Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-11-13

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warm and comfortable will tell on the
feed box favoraby. Good time to batter
cold stables and protect open sheds.
Agricultural College.
As the session of the legislature draw!
on, this vexed question is discussed will
increased and increasing sharpness. 1t is
question on which. as our readers know,
We have taken no part-but it is also one
to which we have given much careful
thought, and noted with interest what has
been said on the subject, by both sides Of
the question, not only in our own state,
but in Massachusetts and New Hampshire
Now, and largely in the past rs we'll, The
question here is, whether the managers OF
the funds received from the general gov
eminent have used them properly or mis-.
applied and perverted them. This latter
view, several gentlemen in the state
prominent in agricultural matters, have
held and expressed with considerable
plainness of speech. Mr. F d. Douglass
of Whiting, exmember of the Board OF
Agriculture, has written several articles
on the maiter-one of which, lately writ
ten, received reply from President Buck.
ham, to which MIR Douglass again replied.
His first letter we will pass, as the ground
is substantially covered 10 the second
The charges made by Mr.. Douglass are
pretty sweeping, both in the number OF
prominent men in the state which are 10
cluded in them, and in the misdomeanors
of which they have been guilty. Mr.
Douglass says:
The charges l have brought agains,
tie managers of our agricultural funo
have always been explicit and unequiv
ocal. In the article which is the subject
OF President Buckham letter, they were
thus stated. "Th-y have wlfully divert.
ed the fund from its Legitimate use. in tn,
education of the masses in those calling,
which underlie the pecuniary prosperity
of every class, and Of the state itself, +,
the continuance of the Improbable educa
tiona rivares in which they were previ.
ously engaged More than this, they
have caused powerful poitico- education
al influence to be built up, which is rom
selfish motives opposed TO the promotion
of agricultural and mechanical education
in the state"
While they deny the Justice and truth Of
these charges, and have ample ability al
their command to triumphAntly vindcatt
their course, if their cause is Just one
am not aware that they have ever nj
tempted it in any of the newspapers ul
Vermont until they were driven to it by
the intentionally strong language of m,
recent article. and the circumstances of il
publication Their policy has been to seek
safety in silence; to prevent discussion he
fore the public; to close the press agans
all honest protestations. | WAS recently
informed by the senior editor of leadii :
Vermont paper, that President Buckhan
himself had the Effrnn,ery'' to writ,
him thus, " We insist, that the discussion
of the agricultural college question il
your columns shall be stopped"
To these charges President Buckham e
plies: The charges he makes have S,
often been shown TO be false. that no ex
tended reply seems nj this time TO be nee
essary. The fact Inadvertently admitted b,
Mr.. Douglass that the "tield in which til
appropriation was to be applied is new
one. and the enterprise an experiment,
would deter all fair minded men from
either making or sympathizing with an,
hasty or veXatious criticisms. The exper
iment Of industrial education is being trir,
in almost as many different ways as ther'
are colleges receiving aid from the con
gressional endowment. and every such in
stitution is encountering opposition from
those who are anxious to See tried som,
pet scheme of their own. The reason VIII,
this institution has not been able to devel
OPP its industrial departments more rapid,
is the inadcquacy of the fund to equip an,
man SO many and such costly department
as the act of congress provides for. Al
most every other state in the Union ha
made legislative grants to aid the college
in building upon the foundations laid b
congress. All that the legislature of Ver
mont has ever done for the institution q
this state is periodically to order an in
vestigation of it at the behest of som
seeker after popularity among the farmers
Following this, President Buckhan
measures the scope of Mr.. Douglas.
charges as follows:
First, that the eighteen trustees of tn
institution, half of them chosen by tn
legislature, are representatives of til
various pursuits AMI professions of life,
and are rs capable and honest men ms cal
be found in The stae. To charge thrs
men. as Mr. Douglass does, with conspr
ing TO pervert the funds of the institution
TO some fraudulent use, is piece of ;.r
dacity which could be exceeded only b
the etfrontery of his special accusation q
Mr.. Morrill,, gentleman whose name NJ
other person in the nation ev couple
with an insinuation of anything dishonor
able or even questionable.
Next. he gives an outline of the worl
of the college for the past ten years-a
well as what has been done within the las
year and what is proposed for the comm!
winter.
Secondly, the trustees have provided ia
cilities of instruction. scientific and exper
mental. in most of the branches included
in those relating to agriculture and tn
mechanic arts" At all times for the pas
ten years students have been pursuin!
studies which were adapted to fit them 70
Industrial occupations, agriculture. min
ing. civil engineering. or general business
studies which would be pursued in no othe
institution in New England except such a.
have these special industrial departments
From these departments scores of younl
men have gone into the various industrial
pursuits, where they are successfully occu
plying honorable and lucrative positions.
Thirdly, inasmuch as not many young
men at present incline to seek agricultural