The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-02-09
{For The Di.natch.]
The University BIZ.


To The Geseral assembly of Virginia:
Several communications from highly re-
spectacle sources have recently appeared 10
the newspapers in opposition to the penang
hin Tor the relief Of the University OF fir-
giuia. The friends Of The University (Who
arc cr vt tcs-,nini the friends OF the higher
education. though not the only ones,) have
remained silent as to these articles, probably
because they knew the subject would be de-
bated fully In the General Assembly. The
present writer desires briefly 10 state some of
the grounds on which the pending bill may
be defended against these attacks.
The necessity for some relief in the way of
larger appropriation is conceded by all who
are informed. There is no one OF these
written who does not concede that whatever
il necessary TO be done to sustain the Uni
yersity in vigorous life and high efficiency
ought 10 be done. 1t is not necessary, there
fore, to discuss the question whether such
relief should be aff0rded-i. e., whether the
State shall preserve her prestige as the edu-
Gator of educators among her own people
and those of the southern and western States.
Nor is it necessary 10 show, as Rev. Dr. R!ce
did in 1918, that in mere pecuniary point
OF view il is the highest economy 10 pestoW
the higher education at home and keep our
money from flowing abroad, While at the
same time large stream is brought INTO the
State and poured out annually in our midst.
The obiectors aIlcgc different grounds OF
criticism against the form of the present Dill.
The chief Of these.is that free tuition at
the University will be Injurious TO the col
leccs by drawing away patronage from them.
Let us examine this briefly.
1t is the conviction Of the great majority
of those best informed on the subject that
this apprehension is wholly cbiDlerlcal and
uuiounded, and that for several reasons.
In the past QS25) the University originally
was necessarily competitor with the col
leg,S, for when 1t was started it had no higher
material with which to begin. The col
lrrcs then in eXistcnce-three in number
were feeble, hnguisbiDg, and it was their
incnicicncy which caused the exodus to
Yale. Princeton, and Harvard, which Mr..
.ycfr. r,on and DR.. Rice argued ought 10 be
STONED. In the fifty years which have
ELAPSED what has been the result! The eX.
isting colleges have been improved in pa
trouacr, quality Of work, and standards !;
and four others, also prosperous and effi.
cien,. have been founded, and four
ish. As the University has steadily
raised It's standards it has drawn
the colleges up after it. But now, on the
border of the State, the Johns Hopkins
University, with a vast endowment, offers
free tuition to the students OF Maryland,
T,ycinid, and North Carolina. Hence if we
would keep our young men ut nome we
must grant them equal facilities. Again:
The State offers and giyesin the cities where
population and property are concentrated,
so that graded schools and highschools are
practicable, q fair education absolutely ,oifh.
out cost. This is, and always will be, Inn
possible in the country, where even the
primary schools are Indifferent. Is not some
COMPENSATION due to the country tax payer
in the matter of free tuition? Is the land
holder to bear the burden forever, and
neucr erjoy 10 his own family the chance of
benefit! True, all cannot enjoy it; but
neither can they under the free-school sys-
tenn. Ali may if they have sons who are
energetic, no owever poor; for undertake to
say that the University has extended TO
greater number Of poor young men the
advantages of the higher education than
perhaps all the colleges in the same time
say for twenty five years past.
Let this bill pass, and two years hence The
colleges will admit that they have not SUI
fered any sensible dimipulion OF patronage.
In few years the infusion OF more vigorous
life into the University will react on them
as beneticially as its establishment and pro.
gress has confessedly done ia the past. 1t is
notorious that those who have rushed into
print on this subject do not speak the united
sentiments of the college faculties. On the
contrary, they are but fraction OF these
faculties.
The Virginia patronage Of the colleges Is
either local or denominational for the most
part, and the prices of college education will
still be generally below those at the Uniyer-
sity, with tuition free, except in the cases,
fortunately becoming gradually more nu-
merous every year, in which young meR of
very moderate means, by messing and other
wise, manage to get University training at
very low figure
There are few whose judgment is not in
terested who share the fears that the Fac.
ulty ofthe University, when required by law
to extend the privilege of free tuition only
to such as give evidence of sufficient prepa-
ration to profit by if, will allow crowds Of
raw and unprepared boys to rush in, when
by the very terms of the bill their emolu.
ments would not be increased, and their la.
bors would be to frightful extent.
Some of these obectors insist that the en-
tire academic department of the University
shall be put on the footing Of postgraduate
course.
Surely these gentlemen have not consid.
cred !; or, protesting to be friends of the
University, they would not venture such
suggestion in the same breath. Do they
know how many post-graduates Harvard
has, out of some 1.100I or Yale, out Of
about 1000: In the former fifty, and the
latter hfty-fve; and in each case thirty per
cent. are residents of the cities in which
these universities are situate.
Uuder the conditions proposed, experience
at our own and these northern universities
demonstrates that there would not be thirty
academic students in the whole University.
| The effect would be that the Legislature and
| the public would refuse to bear the burden
| by which the University education Of every
| student would cost the State about 1000.
Again: Few men in these times can at.
| ford to send Q son or several sons to either
college or the university for more than two
or three years. Only the richest could send