Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1920-02-12

ting along as well as could be ex
pected
Then the pinch of the war began
to be felt Teachers salaries begal
their tardy climb upward. Prices o
school equipment of all kinds ad
vanced. Hardly mail came tina
| did not bring notice that some arti
Gle of school use had become more
costly. The expense of running q
school nearly doubled in the course
of three years.
In the meantime the income OF
the schools remained stationary
Property was assessed practically as
before. The maximum tax in Mr.. X. s
district had been reached long ago,
and by the spring of 1917 his trus-
tees were faced with very'imposing
deficit of fifteen thousand dollars.
Mr.. X and his school officials did
all any body of men could do to get
their district out of it's financial
tangle. They put off much needed re-
pair and extension of the school plant
They abandoned all the school wa
CONS they possibly could. They spent
night after night going over the 1918
budget, pairing off few dollars here
and a few more there.
They we're practicing economy I'M
til it hurt, and still the deficit grew
larger. No one could say that they
were at all to blame for the condi-
tions that existed They simply had
to have more money than their in
come furnished. I have always held
that the law contains spirit of grim
humor in places. For instance, 1t
goes into detailed provision how
school must be conducted and then
that all these things must be done
without exceeding a tax that will
raise only half the money necessary
to do so.
To add to the trouble of Mr.. K
trustees, the people of the district be-
gan to murmur at the way things
were going on. Silver and zinc reach
ed good figure and several little
mines that had been abandoned for
years, were reopened. The govern
ment sent out contractors who
started logging spruce timber in the
above the town. Money
was plentiful. The people of the dis
trict were prosperous and they could
not understand the niggardly policy |
Of their school board. The wagon had |
always come for the pupils on the
bench land and when htese routes
we're abandoned the patrons felt that
hey were being ill-treated. Men talk
id on the street corners on such top
cs as: "Slow and narrow policy"
Getting away with the school mon
~" Have to get new school
,oard," and so on.
Mr.. X. was well informed as to1
what people were thinking and say
ng. He urged his board to make a
complete statement in the local news
'aper, explaining the situation, and
skiing group of prominent citizens
o meet the board and help find a
emedy. He argued that the people
1ould cheerfully vote more school
money by special elections when
nee they saw the necessity to do so.
But Mr.. X plan was never fol
owed. His board looked upon out
ide help as a reflection upon their
onesty and ability. They set them
elves doggedly to extricate them. (,
slves without consulting anybody :,
he faster complaints came in, the +.
ore determined these trustees grew .
OF to allow anybody to interfere
18th what they chose to look upon .
, their business. They grew so sus-
cious of the public that they con-
lcted all their meetings behind
osed doors. When a bunch of bust
sss men, sensing what was wrong,
ked to see the school records, the
,ard ordered the clerk to refuse. !"
ley did this altho they well knew !"
at the law requires the clerks a
cords to be freely accessible to the n
bile. al
1t happened that all three trus- y
rs were up for election in the :,
ring of 1918. This contest turned -
t to be one of those dirty little y,
lool district mix-ups that no sup W
ntendent likes to think about. The
'ult was that all three of the old