The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-09

upon bNe subject OF buDeItuiOslS III JHe
appendix Of this message
Vacancies in the House.
AS soon as may be, the necessary steps
ought to be taken for filling vacancies in
the House of Representatives At the
present session Windsor is deprived of
her representative by the untimely death
of Bert E. Cole,
Uniform Laws.
Your attention is directed to the re.
port of the board of commissioners for
the promotion of uniformity of legisla-
tion in the United States, and you are
earnestly requested to give this very i'm
portant matter of legislation considera-
ton.
Cancellation and Arbitration.
The board Of Cancellation and arbitra-
tien was organized and willing to per
form any duties devolying upon it, This
potential willingness was sufficient to
adjust a strike at West Pawlet, without
the necessity Of formal hearing by the
board.
Labor.
! wish at this time to express my APP
probation to labor for the unselfsh and
patriotic stand taken by the laboring
men of Vermont in aiding every war en-
deayor. The sane forces of organized la
Dor will surely prevent any revolution
airy overturning of order in America.
State Building.
During the present biennium, the new
state building for the supreme court,
etoto l;hra -, Us,,,r ,,t II;a+ n,;o,l s-,,;c4,
and state offices has been completed and
occupied The appropriations for this
building totaled 100000 and the entire
cost, including new stacks for the library
and the complete furnishing of the SUI
preme court room was SOP ,S73.s7. THE
commission, believing that the state
should have supreme court room in
keeping with her dignity and the stand
ing Of her court, took the initiative and
furnished the room at an expense of
$4, 203.37.
To do this they were obliged to borrow
81, 1862 and hope you viii see fit to re-
imburse them therefor OF the appro-
priaton of $4,000 for the expenses of
the changes in the wings of the State
House, formerly occupied by the library,
for a central heating plant, and for re-
pairs elsewhere S26,0577l was used, leav-
ing a balance unexpended of S3,042.29. l
suggest that this balance be made avail
able to reimburse the commission, thus
Keeping the entire cost of the new build
ing, the necessary changes in the interior
Of the State House, and the central heat
ing plant within the appropriations. Of
the work you can judge without further
comment on my part. The commission
consisting Of William w Stickney,
Charles W. Gates, Charles P. Smith, Har-
vey W. Varnum and the governor, have
given their services and charged no ex-
pense to the state. Dwight j. Dwinell,
sergeant alarms, had charge of the work
under the direction of the commission
and since he became sergeant-at arms
has received no compensation for his
services in supervising construction and
repairs. By vote of the commission most
Of the work was delegated to a sub-com-
mittee, Mr.. Varnum and the governor.
For your information summaries Of
the expenditures under these appropria-
tions accompany this message.
Schools.
BY act Of the last legislature, the two
agricultural schools were put in charge
of the state board of education. This
change has proved beneficial and, while
the attendance has been small because of
war conditions, the schools are equipped
to 20 ON with the work Although the
building program of the state was mod
fled by war conditions, new dormitory
was built at Randolph Center because
three consecutive legislatures recon-
mended it and appropriated for it, If
this had not been done the school could
not be maintained properly and efficient
ly. In 1903 we had 2454 legal schools
with an enrolment of 68,495 pupils, In
1918 there were 2,444 schools with an en-
rollment of 62,04s pupils, loss of so le-
gal schools and 4, 449 pupils. The com.
missioner of education is of the opinion
that this decrease is caused by older pu-
pills entering service or engaging in war
industries
AS so much has been said of late about
the return to the little red schoolhouse, l
give you these figures. They show an
average Of % pupils to each legal school
Personally believe in educating the chill
dren, especially the younger ones, as near
home as possible, but only when school
of respectable size can be maintained.