The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-02-27
a Victorian Educators gtrong Agreement
for = Great Untversity.

philosophical, astronomical and chemical
apparatus, collections in all departments O
natural history. and u full corps OF Learned
teachers. Such schools cost large sums o
money to start them and to keep them III
from year to year.. This money must come
from the land grants with what the stat
can give.
The history Of the management Of thes'
land grants in other states should warn u
to take good care Of these lands and throw
around them every safe guard. for there ar
land sharks, who think it little harm II
take what belongs to the state, Al shown By
those who are stripping the timber from
our chool lands.
All or nearly eli Of tho states west of tn
A~lleghenies had lands granted them TO
state universities when they were admitted
to the union. The conditions of the school
established BY these grants shows the diff
ference between good and bad manage.
ment Of them. and the o derived from
them. Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin am
Mississippi have good state universitiel
founded and endowed by those land grants
While Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois 80
managed that they have no groat state
universities founded by those lands. But
Illinois and Ohio, made wise by the results
Of bad management. are building great
schools on their later agricultural land
grants.
Whether We hayea great university like
which will b the greatest perpetual good
% state can have, may depend
On the management OF our university
and college lands. Hence there il nothing
more important to Montana; for on 1t will
depend in = great measure the intelligence
and vfrknn ~ hae AVA aud Js,r1ko~
The question Of location has been more
discussed because Of local interests. 1t
will be = great advantage to a place to have
one OF these schools. provided it be q suit
able place for such q school and the school
has ample mssns of support. But II it be
school could not flourish, as for sanitary or
moral reasons. thon il would be better sven
for such . place to have the school at an
other point. whore it could prosper. The
place Of location, therefore, should be en-
tirely subordinated to tho best interest Of
tho school. There are many influences
which tend TO build up a college, and many
which are % potent to pull il down, as ev-
cry one we'll knows who has labored long
years to build up q state school. But when
all these influences for and against all the
localities are considered the best one should
be selected.
The sanitary conditions Of a place should
AnVO kAteU WcIkutS " uO Ouc WOuIO 6euQ
pupils to q school where the seeds Of dis
ease and death would be planted in the
physical system, while the seeds Of learning
are sown in the intellectual.
Other things being equal, q college will
flourish best whore it would have the most
sympathy Of the people. An agricultural
community like BozeJnsn, would take more
interest in an agricultural college thar a
mining community like Butte would. And
for q similar reason Butte would take
more interest in a school OF mines thar
Bozeman would.
But before even the question of the loca-
ton OF individual schools can be considered
precedence, If fatal mistakes are to be
avoided. n
Fol the last fifty years the educators Of
the world have been discussing the question
whether colleges do better as separate and
distinct schools. as the school of mines in
Missouri. or as associated with other schools
as the school of mines in Column
bia college. in New York. Bat after long
years Of discussion, which has agi-
tated every city, town and hamlet
on the continent, all educators now admit
the strong reasons for and the advantages
Of associating colleges or schools in uni
versities. So great are the advantages of
the university or associated system that all
the great schools in the world have adopted
it. as Oxford and Cambridge in England.
Harvard, Yale and Michigan in America,
So obvious has been the benefit of this as
ISOLATION of colleges II schools in univer-
sites that not an intelligent educator who
has been much engaged in college work
will now advocate the separation Of the COL
leges IN our great universities and Of pIac-
ing them in other towns TO satisfy the local
feeling. Who in New York would take the
school of mines from Columbia college and
place It in Albany! Non OF the great pro-
fessors who now give it character would 20
to Albany with it, and it would ut once lose
its prestige az 4 great school. Not q man
in Michigan would take the college Of arts
from the state university at Ann Arbor and
put il in Detroit. though Detroit is q much
greater city than Ann Arbor.
There are advantages connected with
separate and distinct schools located in Dis
tant towns 1t is unfortunate that these
advantages are mostly local and not ger-
wane to a state school. though they be Of
great local value and obvious to every ono.
especially to real estate boomers. 1t would
be a trump card for the beautiful CITY of
Bozeman to cap the climax of her adyan-
tages by saying. BoZeman is the oldest CITY
in Montana which has grown up by the
forces Of it's natural advantages, central
location. in fruitful valley. beautiful as
Eden, with a thousand women more bsau-
titul than Eve Though they have but a
small pat of the advantages enjoyed by
Mother Eve), surrour I'd by ranches which
have fed he miners of Montana. ard,
above all, she has the state Agricultural
college. But these boomers do rot stop to
inquire whether this college would have tho
means of becoming n great university like
Cornell. where all branches of learning
are taught"
Locate one of these colleges now, and the
question of uniting all the state schools 10
build up a great university. will be settled
adversely and forever, before the subject
had been well considered.
In my next, il you deem my observations
worthy of publication, / will show some of
the advantages Of uniting all our state
schools in a state university worthy of tue
name, and whose Influences shall he felt
for good in all parts of the state. 1t il
certain that the land grant for any one OF
these schools IL not sufficient to establish a
good college, which will command the pa
tronaRe of the state in the present genera
ton. and the state 10 not rich enough ia
build up four or five such colleges. But il
you unite them all, the land grants and
what the state can do m what some cit,
might do for the location, we might ut onct
have u university which would be the prid.
and glory Of the state and command thu
respect Of the country. Let Montana hav.
a state university with a central college o.
art teaching the common collegiate studies
. school of mines. q normal school, schoo
of engineering and architecture, q CONNIE.
cial school, . mechanical school, n medIca
college. q law school, and q school o
political economy, whose influence shall
be felt for good in every mine
in every furnace, on every ranch. by ever