The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-27
The State University.

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Jourrnsa:
The question is upon us again. 1t comes
with the regularity of the equinoxes. only it
comes biennially, not semi-annually, but lis
demands are the same. 1t comes asking an
endowment. Not that it has more students
than it can accommodate BUTT wants more
money. 1t comes asking the Methodists
Presby terians, Baptists, Christians, Friends
and others who despairing OF equal rights at
the State University, long ago taxed them
selves to build private institutions of the
highest order, at some of which education to
every child in the State is already as free and
undenominational as it is at the State uni
versty: to allow themselves to be taxed by
the States revenue machinery to support q
magnificent State institution. Just why the
State should undertake to educate
the professional gentlemen of the
State, is not apparent, but the demand
is made all the same. Time was when there
was some plausibility in this demand, but
the fifty years that have passed since the first
attempt of this kind in Indiana have demon
strated that private schools can more than
compete with public schools OF this charac-
ter, both as to numbers and other features
Fifty years ago it was the theory that the
State should build the railroads and canals
of the State. No sane man talks that way
to-day, and no greater change has come over
public opinion on this subject than on that
Our State, and almost every other State has
given its railroads and canals to private cor
porations, and made money by the trans
action, as we'll as better roads and canals
Why not do the same with our university?
1t is not necessary now to compare the cost
per student at the State University, at the
State Normal and at Purdue also, with the
cost per capita al Asbury, Wabash, Butler,
Hanover Franklin and Earlham, and at the
private normal schools. That is not the
question. The State can afford TO pay more
than twice as much as individuals if she
chooses to, but ought she?
But this eternal importantly to endow
State university is a mere pretext 1t means
to spend thousands, if not millions, TO endow
Bloomington. In matters of this kind the
State should exercise the wisdom of business
men in other affairs. Bloomington fifty
years ago, was no farther from any other
place than any other town was 1t was as
accessible as indianapolis, and almost as large
and promising. But there is to-day hardly
any other county-seat as far from all other
railroad through it. with no prospect of
ever another, and that road-well
it has been vastly improved in its equip
ments within few years Since the loca-
ton of the University at Bloomington a
branch of it has been located at Terre Haute
and another at Lafayette. These are both
railroad centers, and approachable by many
ways. Now, if the State must go into the
business of competing with the very superior
colleges and universities which private en-
tcrprise has established, why should not
these three branches he united in one? The
demands of business require consolidation in
other departments why not in educalion2
Why keep three faculties when one could do
the work? Railroads find it necessary to
consolidate in order to get rid of the extra
armies of officers and employees. Newspa-
pers as old and influential as Bloomington,
consolidate for the same reason. Why not
consolidate our State schools? The money
spent on the three would soon make an
Ann Arbor Let those who are camor-
ing for appropriations to this or that
branch OF our school system show that it is a
university they want, and not an endow-
ment of this or that, and the work will be