The Penn's Grove record., 1923-10-05
Court hOdifieS Public
Service Fare Order
Continued from page 1

.
erty.
One of the important developments
during the hearing was a statement
by Edmund w. Wakelee OF counsel
for the company in response to a
question Of Judge Rellstab. The lat.
ter asked whether, in view of jitney
competition any rate charged by the
company would yield return of 7
per cent on the Haight valuation Mr.
Wakelee said the company believed a
10 cent fiat fare would give such re-
turn, estimated at S77000O0 Mr. Nc
Carter has estimated the return on a
10 cent fare would approximate S6,-
100000.
In the proceedings in the federal
court, however, lawyers on both sides
have apparently modified views given
expression elsewhere because Of the
peculiarly intricate legal questions
presented in the litigation, narrowed
down by Judge Rellstab to a mere de-
cision as to whether the cent fare
order was confiscatory.
The company is making every ef-
fort to have a decision from the fed
eral tribunal fixing valuation on the
company's property as guide for the
future, while the Public Utilities Com
mission and inter-pleading municipal
tiles are willing to have the valuation
feature eliminated.
Up-to-Date Rural Schools
For the last decade the swing in
educational circles In south Jersey,
as well as in other parts of the coun-
try, has been towards the consolidat
ed school, in town or city. Now there
seems to be a tendency to swing back
to the country school, modern in all
respects like the city school, but built
In the country for country pupils.
A striking illustration of the mod
ern country school is found in the re-
Gently dedicated 100000 schoolhouse
In Deerfield township, Cumberland
county. Other smaller types of coun-
try schools have also been built dur
ing the year in other parts of south
Jersey, and one of these, a four room
school at Bunker Hill, Washington
township, Gloucester county, has been
opened and will be formally dedicat-
ed in October.
Leading educators declare that the
little red schoolhouse," with all Of
the sentiment attached to it, has gone
for good, and they place the emphasis
on the good" Farmers have accept
ed the argument of these educators
that country boys and girls cannot re.
ceiye the same advantages in educa
ton in one or two room schoolhouse
as do the city children in their large
centralized schools. But if the little
red schoolhouse is to be forever ban
ished why not the big red schoolhouse
built out in the country instead of in
the town to take its place, asks the
farmers.
A joint committee of the State
Grange and the New Jersey Fedora
ton of County Boards of Agriculture
has been making study Of "ural
school conditions for many months.
While it seems impossible for coun-
try districts to have their own high
schools at the present time, the COM
mittee has gone on record as recon-
mending that pupils up to the eighth
grade get educated in country schools.
Rubber Tires Revolutionize
Automobiles and motor buses with
their easy transportation from coun-
try to town, have been the principal
factor in sweeping away the little red
schoolhouses which a generation ago
dotted the rural landscape in almost
every direction. The farmers them
selves now use the automobile more
extensively than any other class. and
1t has leveled lots of other rural GUS
toms besides the little red school
house.
Transportation for children of all
ages and grades from country to town
has long brought forth protests from
the farmers.
The joint investigation com nittee
enumerated these objections in its re,
port made some time ago:
Small children do not feel at home
in town schools.
In the higher grades the country
children are weaned away from the
farm life by town and city schools.
The country is losing a community
center with the abolishing of its own
schoolhouse
Country people lose interest in
school and teacher when they have
none of their own
Now that the ebb tide has set in.
the country people are urging that as
town schools become overcrowded
with pupils transported from the
rural districts new schools be erected
where necessary in the country rather
than in the towns.
The farmers further approve Of con-
solidating country schools where 1t is
necessary to obtain the most benefits
for the pupils, but they want these
consolidated schools wherever possi-
BILE erected in the country instead Of
In the towns and cities.
What has really handicapped the
rural districts in modernizing their
schools, the farmers point out, Is the
fact that there is at present an un-