The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-19
STATE COLLEGES.

There are no less thar forty Of the
9orty-fve states that have state COL
ieges in the United States. Some Of the
states have more than one. In all these
colleges in 1896, there were 1000 at
tending. What a grand work is doing
for the youth Of our country by these
institutions of learning wholly or in
part supported by the states. With no
state aid many thousands would be
deprived of a liberal educatioin. And
yet there is a widespread hostility to
these noble schools and ~demagOSues
are tanning the flames to consume
them. These state schools have about
one-fifth of the whole body Of college
students. Minnesota educates the
largest number, 3,014, at state expense,
Michigan being next with 2,575, then
California with 2,40O, followed by Wis
consin with 1900, Nebraska with 1,506,
Iowa with 300, and Illinois with LOO.
Tuition fees are charged in only six
states, the fee in North Carolina being
$50, in South Carolina $40, in Iowa $25.
in Missouri $40, in Oregon $40, and in
South Dakota SO.
1t is to be hoped the good sense, the
improved intelligence, the higher sense
of right will prevail over the d%estruc-
tives and enemies of the welfare of
tens of thousands Of American youth.
We are glad to see two or three very
cOgent, calmly reasoned and strong ed
4tOrials in The Charleston News and
Courier in favor of state colleges. The
trouble is not with too much help, but
many are impaired in usefulness by the
small aid afforded by some of. the
states.
If we had the space we would be
glad to reproduce much Of the dis
cus5ion. There is a growing determina-
ton among people in some churches to
break down the colleges and UNIVERSE
ties supported in part by the state, and
the discussion of our able contempor-
airy is most needed, most timely. We
must give at least one long sample of
what 1T says of one point raised by
the enemies of state education:
ut Is either the duty of the state to
provide for the education of it's youth
or it Is not. If it is it's duty it should
provide such education free of charge,
so that all it's children may avail Them
selves of the facilities it offers, 50 far
as they can. If not its duty, it has no
right to compete with private or cor
Dorate or nominations institutions
IN n way or to any degree. 1t should
close It's colleges-and close its schools
and cav the matter of education
wholly, from beginning to end, in the
hands of such institutions.
There is no reason for drawing the
tine or state obligation, If any, in this
matter, at any point between the pri-
mary schools, the secondary schools,
the high schools, the academies, the
colleges and the universities. The term
higher education is of wholly arbi-
trary significance. A boy may get a
higher education at home. under eX-
ceptional conditions, than at a univer-
sity. He may get a higher education
at some schools than at some colleges
The ordinary common school 'educa-
tion,' of a training in the three RS"
Sufficed for the popular needs when the
country was new. 1t does not suffice
now. 1t is only the beginning of an
education now. The boy or girl is only
fairly not highly educated, in our
time, who has completed the course in
one of our average colleges. The state
has not educated any one of its sons
whom it dismisses at the end of it's
public school course. If it desires and
means to give them the opportunities
Tor an education that will be common
surate with the demands of the time,
1t Will give them the opportunities it
ma provided in its colleges"
The primary, common schools, start
ed, controlled and supported by the
state furnish free tuition. They are as
much in ~antagonism to the private
schools for boys and girls, often taught
by struggling, deserving young women,
as the colleges, partly supported only
by the state antagonize the demon
national colleges. If there is no objec-
tion to the one there car be no valid
objection to the other. + 1T these peo-
pie are not without sense, who will
damn and denounce aid to the higher
school who will hurrah with hats in
the air for large appropriations to the
lower schools. 1t is NJ sin or wrong
10 take the bread from toiling qualified
women, but it is a terrible outrage to
Compel with the sectarian schools. So
n Charleston paper is right and logi-
cal when 1T insists that 'denomina-
fional colleges ann be allowed to
draw an arbitrary line between the
public schools, on the one hand, and
h ruGlic colleges on the other, and
demaIi that the states work shall
stop short at that line. They should as
sumo the whole task or none of it. If
she state can properly be allowed and
required to educate its sons to the
grade # freshman in the average col
Hege, it can as properly claim the right
and privilege and duty of educating
them to the grade of sophomore and
Junior and senior WHY not?,