The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-05-14
THE STATE UNEvERsITY
[From TIE CLARION, of April 10.

EDITOR CLARION: 1t would have
seemed but natural for the Legislature to
have inquired into the cause of the failure
of their muni6cent annual appropriation
tothe University to produce any adequate
results. The last session closed with about
10 Seniors, 20 Juniors, % Sophomore,
so Freshmen and 143 Grammar boys
say 260 all told, and this Is all we have for
an annual appropriation of some S58, O0U
1t is being rapidly dwarfed to the dimen-
sions of a village academy.
We have now about 10 seniors, IA jun
iors, p sophomores and 30 freshmen and
some 20 grammar boys, say $50 all told,
though | am told there we're 200 the first
of the session. At this rate of diminution
II will dwindle to nothing in very short
time.
The still higher classes, require profess
sors for their instruction The average
for two years is Sc, the appropriation
$58, 900, or 81, 900 for the instruction of
each pupil, not counting the freshmen and
grammar boys, usually taught by tutors.
Including the little grammar boys and
all, the State pays the munifcent
sum of 1914 for the instruction of each
pupil!
professors have so little employment?
| If we add the rent of the business to
the salaries Of the professors, the State pays
1864 for the instruction of each pupil, in
Guiding grammar boys.
| In the University OF Va, there are no
drones, their salaries depend in a great
measure, upon the number of pupils.
Our State is destroying the University by
pursuing the opposite. And when the
professors find the fewer pupils the less
work they will have to do with, they are
just mere human beings, nothing more.
No institution, at the present day, can
long survive the system of discipline in use
in this institution. It might have an
swered some purpose century ago when
it was supposed that the only way to i'm
press an idea was with a birch rod, or a
ferule. If a spy reports that boy has
been in some mischief, the faculty do not
even give notice that an accusation has
been made against him. He is tried in
secret-convicted. and the first notice he
has of any punishment is letter from
his parent or guardian calling him home.
This was the accepted mode of managing
such things in the days of the inquisition,
but the system seems to survive only in
Oxford University.
The institution is becoming small by
degrees and beautifully less and unless
something is done to change the whole
| system, it will soon cease to exist.
OBSERVER.
UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI.
Eds. CLARION: 1t is known to all,
| familiar with the course of events con-
nected with the University during the
present administration of its affairs, that
under the many and grievous assaults made
upon the Institution, the policy of silence
| has been generally observed by the faculty,
as that which was most likely to result
in promoting the interests of truth and
justice, and in sustaining the dignity Of
the University. But in THE CLARION
of the 10th of April, there appears COM
munication from q writer, who signs
himself observer" SO full of reckless
and groundless assertions, and dogmatic
statements as imperatively to demand
correction. Especially is such course
called for, inasmuch as one other Journal
at least, has gratutously given this commu--
nication place in its columns, and thus,
has aided ia circulating its SANDERS, and it
|
| by others The writer alluded to, sets out
| by assuming that "the munifcent annual
appropriation" to the University has
| failed Ito produce any adequate results"
! This first remark, statistically, is incor-
rect,-"The last session closed with $50"
! (students, call told" The true number
is 303 But an observer" whose other
statements are so much less reliable, and
more unjust than this may be excused for
failing to do US justice in this particular,
as we suppose he was not in possession of
our last Catalogue.
| We shall omit to notice this part Of the
communication for the present, and pro-
coed to subject his assertion of our
| failure, to rigid and fair test by inquir-
ing
| 1. What this munifcent appropriation
actually amounts to;-nominally, it Is
fifty thousand dollars; but so heavy has
been the discount to which the State war
rants have been subjected, ever since the
appropriation was made, that the income,
from that source, has not exceeded S37, :
500 or $38, 600 per annum. 1t must be
borne in mind, also, that this amount is
not all expended in the payment of Pro
fessors' salaries; that large amount is
needed for other expenses; other salaries
are paid out of it; the repairs of so large
number of buildings as we have to keep
up, and other necessary contingencies and
improvements requiring, in the aggregate,
large sum of money, must all come out
of this income. So that really, after all,
the appropriation, muniticent as it seems,
and as it would be, were all realized to
the amount of its face value, is not so
extraordinary as observer" would rep
resent, and the proportionate results will
appear to be not altogether so ignobLe a
failure. But observers" statements
may be tested again by inquiring into the
patronage of the University, since the
appropriation was made, and comparing
its condition since the war, with its ante
war record,
g. The patronage of the University
since 1901 has amounted to PSI, as an
annual average. The average attendance
annually since the present administration
: of its affairs began, has been 220. Previ-
Gus to the war, from the year 1856 to
1861, when the income of the University
from all sources, was not less than $40, 900
land that too, it must be remembered,
upon specie basis, it was 30. 1t will
appear thus, that the condition of the
University as to the patronage, has been
more prosperous since the war, on general
, average, by ten annually; and, estimated
only since the passage of the appropria-
ton, the annual patronage has been greater
by Al than the annual patronage previous
to the war, estimated during the years
} when the income was really larger than
: it is at present 1t may be well to say in