Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1875-04-30
Maryland Agricultural College.

To the Editors Of The Baltimore Cazette
| do not wish TO have any controversy with
| General Jones, President OF the Faculty of the
Maryland Agricultural College, much less
with my honorable colleagues Of the late
Board Of Trustees but inasmuch as General
Jones has published in your paper Of the 10th
instant card seriously duplicating my char
acter and position as late President aud execu-
tive officer of the Trustees and also states that
| had raised certain issues with him, ! ask the
favor Of the insertion Of the following state
ment, which, so far as | am concerned, will
close the controversy
The report made by me, as President of the
Board, at the late meeting OF the stockhold-
ers was made in conformity with my previous
habit at such meetings ever since have been
President of the Board with, believe, but a
single exception. In such statement, based
upon facts and figures, which the records ofthe
college fully sustain, felt bound, as faith
full officer of the Board to set forth fully and
| truly the condition of the college, and the
causes of its present depression and increased
Indebtedness. If these statements are damaging
to General Jones and his administration, J
cannot help it, They could not be ignored in
tracing those causes to their true source. II
| General Jones absented himself from that
meeting from motives of deCaey, il may be
asked il the same motives withheld him from
soliciting proxies to be used at that meeting.
Colonel Earle's objection to the reading Of
the report was not made until the concluding
paragraphs of the report were reached, and
when he expressed n wish that General Jones
should be sent for, / readily united and acqui-
esced in that wish | also promptly replied to
his speech which followed with the report of
which in your columns was entirely satisfied.
Apart from the general Encouragement and
| decline in every branch of the Institution
| farm, garden, buildings, school and finances
without redeeming feature anywhere,
stated in my report, it may be well TO state
| what were the issues which General Jones says
| raised with him it ought also to be stated
that as the executive officer ] was brought
officially more in contact with him Than any
| other member of the Board.
! Issue first was proposal to mortgage the
| property Of the College-in which the State
has an undivided inoietr-for loan at or
| 9 per cent interest. could not concnr in
this and advised retrenchment and economy
as the preferable alternative.
! Second ! did not approve of General Jones
proposal to make purchases, and pay the
debts Of the College with his notes as Presi-
dent and informed him he bad no authority
to issue such notes. Yet without authority
and against this advice he did issue several
such notes.
| Third. did not acquiesce or approve of bis
scheme for nautical school at the Maryla
| Agricultural College, in which TO teach nav-
cation, seamanship and the sailing of vessels,
nor of training school for the Military
| Academy at West Point. | look upon such
scheme wild and visionary, and its estab-
| lshment inconsistent with the terms of the
charter Of the College.
| Fourth. did not approve of the objection
raised to the par,icipations in the deliberations
of the Board, of the State Board Of Education,
who are by law charged with the duty OF rep
resenting the interest of the State in said
| Board
Fifth. did not approve the attempted dis
missal Of the Professors Of Agriculture and
| Agricultural Chemistry, the two branches
which by law are specially required 10 be
taught in this College, and without which il
can have no semblance to an Agricultural Col
| lege.
And subsequently, after obtaining authority
from the Board TO issue the College notes, TO
the amount of the then existing debt, ! could
not approve his exceeding that amount, and Of
including in at least one of those notes his own
| private account, thus by this act of more than
questionable propriety, increasing that debt,
| by this amount hey nd what be had represent
ed it 10 the Board. From the foregoing can
it be considered a matter of surprise that, by
/ General JONES' | should he considered, as be
saws, most " impracticable President" or
! that should consider him most careless,
unsafe and costly head Of an industrial school,
! for which and nothing else this College was
! founded, chartered and endowed.
| All that have heretofore said or written
of General Jones and his administration is
| fully supported by the written statements of
| five of the Professors Of the College. state
meuts first suggested in this form by Professor
| Worlhngton, one of the oldest Professors at
| the College, after the failure of the committee
of inquiry to elicit as full information at the
College as was expected, and which statements
could easily be strengthened and multiplied by
employees and persons dealing with the College.
| With such testimony ] may well afford harm
essly TO receive and despise General Jones'
rhetorical filings about defeat where | was
not candidate, and trepudiated" when
| had longer refused to serve. Nearly two
thirds the large vote he parades against my
views were proxies, held or cast BY single
/ individual A. B. DAVIS
Greenwood, Montg'y Co., April 90, 1875.