New Britain herald., 1923-06-29
TIE SCHOOL MArTER.

On this page, today, appears ah fi' itorial under the heading ''Fasss Mus Come Down" Last evening ahen one.third Of the members of the eii' meeting board attended a session '' listen to and act upon the report o the school survey committee whiel was appointed 10 investigate and s"' fl that committee had found a prae tieal way Of reducing taxes withen jeopardizing school interests. Tn report recommended binding th' city 10 one-story school building which. it was claimed. might h' constructed less cxpensiyely, A mo ton was made 10 adopt this report an amendment which called for th' filing of the report. with thanks i' the school survey committee for it work, was carried. The motion. aj amended, was never put 10 the meet ing, as a motion to adjourn was car ried before this was possible. Prob ably few realized that the proper pro cedure would have been to act on th' motion. as amended. to make tha amendment technically effective.
 We stand by the statement tha taxes must come down. and the argu ments of those who favored the one story schoolhouse and those oppose to it were listened to with thi thought in mind. It is presumed tha most of the members of the cit, meeting board there present had sincere desire to do anything possib ! looking to a reduction in taxes. Yet , after all the evidence was in and tn argument of counsel" heard, tn meeting board decided, by vote o l. 25 to 3s that the city should not b bound to a policy of one-story school houses.
 We believe this was the right de cision Granting for the sake 0
 
 argument only, that all the accusa tions made against the school boar are we'll founded, such accusation have nothing to do with the merit or demerits of the one-story school house. Space may have been waste by making an auditorium too large schools may be maintained, physical ly, in improper condition. Thes i charges have nothing to do with tn comparative merits of the one or two story schoolhouse.
 Remembering that the sentimen prevailing was in favor of economy the vote against the one-story school house must indicate that the mem bers of the city meeting board be !. lieve, after hearing the evidence, tha . policy of one-story buildings woul not be the wisely economical polio. ] Granted that such one-story school houses might be built much cheape than the more solidly constructe two-story structure. there remains tn almost uncontradicted claim that tn maintenance cost of the less soli building, including heating and re pairs. would be far greater than tn maintenance cost Of the sort of build ing we have been erecting.
 The bit of evidence which was mos pertinent to the legal mind was tha information obtained from authoritie of cities where the one-story school house has been tried or considere and where the plans have been studied The communications received by tn school committee from these authori ties, in reply to a letter of inquir asking for information and help i deciding the value or otherwise o the one-story schoolhouse, all tende' to show disapproval of the one-stor building, except In one case Tn great weight of legally admissible ev idence produced at the meeting las night, in other words, was against tn one-story building. To combat thi evidence in favor of two or nor story building there was put in cvi dence no word Of commendation o the one-story building from thos who had tried them. Had the cit. meeting board decided in favor of tn one-story building. it would have hal to do so in the face of q mass of con demnation of such schoolhouses com ing from authorities which knev something Of them from practical ex perience.
 An incident occurred ill the com mon council recently that is in point In favoring the buying d certain mak of automobile the chairman of tn garage committee reported that h had communicated with many eitie to find out what make had proved it worth most thoroughly. He gave tn y~-1lts. One make had been mos