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Show THOUSANDS OF PETTY WASTES THAT MIGHT BE SAVED. The census bureau at Washington, D. C, bringH the information that the average rate of taxation per capita has increased from $9.22 to $13.01 in ten years. Few would have supposed that the raise was as large a proportion as this. It is the greatest single advance in cost of living. Other necessities hnve gone up, but few of them nre 50 pei cent more than they were ten years ngo. Whom hns the money gone? Of course public work is usually expensive. The public official's of-ficial's idea of efficiency is often cajoling voters and cultivating useful political friendships. But these conditions existed equally ten years ago, pcrhnps more so. The American people within the past few yenrs hnvo realized the inadequacy of a great ninny public services. As a better educated generation comes on, it demnnds still better facilities. As humanitarian ideas spread, more generous treatment treat-ment of the unfortunate is called for. Good roads, prison reform, charities, these cat up money fnst. No item of expense ever slips through more easily than n school appropriation. And in most Jilnccs no department hns advanced more rapidly n cost. Teachers' wages have risen rapidly. Our pcoplo arc no longer content with home trained teachers. They want snnitnry. hcnlthful, ventilated, ventil-ated, airy nnd sunshiny school buildings. They ought to hnve them. Increase in cost of government seems inevitable. inevit-able. But there are n thousand petty wastes that could be saved. And many needless extravagances extrav-agances could be cut off. The town thnt was once satisfied with a plain unornnmented school house now demnnds stone or buff.brick. A simpler sim-pler building would serve every purpose, except thnt of rivaling other towns. A hnlt must be called somewhere. Handsome public buildings do not draw in new residents ns fast ns n high tax rate drives them away. |