The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1881-03-17

| tor directors this institution viii
continue TO he, as il has been in the
| past, prostitution ofpurpose, and Il
| by-wOrd as 10 the integrity of our
state government. The a. x NJ. Col
lege was provided for by the 18th leg
islature, and its inceplion-the pur-
chase of property and the beginning
Of erectiOn-was n travcsty upon
the name of honesty. Money was
squandercd upon the land; the foun-
dation for an immense building was
laid upon the uneven surface of the
earth, and not at all in conformity
with specifications laid down in the
plans, and the work had TO be suspen-
ded, and then destroyed, after much
money had been paid out upon it.
The building being finally COM
pleted and turned over to
the state, the work of Inauguration
was begun. The first fatal error
was that Mr.. Jefferson Davis was
commissioned to select a man TO or
ganize an agricultural and mechan-
ical college for Texas, and one to
act as its real head. Mr.. Cartwright
was chosen, and the country knows
the cXccssscs into which the man
agement drifted, and the consequent
humiliation of the state, and the de-
cline, il may be said, almost destruc-
ton OF the institution, rs it was,
not as il was intended to be. Prob
ably the beginning of the disgrace
full end of the Gathright admins
tration was in the fact that II pro-
fcssor, against whom the president
most exercised his wrath, had dared
to publicly announce that he dis
| favored the subversion of purposes
for which federal and state GOV
ernments advanced money, that
this institution might be establish
ed. Had the end of instruction
been reached with the elimination
of 1879, il might have been well, but
it may as well be said, openly, as
sneekingly. that subversiOn of intcn-
ton is quite ms much feature of
the school at Bryan as it ever was.
The records of the board, its pro-
ceedings in council, and its known
acts will show, that there has always
been most earnest opposition in the
directory TO complying with a con-
tract binding upon Texas. These
directors owe their places to the
legislature. and some of those mem
violently opposed. to the carrying
out OF agricultural and me
chanical features, have been kept
i'm the board, and their i'm
proper conduct thus stands en-
dorsed by the immediate representa-
tives of the people, because of po-
litical influences. The reOrganiza-
ton of the faculty was certainly not
made in 1urtherance of the scheme
of foundation, and it was claimed,
after the board had chosen new
men, that in behalf of one or an
other, it had been q trial of power
touching political preferment. The
institution, ostensibly, drags on as
never before, and so it will until the
legislature interferes in behalf of
right and provides for changes,
and directs, by acts and a selection
of directors, that the Bryan school
shall send out young men.
skilled in the science of agri-
culture and mechanics, instead Of
being drilled into how to make Il
good display on dress parade, and
to blunder through Caesars Com
mentaries, and to wonder at what
Cicero meant, or to be worried over
Xenophon's Anabasis and to be
dumbfounded at Euripides. Ii has
been a very poor school for scions
of legal minds to develop into Wig
orous growth, and while it has
turned out young men, not aeade-
mically prepared to startle the world
either as lawyers, doctors or bust
ness men, il has given to the country
not single man. who understands
the science of farming or. how to
construct anything in mechanics. not
u man. who can analyze soils and
prove what may be their most prof.
table production, nor one who
can go into the field and
tell us the value of our
minerals. For advancing the pur-
pose intended in the 'endowmcnts
for this school, 1t were just rs well
that NIL the money turned over TO
the state for 81, and the large sums
appropriated therefor from year 10
year, by the state were converted
into "deep water" or some other
great popular faldcy. The post
ponement of the day for electine
directors, il may be hopea, but viii
! produce happy conclusions and
beneficial results.