The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-02-08
Letter From A Mississippi Woman

EDITORS CLARION: Believing that some
of the opposition to State Female College
arises from the impression that such an
institution would injure existing female
colleges, have collected the following facts
which apply very readily to the case in
hand.
In an article in the Courier-Jour the
officers representing seven Kentucky Col
leges deprecate the course of the State in
adding to the A. and NJ College at Lexing=
ton, KY, such departments of languages
and mathematics as make it a rival of the
older colleges of Kentucky, in the sphere of
collegiate training. To this article there
is reply by James B. Patterson, Phi. D.,
President of the State College:
President Patterson's reply suggests,
among others, the following points =: l. That
the other colleges of Kentucky do not meet
the demands of those seeking tue highest
education, and cannot, with the funds at
the disposal of any one Of them, compete
with such an institution as Yale, and that
the enlargement of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College was needed to remedy
this defect, as well as to provide normal in
struction for the teachers of Kentucky. 2.
That the State College does not interfere
with the patronage of the denominational
colleges, because it draws its patronage
from different class of the community. B.
That the State College will stimulate the
other colleges to renewed exertion and to
continued Improvement, rather than Grip
pie and destroy them. He thinks the State
College will serve specially to educate the
poor who Che says1 cannot get an education
at the other colleges because ofexpense.
The Louisville Christian Observer, COM
mentingDn the above, says:
The fact is, that as the spinning jenny,
by cheapening cloth, created demand for
it; as the railroads, by making farming and
manufactures more profitable, have created
demand for horses; as the newspapers
have greatly promoted the growth of the
country and of popular intelligence, and
have thus created new demand for news
papers, SO every college creates a thirst for
education, and this in turn increases the
prosperity of all.
This is illustrated by such facts as the
following: |. Under the shadow OF every
college ID the United States there is a de-
mand for liberal education that exists no
where else. While the farmer at a distance
rarely thinks of educating his son beyond
the limits Of the common school course, the
farmer Of the college neighborhood is not
content till his son has the best education
possible. A hundred and twenty-five of
the students of the State College are from
Lexington and its vicinity. Who believes
that one.half or Dne-third Of these students
would have been sent 70 any college
st 4 distancef q The multiplication 0f
colleges in our land has multiplied students
ii 4 marvellous ratio. The time was & hun
dred and twenty yeals ago, when there were
bnE four or i've colleges ID the land with
fit may bel two Of three hundred students.
There are now about three hundred and six
tn colleges and sixty thousand students.
Are theoriginal four 81 e I've Harvard. Yale,
Columbia, Princeton, Washington and Les.
etc, ANY poorer ii students because three
kandred and fly risah have sprung up.
Nay, they have perhaps ten times e many
students IS when they had no rivals. While
population has increased sixteen fold, the
colleges have increased the demand for edu-
cation and the number at college students
nearly hundred and sixty fold Ne there
fors apprehend that the Ssats college and
every new college = Il increase the demand
for education ID Kentucky to 81 extent far
greater than the nun Der 81 students Is MAJ
withdraw from any existing institution.
This Is the more likely il xiew oE lie IaeE
that while Ohio. "a our NoKthsrn border,
has Isl EEy nine colleges and %
re south has tWenf one, Kentucky hz
m fhfnk. only hftsan saeh iask ions
Ne have sleed s. g lie 11oTe I'll crest ii Ken
fsif6S7 ii fhe natter ef co1ieee education