THE
HOME
NEWS
EDITED IN THE INTEREST OF McCRORY AND WOODRUFF COUNTY
VOLUME 1.
McCRORY, ARKANSAS, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17,1915
-ft
NUMBER 8
McCRORY HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, McCRORY, ARK.
i:
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.—Ben Franklin.
Education is a debt from present to future generations.—Geo. Peabody.
. If a man empty his purse in his head, no man can take it away from him.'—Ben Franklin.
Education is a better safeguard to liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of
the schoolmaster, we-must raise those of the recruiting agent.—Edward Everett.
Neither Piety, virtue nor liberty can long flourish in a community where education of youth is
neglected. —Fenimore Cooper.
EX-SENATOR PATTERSON’S IDEA
In a Letter Which We Publish in Full to The Home News
He Gives His Reasons for a School at Jelks.
Jelks, Arkansas,
Sept. 13, 1915.
Editor McCrory Home News,
Dear Sir: —
Why should Jelks have a
school?
Because she has double the
scholastic population required by
the Statues of Arkansas as
guaranteed to her under the con
stitution of the state; because
she has the right to local self
government as guaranteed under
the Declaration of Independence;
because it is a natural result of
progress—nothing unusual about
it as Jelks is the only tovvn of it’s
size in the county or in the state
that has not a school. Riverside,
Gregory, Wiville, Howell, Grays,
DeView, Morton, Meredith, Hille
man, all have Schools. Not one
is really a larger town or has
more property within as small a
radius and possibly one or two of
them only have as large scholas
tic population in the same radius.
There are sixty-nine white
children of school age within the
proposed district; sixty of them
within a half-mile radius; none
of them within two miles of the
McCrory school-house.
Every white citizen in the pro
posed district has humbly peti
tioned the County Court. The
laws have provided that the
County Court shall hear and
grant such petitions and establish
schools wherever there are thirty
five pupils to be accommodated.
Why should not Jelks have a
school? Our sister town, Grays,
is willing; the directors of the
Augusta school with whom I have
discussed the question seem to
think that they will concede us
the two sections which come with
in one-half mile of us and are in
conveniently situated to be cared
: for by the Augusta school which
is seven miles away.
_ Why should not Jelks have a
'school? Because McCrory ob
jects. It might build a town at
Jelks and hurt McCrory com
mercially.
We have thrown every penny
! of tax and furnished every as
| sistance that we could in helping
! McCrory build a $10,000.00
school-house. We owe $1,000.00
on it. Not you, but we, own it.
We have a little more than $5,
'000.00 to the credit of the dis
! trict from the taxes of last year.
We can pay every obligation to
teachers under contract this
year, pay the $1,000.00 indebted
ness on the school and yet give
the “Jelks” district the taxes
which belong to it.
I went before the school meet
ing in May, and before the direc
tors and asked them to maintain
a school at Jelks by electing one
teacher, and they, after thirty
days deliberation, refused it. I
notified them plainly at the school
meeting, as the audience will re
member, that I would form a
new district if they refused us a
teacher.
Mr. Wherry, one of the direc-,
tors, who is circulating a remon
strance, refers to this effort as a
one man fight. He possibly
means that my personal enemies
are making a fight on one man.
He also refers to it as selfishness;
I will not use the word selfish,
but to him I*must say “Soohey!”
No one is more proud of the
McCrory school building than I.
No one prays more earnestly for
the success and benefit to the
rising generations, ot the money j
which I have put in the building j
than I, and I today during the
celebration mingled my prayers
with yours as I have my money
with yours that the future gen
erations be blessed by the same.
With brotherly love and kindness
we grant you all that we have
, put into the building and only ask
that you give us our doll-rags
with the little urchins therein
and let us build our own play
house, as many of these little
ones will never have an opportu
nity for an education unless this j
petition is granted.
I wish the man who asserts I
that this is only a one man fight
j would remember that my child-1
ren have gone through bad roads
| and bad \veather to McCrory for
three years without a murmur,
and that I have only begun this
I
fight in behalf of the magnificent,
decent, intelligent and honorable
people who have cast their lot
here this year and are helping us
to make of this place the garden
spot of Woodruff County.
We are the biggest 1915 town
in Arkansas.
I bought Jelks when it was the
toughest place possibly, in the
county. Only a rendezvous for
your toughs, crap-shooters and
blind-tigers both black and white.
Today your cows, sheep, goats
and stock of every kind quench
their thirst in Cache River and
graze on tne abundance of grass
in our neighborhood; not one is
harmed or hurt, but are cared
for as our neighbor’s ox. (But
we do think you ought to clean
up your town so our hogs can’t
smell it or stop locking them up
when they come to see you.)
Today Jelks is the play-ground
of your most elegant ladies, of
which you have many, and your
children, and of your cleanest
and best manhood as well as
those of surrounding neighbor
hoods. And their visits are like
angel wings which will fan away
all prejudice toward our town
and cause you to retract and re
pent and abandon your spirit of
Pharoahism and give us our free
dom regardless of the demand of
commercialism.
I would rather fail to give a
hundred children a high-school
education for want of funds than
to take one poor urchin’s money
and leave him a derelict.
Yours Truly,
M. H. Patterson.
OUR REPLY
In the beginning of his article
Mr. Patterson gives as his first
reason why Jelks should have a
school the following: She has
double the required number of
scholastic age, that is, 69 people
who are between the ages of six
and twehty-one years. This we
doubt, but will not contradict
and will grant for argument sake
that he is correct, but let us see
if it is better for all parties con
cerned, so far as educational in
terests go, to establish a school
for every community or section
that has the required number of
pupils.
The town of McCrory is one
mile square. In the southern
half of the town there are enough
people of scholastic age to meet
the requirements of law, so far
as establishing a school is con
cerned, and likewise prevails the
same condition in the northern
half of the town. Which now
would be the best, to have two
CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE