The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-03-31
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.
The Folly of Assisting 1t. Bad Univers
Records.

records. e
To the Editor of The Republican
Garrett county can be congratulM
ted upon having its Senator and its
Delegates stand by the interests 66
their constituents in the rejection Of
the Hopkins University approprias
ton. AT this writing the bill for the
granting of $4,000 to the University
has passed the Senate with six votes
still against it, and among them that
of Senator Ravenscroft. 1t is to be
hoped that the House will unequiyo-
cally condemn the $50, 900 measure as
it did the 100000, and that Garrett's
delegates, Messrs. Moon and Jacobs,
will be found still firmly voting
against the measure.
1t is said that the University is the
glory of Baltimore, of Maryland and
the country, and that its fame eAa
tends over the earth. We read of il
from its friends as if it were the pos
SCISSOR of a knowledge that is power
sufficient to move the eaath. But
what is it doing and what has it done
to entitle it to such a praise? The
great questions before the people for
the last few years have been, how
shall crime and pauperism be sup
pressed or mitigated, and how shall
socialism, anarchy and revolution be
averted? By this time the wisdom of
Hopkins should have been impressed
upon the nation and promising and
peaceful should be the results accru-
ing.
But never mind the other hemis-
phere, never mind the United States,
never mind Maryland; what has the
university done for its own little local
vicinity-just Baltimore city? Prog
ress and poverty" comes the answer.
Pompous and pampered professors
and students with heads in the clouds
proclaim the progress of the age and
themselves as advancing it, while
crime and pauperism increase in the
cutters beneath. In 1897 there were
34,293 arrests in Baltimore, and of
these 10,392. became prisoners in the
Jail for which an appropriation Of
$50, ,0O0 was to be asked this year.
This is the Jail record in the city
where the glory of Hopkins is sup
posed to shine around about
Coming to the penitentiary we find
that it has been crowded as never
before in its history, and that even
the Sunday school room and library
have been used for sleeping purposes
for the overflow. For the penitenti-
airy 100000 was also to be asked
Paupers and insane have increased at
Bayview almshouse, and armies of
tramps have endangered life and
property on the borders of the city
and the wisdom of Hopkins with it's
1O6 professors counts for nothing.
Prof. Ely did go forth from Hopkins
to a western university some years
ago, and he has attempted the solu-
tion of these problems, but reached
not as high a plane as the hundreds
Of others who never saw the inside of
a university and who have labored in
poverty unassisted by either private
or public aid.
And what is the standing of uni
versities generally? Every now and
then some leading paper asks what
becomes of the college and the uni
versity student? When they are
wanted in the realms in which they
are supposed to flourish they are un-
known. In times of peace they are
not at hand to stand as the foremost
in invention, in literature, in science
and in art and in the times which
try mems souls they are not raised up
as the heroes born for the exigencies.
The colleges and universities are
famous for their hazings, their fights,
their riots, their mischief and their
general lawlessness, socialism and
nihilism. The other day there was a
fight in Columbia college over ban
quet and "a lark Another day a
gymnasium was demolished at
Princeton to force the authorities to
construct one more to the students
liking. A New York paper, the
Voice, has employed the services of
the notorious vice-detecter, Anthony
Comstock, to investigate the morals
and habits of the students of the
famous Yale college. The Lombard
university at Galesburg, ILL.,, has
decided to add dancing to the college
curriculum, and the Chicago Times
Herald says from it that our colleges
will in time turn our bachelors of
waltzing, masters of foot ball and
doctors of pink teas" By assisting
the Hopkins the poor tax payers
would assist some similar fandangoes
right at hand.
The Baltimore American states
that 'forty-one students of the Stan
farI T,.,