The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1920-12-17
CLIMAX OF CAMPAIGN
!. FOR BETTER SCHOOLS
DRAWS LARGE CROWD

The largest crowd ever Accommodated
In the Richmond High school attended
the night session held Thursday even
ing to celebrate Better School Week"
Nearly 1000 people, including visitors
and students, thronged the high
school halls. Of this number 1000
We're visitors. The halls. the, class
rooms, the auditorium, and the gym
nasium were filled with people. Dur
ing the three periods of classes
Parents and students sat two in a
seat while many more were lined up
around the rooms. A large crowd was
in the auditorium most of the evening
{ watching the slides which were shown.
The auditorium was filled at 900
when the chapel exercises were open
! ed with short concert by the high
school orchestra under the direction
of Prof. J. E. Maddy. superintendent
of Schools, J. H. Bentley, in short
/, talk, introducing the speaker of the
evening, DR.. H. L. Smith, of Indiana
university, called attention to the fact
that the schools are the biggest single
enterprise in the entire community,
. and that more money is spent for
schools than for any one or any two
other projects together in the COM
niunity.
Tremendous Business.
"The budget for the schools IS
larger than for the city" Prof. Bentley
stated. He explained how the new
, junior high school buildings would re-
1ieve congestion in the high school.
The freshmen will be divided between
. the two new buildings, leaving only
. three years of work instead of four
. in the present high school building.
: At present $50 students are accon
: modated in the high school, which is
supposed to have capacity for 725.
DR.. Smith in opening his talk. said
that these meetings were not only be-
ing held over the state and nation so
that poor schools may become better
schools, but also that good schools
may become better schools"
Richmond" he said, falls in the
second class. The local campaign is
heinE conducted because we are realiz-
ing the emergency of education. This
veil has been lifted by the war"
IT was discovered, DIR. Smith pointed
out, that the average schooling for one
million drafted men was less THAI
sixth grade and one out of evry four
were i1literate. while one-third were
physically defective, and the efficiency
Of foreigners was lowered because
they did not understand our ideals.
New Value on Education.
"As a result of this" he said, "a
new value has been placed on educa-
tiona so that the walls of this building
and colleges in the country are crowd
ed with young people seeking greater
opportunities" Lack of buildings. lack
of expansion, and adequate equipment
handicaps the progress now he said.
Speaking of the new buildings to
be erected here he said that though
the cost would be tremendous they
we're for the nations greatest asset.
He praised the people here for the
work they were doing in education and
said that Indiana's present status Of
18th nlace in the field Of education had
resulted because Indiana "had rested
IN its oars" In figures presented Dr.
Smith showed that he people of the
United States spend s22.0O0,000 900 a
year on Injuries (which is 25 times as
much as they spend on education"
Following the address one more
rnmber was played by the orchestra.
School authorities and students ex-
PRESSED appreciation of the fact that
so many parents. patrons. and tax
payers showed such great interest in
the schools by their attendance at the
session Thursday evening. Much
credit for the success is due to the
ommittee who planned it, composed of
Mr. Taggart, Miss Williams, Mr.. Rice,
and Mr.. Cline.