Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-07-02
APPEAL FOR WILLAMETTE.
Remarks Before the Merchants OF
Salem by w. T Chapman.

Extract from the address of w. t.
Chapman: Financial Agent to the
Merchants Protective Association Of
Salem.
Gentlemen Il desire to be as brief
rs Is consistent with the importance
of the subject as | understand it.
There is in your mind this one
question "What is it to us?" This
question I propose briefly to answer.
[ speak to merchants. To men who
are concerned to know how much
money is to be spent in this city
during the coming year,and through
what channel it is to come. Con
cerning other sources of revenue |
have nothing to say; but there is in
your beautiful city one institution to
which | do desire to call your at
tention: and | will do so very brief
ly, but in a way that ! am sure will
interest most of you. The William
cite University has been so long a
household word among US that we
are in danger of forgetting what ii
is to us. Under other circumstances
| might well speak Of the social and
intellectual value of such an insti-
tuition, but here / am only to pre-
sent few facts and figures bearing
upon the commercial value Of the
Willamette University to the mer-
! chants of Salem. | have been exam
ing the catalogue in order to find
out what proportion of students
properly belong to Salem and what
proportion would not have been
here at all but for this particular
school. 1t appears that only 20 per
cent. belong to Salem, leaving 50 per
pent. to the credit of the University
n5 coming from abroad. The cata-
logue for 1880 & 81 shows this to he
more than 200 for that year Nc
one will question the statement
that those students must have spent
5000 each on an average for what
they obtained in Salem during that
wear. This amounted to the mod.
est sum of $4,000, from the students
alone. But we must not overlook
the fact that many of those students
represented whole families who had
left former homes and established
themselves here for the sole purpose
of placing their older children in
the university at once, and the
younger afterward in their turn.
This would make, at n low esti
mate, another $4,000. To this you
must add another $4,000 for the eX'
peDse of the Faculty, and their fam
lilies. None of this money would
have come into the channels of trade
in Salem, but for the presence OF
the University in the city,
Now we must turn for a moment
to consider the case Of tbs fifty stu
dents who belong to Salem. These
mnst have au education; and but
for the University being locatee'
here, must have gone abroad, at an
expense of $4,000; which must be
added to the 100000 already placed
to the credit of Willamette Univer-
sity; making grand total of $4,000
which is to he diminished only by
the amount of the tuition paid by
these fifty students belonging to the
city
And when we take into account
the fact that the $4,000 supposed tc
have been spent as above, must have
gone out of the profits Of business,
the 5000 or 50 spent for tuition
here, sinks into comparative insig-
nificauce. No one knows better
than the merchants of the city,
whom | address, what it would
mean to throw out of the channels
Of ordinary business the amount ol
SIS, 900 actual cash in single year,
and to send abroad $4,000 of this
from the actual profits of trade,
which trade has already been re-
duced by diminution of $50, ,0OC
f'om the present trade.
Hitherto this stream of current
coin has come TO the wheels of your
commerce in unObstructed flow
Now the fountain has been tapped
by Others, and unless you promptly
enlarge your viaduct, the water vii
soon desert your wheel.
This sort Of enterprise can no long
er be classed with the disinteresteC
benevo lences. 1t is purely a COM