The child's acre is, as
a rule, then, as large as the largest, the most productive acre. And
roughly there are fifty thousand of those little plots in that domain--
fifty thousand sections a mile square, thirty-two million acres reserved
from the beginning of time, theoretically at least, to the end of time. As
a matter of fact, they are not to be distinguished objectively from other
acres now; they are to be distinguished only subjectively, that is, as one
thinks of what is grown year by year in the schools, to which their
proceeds, if not their products, are given.
I quoted above an estimate made in 1803 of what might have been done with
the fifteen million dollars, paid to the French for Louisiana. One
alternative suggested was the permanent endowment of eighteen hundred free
schools, allowing five hundred dollars a year per school and accommodating
ninety thousand pupils. The public-school allotment for that part of the
valley alone is fifteen million acres. Even at two dollars an acre (a very
low estimate), the endowment is twice the total amount paid for Louisiana
--and I am estimating this school acreage at but one thirty-sixth instead
of one-eighteenth of the total acreage.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249