The Sidney herald., 1955-07-21

1teSS study is to deter
NINE the proportionate highway
use responsibility of the various
types of vehicles that use the
roads. Anyone who has gone into
tnls phase seriously and with an
open mind appreciates the diff
flculties in making equitable de-
marcations.
j. = ;
This is not a discussion of the
merits of the controversy between
the state board of education and
the Clifford and bingham high
schools in Hill county over the
accrediting of those institutions.
In 1858 the state board withdrew
accrediting because the schools
had failed to meet the boards
standards. The situation had re-
percussions in the legislature last
winter. Now the issue is in the
courts for decision.
l am aware of the implications
OF heresy, but I wonder how it
Is that so many persons who in
this generation are outstanding
ly successful, managed to get
their basic education in schools
which by today's yardsticks were
primitive and entirely inadequate.
Th1S is no argument against
raising school standards as high
as the community is econom-
lcally able to do, but it does not
necessarily follow, in my opinion,
that a little high school or a lit
tie grade school out in the coun-
try should be closed merely be-
cause it is little.
l am inclined to believe that,
despite the alleged educational
shortcomings attributed to the
Clifford and bingham high
schools, they are turning out
graduates who won't have to
take a back seat in the classrooms
of adult life.
Montana's new highway traf-
fic code, which became effec-
tive July /, is a much needed
step toward greater uniformity
in driver regulations. The code
was the longest bill enacted by
the 1855 legislature and was the
result of detailed study by the
state highway patrol in partici-
patton with other agencies.
Motorists, especially those
travelling interstate, will applaud
efforts toward obtaining unifor-
nifty nationally in traffic regula-
tons. The more uniformity, the
less confusion and the less ac-
cident hazard.
Another thing Montana's new
code will do is to bring about
more uniformity regarding cities
and towns, some of which have
some rather bewildering ideas on
traffic, control signs and signals.
And, also important, it will not be
entirely within the whims of
municipalities as to what the
speed limits shall be on inter-
state highways where they pass
through cities and towns.
This has no direct bearing on
the new highway code, but ]
think that all to the good is the
growing tendency to route state
and interstate highways away
from the congested business
streets so that the motorist will
not be forced to go at a snaiI's
pace for half a mile or more
through some village.
Every time the state highway
commission makes such a rout.
ing, there are protests from bust
ness interests in the community
Some of these people appear t.
believe that if you force a mo.
torist to crawl along your maiI
street he will stop and buy
something. In those circumstance
that's exactly what he won't dc
if he can avoid it.
= + +
Some cynical philosopher, dis
turbed by the awing problems o
a troubled world, might ask VIII.
so many people - in Montana
for example - car become S
forgetful of the worlds woes a
to be distracted by such thing
as the trout derby they have a
Livingston and the 181-pount
sturgeon recently caught in Flat
head lake.
1 don't think the ~inferenc
here is that people are deliber
ately turning away from thei
graver responsibilities as citizen
of the state, the nation, the worl
- but one probably couldn'
blame them if they did. Person
ally, I would rather, for a change
hear about the big fish in Mon
tana's lakes and rivers than abou
Molotov or what Senator Mans
field is saying today about tn
mess in the Orient.
Traditionally, Rotary clubs ar
absorbed in the profundities c
life and of the world. But eve
so. a Rotary club will occasion
ally recognize the interest
something as commonplace as
fish. At least that happened
Kalispell, where Dr.. Royal Bron
son of the state university sta1
at Missoula gave a scientific dis
course on the big sturgeon tn:
has caused more talk bout Fit
head lake than anything sine