The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-02-15

emy. More than this: one hundred
and forty of the University students
were in the preparatory department,
whose course of instruction is far be-
hind that of the middle classes of the
Academy. Fully half Of the pupils at
the Academy were far in advance OF
these one hundred and forty University
students. The young men prepared at
the Academy entered easily the Junior,
and sometimes the Senior, classes in the
best Colleges of the country, and their
subsequent standing was of the highest
order. Indeed, it as generally admit
ted, that those young men were, as a
rule, closer students and more thorough
scholars than even the graduates of
many Western Colleges.
1t can fairly be claimed for the Uni
versity that it has fine array of Pro-
fessors and officers with ostentatious
titles and degrees, and with salaries
amounting to something like $4,000.
In this respect the Academy, with its
four or five teachers st salaries ranging
from $3.50 to $500 each, was certainly
deficient. But when we examine the
work done by the two institutions, and
compare the cost, it may well be in.
quired whether in going so largely into
the University business the State has
not sacrificed substantial value to
parade and pretsnsiOn. Feeling nat.
ural interest in the University as State
institution, the people cannot fail to
hope for its success and to promote that
success with all reasonable aid, but
when they see in its catalogue OF
students fourteen reasons why it should
be considered q College and enc hundred
and forty reasons why it should be
deemed a preparatory school, they will
certainly hesitate before they endow it
still farther beyond its actual needs. If
it were possible for money alone to
build up first class College in our
State, one that would rank with similar
institutions of the East, not oaly in out
side appearances, costly buildings,
splendid apparatus and high-titled in
structors, but il the number aud schol
arship of its students, then if the State
were fraucially easy, We would favor
giving it all the money that could be
honestly and adyautageously used. But
cash alone, it seems, won't accomplish
thtss ends. One hundred and fifty odd
thousand dollars already invested have
only produced the discouraging results
we have mentioned. This fact, tax en-
in connection with the distressed con-
dition of the State finances, must make
our legislators ponder well the propo-
sition of further appropriations for the
University's benefit.
Other considerations teud to bring
about the same conclusion. There are
not wanting the ugliest rumors of ex
travagance and corruption in the work
already done on the University build
ing. One of the first citizens of Nor
gantown remarked in this city few
days ago, that a large amount ought to
have been saved of the sum expended in
the partial completion Of that work.
When it is not certain that the money
will be judciouSly laid out, no appro.
priatioA should be thought of.
We know nothing of the salaries paid
the members of the faculty, nothing OF
the time they devote to their duties.
We infer, however, from the sCauty at
tendance of higher class students that
the Professors i'll the upper departments
have more or less leisure, and this in
ference is confirmed by the at t'ention
some of them have been giving, not
this Winter alone, to the business of
lobbying about the Legislature. If the
needs of the institution are such that
cash must he had, and especially IL its
prospect, Of future patronage are as
stunninga as represented, slight in
crease of the exsrtion made by some of
the faculty ia procuring appropriations,
ought to realize an abundant endow-
ment from the sale of scholarships. If
the people of the State are sufficiently
interested in the University to approve
heavy appropriations for its benefit,
they are sufficiently interested to buy
scholarships and save the State Treas.
ury.
This idea will lie approved the more
it is reflected upon. But single diff
fculty occurs, viz: the partisan reputa-
tion of the University. That this has al
ready proved an obstacle to its success
is made clear by the pains taken in the
Report to state that "both political
parties are represented in the Board of
Instruction.. In the Board of Regents,
however, it has been thought unneces-
sary to represent more than one politi
cal party, and this through such profes.
sional politicians as Messrs. FOREMAN,
PIERPoINT, CARskADoN, YOUNG and
others As this Board controls
the University, as every one of
its members from the commencement
to the present has been Radical in pol.
itics, if not Radical politician, as po.
litical harsngues of the fierccst sort
have been made in the halls of the Uni
versity, and as it is under
stood, that the sons of Democrats are
treated as rebels while attending upon
its sessions, We can see clss5spy why the
institution should suffer from its parti-
san reputation. We can tell the author
tiles that their school is now regarded as
hot. bed for the propagation ofRadical-
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