Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-01-12

Sioux river, the fact that the road
has not been completed west Of AL
gona will require this legislature to
determine whether Hollands forfeited
shall be resumed, and what DISPOSE
ton shall he made of them to insure
the carly completion of the road. II
may be argued by the company, in
cxtcnuation of its failure to finish,
that the road would not pay if COM
pleted. The very theory of land
grants, however. is to induce the
building of roads in advance of q
dense population, where it is pre-
sumcd they viii not Immediately pay,
and where the business of railways
is insufficient of itself to induce CAPT
talists to undertake their construction.
1t may be said that the state of the
public mind of late i'm respect to the
rights conferred by railroad franchi-
ses has rendered it difficult to procure
money for building railways. 4 This
doubtless is in part true, and yet, as
money has been obtained to build q
few short lines of road without land
grants, 1t seems to me that this road
might have been completed if proper
effort had been made. j call attention
TO this matter, as il is unjust that the
people residing in the counties thro'
which the uncompleted portion of the
road is located, should suffer all the
disadvantage of having their terrific
ry singled with Immigrant and yet
receive none of the compensating adj
vantages Of a railway.
| Railroads CONFERENCE.-The Dcs
Moines Il Minnesota Railroad Com
pany has built and put in operation
thirty-tive miles of road, of three feet
gauge, from Des Moincs to Amcs
and a short railway of the same
gauge has been constructed from
Kcosauqua to Summit station, on the
k.& ID. M. II. r. A road of the or
binary gauge has also been guilt from
Abba to Knoxville, and another from
Grinnell to Montczuma. There arc
now about $3.50 miles of railway in
operation in Iowa. Another piece of
1arrow-gauge road is under construc-
ton from Liscomb, Marshall county,
eastward, in which wooden rails arc
to be used at first.
THE SCHOOLS.
| The Superintendent of Public In
Istruction presents with his biennial
report an unusually interesting re.
view of the history and condition of
the educational work and the school
system of Iowa from the time of the
Organization of the territory. This
report, intended as il is as well for the
educational department of the GEN.
tennial exhibition as for the General
Assembly and teachers and people of
Iowa, will be one of the most valu-
able and interesting documents ever
issued from any of the departments
of the state government. 1t would
be useless for me to attempt to sum.
Marie it. l can only urge that the
General Assembly and the people
study these suggestions. coming as
they do from one who has given to
the special subjects of which he
treatsso much thought and study, and
to their presentation for the benefit
of the people SO much care and labor.
In the past two years the school
houses bniltin Iowa have cost 81, 269. :
42S.9S; the contingent fund expended
for school purposes was 81, 725,272.25
and teachers salaries S5,0f5, $685.
making total expenditure for cdu-
cational purposes of $9.O4O,57l.lS
which shows. as nothing else can, the
healthy condition of the common.
school work. The teachers normal
: institutes, which received Legislative
recognition two years ago, have i'm.
proved the qualifications of teachers
more generally than any other sys-
/ hns al p@p 90 Inv
tofOrc devised. And here it may not
: be inappropriate to ask whether, in
view of the capital the state is con.
stantlv investing in educational en-,
! terprises, it is not the right and duty
of the state to demand that every
child within her borders shall have
J the benefit of n common-schOol edu.
. cation.
THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
f The last catalogue of the State Uni
versity shows an enrolment of GO
students, which indicates steady
growth and widening popularity. Its
wants are numerous and some of them
pressing. Accommodation for the
academical department are straitened
whilst the professional departments
arc calling for room for constantly
increasing numbers. ! cannot think
the problem suggested by this fac,
should be solved by allowing either
/ of the departments to lan1nish for
, want OF encouragement. 1T would
seem to be q reelection upon the intel
ligence and pride of our people to
deprive the many students who, in all
the years to come will desire to grad.
uate in one of the professions. OF the
opportunity to do so in taeir own
state, and at the university SO gen.
eronsly endowed by the government.
may, however, be met with the
argument that the university should
not be enlarged beyond the income
of the grant intended for its support
that il should not be made tax
upon the State. In my Judgment.
however, we should make this uni
vcrsity to Iowa what Ann Arbor is to
Michigan, or Harvard TO Massachu-
sets. 1t will then be standard to
which all other colleges and all other
schools may properly strive to attain.
: And there is one argument in favor
of a liberal State support, which
among others may have been over
looked. When the grant Of lands was
made it was supposed il would be suf-
ticient for all the wants of q great
university, as the lands would in
crease in value with the growth of
the State until the 40,O00-acre dona-
ton would sell for ten or twelve dol
lars per acre. The selections were
good, and had the policy originally
contemplated, and which was recon-
mended by Chancellor Dean, its first
iprcsiding officer, been carried out, the
income would have been ample for
all accommodating needs. But the ar
gument that the people who endured
the hardships of pioneer life should
enjoy their share of tie benefits ac-
cruing from the grant, as well as those
who should come after them, was po-
tential. These lands were accordingly
thrown upon the market, and were
sold ut an average of little over three
dollars per acre. and rs a result the
4 university, instead Of having an en-
dowment of from four to tivo hun
dred thousand dollars, has working
capital from all sources of $2lS,A1.-
rs. 1t therefore seems to me that the
State, i'm addition to its own interest
in encouraging the growth of the uni
vcrsity until it shall become the peer
OF any in the country, is bound in
good faith, rs the trustee of the grant
from the United States, to make good
the conditions upon which the trust
was accepted. / therefore suggest
whether it would not be wise to make
a special levy of say onc-tenth or one
fifteenth of d mill per dollar, as per-
manent fund for the university. This
would not at first produce so much
as the usual SPECIAL appropriations,
but it would increase with the wealth
of the state and with the growing de-
mands Of the institution. And above
all it would enable the regents to con-
form their expenditures to fixed in
come and relieve them from coming
before each legislature in the unwel-
come character of lobbyists.
The professor Of physical science
and director of the laboratory at the
university has commenced series of
meteorological observations, in order
to determine the laws governing the