the first time in
1914.
He finds that the rural schools in
most counties have not been improved
to any extent in the last thirty-five
years.
He finds that the rural schools are
being taught for the most part by
young girls without experience, who