Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-11-21

ON the detailed WORKINGS of the bin [
and announced that Expert James OF
The state Tax PAYERS association viii I
appear before the county supcrinten
dents section 90 explain further the I
administration Of the measure
hin DcnOUnCcs law.
Rev. G.. C. HIN sees nothing hut /
harm M the county unit law. While i
I'M sympathy with the principle that /
the strong should help the weak. ne !
tinds that the measure is not of much |
value "a the county, Ia fact, works !
70 the INJURY OF six of its dstricts.i
depriving a number of children in |
them of their school facilities because |
OF the distance they live from the on /
ly school house permitted i'm the dis |
trict under the laws provisions. This |
law viii engender eNtravagance. he |
declared, and some OF my districts |
when they learned OF its passage. |
quickly devised means 20 eNpend their
surplus. Here ". q. Hall inter-
lccted; Because they enormously
believed that the city school district
would grab the surplus Mr. Hlli
continued, that the law has a tenden
district schools
W. @. Hall advocated the creation
of county board of education that
would make its own levies Roswell
since the passage of the unit law, no
longer charges tuition to outside pu-
pills thus virtually making the ROs-
wen high school q county high school
Supt. BOnifacio Montoya champion
ed the county unit law. SAYING that
+ criticisms of 1t come from lack of
understanding He thought the
standardization Of teachers salaries
a good thing and followed up the
arguments of Asplund.
Ilfclds Strong Defense
DR.. Frank h. II. Roberts. on be-
half of state Senator Louis Ilfeld
presented a strong defense Of the
county unit law Every child should
have equal educational facilities, was
! his plea. Speaking of the equaliza-
/ ton OF taxes, it was pointed out
/ that such wealthy concerns as the
Bell ranch in san Miguel county
I heretofore contributed nothing to-
ward educating the children of the
state. but this year win be compelled
TO contribute from 1000 to $40, 900
! The railroads will have 90 pay from
$4,000 20 $4,000 more this year for
the public schools When men like
Charles A. Spiess, Charles Springer,
w. A. Hawkins. We're told that the
interests they represent would have
to pay more taxes under the unit law,
they cheerfulN acquiesced as long as
the additional burden was for the
schools. The most biting criticism
Of the law that has been made is that
La 80 HtaI ttNt
ward the maintenance of the country
schools. That however says MIR. IL
field. is an advantage. for the cities
should recognize that they depend for
their existence upon the country dis
tricts, and are merely helping them
selves when they help to educate the
children of those districts.
Supt. G. l.. Burt pointed out the
complications that arise under the
law in creating new districts Supt
j, v. Conway asserted that the mar
gin allowed for administration is not
sufficient i'm districts employing first
grade teachers.
NJ f. Hickey of Albuquerque took
a fan out of the statements of Mr.
Asplund, which brought about the cli-,
max told of at the beginning Of this
account He insisted that the prin-
cple of the law is absolutely wrong
and that it is un-hmerican to tax one
district for the support of schools I'm
another district
W. T. Conway took the same posi-
ton and regretted that John Morrow
of Ration was absent, for then there
would certainly be fireworks and for
every reason he could advance against
the measure. there We're twenty that
Morrow would urge He didn't won
der that san Miguel county politi-
clans favored the law, for San Miguel
county had twelve districts that had
no school simply because they didn't
want any school The law discour-
ages those districts from making
special efforts to improve their edu
cational facilities.
Atanasio Montoya took the view
that the law tends to decentralze in
stead of centralizing school admins
tration.
The debate then closed with AS
plund's brilliant peroration.