PULASKI M^ 

 tw,^n SOLUTION 



By J. c. Mccormick 



J. C. McCermick 



DOWN in Pulaski county we have 

 had a number of problems for 

 several years. We have had poor 

 schools primarily because we 

 lacked the money to pay for better 

 schools. We lacked the money 

 because our training was not the type to 

 enable us to earn it. 

 In an almost pure- 

 ly agricultural coun- 

 ty we have no schools 

 that offer an ade- 

 quate course in agri- 

 cultural, domestic 

 science or manual 

 arts. We have been 

 going around in a 

 ^^W ^^^H vicious circle having 

 l^lg j//^^^ poor schools because 

 of a lack of money 

 and lacking money 

 because of poor schools. We have a 

 similar vicious circle in transportation. 

 We have poor roads because we have 

 no money to pay for good roads and 

 we have no money because our transpor- 

 tation is so poor. 



Two vicious circles are enough for 

 any county but in Pulaski we suffer from 

 yet another. We have poor health be- 

 cause we lack the money to pay for 

 good medical care and we are unable 

 to earn to capacity because so many of us 

 are in {xwr health. 



We have recognized these problems 

 for a number of years but have felt that 

 we were too poor and untrained to cope 

 with them. We have looked to the Great 

 White Father in Washington for aid and 

 guidance in solving our troubles. 



Some of our leaders advised us that 

 the proper course to follow was to vote 

 Republican and then the Great White 

 Father in Washington would surely re- 

 member us down in Pulaski county. So 

 we voted Republican with great enthu- 

 siasm. After they were elected, the con- 

 gressman's sister-in-law got a good job 

 in Washington and his cousin got a post- 

 mastership in Pulaski county but the 

 schools were no better, the roads re- 

 mained muddy and the malaria still gave 

 us chills and fevers. 



About that time some of our leaders 

 declared that we had been poorly ad- 



14 



vised that if we voted for the Demo- 

 crats the Great White Father in Washing- 

 ton would see that we had good roads, 

 fine schools and no malaria. So we voted 

 Democratic with such energy and convic- 

 tion that all the Democrats were elected. 

 Then we thought our troubles were 

 over for the Great White Father in 

 Washington sent many of his learned 

 • men to Pulaski county to solve our prob- 



\^^e heard J. C. McCornikk, chairman 

 of the Pulaski County School Survey 

 Committee, make this talk several weeks 

 ago. We were impressed by his convic- 

 tions and believe you might he interested 

 in what another county down in southern 

 Illinois is trying to do. . . . The Editors. 



lems. They were great men. We knew 

 that because they were paid $10,000 per 

 year and since none of us in Pulaski 

 county could make that much money in 

 a year, we were sure that anyone who 

 could was truly a great man. 



These great men did strange things. 

 They built roads in the middle of the 

 winter by moving the mud from the side 

 of the road into the middle. That was 

 ail right with us because we realized that 

 they were great men getting $10,000 per 

 year and whatever they did must be wise. 

 But the Pulaski county mud being ignor- 

 ant and unappreciative didn't realize they 

 were great men and our roads became 

 even more impassable than before. 



In the summer time the great men tock. 

 our workers from the towns and the hills 

 where there were no mosquitoes and 

 moved them to the swamps where there 

 was an abundance of them. In the 

 swamps they dug ditches that were very 

 straight and had sides of exactly 43 de- 

 grees. But these ditches ended nowhere. 

 That was all right with us who realized 

 they were great men but the swamp water 

 being ignorant settled in these ditches 

 and the mosquitoes flourished in the late 

 summer and fall as well as in the spring. 

 And our malaria problem was worse than 

 before. 



About the time we were becoming 

 thoroughly discouraged the Illinois legis- 

 lature passed a law providing for the 



appointment of a survey committee to 

 make such recommendations for the im- 

 provement of the schools. We had just 

 about come to the conclusion that if our 

 problems were ever to be solved we 

 would have to do it ourselves so we ap- 

 pointed just common, everyday home- 

 folks to this committee. Most of them 

 were farmers. And when I say farmers 

 I don't mean people living on a country 

 estate and making their money in town. 

 1 mean the common, garden variety of 

 farmer who feeds the hogs, plows the 

 corn, tries to make payments on the mort- 

 gage and needs a lot of things that he 

 hasn't the money to buy. 



This committee decided at the begin- 

 ning that it would try to do three things: 



(a) Recommend a 1947 model edu- 



cational system. 



(b) Provide in that system for 

 growth and improvement. 



Make improvements in the 

 school system come from a 



i 



tricts wi 

 ers and 

 before c 

 The con 

 tem was 

 lete. 



The 

 Pulaski < 

 was that 

 and a co 

 under tl 

 have cha 



^COUNTV UNIT 

 ''SCMOOl. DISTRICT 



wiser expenditure of present 

 funds. 

 The committee maintained that all of 

 the children were equally entitled to an 

 education and all of the schools should 

 be equally good. It was obvious that 

 little improvement was possible without 

 considerable consolidation. But consoli- 

 dation requires transportation and trans- 

 portation requires roads. And before we 

 could have roads in Pulaski county we 

 would have to have a radical change in 

 our out-of-date road system. For 40 weary 

 years we had tried to build and maintain 

 roads under a system of small local dis- 

 tricts and for 40 years we had failed. 

 Under this out-of-date system are 14 dis- 



I. A. A. RECORD 



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(c) 



cit)' street 



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characteri 



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P< 

 None 

 by the sm 

 can be m 

 This CO 

 enabling 

 and Pulas 

 the legisl: 

 We wouli 

 from our 

 matter to 

 Accordi 



JUNE. 19 



