Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1926-12-09

to do some teaching. In all there
is being expended at the North Cen
trail school the sum of $4,000 more
for teaching this year than would be
expended under the normal operation
of the experimental station.
/ And there is not member of the
faculty at the school who will not
wash dishes or milk cows to keep ex-
penses of the institution to the lowest
possible point. Does that spirit ex-
list at the university?
/ OF course the attendance at the
school is small. Due to- the delay
within the management of the uni
/ versity itself it was not until the
middle of the past summer that it
was definitely known that there would
be any school at the station this fall.
Funds for the construction of the
dormitory were available July 1, 1925.
Construction work was not begun I'M
Etll April, 1926. Students were first
cared for at the station farm house.
In fact the dormitory is not yet fully
completed.
And at that we should like to have
the regents compare the number of
students who are gathered here with
the number who first came together
at Norris and Crookston and even
with the number who enrolled the
first year at the central school at st.
Paul. If Minnesota measured it's flu
ture by its start, there would be little
here today. The Grand Rapids high
school had only dozen pupils at one
time and the cost for each pupil was
excessive.
With all respect to the board of re-
gents, the Herald-Review would wish
to call attention to fundamental or
two which has bearing upon the pres
ent situation.
There are those who scorn the ag-
ricultural future of Northeastern Min
nesota. Those raised on rich lands,
those who farm acreage that was de-
veloped by their fathers, are not
judges of agricultural possibilities
when they characterize this section
as one of stumps, sand, swamp, rock
and trees. Ten years ago Grand
Rapids had a struggling creamery
which even our own citizens said
would fail. To-day there are two
creameries in this community with a
constant employment of from sixteen
to twenty people. Five years ago
the struggling creamery at Deer
River gave up the ghost and it's es-
tate consisted only of liabilities to
those who had sold it cream. Next
week there will be dedicated new
creamery building at Deer River, one
of the best in Minnesota, and during
1926 the Deer River creamery will
make over a half million pounds of
butter. ..
/ Those people who are developing
the agriculture of the cutover region
OF, Minnesota have problems different
than those of other sections. Those
people who are taking out the stumps
of Northeastern Minnesota are really
more entitled to educational advan-
tages than are those who till the rich
virgin prairies or those who farm the
lands which labor of their forbears
developed.
OF course, agriculture generally is
not prosperous. An overproduction
Of grains, potatoes at Is cents a
bushel and agricultural bankruptcy
has made the farm less attractive
than before. Young people see more
money in foreclosing farm mortgages
than in raising farm crops. The
university is turning out an over sup
ply of those with professional train
ing. We do not accuse it of neglect
of agricultural education, but it is
our opinion that never in the history
of our nation should agricultural ed
ucation receive greater attention in
our public schools and in our educa-
tional institutions than it should re-
ceive today.
The school at Grand Rapids has a
place in any general scheme for agri-
cultural education. 1t should be SO
managed that it will fill that place,
no matter what it is.
/ Grand Rapids and all of North
eastern Minnesota suffer the disad-
yantages of isolation. We cannot re-
member the board of regents or a
| committee of that board here for four
or five years. The chief interest OF
those from the more southerly part
of the state in Northeastern Minneso-
ia has been in cutting it's timber, de-
pleting and taxing its iron ore, taking
the fish from its waters and killing
the game from its forests. Without
more vigorous plans of conservation
than have yet been advanced, the only
industry of growing Importance in
Northeastern Minnesota is the agri-
culture of this section. The station
and the school at Grand Rapids are
both recognition of and an en-
couragement to that agriculture.
The Herald-Review sincerely hopes
that the statement in the Journal mis-
represented the attitude of the board
of regents. We hope that that board
has not lost its vision. If it has, 1t
has lost all.