Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-02-13
State Agricultural College

state Agricultural College.
To the Edito, Of the kenneJee Journal
eve talk a great deal about the people, the
dear people. and about education and the
general diffusion of education. and the educa-
ton of the masses l. il all fop hurnbugf'-
lion. d. T. .MdigaA before the Committee
Of he LcgisiatWe on agriculture Jan. 10,
1879
Perhaps it would have been anHecessdIy for
Mr.. Madisan to have made this remark, if he
had waited until the committee had heard him
through in his address before them. Besides
Mr. Madigan, as if in haste to make a speech
in legislative presence, seemed to have for
gottcn how eloquent he was on the stump last
fall. in favor of retrcnchment and reform,
when the gushngs of his heart went out so
warmly in sympathy with the tax-burdened
citizens of Aroostook.
But Mr. Madigan is one of the trustees of
this his adopted Alma Mater, and something
mas bo pariOned to esprit de corps. Yet he.
if other, mag. should not be indignant at the
sound Of ''woighty taxation" that is in the air
and that has reached his ears, for it may be
but the echo of his own voice coming
I
startled from his propricty, though now I'M
pleasantly, ECONOMY seems a necessity and
though ii be even said sometimes that the
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts
has nothing to expect from Mts legislature"
''What do gentlemen intend by this sweeping
declaration; nothing to expect from Mss leg
islature DO they imagine that the Cloths
and Vaudals are upon us y eXclaims he with
indignant emphasis. No. No. This taunt
lacks historic truth and it will not intimidate.
1t was not the Cloths and Vandals who stood
at the palace doors of the Caesars to guard
their treasures there were other custodians
there as here. And the men who to-day stand
vigilantly at the doors OF the treasury of our
State to guard and to husband its revenues,
have no Vandal faint upon them. The Cloths
and Vandals OF old as now, belonged in the
north. and they may come down now as then
to sack and plumber, but now rs them the
watchmen upon the towers will give the alarm
and the citadel will be true to its trusts.
This college has now been in operation ten
years, and the State has donated to it, Mr..
Madigan SAYS, SlS0,7lS. But the other
colleges, Bowdoin, Colby and Bates have
received in all from the State, only S34, 1885, 80
and g., 100 acres Of land, viz Colby two half
townships and Sl4 800, and Bates ~ $50 acres
of land and $50, 4s9, 80 in money. Bowdoin
has been debarred from any grant or endow-
ment BY the provisO of the eighth art. of the
constitution. She received, however, for Il
few years n portion of the then bank tax,
under article | section 4 of articles of separ
alton from Massachusetts,. Bowdoin, Colby
and Bates have now, therefore, to support
themselves They ask no annual subsidy
from the legislature. They levy no contribu-
ton upon the taxpayers of the State. The
I tui Of tnIapts nd he rnt thair
small endowments supports them, aided by
the contributions Of benevolent friends and
the more or less active cooperation in their
/ behalf of the religious denominations they
| respectively represent. And why should the
! State assume the maintenance of a college
endowed and so well, by the general govern
mcnt in opposition 10 these SO old and so
/ good. with its course Of studios, not confined
according to its foundation, to agriculture and
mechanics, but every year growing more like
and aspiring to be equal to the curriculum of
Of these older institutions!
WHY not the State College take the interest
some s., 900, upon its endowment of Sl3l-
294.4 and charge tuition to the students
and then limit its instruction mainly to agri-
culture and the mechanic arts, as intended in
the grant of Congress? 1t would then have
funds enough, every year increasing, as the
usefulness of the institution should be more
appreciated with the buildings and lands and
| appliances il now has, to do great deal of
good and without impairing by rivalry OF
studies or gift of tuition, the efficiency of the
other colleges.
Mr.. Madigan gives what he says is a care
/ full appraisement of the college property
made two years ago, at 003l--much has
been added since. Adding its endowment
/ fund Of Sl3l 294 we have S271 ,325 AS its
means OF support, to be further increased with
leave of the Legislature 10y the tuition of the
students. Certainly the college " hose special
~ of instruction is agriculture and mechanics
will have friends like the other institutions of
the State, and they will not let it die with these
means of its own in hand to sustain it. 1t
has done good it will live TO do greater good
And it will grow up the harder because not
IN the shade of State dependence, but with
out subsidy, self-reiiant, and in the sunshine
OF popular favor.
Mr.. Madigan holds up one portion of the
people in invidious contrast to another. and
would excite the jealousics of classes. For.
getting himself at times, his appeals assume
the tone of cXultant threats that has the ring
of other arenas than that Of a Legislative com
mittce He exclaims "Have your industre,
no claim the working men and their families
none? Perhaps the friends and advocates o.
this Institution deceive themselves. Perhap,
the tens of thousands of the sons Of the Sc
called working classes of the State, SHOULD
be cut off and shut out from the benefits in
tended for them, by the education and inhm
ence on their future Of this Institution, per
haps not"
Such appeals TO agrarian prejudices may
effect the purposes of their utterance at the
moment. but they will infuse a poison into
the institution that will wither and blight it,
prospects in the end.
And Mr.. Madigan could not close without
an appeal, certainly not ingenious if not