Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-06-25

building 1t up, eniarging Its usefulness
and securing q more general interest in
its prosperity and perpetuity it win nat
urally grow into efficiency and chsrac-
ter and work out its own reformation
wherever there may be defects In Its
policy.
But some of our contemporaries seem
10 think the best mode is to discourage
our young men from patronizing it; to
reduce its usefulness to q minimum, as
o means of reform, and altogether they
are possessed with an eagerness worthy
of q better cause to grasp the pillars Of
the institution and, Samson like, pull
il down on the heads Of the people.
It should not be forgotten that the
University Is State institution. II be-
longs, not to a party or faction, but to the
whole people. Ii is supported in part
from the State treasury, and every man,
be he Democrat or Republican, has an
equal interest in seeing it maintained
and prosper. Republicans might as well
insist that the Capitol at Wheeling be
demolished because it is used exclusive
ly at present by officials whit are Dem
ocrats; or the Democrats might with
equal reason insist upon the same thing
when q Republican administration Is in
control Of State affairs, as to insist upon
the destruction of the University be-
cause 1t has been committed as n Of
the public institutions to the manage
ment Of q Democratic administration.
The REGISTER comedies aud has
heretofore frankly admittedth the business
of the criticism made upon an exclusive
Democratic management. III the pre-
cedent was made by the Republicans it
is no sasOn why it is a good one for
Democrats to follow. But there is still
less reason why Republicans should go
mad over II and advocate the destruc-
ton Of the University because their pre-
eedent has been followed.
But now, admitting that the Board of
Control is exclusively composed Of
Democrats; admitting that this is not
wise, fair or proper; admitting that it
is a just subject of criticism; admitting
that it ought to be corrected-and all
this the REGISTER freely comedies:
What then ?
Does this fact justify the war that is
being made upon the institution itself |?
/ Doas tb;a axo,,ya Kba offamnf IN 1ama0a
its reputation and deter the young men
of the State from patronizing it? Does
it justify or excuse such TRADES as the
following from a Republican journal,
Fairmont the Vest I~IrgiRidn, which
is located within twenty miles of the
University, and which ought 10 know,
if it does not know, that the grounds of
its criticism are as frivolous as they are
unfOunded?: Says this journal:
We can blame no one for not wanting
to send his child to an institution where
he will be constantly under influences
of the very worst kind, and which might
have q bearing upon his after life
fraught with evil results both to him
self and 20 the country. The States
rights fallacy was settled by the arbitra-
ment Of the sword, and that, too, adj
versely to the teachings of the Univer-
sity professors. Out of the eleven pro-
~feSsOrs, two are Republicans, while the
Board of Regents presents a solid
Democratic front. In the face Of these
facts a Republican father, who has any
respect for his boy, and who remembers
| A. n.,,.f,l,a a., urhtah inop1n onI
Garfield died, will hesitate long ere he
subjects the tender mind of his off
spring to these evil teachings; nOr will
he allow him to be insulted with the
declaration that he need not expect to
find the life of the great Charles Sum-
ner in a southern institution" There
are too many good schools close at hand.
If the University is expected to succeed
it must be Invested at its partisan char
acter.
Nobody but the editor who penned
the above ever heard, and nobody has
ever charged, that the students of the
institution were subjected to political or
party influences and teachings. A great
many things have been charged against
the management of the institution, but
nobody has heretofore had the temerity
to assume that the educational ma
chinery of the institution was affected
by party politics, OF that any student
was liable to infection from the parti-
san proclivities of any man or number
of men with whom he had to deal in
the University itself. We doubt if one
half the students could tell the politics
of the members OF the faculty if re-
quired.
There is reason why the Republican
arty might desire a voice in the man
ag,ment of the institution, but there is
no shadow of reason why a
student should require that a compe-
tent professor should be a Democrat or
Republican, or member of any other
party. \ professor in the University
has no business with politics, and if any
one of them should intrude his political
or party notions or preferences upon his
pupils he ought to be promptly dis
missed, and if the UcSt JTrgiRiGR can
sustain any such charge as it prefers in
general terms, let him make them spe-
officially and he will thereby effect the
reform which he pretends to be seeking.
We believe in building up the educa-
tional institutions of our young State.
We are in favor Of every measure that
will better our University, that will IN
prove our normal schools, that will ad-
vance our common schools. We be-
lieve all of them have merit. We be-
lieve all of them are better than their
reputation. We believe all of them
deserve to be maintained, and We are
opposed to pulling any of them down.
Why not build them up"
University Thunder.