Whole Town's Talking: Eldora, Iowa part 1

go ahead Eldora Iowa this is rage easy you are looking at Eldora Iowa population 3553 seat of Hardin County Iowa in eldora the whole town's talking over at the Congregational Church a mother tells clergyman Ralph imes that eldora's first responsibility is to take care of the education of its own children at the sales barn farmer Clampett insists that the farmers in Hardin County have the right to educate their own children in their own way in the county courthouse senator Bateson tries to convince the bailiff that every child in Hardin County should have equal opportunity for the best education possible January 10 1952 to eldora county seat with a problem comes television to catch the face and voice of America itself woi TV presents the whole town's talking here in eldora Iowa 12 citizens of Hardin County vote on an issue vital to their towns their lives their children this is one of three Eldora schools a good building but seriously overcrowded Eldora cannot afford enlargement or improvement other towns in Hardin County face similar problems within an hour in full view of the television cameras in this classroom before the eyes of their children here their neighbors watching at home and the entire quarter million viewing audience of wo ye be these 12 iowa citizens from witten actly Alden new providence hubbard Union iwasa Iowa Falls steamboat rock Eldora and Radcliffe will make a symbolic decision on how to solve the Hardin County School problem guiding them for the whole town's talking will be Ralph imes clergyman from Eldora Iowa and here on the whole town's talking vote board are the alternatives these people must face they can stay put keep all 53 Hardin County school districts as they are they can vote the county's 11 district plan in which each high school district would absorb its neighboring rural areas or they can choose the 528 plan calling for a survey leading to a merger of the present 11 high schools into five to eight districts this might mean better education for the children of Hardin County but would it destroy the spirit of the smaller towns this afternoon before free discussion and argument a secret ballot taken by these 12 on this issue was stay put one vote 11 districts six votes 528 plan 5 volts at the end of this program to inspire their whole county to take official democratic steps leading to the solution of hardened County's critical school problem they will vote again they will press these buttons on their desks which will light up their choice on the vote board before they decide they will listen closely to what Carl Hamilton has to say he's the editor of two newspapers the Iowa Falls citizen and the Hardin County Times Carl Hamilton was born in Carroll County he studied journalism at Iowa State College and then went to Washington and held various offices in the Department of Agriculture he's seen a lot of this country knows how other states solve their school problems and now he's back in Iowa Falls a crusading editor who has built his circulation to 3,500 readers his fighting editorials have aroused high praise and bitter opposition but Carl Hamilton keeps fighting keeps crusading for what he believes to be the highest good for his own children and the children of Hardin County it is the children who count first for Carl Hamilton it is the children for whom he demands the best education Hardin County can afford Carl Hamilton knows what it means to stand alone and tonight facing his neighbors in this Hardin County crisis he may be standing alone again because on the other side of this fight is been Jasper's a man highly respected in Hardin County been Jasper's came up the hard way in 1908 he was a country boy riding for miles to a town school on a one-eyed horse he was the first boy in his one-room school district to go to high school and the first to graduate Benson mother now he's seen a lot of improvements in schools but he wants them even better for his little grandson Kendall and the other children his neighbors trust him like him admire him they remember him as a boy who had been through sears reader only twice when he started town school at the age of 13 who had never been more than a dozen miles away from the farm where he was born he's seen hard times with them lived through three depressions now he's been Jasper's banker leading citizen of steamboat rock Iowa president of Hardin County School Board man of many pursuits he spent his whole life in an American small town he believes in a small town values in the home church the school he believes in the men and women who worked to keep them strong Ben Jasper's of the small town for the small town who tonight leads the fight to preserve what he believes to be a truly American Way of life been what do you think of this editorial here that Carl Hamilton carried the hardy county times on the january eight tuesday january the don't you think he was sort of sound at all oh well that's nothing new Carl's always sounding all you notice the headlines here it says proposed 11 administrative units in Hardin County Jasper's will show map with proposed units for the first time on television discussion Thursday night then just what is that well Ralph it is in fact that the Hardin County Board of Education did adopt a tentative map in their meeting last Monday afternoon but I suppose that you were referring here referring to the editorial that Carl and in there about the cart before the horse is that if that's right well Carl's always horsing around and I don't know that he's got a car to get a horse behind but the school question has been kicked around for a number of years in the state of Iowa and there are many groups and interested in it among which are the highway education are our educational Association and farm groups and many others who have an interest invested in school reorganization a number of years the law was passed which pretended to be a reorganization law but didn't work out very well because it was the kind of a thing that wasn't acceptable to the people of Iowa many people didn't like it that in all the people didn't like it for the simple reason that be that the thing was designed to be administered from the top down that's one of the objection the other great objection was that the law had a tendency to consolidator or contract the administrative units to one or two in the county now that was really what the law was designed for now we all know that the people of Iowa and the people of Hardin County don't go for that kind of a program now I think that the word organization is an ill children word a reorganization the mud the denotes defeat or distress failure and I'm sure that anonymous believe that the school program in the state of Iowa has ever been in that situation now then I think that a term to be used which would be far more acceptable is a school improvement program which is really what we're talking about now this this is nothing new in particularly in particular school improvement has been going on for year in Hardin County and in every other county in the state of our now there are some throughout the state that would have you believe that unless you do something radically or revolutionary that the whole educational system in the state of Iowa will collapse by its own weight of inefficiency we don't think that that's the case at all power school improvement is concerned it's been going on for 50 years now I don't think there's anybody going to dispute that statement because if they do it's just because they haven't been close enough to the educational program or that they haven't lived long enough now then we do have some maps here that we want to show you that the board is introduced and I'm going to just take the liberty of walking over here to show them at the present time the county is divided into fifty three districts 53 administrative units or in other words there are 53 boards of directors 53 school setups in the county that does not mean that we have necessarily 53 schools I'll come to that in just a few moment now to replace this present eration be you