The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-01-30
UNIVERSITY PROBLEM.
Suggestions to the Legislature on
the Subject From a
Visitor.
Give the Institution for Higher
Education Time in Which
to Blossom.
Start Right and Do the Particular Thing
Now needed in = Mastcrly
Fashion.

To THE INDEPENDENT: Stopping for a few
days in this CITY, the temporary capital o.
your state, while on M way to the Sand
wioh Islands to reorganize the educational
institutions OF the remarkable people wht
live there. l have naturally made inquirie'
respecting your system of public instruo-
tion. am surprised to fnd the diversity
of opinion among the honorable memberI
OF your present legislature respecting wha'
mar be called the 'univet sity problem.'
And if not out Of place I wish to offer a few
suggestions:
(1l In erecting a barn or constructing
erist mill, the builder first of all takes into
account the number OF horses to be kept OF
tho amount Of grain to be ground. So. IL
planning for the higher education Of a PEG
pie, it is necessary to consider the number
OF persons to be provided for; the extent 81
patronage which such institutions will
probably receive. This is what l purpose
TO do when l arrive at Honolulu.
(2) Let me take the state of Wisconsin as
q fair standard for calculation and compar-
ison. These estimates will be especially
favorable to Montana. beoause Wisconsin
has been a uniformly prosperous
ity. and also because its university has been
q popular institution, barring few out by
severe entrance examinations while 10 is
broad in its scope having an unusually
large number of departments, more than
are contemplated by the friends of what
YOU hsrs call the consolidation scheme.
Now. I fnd that in Wisconsin. on an aver
age for the past forty years. it has taken a
Thousand families to contribute one student
TO the university. Al present. a. the state
has grown older and tho university has be-
come greater. 400 families contribute one
student to that institution.
(3) There are probably in your state not
over 5000 families, for the peculiar CHAR
acter of your industries brings into this
region a very large proportion of unmarried
men. For this and other obvious reasons,
Montana will for years to come contribute
a smaller ratio OF university students than
many other communities of thu same size
and culture. and l find the number OF highly
educated people here very large. If. how
ever, we use the Wisconsin general average
for forty years, we find that Montana would
gave its univsrsity--even if consolidated
an attendance of only twsnty students,
while at the present average of Wisconsin
the attendance would not exceed fifty!
"a Certainly q university of this size would
be small enough, bat to my utter surprise,
I am told that some Of your wise statesmen
pY0RO60 30 OlVlO0 tA6ho iOtO tuIoo bklHlloC
squads of fifteen or twenty young people.
Has il occurred to them what a Distress
insly lonesome and insignificant l~nstitu-
ton such a handful would make?
Only . score Of students in the Montana
university; a. many more in the school of
mines; and half that number in you agri-
cultural college. And even if you state
eads the university contingent will not
multiply with equal rapidity. and you
would have at the end of ten years %institu-
liens with an attendance too small to be
seen by the naked eye. Concentrate all
FOUR departments, rake and scrape the
dance for years to come will hardly be
large enough to mako a successful institu-
ton possible.
(5) Consider for q moment the bearings
of these facts: How little ambition could
be kindled in the classes of a college whore
the total attendance would hardly furnish
q base ball team. What man of brains
could you get to preside over classes with
from one 70 three students? You might
secure him BY offers of q high salary and a
perfect climate. but he would go crazy in
less than q year in spite of all your superb
weather and charming scenery.
(6) Look at another fact. You canno6
expect to draw students from beyond the
borders Of your state, and therefore you
must depend upon your own high schools
as feeders to these institutions. Now,
that are the facts in this line? You have.
I suppose. q half-dozen high schools doing
good preparatory work. | think that their
graduates do no. aggregate moro than fifty
young men and women q year. At least
half of these do not prolong their eduoa-
tien farther thar this. Half of those who
90 to college will for a long time to come
especially if these departments are di-
vided-be sent to eastern institutions. This
leaves only about a dozen to parcel out
among three schools. With this patronage
how little can any one Of these schools do.
Mass your students all together and your
institution will be unfortunately small for
years to ocme. For when the state has
reached a population OF half a mi lion peo-
pie, one consolidated university would be
scant of student materitl.
"a Let US follow out this line of thought
respecting the proposed agricultural college.
In Michigan, q PROSPEROUS and largely ag-
ricultural state, the college at Lansing has
on an avssage during the pact thirty years
drawn one student from every three thou
sand families. This 10 a liberal estimate
after deducting the attendance from Ian
sing and vicinity due, not to interest in
farming, but to neafnes to the school it
self. At this rate. which is heterogeneous
toward Montana. your agricultural college
would have an average attendance Of Blk
and two-thirds boys. IL there were three
prOIt6bOrg. a very small 12CuitV, edcn WOult
have the care of two and two-ninths boys,
while the education of each boy would cost
upwards OF two thousand dollars per
year for instruction alone! The state would
save money by Offering a bounty of a thou
aand dollars to every boy who cared to go
to the Michigan agricultural college. Take
another illustration: Az the Wisconsin
university, for some five years. great efforts
have been made to attract students to q
short winter agricultural course. The best
teachers have been provided. and the
students in this course arc treated with the
greateat consideration. But at the ssme
proportion the patronage Of such u course
III Montana would not reach half a dozen
enough to warrant careful attention in a
consolidated university, but not enough to
justify a separats agricultural college.
(S) ! hear that the wisdom of the policy
of consolidation il generally conceded By
your honorable legislature. but local pres.
sure, exsrted in behalf OF the financial BEN
eft expected to be derived ftoEa the ioca-
ton of one of these schools in a certain
psac>, has led "a lag 10 number to pledge
themselves in favor OF the divisive policy.
Bat let me call attention TO the fact thar
If this ed EDUCATIONAL machinery is thus sep-
nrated into three Institutions, none for
years to como will ba of any financial benc-
1T 10 the place where located. The plum,
when divided. will afford no one q mouth
full. An agricultural college with q score Of
Htudents-poor lonesome thing. an object of
pity or of contempt-what is that worth to
one of your enterprisin9 towns? This re-
port must be a mistake. 1t is not pos
nibie, l think, that any community
ID this great stnte has SO lost
its sslf-rsspect az to enter into a scramble
for anything 30 small rs these institutions