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to the northwest sixteen miles and got people into their school, when they 

 were nearer three other high schools better than theirs. A gentleman from 

 this town told me last Saturday night that it cost that town a thousand 

 dollars for every child that went to this school, and there is no building 

 fund there either. Now they are outrageous, that is all; they are unfair. 



Here was the town of Linden, that is on Rock River, too; up here is the 

 town of Mount Pleasant; here is Morrison, the county seat, with a good 

 school. These people formed a community high school district. They have 

 about sixteen schools. The first year it cost five hundred dollars for each 

 scholar. There is a hard road to Morrison. Here is a man living here, 

 nearer Morrison than he is to Linden, right on the township line. He pays 

 $115 tax in this district. He sends his boy to Morrison, where they have a 

 good school. He pays $95 tuition to go to Morrison. Here is his neighbor, 

 right across the road, in non-high school territory, pays $15. 



Weir, I could go on enumerating those conditions. Now, we want to be 

 fair and reasonable. We know that the city high schools are crowded, they 

 want relief in some way, and we met with farmers, with the business people 

 of Morrison last Saturday night and talked the matter over. They were 

 getting ready to spring a consolidated school district around the country 

 there, and I guess they would have been outvoted. We told them that we 

 wanted to pay for the education of our children; we are willing to do that, 

 wanted to do it, and we wondered how it could be done. They said that our 

 children that came to their school, paying the non-high school tax, don't 

 pay enough. That is, we pay for the maintaining of the school, for the 

 teaching, but they have got to have a building and they want relief in some 

 way for the building, interest, insurance, and everything of that kind. We 

 suggested to them an amendment of this non-high school tax, in which the 

 country children, instead of paying one rate, as they do now, would pay a 

 rate and a hall That would provide, they said, ample means for their 

 buildings. As it is under the community high school law in our county the 

 farmers pay from 60 to 80 per cent of the tax, and they send from 20 to 

 40 per cent of the children. 



We have a resolution along that line: 



WHEREAS, The farmers of Illinois are willing to pay the entire 

 expenses providing country children with the best possible educa- 

 tion; and, 



WHEREAS, Because of the fact that the farmers' property investment 

 in proportion to his income is much heavier than the average city 

 resident, the practical effect of the community high school law is to 

 compel farmers not only to pay for the education of their own children, 

 but to contribute a substantial sum toward the education of town and 

 city children as well; therefore, be it 



Resolved, That we demand the repeal of the law referred to and 

 the substitution of tuition laws requiring non-high school districts to 

 pay a rate of tuition based on the per capita operating cost of maintain- 

 ing these schools, including proper buildings and overhead charges. 



COMMUNITY PARK LAWS. 



Mr. ABBOTT: Here is something new which has come down the line 

 hitting the farmer, called the Community Park Law. A city wishes to 

 establish a park, and finding they do not have quite enough money, they go 

 out and take in a rural community, take in a township or two or three 

 townships; take in enough territory so as to reduce taxation in the city 

 quite materially. A farmer doesn't have as much necessity for a park as 

 the people in the city have; possibly he has woodlands of his own, at least 

 it isn't as necessary for him to go out in the park and exercise. 



WHEREAS, The Community Park Law makes it possible for the cities 



and villages to vote farm land into park districts without the consent 



of the owners, taxing it for the purpose and maintenance of city parks, 



which are of little or no value to the farmers; and, 



