Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1916 — May Be Constitutional But Is Certainly Decidedly Unfair. [ARTICLE]

May Be Constitutional But Is Certainly Decidedly Unfair.

The law compelling trustees to build high schools against- the wishes of taxpayers looks like a high handed case of taxation without representation, the main cause of the revolutionary war and the thing which caused the famous Boston “tea party.” R. L. Budd calls our attention to the fact that the higher courts have already held constitutional the law requiring township trustees to erect high school buildings under certain conditions. The case that reached a decision originated in Randolph county. It would seem that a law that compels a trustee to perform an act imposing taxation wnere every taxpayer might object should not stand and we had believed would not stand, but since the freak democratic legislature of the last few years, widen have imposed expensive and tax burdening laws on every hand, it seems impossible to find relief from any quarter. When plans to build roads or ditches are started provision is made for remonstrance and it takes a clear majority in order to secure the” improvement. Doubtless all law is framed with a view to forcing public improvements and there is no other thing so important as providing for adequate educational facilities for the children, but even at that no law should compel a public official to impose a tax burden on a people without a reasonable number of the taxpayers favored such act and the freak and wholly unjust law does not make any provision for defeat .even though every taxpayer was opposed to_ the plan. This is, generally speaking, a country of majorities and Trustee Hammerton, of Union township, regards himself as a servant of the tax-payers.-of Union township and he would proceed at once to erect a high school building if he believed it was wanted by any considerable per cent of the people of the township, but he knows that from 75 to 90 per cent of the taxpayers are opposed to it and he believes his duty lies with that per cent rather than it does to- -conformto a law passed by a freak legislature. Fair Oaks and Parr constitute a large part of the population of Union township. Each town is in need of a good school house, a modern, properly lighted and ventilated building. No one knows this better than County Superintendent Lamson. Five of the eleven teachers of Union township and 50 per cent of the pupils go to school in those towns and it is unfair to them to deny them the facilities they need and the law properly has sought to give them. If -Mr. Lamson wants to prove his deep interest in the welfare of the educational interests of Union township he will put his shoulder to the wheel and help put up two new school houses during the coming two years. The wretched conditions existing at Parr should appeal to his sense of humanity and he should see that it were far better to provide a proper and healthy building for the pupils of that school in j^formity--t©-~tl^-wishes-----c-f-cver3r fair-minded person in Union township than to try to force an expense of $12,000 to >515,000 on the taxpayers when only a small handful of taxpayers want it done. Rensselaer affords, and is easily accessible, excellent high school advantages, for all those in Union township who seek to continue their studies after they have completed the common schools. Even if a hig school was erected in Union township it could not hope to get all the common school graduates and it would be had economy, poor judgment and questionable motive that would cause any person to try to force a condition of this kind, the state legislature and the supreme court to the contrary notwithstandWe believe that there will be enough men in the 1917 legislature who can see the crime of such a law and who will unite to lift it from the shoulders of the victims it has sought to make.