The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-05-21
KINGSTON SCHOOL AND SENATE.

T4U,OOO Tor reOulldlnB anu Naler Woihs
at Kingston School is before the Senate
and by this time may have been passed.
We hope not, however. The amend
ment TO the bill gives the Senate
good chance TO reconsider the
matter in the light OF the
new meaning of the bill,
recalling, too, that it was recommended
by finance committee, one of whose
members is a member of the board of
managers of the school and another a
relative, or connection, of one of the
professors at the school, while two OF
the five are opposed to the measure.
In this matter we have little to add to
what has been already printed. but we
may express confidence in the following
views:
That but on newspaper in the State
has had a good word to say for the
Kingston school as at present conducted
in its location on Kingston Hill.
That so far as the public has been
able to take any interest in the matter a
majority of the people believe Kingston
school, as at present conducted on Kings
ton Hill, of little use TO the State and its
young men and young women.
That, while the agricultural commu-
mites get good deal of benefit from
the experiment station, the farmers
boys and girls get practically no benefit
from the agricultural school as at pres
ent conducted on Kingston Hill.
That, in South Kingstown, this senti-
ment is nearly as strong as it is in more
remote parts of the State.
That if the General Assembly would
appoint committee to look into the
matter they would discover plenty of
evidence that the two last statements
at least are abu7dautly true.
There is also another phase of the
matter that is amusing and amazing. 1t
is generally recognized that
the passage OF the appropriation In
the House was not due to
the unseemly lobbying of the heads Of
Kingston School but to the fact that one
of the board of managers had been
induced to supply money to pay the
laborers, who, prematurely, and without
any authority, had been set to work
rebuilding in the face of the discussion
then under way in the Assembly.
The appropriation was passed, as
one OF our contemporaries expressed it,
to help this member "out of hole"
In word, the appropriation was cram
med down the throat of the Assembly
and the pathetic figure of a member Of
board of managers, pleading to be reim-
bursed for money which was expended
without authority, was presented to
warm the hearts of the members TO the
appropriation.
While we acknowledge that the esteem
in which this member of the board of
managers is held, and his dsinterested-
ness in the matter, may well claim a
friendly sympathy, it strikes us that it
is peculiar way for the State to con-
duct its business and establishes n
dangerous precedent, while the trick
that was played by dragging this gentle
mans name into the thing in this way
and making him catspaw ought to have
been condemned by a fiat refusal
to endorse the unauthorized work that
was pushed on Kingston Hill the
moment opposition to the appropriation
became manifest. And, as we have be-
fore pointed out, the General Assembly
will. at future date, be called upon to
do some moro reimbursing, for this
same member Of the board of man.
ayers of this State Agricultural
School. where agriculture has so
far been lost sight of that,
it is said, not one of the sophomore or
freshmen class is taking the agricultural
course, has bought some real estate that
the board thought they wanted, but did
not care to ask the Assembly for, and in
due time the Assembly will be asked
to take the real estate off the hands Of
the manager who has bought it.
This land was bought with the most
unselfsh motives and because it was
"far superior to any land owned by the
State" on Kingston Hill. The purchaser
assumed that the State would some time
own it"-a presumption that, we may
depend upon it, was not discouraged by
either President WAsHBURN or Director
FLAGG, who have right, by experience,
to assume that whatever they ask for
the Assembly will grant. SO this men,
ber of the board of managers bought the
land to save it for the State. There are
90 acres of it and 50, 10000 was paid for
il, and in addition $50 was paid for
services in connection with the transfer,
and $i1G5 for surveying the land and
making map, etc.
Now, we know as a matter of fact
that the State can have this land for
exactly what this member of the hoard