Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1916 — COUNTY MUST HAVE AGRICULTURAL AGENCY [ARTICLE]

COUNTY MUST HAVE AGRICULTURAL AGENCY

Supreme Court Rules That Having Once Petitioned For One County Must Retain System.

Jasper county must employ a county agent. This is decreed by the state supreme court which has held that the county council had no right to refuse to make an appropriation. It holds, in substance, that once a county has complied with the plan fox- a petition and has made he donation of SSOO as a preliminary to securing an appropriation for $1,500, that thereafter the Council is compelled to each year appropriate $2,000 for the salary of a county agent. Ok G. Barrett was the man sent to Jasper county from Purdue university. After he had served a portion of the time there was considerable opposition to the county agent movement and when the county council was asked to make an appropriation for another year it declined-to-do so. Members claimed that their action was based upon a general disapproval of the pain. Percy Hauter, however, acting for some Who favored keeping a county agent, brought an action in the circuit court to mandate the oQuncil to . make Jhe ap-. propriation, The circuit court held that the council should make the appropriation and the council appealed to the supreme court. The latter has affirmed the decision. The opinion by Justice Spencer is briefed as follows:

“In 1913 the relators filed their petition with the board of education for a county agent to be appointed by Purdue and made their deposit of SSOO under the county agent law and the county council made its appropriation of $1,500 as required by law and Purdue appointed a county agent who served 'ufftil the funds were ex-

hausted, when he resigned, the county council refusing to make another yearly appropriation under the original petition and deposit contending that there should be another petition and deposit before they were required o act. ‘This appeal, however, presents the further question as to whether Sec. 12, having once become operative in a county, it is necessary annually to refile the petition therein provided for in order to continue its operation. We do not construe the law.’ (2) ‘Agricultural education, since the adoption of the law of 1913, has become a regular and important department in the school system of the state and its effective admhtfstration should not be handicapped by a stric construction of the prov/sions of that law.’ ”

It is probable that immediate steps will be taken to procure a county agent and it is hoped that an able man is secured for Jasper county. The salary is a good one and there is considerable independence of action granted an agent and the personality of the man is Important if satisfaction is to ensue. Lillo Hauter, Walter 0. Lutz and Faye Clarke, jail Jasper county boys, have graduated from the Purdue school and any one of them might be desirable and it would seem should be considered in employing one.