■362 Misso-uri Agricultural lie port. 



the same reasons, which must be apparent, do I object to towns of any 

 size becoming seats of the consolidated district. 



There is not time to marshal before you the many arguments in 

 favor of consolidation. It seemed best to attract your attention to prev- 

 alent conditions, feeling certain when you have taken time to consider 

 Missouri's high rank in wealth and importance and her low rank in 

 literacy, you will voluntarily investigate the' merits of measures recom- 

 mended for bettering rural school conditions. I urge everyone present 

 to secure a copy of the Report of the State Superintendent to the 45th 

 General Assembly and read the opening chapter, a startling array of 

 facts telling t]ie story of unequal school ■privileges that exist in this 

 state today, and his reeonmiendations. Then read the December, 1908, 

 Bulletin issued by the State Normal School at Kirksville on the "Con- 

 solidation of School Districts." This gives a digest of the subject show- 

 ing the advantages and great economy of the plan and describing differ- 

 ent types of centralized districts, also suggesting how to organize them. 

 If these two chapters could circulate in every school district in the 114 

 counties in the state before next April. I believe sentiment would be 

 aroused certain to express itself in a wiser use of the opportunity offered 

 to the annual school election and the voters of this State would see to it 

 that legislation for a more effective system of popular education would re- 

 ceive the best thought of their representatives in the next General As- 

 sembly. 



State Superintendent Gass is not certain but that consolidation 

 of schools is our next paramount issue: Dean Davenport at Urbana, 

 111., says : " It is coming. It is only a question of time and not a very 

 long time either. Consolidation is but a means to an end. and the end 

 is an adequate system of schools for farmers' children." 



Consolidation of school districts, indeed any new thing, is viewed 

 with suspicion, if not bitterly opposed because not understood, and the 

 advocate must be prepared to meet these two principal objections: 



(a) It costs too much. 



(b) Roads are not suitable for transportation. The Bulletin re- 

 ferred to will give facts and figures about the different degrees and 

 different kinds of consolidation, showing that good schools with less out- 

 lay, or hetter schools with the same outlay, is the general verdict. 



The problem of transportation has an important bearing on the 

 advancement of the idea of the centralized school. Roads will improve, 

 in Missouri, thanks to Ward King's simple inexpensive drag system of 



jjOTE— The Nature Study Review, December, 1908, Teachers' College, New York. 

 Second Report on Industrial Education in Rural Schools, Irwin Shepard, Winona, 

 Minn. 



