T. T. McFall
AUTO
LIVERY
DAY OR NIGHT
Office at Waverly Hotel
PHONE 18.
THE HOME NEWS
Published every Friday at McCrory, Ark.
WALTER W. RANEY, Ed. and Pub.
Subscription $1.00 per Year ii Advance.
Entered as second-class matter
Aug. 26, 1915, at the post office
at McCrory, Ark., under the act
of March, 3, 1879.
Friday, September, 17, 1915
EX-SENATOR PATTERSON’S IDEA
CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE
7th grade common schools which
could easily be located half-mile
apart within the town and which
of course would be nearer every
man’s door, or, to have the one
10th grade high school as at pres
ent necessitating some children,
who reside within the corporate
limits, walking almost a mile to
school? We believe all will agree
that to have the one 10th grade
school is far better.
Each grade above the seventh
represents one year’s work in
school. With the eighth, ninth
and tenth grades in our school
the parent of every child finishing
the seventh grade is saved at
least $150.00 per year or $450.00
for the three years which would
be necessary to send the child
away to school to secure this
high school education. To grant
a school at Jelks would certainly
establish a precedent by which
other sections in the district could
demand a school and to grant
these demands all must admit
wouia impair tne nuances or tne
district to such an extent that
only a seventh grade school could
be maintained here and at the
new ones established.
The second reason Mr. Patter
son gives is the right to local self
government. By this statement
we suppose he is speaking of in
corporating the town of Jelks
and then forming a school dis
trict of the incorporated territory.
The law is very plain along this
line and it will be no trouble
whatever for him to accomplish
his purpose in that way, but his
school district could be no larger
than the town after it had been
incorporated.
As to the claims which he
makes regarding the population
and growth of Jelks, we hope
both are permanent, but McCrory
today has many vacant houses
which were filled by people who
came here because of the J^ang
ton mill and which are unoccu
pied because of the mill having
ceased operation. We do not
wish to be understood as casting
any insinuation upon those en
gaged in a similar industry at
Jelks but suppose the mills there
should close, would it not cause
the same condition of affairs at
Jelks that now prevails here?
In another paragraph he claims
69 white children of scholastic
age. We asked him for a copy
of the names, and he promised
to give them to us for publica
tion, but for some reason we
have failed to get it. We guess
it is because maybe he would not
like for the people to see the
names of his talented son, Ben
nett, who has already spent one
year in nenarix college, ana ms
refined and charming daughter,
Miss Olive, who will soon have
finished Galloway College, in the
list for he knows full well that a
school would be of no benefit to
their securing an education, they
having long since passed into
higher studies than' those taught
in the high school much less a
common seventh grade school.
We also understand that there is
included in his list people who
are married and who have no in
tention of attending school. Of
course under the strict letter of
the law any person under the age
of 21 years is to be counted as of
scholastic age and he has a per
fect right to claim them among
his 69, but that will be a matter
for the court to decide. If he
had 69 college graduates at
Jelks, and none other, and they
were all under 21 years of age,
is it to be supposed that the court
would grant him a school, know
ing that none of the persons
would attend? Certainly not.
Our friend states that the laws
have provided that the County
Court SHALL hear and grant
such petitions and establish
schools wherever there are 35
pupils to be accommodated. The
law does not read as he would
i i i?__ _ _:n
IimiVtJ US ueucvc ao .y uu win
by reading the following which
is a true extract from the school
laws of Arkansas:
‘ ‘Sec. 7544. County Court may
form districts. — The county court
shall have the right to form new
school districts or change the
boundaries thereof, upon a pe
tition of a majority of all the
electors residing upon the terri
tory of the district to be divided. ”
The supreme court has held
that this section contemplates a
petition by a majority of the
electors of all the districts com
bined, and not a majority of the
electors of each district separate
]y. Hudspeth v. Wallis, 54
Ark., 134.
He states that Grays is willing
for Jelks to have a school. We
will ask, “Why should Grays be
consulted when her territory
has not been entered, and how
can it concern the Grays school
district any more than it would
that of Barnes, White River or
Hunter?” Jelks might just as
well have their permission so far
as that is concerned. Certainly
Augusta should not object to giv
ing Jelks a couple of sections lo
cated seven miles away from
their school, for as we all know,
and they know it too, they should
never have acquired that terri
tory in the first place.
As to McCrory objecting to a
school at Jelks for fear of being
injured commercially, such is
folly in our belief because if
Jelks possessed a school our com
mercial interests would, if any
thing, increase.
concerning me other little
! towns that have schools we will
; state that none were created by
| taking territory from a special
district maintaining a high school
only two miles distant and he
can not show where territory
has been taken within two miles
of a special high school district
anywhere in Arkansas for the
purpose of creating a common
school district.
Mr. Patterson mis-states facts
! asto the amount of the district’s
revenue. The district receives
this year only $4,800.29 instead
i of $5,000.00 as he would make us
believe. The amount on hand
today as stated over telephone
by County Treasurer Jimerson is
only $1,697.78. To this will soon
be added $1,718.41 making only
$3,416.19 instead of $5,000.00.
The expense of the 1914-1915
term (last year’s school) was
$4,785.38 and the district receiv
ed $300.00 high school aid from
the state which will not be given
I this year nor next. So you see
1 Mr. Patterson’s figures will not
do to rely upon.
We do not claim exclusive own
ership of the school building here,
and have never done so, and we
can’t find any deeds showing
where it has been turned over to
Mr. Patterson and his friends.
The school is the property of
every tax payer in the entire dis
trict, all sharing equally in its
burdens and blessings.
As to Mr. Patterson going be
fore the meeting of electors on
the morning of the school elec
tion last May and asking for a
school to be established at Jelks,
we can bear witness that he did
so for the editor was present and
heard him make the request, but
this was no place to make such
demands as it was entirely out of
order. As to his later demands
upon the board of directors, we
know nothing as we have never
had the pleasure of attending a
j single one of their meetings.
We have just learned that he did
ask the board Ho give Jelks a
' school, but because of the finan
cial condition of the district and
I not wanting to establish a prece
I ctent, and also because of the fact
| that they had already refused to
establish a school in another sec
tion of the district, they refused
to grant Mr. Patterson’s de
mands. Upon the above grounds
and because of the fact that the
district was in debt, they refused,
and we believe that the people
of the district think they acted
vvisely in so doing.
Concerning what has been di
rected at Mr. Wherry, we will
leave that for him to answer,
granting him the same free use
of our columns as has been ex
tended to everyone regardless of
what their opinion may be.
I we note tnat in one paragraph
the “father” of Jelks states that
he has the biggest 1915 town in
Arkansas, and in the very next
paragraph following he refers to
Jelks as a neighborhood affording
abundance of grass for the grazr
ing of our cattle, sheep and goats.
As to what he has to say about
cleaning up our town we will not
hand back to him his word
“soohey,” but would like to say
something pertaining to a much
larger animal.
For three years he states his
children have come through bad
weather and roads, but he fails
to state how much better and
cheaper it was for them to do
this than to have been compelled
to incur the heavy expense of
sending them away to another
town, besides preventing their
being at home every night where
they have been bountifully blest
with the excellent home sur
roundings and efficient training
at the hands of their mother, eld
er sister and himself.
In his closing paragraph he
strikes for a “home run” by
stating that he would rather fail
to give a hundred children a
high-school education for want
of funds than to take one poor
urchin’s money a.nd leave him a
derelict, lhe very idea of any
child being left a derelict and
living in the shadow of a high
school. The morning rays of the
bright sunlight are almost hidden
from the good people of our
Ward No. 1 because of their ex
cellent high school building lo
cated in the most conspicuous
part and upon the highest eleva
tion of our city. If it be too far
for the urchins, as he calls them,
at Jelks to come to the school at
McCrory which is only two miles
away, why then, does he want
to reach out a greater distance,
in the formation of his new
, district?
Mr. Ash of Augusta was the
guest of his old-time friend J. F.
Morgan Saturday.