The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1920-04-22
COST OF BUILDING
Reasonable to Assume That the Cos
of a New Court louise Would
Be at Least $780, 600.
Many False and Malicious Stories Cir
culated for Purpose of Hood
winiing the Voters.
CONTINUED from last week.

Continued from last week.
What would a new court house cost?
You tell, we don't know. To be exact,
nobody knows, accurately. Grow Wing
county is building one and it has cost
them 100000 now, and will probably
cost them close to million before
they get through with it. Crow Wing is
a large, rich county, but it looks logical
enough that a new court house would
cost Mile Laos county at least half OF
what Grow Wing is going to pay for
one.
The Milaca high school building was
built in 1915 and cost in round num-
bers S15O,0OO00. To build the same
building to day would cost school dis
trict - at least from two and a half
to three times the amount. We seri-
ously doubt if you could duplicate this
pretentious building today for any
thing less than $450,00000. The
Princeton high school building, built
in 1888 and 20, cost in round num-
= bers $120,OOOOO. The Princeton school
district was rather unfortunate in its
building operations, as the original
plan for the new unit called for a
$6O,0OO.00 addition to the old building,
and during the construction of the
new unit the old building was struck
-s5y lightning and the resulting fire
destroyed completely the old structure.
The result of this unforeseen calamity
had to be met with another new unit,
which cost the district another $780,
100000. The present plant, including
equipment, cost district No. 1 a grand
"a total of $135 100000. To illustrate the
rapidly increasing costs of all building
material we will mention the fact that
when the Princeton plant was COM
pleted and turned over to the district
the school board had their architect
make an estimate of the present value
= of the building. This estimate was
100000, and S18O,00000 is the
amount of fire insurance actually car
ried on the building today. Due to
the increase of cost of all building ma
terial this building actually increased
i in value 100000 during the time it
! was being built Never in the history
of the country has all building mate
rial been so high priced and scarce as
it is now. When will it come back to
normal? Nobody knows for sure.
Judging the future by the past we
would venture a guess Of say from
five to ten years. The experience Of
the country during the civil war period
was that prices went still higher right
after peace was declared. Those in
! f1ated prices continued for six or eight
| years after the war and then the bot
tom dropped out. All we know now is
that the old H. G.. L. is on the job with
both feet, and the more the govern
ment investigates the higher the mar
ket goes.
At the present time the building
program of the prudent person has
been cut right down to the quick. No
building, either private or public,
should be built at this time unless alb
solutely necessary. The world war
taught some of US few elementary
principles of economy. Cruel necessi-
ty taught US some more right along
the same line, and if the war hadn't
! stopped when it did we would have
got an advanced course that would
have made our first lessons look like
''frst steps for little feet" There is
a natural tendency toward a return to
extravaganza abroad in the land now
and this must be met and checked, not
: only in our private affairs, but in our
nub1ic plans and policies. The brakes
must be put on or else the next turn
in the road may see national or in
ternationaI wreck. A goodly number
of our people have already arrived at
the same conclusion and are making
: their old clothing, shoes, hats, house
hold goods and other actual necessf.
ties last them through until prices
come back to normal, or somewhere
near normal. This policy serves a
double purpose. 1t helps to increase
the supply Of those articles by de-
: creasing the demand for them and
keeps the price thereof in the ultimate
consumers pocket. Mile Laos county
might well profit by the example of
some of her thrifty sons. Let's stick
to the actual necessities and pass up
the Injuries. When our present court
house is answering all our needs it
would be the height Of extravaganza
to abandon the whole plant and site
at large financial sacrifice, then at
tempt to purchase a new site at Mil
aca, build and equip palatial new
building on the very peak Of the mar