The Monmouth herald., March 12, 1909, Image 2

The Herald
W. T. FOCLE, Editor.
Enteral u second -c law matter September 8, 1908,
at the poat office at Monmouth, Oregon, under the
Act of March 8, 1879.
ISSUED KVERY FRIDAY, BY
The Acorn Press, Publishers
Monmouth, Oregon.
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FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1909
BYWAY OF COMPARISON.
Were the normal school ques
tion alone to be considered
were there no mistake to rectify
with regard to appropriations
for necessary improvements at
state institutions it would still
be the duty of the legislature to
meet in special session.
Common business honor to
ward the normals demands that
their affairs be wound up in a
legitimate manner. No school
can arrange for its contracts and
obligations to end in the middle
of the school year. No teacher
would teach, no pupil would
consent to be taught, under such
conditions. The honest debts
of the normals must be paid if
Oregon would save itself from
shame. Graduates of eastern
normal schools and col
leges teaching in Weston are
positively aghast at Oregon's
seeming disregard of ordinary
decency toward its schools. They
are or have been state institu
tions, yet , are abandoned with
out a dollar with every obliga
tion to their teachers and stu
dents unfulfilled.
The Leader has an interest
ing document on file in its office
in proof that they are state insti
tutions. It was sent by Mr.
Dunbar, former secretary of
state, who curtly informed this
paper of the decision of the at
torney -general to the effect that
the constitution forbade that we
should be paid for any job print
ing done for the Weston school,
since it was a state institution
and its work should be done at
the state oflice. At this very
time Mr. Dunbar was quietly
adding to his personal account
illegal fees that amounted, it is
charged, to 100,(100 during his
term of oflice.
This reminds us that (he nor
mal schools are the scapegoats
for every dollar appropriated by
the state, and suffer vicarious
atonement for every alleired
gralt.
The $."00,000 given to the
Portland fair did not bring a
dollar into Umatilla county and
took thousands out of the pockets
of our citizens; yet the fair was
hailed as a blessing while Uma
tilla county's normal school is
stigmatized as a graft.
The Crater lake road, useful
only to bug-buzzing tourists, gets
$100,000 without a protest from
a single Portland newspaper, yet
each tries to see who can club
the normal schools the hardest.
The portage railway at Celilo
gets $75,000 in addition to $175
000 formerly appropriated. At
the same time it shows receipts
of about $3000 annually and ex
penditures of about $9000. This
road is undoubtedly of value as a
regulator of freight rates, yet it
costs the state a pretty penny to
'regulate," counting the interest
on that quarter of a million in
vested.
It is quite likely a good thing-
for somebody. We do not know
and are not here to criticise.
Yet so is the training of teachers
of undoubted value to the state,
and its physical divisions are
such that it positively needs
three normals. Massachusetts
has eight we believe and the
man who would condemn them
as grafts would be sought for by
the museums
The Agricultural college got
$370,000 and very likely was en
titled to every dollar. It is doing
a great work. Yet at this rate
its 142o students cost the state
about $125 annually each. The
Eastern Oregon State Normal
has had $17,500. annually for
the past two years-the largest
amount it ever received. Just
before its recent troubles it had
172 actual attendance in its nor
mal department, aside from 100
in the training school, which we
do not count. At this rate its
students cost about $100 annual
ly each; and more than 00 per
cent come from counties outside
of Umalilla. It is a bona fida
Eastern Oregon institution, and
the legislature will find that it
has lots of friends. It only be
comes a local institution when
Weston has to help it out, which
the town is doing right now with
a fund that has reached $3000
with the aid of other contribu
tions from outside towns. Ten
acres of land and a brick build
ing were among Weston's gifts
in the past.
And the University also,
which has a handsome perma
nent maintenance that we did
all in our power to aid in secur
ing. Oregon needs this institu
tion, but the normals are no
more a graft than it is, and their
graduates, we warrant, do not
cost, me siaie as mucn "per
head." In fact, the graduates
of the devoted and gallant Mon
mouth Normal, whose history
has been one of struggle and
sacrifice, are not at present cost
ing the state a dollar. Call the
Monmouth Normal a graft and
then call the Angel Gabriel a
thief for the larceny of his golden
trumpet.
The district fairs get money,
the experiment station gets
money, the asylum, pen, reform
schools, etc., get more moiuiy;
the coyote counties get bounty
funds-money goes out in streams
from the state treasury for every
conceivable purpose- and only
the normal schools are "grafts."
Oh, but this is a tiresome word
to those of us who have time
and again gone into our personal
pockets for the aid of these state
schools.
The normal school question
ought to be submitted to the
people for linal decision as to
whether they want one, two,
three or none. And if the leg
islature wants to be fair it will
do more than run the schools
until June; it will give them a
chance to live until the real ar
biter of their fate-the sovereign
people of the state of Oregon
have had a chance to speak. The
legislature would be assuming
too much to abolish them arbi
trarily and the heaviest tax
payers of Umatilla county, re
presented in the Farmers' Edu
cational and Co-operative Union
have protested against such
action bv resolution addressed
to Governor Iienson. Weston
Leader.
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