I bet that secretly you’ve been dying for years to discover why the school newspaper is referred to as “The Budget”. I know that I personally have deliberated with my schoolmates regarding the name and none of us knew why it was called that. This led me on a quest to find answers.

Instead of answers, I found a few inconsistencies.

When I began searching through primary documents, I discovered that “The Budget” was originally called “The Mercury”. The name was changed in February of 1893 when the first issue of “The Budget” came out.

In the January 25th, 2012 issue of the paper in a Q&A article, it was revealed that the name was part of a campaign to raise money for a memorial to honor 18 servicemen of World War I. The servicemen were eventually honored in 1922 when Liberty Memorial High School, a.k.a Liberty Memorial Middle School nowadays, was built.

Obviously some things overlap here. Since “The Budget” originally came out in 1893, World War I hadn’t even occurred yet.

In my personal opinion, I don’t believe that the name change could have resulted because of the World War 1 servicemen. Instead, I believe “The Budget” had the name change for another purpose that isn’t known to us today.

It seems as though the mystery remains. On the bright side, I am ready to attempt to crack a new case: Why was the paper originally called “The Mercury”?