LA CROSSE COUNTY HISTORICAL SKETCHES

attend the changes for improvement he made sure of the unwavering
support of a majority of the board before the new regulations were
put in force. Teachers had to be in their rooms twenty minutes before
opening; pupils had to be in place at roll call, and were liable to sus-
pension after a limited amount of absence for any reason other than
sickness; a start was made towards furnishing pens, pencils and other
materials and eventually free text books. In substance many are still
in force. Loud and long was their denunciation as tyrranical, unjust,
arbitrary interference with the right of any parent to keep his child
out to go errands whenever he saw fit. But the Board stood firm. Time
lost through needless absence decreased greatly and tardiness dropped
from more than one thousand cases a month to much less than one
hundred with a corresponding increase in the efficiency of the work.
I entered the corps when he was President of the Board and am glad
to say that I was infected in part at least by his spirit,-otherwise I
Swould not have the record of more than twenty years of continuous
service without being once tardy.
     When chairman of the State Democratic Committee it was largely
 through his organizing ability that such a rock-ribbed Republican state
 as Wisconsin was carried for Cleveland. He was a strong Democrat but
 that he was not hide-bound is shown by the fact that he voted for
 Hoover in preference to Gov. Smith. When     Mayor it was largely
 through that same organizing ability that the first long step in civic
 improvement was taken laying forty blocks of brick pavement, and
 later in the creation of the Park Commission and its results. He also
 served two terms as United States Consul General at Montreal.
     March 9th, 1914, Dr. and Mrs. Anderson celebrated their golden
 wedding, and that spring made their second trip to Europe. On their
 way home they visited Gray and while out walking Mrs. Anderson com-
 plained of feeling ill and sat down on the steps of the house they were
 passing, which chanced to be the one in which she was born. Within
 five minutes the end came.
     If I were to characterize the eighty-eight years of his life with a
 single word it would be, SERVICE. I fully believe that if Doctor and
 Mrs. Anderson could speak to you here tonight they would approve the
 action of his sons in continuing that spirit in this generous gift which
 puts us under lasting obligation for its continuance.


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