Norwich bulletin., 1919-02-19

Morrison who ably presented the diff
 ferent features Of the Morrison bill,
 and spoke in part as follows: Two subjects, schools and taxes, are the vital subjects in this Morrison bill. No opAosition from school teachers was anticipated by the author of the bill because under 1t more money, much more money, must be made available for those same teachers. The industrial region in New England has been and is now more than ever con- 1 ironted by a diSagrseable labor situa- tion It is recognized by everyone i that "Americanization'' is the big i subject before the present generation 1 today l predict that 30 or 40 years | from now, the old family names in i New England will be as strange then
 as were the foreign names 10 years
 ago. Speaking of Americanizing for eign born citizens, MT. Morrison | do so and that it would be better to begin by doing that same thing to 1 ourselves. You cannot do it until you 1 begin to put it into the childhood of 1 the state and then only by giving 1 ',Equality of Educational Opportu- nity" It is imperative that the state should guarantee equality of educa- 1 tionaI opportunity. The state com- pels the citizen to send his children i 10 school Should not the state guar 1 antee something in return. The speak, CT said at this point the one big fea-
 ture of this bill was that very thing. , viz, Equality of Educational Oppor- tunity7 that the bill proposes to give
 the poorest town i'll the state equal
 quality with the richest; salaries
 would not be lower in the country
 districts than in the city and that the
 best teachers would be secured for
 poor and rich towns alike, the state
 to pay the bill. Better salaries for teachers would make better schools.
 MT. Morrison stated upon his own in-
 vestigations. he found that the mini
 mum salary paid to teachers was be-
 tween $500 and $1,000. The average salary paid last year in this state was
 about ST00. He vent on further to say that good schools and results could not be obtained on such salar-
 ies. Education is the safety of the
 state and the object is to make good
 citizens. In summing up his talk at
 the close. he stated the three prime
 objects of the bill were first: Equal
 lty of opportunity, expenses to be born
 fy the state.' Second, Guarantee by
 the state of Equality of Education"
 third just taxing of the full taxing
 power of the state to obtain the best teachers for the foundation of good
 citizenship" These are the founda- tions and principles on which the act is founded. The address was pre- sented in a very able manner and the author showed a tho12ugh knowledge of the subject.
 MT F'oss called on William Ii. King for remarks and he in turn introduced Mr Rogers of Manchester who spoke very much against the bill Claimed he was very much iu favor of in creasing salaries of teachers, but thought the bill was ambiguous; did not believe in standardization of power, which he claimed was the main ob, jtct in the bill; thought that under the bill the question of school taxa tlon might he taken away from the different towns and finally said Let i the state aid the small towns if nec- essary, but above all things, let's keep cQntrol of the schools in the hands of local authorities" Prof. Wheeler of Storrs College followed Mr. Rogers by saying that the strongest objection to the bill in his estimation was the CentraliZation feature. that under the bill all power in regard to running the schools would be controlled by and tilNSi OIlt lIIttil dl Il1T JlOTu, WHICH would tend to Prussianize the schools Of the state. He thought the solution to the matter of schools was aid from the state in the small towns where necessary. An agent for the state board of education also made interest," l ing remarks in favor of the bill. Mir. | Foss in closing the meeting stated | that up to the present meeting, he i had not formed his opinion on the l bill one way or the other, but after l hearing the various talks on the sub | ject, he -<s inclined to think the bill | was a good lining. There were about { lG0 people present at the meeting. | half of them being ladies. A buffet | lunch was served at the close of the
 meeting which was adjourned at
 1045.
 1 The meeting Of the campaign com mittees, team, captains. citizens etc, in connection with the drive for re- i lief in the near east, was not held Tuesday evening as scheduled but was postponed to Friday evening of this week At that time all plans will be perfected for the coming
 drive, Feb. g to March 3, and it is