The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-01-30
ABSOLUTELY PURE

bill, giving wide and ample powers to a
board OF regents. who shall bs emit usted
with the solution OF the problem OF higher
education ~ the progress and needs OF your
state shall unfold. Its unwiss to mort
gage the future; to tic up its interests to
hard and fast lines; to place burdens upon
coming years by planning unwisely for
generations whose necessities you cannot
f~orcsae. 1t Is unwiss TO create u lot of
machinery before you have any work for ID
TO co or any motive power to operate it.
Give these interests a chance to grow freely
and naturally; allow the tuition of expert
ence to shape tho unfolding of these insti-
t~utions; fit the glove to the hand us it
comes into shape, allow the future
some chance. and grant that lib
erty that fosters life and psr-
mits life to shape its organization
method by which all our great institutions
have attained their power and efficiency.
In Wisconsin and Michigan, whose uuiver-
stiles have achieved eminenoe, the boards
OF regents were given scope and liberty.
and, beginning in = small way. departments
after department has been ad led ae ex-
p~eriencs directed. Give your institution
for higher educatiou-scientifc and in
dnstfial as we'll as classical-time to bios
som. What Is the use OF buying a four
horse dray to move what can be carried in
a handsatchei2 Montana will not have
students enough for years to come to make
three institutions anything more than'a
laughing stock. It is better to start right
and do the particular thing now needed in
q mastery fashion, han to dot this COM
be struck with decrepitude before they are
born.
ii. Provide in this bill that these regents
shall do the two things. and the only two
things, now absolutely needed: Te create a
school of mines and an agricultural expert
v,At~k ~ = - I~ ~--k~ d.
slbly. it may be wise i'll the future to select
a different location for other parts of our
great university system. but these two
ought to go together for the present ~atleast.
and they represent the only urgent neces-
sity of the situation. Add a short winter
ers' institutes. and you are well equipped
for the immediate future; you will then be
care of the interests that press for
conside alton. Almost all the good that
can evsr be done in behalf Of the farmers
of any state will be accomplished through
the station and these institutes. Thirty |
years of experience makes this plain. Let
the regents put at the head OF this expand
ing organization the greatest educator to
be found, a broad, modern. practical man,
and under the wise guidance of such
a master mind, on tine spot and IN touch
university system come into shape freely |
and naturally, fitting its buildings to their
proper uses, organizing and enriching it's
faculties as needed, making it the goal and
contamination of your common schools, |
and keeping it in all respects in close con-
with the whole life n population
OF the state.
As l turn my face toward the Pacific let
me urge upon you, kind reader, a serious
consideration Of these suggestions. When
/ return from those distant isles of the sea.
if such fortune be given me. may I find
that Montana has grown to be a glorified
Of Massachusetts, with a university !
however small. doing the work
most needed by the state In the best posi- J
Bile way. In TRANsIrU. !
Helena, Jan. %, 1899.