The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1935-02-28

by the teacher. Facts disprov,
any other condition.
The bill Is not sponsored with {
view to added educational advan
tages. 1t is a stepping stone t
the complete Consolidated Schoo
District plan that would involve
every rural school district in the
state. Without regard to physical
incapacities, extreme Minnesots
weather conditions or Implications
+! of costs as well as personal incon-
veniences inflicted upon the far
mer this bill aims that the farmer
must further support the city
schools.
And with what costs? Right in
this neighborhood we have exam
Piles Of overly ambitious Consoli-
dated School Observation-Disclosures
that took in too much territory.
We refer to those of Sedan and
Willard. In common parlance those
school districts took the farms for
miles around.
Let us go to the records Of one
farm only, the 100-acre farm Of
Mr.. John p. Rooney near Sedan.
Description: Ek SWA and Part
of Lot Sec. 33. Grove Lake Town.
ship, Pope County.
The records of the County Asses
sor show the following
In 1910 before the farm became
part Of the Consolidated School
District the school tax rate on this
farm was 1913 mills. The school
tax was $12.21. In 1917 after it be-
came part of the Consolidated
School District, the school tax
rate was raised to 31.3 mills. The
school tax was $94.6S, almost eight
times what it was in 1910. In 1881
this same farm carried school
tax rate Of 47.9 mills, almost four
times the school tax rate Of 1910.
The total tax on the farm was
S167.98 of which $113S1 was school
tax.-S1.13 per acre school tax.
No 100 acre farm in that part
of Pope County could survive un-
der such taxation unless, perhaps,
it were rented to the School Dis
trict itself as a site for a High
School athletic stadium.
The Educators have been build
ing not conservative, solid,
efficient city school system. They
have been building a Leaning Tow
err of Pisa but unlike the original
too much 'lean" has been put in
to it. Their tower shows signs of
toppling and the Educators are
panicky and demoraHzed. Hence
this bill and a whole flock of bills
of much the same ilk before the
It would seem that our high
priced Educators should be able to
grasp some basic facts, at least
those basic facts upon which their
rests. In an agricultur-
al state like Minnesota the city
does not build the farm. The farm
builds the city. If the area around
Sank Centre, for instance, were a
barren waste Sank Centre would
not appear on the map. In the
last analysis the value of all city
property, the business of every
bank and of every merchant, the
practice of every professional man,
all derive either directly or indir-
ectly from the famer. The city
dweller had better learn to get
along with the farmer. At least
he had better not try to crush the
farmer with new and added tax
burdens. The State has already
taken many of the farms and from
these no taxes derive. The few
farmers that are still able to pay
some taxes are quite at the break
ing point.
A lot less hokum in education, a
whole lot Of whiting down of ex- /
pensive non-essentials in our
school system and a little thought
full consideration on the part Of
to the basic sources
from which they receive their sal
aries would go long way towards
a common ground for
both the Educator and the tax
payer on which they might build
anew.
But pass that bill or any Of its
Ugly companion bills now before
he Legislature and the Educators |
nay have not only the children Of !
Seventh and Eighth grades from
The rural district schools, but all
he children of all the grades and
he farmer and the farmers wife |
,ff the farms and in the Cities
IN RELIEF.
We bank on the sound judgment |
and the common sense Of you,
sir, to help in your own
way to educate the Educators.
We are, with the utmost respect,
r. b. Kinsel1a, Treas.