The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-10-27
FREE SCHOOLS FOR OREGON


livered at Salem before the Marion
County Teachers Institute, Aug. 18th,
by our young friend, ]. a. Waymire,
Esq.
This is, perhaps, the most elaborate
and valuable contribution among the
many pleas for free schools that has ever
emanated from a confessed Oregonian.
Mr.. Waymire has given a plentiful
supply of facts and figures; enough, we
would think, to start from his habitual
lethargy the dullest Oregonian and fill
him with an earnest conviction of the
necessity of doing something more than
we are doing for the education of our
youth, more than half of whom do not
attend school at all, or so irregularly as
TO make no progress in their schooling.
On pages 2s, 20 and so, under the sub
head of "What Oregon Is Doing" is a
terse synopsis of the present educational
condition in this State, which compares
very well with the old slave-holding
States before the war, when the rich
aristOcrats opposed school tax, educated
their children at private and select
schools, while the children of the poor,
always by far the greater number, were
forced into mental starvation and degra-
dation.
Let every inhabitant of the State read
what "Oregon Is Doing" and firmly re-
solve that the next time Mr.. Waymire
looks at the statistics he can report a
commendable progress in our educa-
tional condition, even if we are not ready
to adopt the american Free School
SYSTEM" the practicability of which ]
think Mr.. Waymire has fully demon
strated i'm the succeeding pages of his
lecture.
On pages SO, 81 and IS will be found d
statement of "Our School Funds" tc
which / would invite the attention Oi
everybody concerned in the education
and training of youth.
Mr.. w. says, "Our State has a ricl
endowment for her schools" thought
so once, and thousands besides, who i'm.
migrated to this coast, came over tn,
great desert with the happy prospect o
ample provisions for the education o
their posterity. Let me whisper to you
friend W., that the rich endoWment is noj
est.
Do you call that rich endowment
which does not yield enough revenue Il
keep Il months school I'm a year
Why, sir, rs compared with the States
of Illinois, Iowa and other new Western
States, we are poorly endowed. A sin
gle county of the States aforenameC
has n greater fund than the whole stat,
of Oregon.
1t indeed true that our good and gen
erous Uncle Sam did set off upon pape
a most prinecly inheritance to the chill
dren of Oregon, but what, with the snow
capped ranges of mountains, which eco
our air and furnish us with perrenia
streams Of purest water; the waste al
kali flats and scoriated hills; the elevat
ed table lands of grand extent, fit Onl.
for pasturage; the giving of section an,
half-section claims in the rich and fer
tile valleys to actual settlers in advanc
of the surveys, by which most of tn
10th and 36th sections were blOtted on
of the original bequest; and last, thOugl
not least, the robbery committed by tn
last Legislature and the Governor, Gro
yer, by which the 100000 acres of Ian
set apart by the Constitution of the Stat
as an irreducible school fund were give
away to private corporation, the educa
tional prospects of the aforesaid ehildre
will come out at the little end of tn
horn so far as the rich endowment goei
II is true we have $1,000 acres for
State University and 10000 acres for a
Agricultural College, making 165,OC
acres. But what the children are mo-
: interested in knowing is, 'HOw muc
money will it bring?" Where is tn
land? In the Willamette or other va
1 leys? Is it mountain or sand plain?
il worth one cent or one dollar per acre
< VIII it ever be worth any more than
4 is now? Can it be sold at all? I'll
: same questions must be asked abol
g those lands selected in lieu Of the l6i
7 and seth. sections, called indemnit
e lands.
Y The so-called rich endowment depen
for its richness upon the answer to the
questions; and until they are answer
: don't let us talk about the balance of Il
!. proceeds of the 500, 200 acres, after payil
e the S2OO,OOO and interest to the Can
Il and Locks Company for their disintC
q ested labor in behalf of the State.
/ There is no balance of the proceeds
ie the 100000 acres. There never will
: any if the funds and lands are manag
l. as the law provides.
h That little Lock Bin effectually 90
3 bled up the whole of that irreducii
n school fund. There are no means
knowing what amount could be realiz
from a judicious handling of the 5OO.C
al a acres;-probably Sl,OO0,OOO, which, at
80 per eeut. per aunum, would yield SI2
m 900, and, with the other funds, wor
h, give us free school six months in We
Ia Whatever they are, are gone-all gon,
- not even so much as the baseless fab
Il. of vision left to the children of the ST
to to compensate them for the loss of Il
rich endOWneIlt.
@es @ The fact is, that, owing to the pecul
geographical character of Oregon a