The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-02-28
SHALL KANSAS HAVE A STATE
NORMAL SCHOOL?

SHALL KANSAS HAVE A STATE
NORMAL SCHOOL?
Beyond all other advantages which
Kansas claims, is that it has The best,
the most complete and most progressive
public school system of any state in the
Union. Because of this claim the tide
of western immigration passes over the
other states, passes by cheap lands and
mineral wealth, and settles calmly
around every school house on the prairies
of Kansas, attracted and held more by
the educational advantages of our free
school system than by any other induce
ment. Differ as we may as 10 the eX-
tent To which the public treasury should
lie called upon Ia furnish free education,
there Is no question but that every dol
lar spent upon our common schools. and
more especially every dollar spent upon
our three great public institutions. the
Normal School, tile University and the
Agricultural College, brings hundred
and thousand times that amount into
the state every year in the pockets of i'm
migrants who would Otherwise pass by
Us as ihey pass 10y Missouri and we
should lose their money, their enterprise
and their labor
\ wise economy - necessary. but we
we cannot afford narrowninded
economy in regard 10 the educational
advantages which the majority of immi
grants prize above all other considera-
lions any state can offer for their chill
dren's welfare On the basis alone of our
material and financial development and
prosperity, We must recognize the fact
thar the people who wish 10 emigrate
from the east 10 the west place very
high estimate on Il State Normal School,
and ihnt the money which il has
eos, the state treasury is repaid n
thousand fold every year by the i'm
migration that it directly attracts.
We speak of these facts from state
point Of view. The institution must
be located nj some point, and Il cit
izcn or u journal of Emporia would in
deed be- narrow-minded and short-sIghted
To take no interest in any such institu-
tion simply because il had been located
in some other town or section of the
state. Citizens of EmpOria have sent
their children to the State University at
Lawrence, to the Agricultural College at
Manhattan, To Bethany College at To
peka, and To- the Baker University at
Baldwin, while the Normal School was
in its best condition here. They did
this because each institution offered its
special facilities, and they were liberal
minded enough to drop all local" feel
ings and take advantage of just the edu-
cational privileges that suited their re-
>pective tastes. But they did not have to
send their children out of the state to ac-
quirc that kind of education which they
desired them to possess. Parents in Law
renee and Manhattan, and from nearly
every county in the state, sent their Chill
dren to the Normal School at EmpOria,
because it offered just the kind of cdu-
cation their children desired. None felt
il necessary TO go TO other states for edu-
citional purposes.
We should be ashamed To take any
thing but IA state view of this great edu-
cational question. We believe that If the
State University or Agricultural College
were destroyed by fire, thnt no opposition
10 their rebuilding would come from Ly-
on county. We believe that if the State
Normal school had been established at
Ottawa or at Leavenworth, or at some
other point, and the town where il had
heen established had done as much for it
ns Emporia has done for the school here,
that no citizen, and certainly no repre-
sentative man of Lyon county, would for
moment oppose the appropriation nee
essary to replace the building ON the site
desolated by its ruins. We trust that
every member of the legislature will give
the people of Emporia and of Lyon coun-
" the credit Of being actuated in their
course by more than merely local consid-
erations. They, in common with all
other citizens of Kansas, believe in free
educatiCa, in public schools, in a grand
educational system for the people of the
entire state, and if they take an unusu-
al interest In the State Normal school, II
il not only on account of the local adj
vnntages its presence may give, but be
cause they have seen pupils from all over
= the state pressing TO its doors for the spe-
cial education it gives, because they have
seen young men and women by the hun
dreds come here and submit 10 the sever.
est economy in order to attend the Nor
NAL, because they have seen the eager
desire and the faithful, seli-sacrifcing ef-
forts of the sons and daughters of farmers
who seek to tit themselves for teaching,
and who look to the Normal school with
hopes that surely n Kansas Legislature
will never deliberately disappoint