The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-01-17
WE GOT PARTLY
WRONG

passed some information 10 our
readers that was not correct in one
feature The proposed law provid-
ing for the payment Of the railroad
fare of students going to the Uni
versity at Moscow, was not designed
especially for use at the time of holi-
day vacation, but for the summer
vacation instead.
The plan is to have a student
when he starts for the university
buy his railroad ticket paying IS OF
the expense himself and the state
pays the rest of it. Rates from this
locality are $27 or $32 total, the
state paying $22 or $27 according
to whether the student makes the
trip by way of Butte or Pocatello and
Weiser. When the school term is
ended in spring and the student Is
ready to start home, the purchase
of the ticket is made in the same
way. This makes an added expense
to the taxpayer of $50 or $50 for
each student going to the university
from this locality. 1t would be diff
ferent from every town in the state.
Those living close enough to Moscow
so that SIS pays their railroad fare,
would not cost anything. A good
many people think that anything
that the state pays does not cost any
body anything, but the money for
such purposes is collected from the
taxpayers, the rich, the poor and the
we'll to do alike.
They set up the argument that
pupils ought to be enabled to get to
school from anywhere in the state
at about the same cost, the same as a
letter is delivered anywhere in the
United States and possessions at
about the same COST They take the
view that nothing should stand in
the way of giving every boy and girl
an education; they say that only
about one out of ten of the young
people in southern Idaho go to the
university at Moscow, most of them
go to other institutions, such as
those in Utah and are educated out
side of our state.
We are opposed to it. 1t throws too
much of the burden upon the tax
payers and on the further ground
that most of the students are better
able to pay their fare to the univers-
ity than the taxpayers are. A good
many people have the idea that when
anything is paid by the state it is not
costing anybody any thing, but they
should remember that the state has
to get it's money out of the citizens.
As this is a matter of favoring the
southern Idaho people, the natural
means of retaliation for the northern
Idaho people, would be, that if we
have any educational institution in
southern Idaho. which the northern
people would like to patronize such
as the Idaho Technical Institute in
Pocatello, they would ask to have a
measure enacted to provide transpor-
tation for their pupils from north
Idaho to Pocatello or Albion at great
expense and the southern Idaho peo-
pie would naturally be opposed to
that law. This is the test of the
principle of the measures. There is
a further test in this: that if such
measures were enacted in regard to
all the state institutions, there would
be no economical restraint as to
where they went. A student would
consider that he might Just as well
be travelling and seeing the state at
state expense as to go to the nearest
school even tho it was just the kind
Of a school he wanted. Those in the
north would come to the south to go
to school and vice vn"sa hecavsa thew
could have some free excursion. 1t
would greatly multiply the expenses
of education making more mileage
travelled by the students than if they
were paying their own fare. Now,
as they claim that only about one
tenth of our young people go to the
university at Moscow and that they
go to many other institutions in
other directions, such as at Salt Lake
City and places on the Pacific coast
and that under this new arrange
ment many times the present num-
Der of students would go to our own
state university, then we shall he
confronted with new problem. The
university is already filled to it's Ca
pacity and they are crying for new
and additional accommodations IT
several times as many students go in
from southern Idaho as are going
now, then there would be an immedi-
ate and insistent demand for doubl-
ing the capacity of the school and the
state is in no condition to meet such
expenses.
The educators of the state are not
to any large degree the taxpayers Of
the state. They look at Boston and
other noted educational centers and
try to have everything in this
sparsely settled region just as good
as educational facilities in Boston
great wealth. 1t is commendable
with condensed population and
ambition to have good schools, but
it is not practical in a sparsely set
tied region like Idaho to have every
thing that they have in densely
settled city like Boston. A strong
feature of the case is that those who
are agitating for the increased ex-
pense on the taxpayers are not as a
rule a class that are going to pay
the bills. The boys and girls attend
ing the universities are not a class
of people who are economizing
very much as will be witnessed by all
who know anything about their
practices there. With all these fine
s--A.4.,xsou. c,nr1iol n than, frao