The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1933-01-26
What Others Think

We have been adding wings and LIS, towers tur-
rets, loggas and pergolas to the Little Red School
house of other years until that halowed shrine
sembles the fairy palace of Aladdin.
Thirty million persons, young and old, are en-
gagged in receiving in giving education. AS Mr..
Hoover has sad education is biggest business and
our only indispensable 1t is to credit that
our realization of the benefits of learning is practical
ly universal and that we do not willingly deny
children anything believe to be for their good So
strong this tradition that education" has become
vertable abracadabra, magic word word with
which to conjure incredible of the pockets of
the people Woe unto the politicians legislatures
that would not unlock their treasures to the word
Education"
And unlock them they did OF course, the inevi-
table happened and is continuing to happen all over
the land We have not only bought and paid for
education than children possibly absorb but
we are paying heavy bills that do properly
under the head of schooling at ALL Many millions go
to pay for activities which, though doubt beneficial
and not that of public schools Taxation putting and
painting to keep up with expenditure, has already
too fast and too far.
A generation ago, we laughed at the observation
that many of our colleges had been transformed into
country clubs but that many of our high schools
have gone the same way, are too busy paying for
them to laugh at old jest gone sour. We have IN
mind of the schools that have several thousand
pupils-paatia edces furnished with tennis courts;
playing fields baths, locker rooms athletic instructors
and most of the facilities of country clubs Methods
of mass production which have worked out admirably
in the motor-car industry have not dare say, been
so effective in turning out scholars the best
type of young Americans.
Too long have we been at the mercy of the super
educators. If they idle or dishonest or incom-
petent we should know how to cope with them; but
they are none of these. They may swamp their en-
ployers with added taxes but they honest as
the day long, and they fight for their convictions
with dauntess spirit of Christian martyrs who would
face the lions of Nero in the rather than buy
their lives by dropping pinch Of incense upon The
altar of Diana.
1t is not impossible that the evils recited may
bring their cure At recent time have we
audited all accounts and expenditures whether pub
lie private, with such microscope rigor we are
today employing in efforts to distinguish between
essentials and nonessentals. Each day we find new
things we can do without Our publc-school system
is not exempt from this pitless scrutiny The result
may very well be that presently shall be teaching
fewer subjects and teaching them much better; that
school authorities will renquish to parents the
sponsiblities that belong to them; and that in the
long run, children will be gamers rather than
losers because their elders have been forced down to
bedrock conceptions of the essentials of sound learn
ing.-Ihe Saturday Evening Post.
The postal department charges $16.26 for 500
stamped envelopes If you wish your name and re-
turn address printed them the charge is only $1638
IL cents Sounds like bargain-but is it :?
True, the government gets from the purchaser only
IL cents for taking the order, for sending it in for
printing the envelopes and for bringing them back
Sleepy Eye from eastern city, If the transaction
ended there might say he HAD made saving and
that the should be in The printing business
But that isn't the end of the matter The end of the
year and the postal department finds it operated
at loss. Something must be done, postage rates
may be raised Rates first class letters were rails
ed few months ago from two cents to three cents,
only paltry fifty per cent and the public pays The
fellow who had the government print his envelopes
for IL cents, when printer would have charged him
dollar more pays, by the time he uses the
500 envelopes, just exactly S. in extra postage.
Where is the saving and who made it?-Sleepy Eye
Herald Dispatch.