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About The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942 | View Entire Issue (March 12, 1909)
OEMS 1BMI51 i 1 ODES II OF THE ill TO PEOPLE (Oregon Daily Journal.) Weston, Or., March 2. To the Ed itor of the Journal Were the normal school system alone to be considered were there no mistakes to ratify with regard to appropriations for ne-. cessary improvements at state instl-tutlons-it would still be the duty of the legislature to meet in special ses-i ion. , . Common business honor toward the normals demands that there af fairs be wounl up in a legitimate manner. No school can arrange for its contracts and obligations to end ii the middle of fthe 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 from eastern normal schools and colleges teaching in Wes ton are positively aghast at Oregon's anemintr disregard or ordinary de cency toward its .schools. They are, or have been state Institutions, yet are abandoned without a dollar, with every obligation to their teachers and students unfulfilled. I have an interesting document on file in my office in proof that they are state institutions. It was sent me by Mr. Dunbar, former secretary of secretary of state, and curtly in formed me concerning the decision of the attorney general to the effect that the constitution forbade that I should be paid for Job printing done for the Weston school, since it was a state institution and its work should be done by the state printer, At this very time Mr. Dunbar was quietly adding to his personal bank account unearned fees that amounted, it is charged, to $100,000 during his tfrm of office. This reminds me that the normal schools are the scapegoats for every dollar appropriated by the state, and suffer vicarious atonement for every alleged graft. The $500,000 given the Portland fair did not bring a dollar ,into Umatilla county, and took thou sands out of the pockets of our cltl 5!nii! vet the fair was hailed as a blessing, while Umatilla county's nor mal 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 Port land newspaper, yet each tries to see which can club the normal schools the hardest. The portage railway at Celilo gets $75,000, in addition to $175,000 for merly appropriated. At the same time it shows receipts of about $9000 this road is undoubtedly of value as a regulator of freight rates, yet it costs the state a great penny to "regulate," counting the interest on that quarter of a million invested. It is quite likely a good thing for some body. I do not know, aad am not here to criticise. Tet so Is the training of teachers of undoubted value to the state, and Its physical divisions are such that it pos itlvely needs three normals. Massa chusetts has eight, I believe, and the man who would condemn them as grafts would be sought for by the dime museums. The agricultural college got $370, 000, and very likely was entitled to every dollar. It is doing a great work. Yet at this rate its 1425 stu dents cost the state about $125 an nually each. The Eastern Oregon Normal school has had $17,500 an nually for the past two years the largest amount it ever received, Just before Its recent troubles it had 172 actual attendance in its normal department, aside from 100 in the irtLlIMfIg BUI1UU1, W111U11 I UU HUL UUUiU, At this rate its students cost about $100 annually each, and more than 60 per cent of them come from counties other than Umatilla. It is a bonaflde eastern Oregon instituti on, and the legislature will find that it has hosts of friends. It only be comes a local institution when Wes ton has to help it out, which the town is doing right now, with a fund that has reached $3000, with the aid of other contributions from outside towns. Ten acres of ground and a brick building' were among Weston's gifts in the past. And the state university also, which has a handsome permanent mainten ance fund that I did all in my power ti aid In securing. Oregon needs this institution, but the normals are no more a graft than it is, and their graduates we warrant do not cost the state so much "per head." In fact, the graduates of the Aevoted and gallant Monmouth' normal, whose history has been one of struggle and sacrifice, are not at present costing the state a dollar. Call the Mon mouth normal a graft, and then call the Angel Gabriel a thief for the lar ceny of his golden trumpet. The district fair gets money; the experiment station gets money; the asylum, penitentiary, reform school etc., get more money, the coyote counties got bounty funds money goes out in streams from the state treasury for every conceivable pur poseand only the normal schools are "grafts." Oh, but this Is a tire some world to those of us who have time and again gone Into our person al pockets for the aid of these state schools. '.. . The normal school question ought to be submitted to the people for fin al decision as to whether they want one, two, three or none. And if the legislature wants to be fair it will do more than run the schools until June; it will give them a chance to live un til the real arbiters of their fate the sovereign people of the state of Ore gon have had a chance to speak. The legislature would be assuming too much to abolish them arbitrarily and the heaviest taxpayers of Uma tilla county, represented in the Farm rs' Educational and Co-operative union, have protested .against such action by resolution addressed to Governor Benson. , CLARK WOOD. WHAT LEADING LEGISLATORS SAY. (Continued from Page Five.) Those who accuse the Oregon normal school of "log-rolling" can- 4 not point to a single example of vicious legislation for which they are 4 responsible. grades for practice schools." Presi dent Graham, Maine, Normal. "We prefer the smaller schools on account of the closer touch possible between student and teacher, and the better opportunity for practice teach ing." President Mankota, Minn., Normal. "A number of small ones. Accom modate more pupils and keep in bet ter touch with common schools." President Woodbine, Iowa, Normal. "The area most adjacent to a nor mal school Is most effective. Hence there is a greater stimulus from a number of schools." President Charleston, Illinois, Normal. , The closer you put a school to the people the more of them you reach." President Jacksonville, Alabama, Normal. "Competition is as necessary in de veloping ideals in educational instl tutlons of efficiency as in business." President Newpaltz, N. L., Normal. redwood, will no longer flood with radiance the intellectual and musical gatherings that responded to the calls for normal entertainments. The ex quisite bas-relief of Aurora, the last alumni gift, will please no longer the artistic sense of the normal's guests and the magnificent pictures upon the walls of the ossembly room will but accentuate the prevading gloom. The $40,000 main building, for which no caretaker has been provided, will ultimately fall Into decay. The hats and the owls will roost in its belfry and the rats and the cockroaches seek refuge in its corridors, stairways and recitation rooms. There are books in plenty, but none to read; pianos, but none to play; classrooms equipped with every article of school furniture, but none to teach or recite; labora tories, but none to experiment; a kin dergarten for the training school, kl .nl 111Am A no TVI TM1Q till nA students to make merry thereon with athletic sports and games. Of a ver ity, it is easier to destroy than to create. The splendid work of years has been undone in a few fateful days by the iconoclasts of the Oregon senate. STATE NEEDS THREE. RepreHentatlve Mahone's Views of tile Normal Problem. (Oregon Daily Journal.) Portland, Or., Feb. 23. In the be ginning of the session I took the po sition that the state should maintain the three schools. This belief was concurred in by the majority of the members of the house. When we saw that it was impossible to appropriate for the three, the house endeavored in every possible way to effect some compromise that would take care of the schools at the present, and put the matter up to the people of the state to settle at the coming elec tion. The senate refused and com promise and stood upon its high pre rogative of abolishing and doing away with all three of the schools; repudi ating the contract that was made by the state, through its board of re gents, that we should not even ap proprlate enough money to pay for the salaries that we contracted for. I think that it is a disgrace to our state In the treatment that it has given to these men and women who have al ready made sacrifices that the schools might be maintained as well a? 800 students now In these instltu tions who are compelled to give up their work in the midyear. I understand that in one of the nor mals that the salaries of the teachers are back now more than two months; also that there are about 80 young men and women who were expected to graduate at the end of the fiscal but It is also an outrage that these people will not be permitted to carry out their part of the contract and teach up to the end of the fiscal year, but Is Is also an outroge that these students who have been three of four years in these institutions should be deprived of graduating at this time. If the legislature had provided for the salaries and the maintenance of Jhese Institutions up until the end of the fiscal year, then the matter could be decided by the people as to the die position that we should make of the normal schools. While I bellve most firmly, that the time will come when the state will need them, when they came into existence they probably were not needed. The geographical location of each school is such that should one be taken away, it would deprive that section of the state, that Is entirely cut off from the other two sections, of not having a normal training school; so the time will come when these or kindred institutions be needed for the training of our teachers. Previous to the meeting of the legislature, I looked into the nor mal school question as best I could relative to a comparison to other states. In Massachusetts, where the aormal schools first came into existence, their policy has been not to have more than 200 students in an institu tion at one time. Their experience has demonstrated the fact that when they go beyond the 200 mark that that they cannot do effective work. These schools are founded and main tained primarily for the purpose of training teachers, and if we are to maintain an efficient common school system In this state, we must have well trained teachers. So, in case a special session is called, I shall demand that the con tract made by the state through its boards of regents shall be carried out and that these teachers shall be paid Ir. full up to the end of the fiscal year before I shall vote for senate bill No. 254. The question then as to the three schools can be determined by the people later. L. D. MAHONE. Peace to its Asnes. (Weston Leader, Feb. 26.) reace to the ashes of the Eastern Oregon state normal school. The bright sunlight will stream through ita broken windows upon a scene of desolation and decay. The statue of Minerva, majestic, silent. Inscrutable. will gaze upon an empty assembly hall, whose seats were erstwhile filled with ambitious students. The busts vt Lincoln, Sappho and Pestalosio. orlorn upon their pedestals, will tave none to inspire with feats of emulation. The beautiful chandel iers, suspended from massive beams of Oregon's Vllliflcatlon. (Ashland Valley Record, March 3.) The Oregonlan's Incident slanders and misrepresentations of the nor mal schools of the state for the past several years have given the schools an undeserved reputation among many people of being institutions that were not giving a fair return to the taxpayers of the state for the money appropriated. The Oregonlan's statements con sisted of a rigmarole varied from year to year, though it was vigorous ly applied, elaborated and illuminat ed during the weeks that the Oregon legislature was considering appro priation bills. . One specific charge is The schools being located in vari ous parts of the state their coun ty delegations were compelled to stand for them, regardless of their merit as state institutions, that the result was combination on other mat ters before the legislature for consid eration, and a log roll the work of which wrought injury to the state taxpayers in sustaining the normal schools; that one of the schools at one season (many years ago) secured some kind of an appropriation by switching one vote in a critical per iod In a contest that resulted in the election of a United States senator. Granting the Oregonian's state ments are literally true, and that Its time-worn, hoary-headed story about that one vote breaking a senatorial deadlock at a certain hour, secured an appropriation for a normal school, and granting that the senator (who ever the tale might say his name was) proved to be the "rottenist" one Oregon ever delivered at Wash ington, D. C, yet what assurance have we that the millenium will set in the day the one normal rears its "head at Portland? What assurance has the prejudiced Willamette valley taxpayer farmer that he will be re lieved of log-rolling then? What information has he that ev en Portland's desire to slaughter the three normals did not cost him some thing as a log roll already? The Portland Telegram, Senator Bowerman's chronicler, after the ad journment gave Portland people the information that the Eastern Oregon creature that the Portland politicians had made president of the senate, had "carefully organized' the ways and means committee as well as oth er committees so that if the senate really wanted to wipe out the schools, the opportunity was present." Also that "he was assisted by a number of senators who had voted together on a number of other measures." Who was this interesting aggrega tion? They were the senators rep resenting the prospective beneficiary and the senators from the peniten tiary and asylum districts and made every appropriation allowed to go through the senate pay tribute to killing three normals and erecting one In Portland. , When the final ap propriations the senate combine al lowed to become laws were itemized, it was found that even though the "awful normal grafters" did not get a cent, the appropriations made by the legislature reached a high-water mark for the state of Oregon. In order to destroy the normals in the interest of Portland's lust, the senate handed the state a second Insane asylum, a , boulevard road across the Cascade mountains to Cra ter lake, a scalp bounty law, $350,000 for a new wing to the old asylum, the removing of the deaf mute school Into the city of Salem from a point seven miles out of town, and other new features here and there all over the state, and yet when we read the Oregonian We are solemnly advised that if it was not . for the normal schools Harvey Scott would surely make Oregon take the place of "Billiken, the God of Things as They Ought to Be." Mr. Ayer's Conversion. (East Oregonian, Feb. 26.) Now Regent Ayer of the normal school board comes forth with a prop-, osition in favor of two normal schools, one for eastern and one for western Oregon. This is the same Ayer who submitted the minority re port favoring but one normal school and that in or near Portland. Now that the normal schools have been slain, Mr. Ayer admits that he was wrong. He admits that he had not fully investigated the subject. It is too bad he did not make this admis sion while the legislature was still in session. This post mortem con' version is not very satisfactory. Nevertheless Mr. Ayer is right when he says that there should be an east ern Oregon normal school. We need a normal school and always will There are 15 counties in eastern Oregon and they constitute two-thirds the area of the state. These counties want good schools. But to have good schools they must have good teachers and they cannot have the latter unless provision is made for normal training in eastern Oregon. Eastern Oregon young people will not go abroad to secure normal training. A few will do so of course, but thoso who do will not furnish one-tenth enough teachers for eastern Oregon. Most of those who go abroad for normal training also teach abroad. Provision should be made for offer ing normal instruction during the next two years. If the people of Wes ton can keep their school going, re lying upon the state to support it after the next session of the legis- lature, very well. If they cannot do so, then a good strong normal course should be provided for in either the Pendleton academy or the Pendleton high school. True, the fight is over now and fur ther argument at this time may seem useless. But the subject of normal education will come up again. It is well that the people should know the truth abput the matter and it is for this purpose the subject is treated here. The susbtance of the whole matter is that th normal schools were viciously slandered and then killed, when they should have been support- ed and encouraged. Some day the people of Oregon will find this out if they do not know the fact already. East Oregonian. Enemies of the school charge tha they cost $1000 per annum per stu dent. But the figures show the cost to be close to $75 per annum. This is a wide discrepancy. Then it was shown on the floor of the senate by Senator Smith, who fought hard and consistently for the normal schools, that the annual cost per normal stu dent is lar less than the per cap'.ta cost for university students. East Oregonian. HUB VIEW OF THE STATE 4 I J - I PRESIDENT R . C. FRENCH, (By F, D. Wagner, in Sunday Orego nian.) , ,' ' Observing that the Oregon, since the adjournment of the legislature, has lifted the lid a trifle at least and has allowed an expression from one friend of the normal school grafts to be printed in its columns, I appeal for space for a few humble observa tions from this section of Oregon, the home of another one of these al leged grafts. I want to emphasize to begin with that we are rather a simple country folk out here, humble, albeit honest as a rule, and have been taught ruth fully to observe our political allegi ance to the state of Oregon and pay our tribute to its commercial center, Portland. In our humbleness and simplicity we read with satisfaction in the Ore gonian two years ago that as a solu: tlon of the normal school question, which it was alleged had vexed legis latures for years, it had been decided by our wise representatives assembled at Salem to constitute one board of regents for the state normal schools, and not only to administer them, but also to make report to the next leg islature after a careful study and in vestigation of the subject, of a per manent normal school policy. This board in its wisdom saw fit to recog nize the need for providing each of the three natural geographical sec tions of Oregon with normal school fac'.lities, and recommended the per manent maintenance of the three schools already established at Weston, Monouth and Ashland, with appro priations for .maintenance and build ings that would be commensurate with their needs and creditable to state institutions. These regents did not ask our opinion nor did we at tempt to thrust it upon them. Our great governor saw fit not only to approve this plan, but in his message read at the opening of our late la mented legislature recommended! ttt to favorable consideration in this au gust body. , As was hinted before, being simple folks but honest, we naturally felt very much gratified at the favor shown 'by' the board of regents upon our section of the state, and took it for granted the action of this board would settle the matter In a general way at least. For the board was cre ated by the legislature, and we fool ishly thought that the legislature would heed the recommendations of its creatures. And this impression seemed to pre vail among most citizens of the state until toward the closing days of the recent session, when a sudden and terrific onslaught was made upon these schools. They were charged with being grafts, and everybody around around Salem and Portland (at least those whqse names got in the papers) seemed to ' forget that there was or ever had been a state board of regents of normal schools charged "with the work of investiga ting this question carefully. For the reports or recommendations of this board were not called for and the governor's recommendations were, also, it seemed, entirely forgotten. The newspapers ran amuck, and the mention of normal schools was to them like waving a' red flak at a bull. The papers spread their infec tion and members of the legislature echoesd the grafting sentiments. When the battle reached the senate fury seemed to reign., The chairman of the ways and means committee would lose his head at the mere suggestion of an appropriation for three normal schools, as recommended by the board of regents. The president of the senate found himself called upon to leave his exalte'd chair and climb down to the level of common mem bers of the senate, where ' he de nounced these schools and said in ef fect they were conceived in iniquity and born of legislative log-rolling. We, as stated before, being simple folk but honest, were surprised and astounded at such declarations, and began to wonder. We thought these schools had been such great boons to the young and ambitious In all sec tions of the state, as we knew the school here had been to southern Ore gon. Our 'wonder grew when we in vestigated and found that this same president of the senate as a member of previous sessions of the legislature had voted for the support and main tenance, of these Institutions. What did his changed course mean? We were stunned with wonderment and could only watch in amazement the assassination in the senate accom plished. . ." But our eyes are opening. We are still dutiful and have continued to read the Portland newspapers since the legislature adjourned and are finding out some things. For in stance, one of the bright young leg islative reporters of the Evening Tele gram, in the issue of February 22, tells how it all happened in a nut shell: "The breaking up of the nor mal school combination was chiefly the work of President Jay Bowerman. He refused to appoint a normal man oh the ways and means committee, and carefully organized other com mittees so that If the senate really wanted to wipe out the schools the opportunity was present." So you see we are not so simple minded as we were before. We have learned that the senate was "framed up," as they call it, against normal schools, all apparently In the interest of a one-normal-school-at-Portland plan, which was never broached to the people of the state generally un til it came up in the legislature, and was never suggested by any consider able number of people. Did Bower-' man pay this price for his Job as president, with its possible perquisites of the actios governorship? ' But, really, now, isn't it , a' dirty shame and a disgrace the way the leg islature treated the normal schools the middle of a term, with forces of teachers employed ' and contracted with by the state's agents, the nor mal regents, for the full school year, and no money to pay them." With hundreds of students whose tuition money for the full term has been col lected and put in the state treasury, from which it cannot be extracted, clamoring for a fulfillment of the contract on the part of the state to give them instruction for the remain der of the year; with graduates who have spnt three and a half years in study now threatened with the dis crediting of their work in these schools, much of it done at a great sacrifice. Isn't it a shameful spec tacle, even as the legislators them selves may view it in their sober senses? Only three states in the union, we are told, are now in the class with Oregon In not supporting state nor mal schools Wyoming, Nevada and Delaware. With our bid for desirable Immigration from the states further east, what kind of an impression will the news that Oregon has repudiated its normal schools make? What will Tom Richardson say to circumvent it? And, honestly, besides, wasn't it a cowardly thing to do to assassinate the existing schools the way the sen ate did? If the people of Oregon want one normal school let them have a chance to express themselves upon it. But In fair play let them have a free rein to make the selection of the location. But let them also have a free rein to express themselves for or against the solution of the normal state tkard of regents calling for the ; support of the three existing schools at Achlnnrl WHtnn and ' Monmouth. UNION FARMERS ACT. Resolutions Are Passed Urging a Special Session. Our farmers are aroused over the normal school situation. They pay taxes, as well as the farmers of the Willamette valley, and feel that East ern Oregon is entitled to recognition in an educational way. The fanners of this section have identified themselves with the Farm ers Educational . and Co-operative Union, and are strongly organized. Farmers Union No. 6 met and un animously passed a resolution ask ing Governor Benson to call a special session of the legislature. This doc ument was signed by the entire mem bership, over forty in number, and forwarded to the governor. Farmers Union No. 7 immediately followed with a similar - resolution, which is published below. Many of the heaviest tax payers in Umatilla county are represented am ong the signatures to these docu ments: Hon. F. W. Benson, Governor of Oregon: We, the officers and members of Farmers' Union No. 7 . . of Umatilla county, state of Oregon, denounce in unmeasured terms, the action of the late legislature in cutting off the ap propriation for the maintenance of the State Normal schools, thereby de moralizing the educational system of the state and creating a false impres sion in the minds of prospective set tlers. . We earnestly request that you call a special session of the legislature to provide for the maintenance of the normal schools until , the normal school question can be settled by the power of the Initiative, or until it is placed on a permanent basis at a reg ular session of the legislature. Signed by J; H. Price, " President; W. A. Barnes, Vice President; D. C. Kirk, Secretary, and others. "Advertising Oregon." . '",... (Salem Capital Journal.) The senators voted to abolish the normal schools and established a state institution for consumptives at a cost of $45,000. ' , Is that a good way to advertise Ore gon? The senate strikes down training schools for public school teachers. It establishes another asylum in eastern Oregon. Is that a good way , to advertise Oregon? vi. . ; The senate passed a bill that every young , man must be examined by a physician before he can get a mar riage certificate, to show that he hai no vile disease. j That is to advertise the young man hood of Oregon. , We display our .defects, advertise our liabilities and conceal our assets too much. , ; We hide our virtues, reveal our de fects and advertise our vices. , ; We appropriate money for armor ies, for horse racing establishments, for salmon hatcheries; we create new offices from deputy constables to su preme judges in defiance of the con stitution all to advertise Oregon. If the normal schools have been a graft, then the angel at the door of heaven is also a grafter. In the nor mal schools heads of departments have been working for salaries that ' would be scorned by store clerks. They have been doing work of the utmost importance on salaries that scarcely were their living ex penses. At Monmouth the profes sors have offered to work the re mainder of the school year for S7& per month each in order that the stu dents may comtpete their work". In that school nr mma of tti atwtne-est educators in the state. , They are showing a self sacrifice that is com mendable. Tet these men are called grafters. East Oregonian.