The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-05-10

secures from time TO time and the $40, 1898
which was realized under the act OF lsS, IN
the body of which act is the special pro-
vision. inserted at the suggestion OF the uni
versity lobby, and as an express condition
OF obtaining this endowment, but after 90,
tanning 1t, no further appropriations snali
be made TO the said university. what
these specific appropriations are liable 10
be is plainly indicated by the fact that IN
1897 the trustees claimed that not less than
$4,000 was "a pressing need for new plant,
adding, and an increase in our aDproorla-
soon, and more ground is needed for cam
pus. Is IL not one Of the horseieechs
daughters who forever cry give, give, and
are never satisfied.
FOR THE TAXPAYERS.
II propose to let taxpayers settle with
their legislators the question Of the waste
of money in a college where the per capita
cost of tuition to the State is within a
small fraction of double the cost per capita
in equally good colleges in the State. and
where the saving to the student is only As
cents a week as compared with the expense
at colleges that receive no state aid what
ever, though free tuition is the specious
plea for all this waste of public funds.
They must settle with their legislators also
for appropriating $500 AZ a year TO a man
holding one lucrative Office under the
state, and by the same vote appropriating
$S42.3s to the same man in a second 'lucra-
tive office, for the presidency OF the State
University is as much a lucrative office as
Is the SUPPLEMENTARY of the school for the
blind o. the deaf and dumb, an0 a member
OF the State Board of Education Is also as
much the holder of a lucrative office as is
a m of the State Board Of Charities
or any other officer who receives compensa-
ton out of the state treasury.
Besides asking their legislators to ex-
plain their votes on these items they should
ask also why they appropriated slS, l5l.2l for
contingent expenses without knowing
what items enter into that budget, wei
L. N N mir o. "a uyha1 the trpix-orcftu did cnopi-
fy items it included money paid the lobby
to secure an appropriation. and that there
fore presumably similar items are included
in the budget now; but the university posi-
lively refuses to give the items to the state
auditor. as the authorities Of the school
for the blind and other similar state schools
do, alleging as a reason that ii Is a private
corporation and does not have to any more
than De Pauw or Earlham or Franklin has
ceiving but a private school for disbursing.
Let taxpayers look after small matters like
these while we give attention to the perfdy
to- build ,nH 0 and en M %cplleRes or do without
and then selecting the least deserving ana
making out Of il a state institution by a
simple act OF the Legislatu rre after pr1y ,ns
of the kind should ever be done, and that.
too. by an act struggled through by the
acts of q shrewd lobby IN the last hours
one in ten of the members suspecting what
was aTh mea bad f fsit the Of ac the State towards the
colleges of the State II seen further In Its
supporting thus lavishly a college that low
ers the standard Of education. That stu
dents are admitted into classes in this State
University on less scholastic attachments
than are required for admission into CORE
spending, classes in other colleges in the
is familiar with college work In Indiana,
for it has been going on for years with no
attempt at concealment, and that students
oao rff 1Acc oahnloGffn
ments than are required at other colleges
in the State was practically confessed by
the college itself, as far as related TO can
didates for teachers license at least. by
its appeal to the Legislature of 1897 TO ex-
empt such graduates from the anil
tons that graduates from other colleges
such a college at public expense is an act
of perfdy utterly unbearable and unjusti-
fable.
FAvoRITISM CHARGED.
Constituting the president of n of the
private corporations of the State a member
of the State Board Of Education, with off,
cial rank that practically makes him chief
in influence and backing him with
money is an act Of bad faith towards its
contemporaries and equals that every fair
minded man should condemn. 1t is no secret
in educational circles that promoters OF
that favored school have for many years
obtained students for it. especially from the
ranks of those who prize a diploma more
than they prize the scholarship it is sup
posed to represent, by assuring them that
a diploma from il would be a better pass
port to A teachers license than from & Sec
tartan school, as that state-fed college In
derision calls its betters. and that many
nave been induced to attend ii for this
reason, and ii is equally well known that
among the first questions asked by the state
board. unoficially, of course, is from what
college the applicant for license had been
graduated. Besides, 1t is known that many
OF the questions propounded to the appii-
cant are so formulated that no one is pre-
pared to answer them but those who have
attended that college and the State Normal.
There has been no concealment of this fact
by those implicated, but rather an open
confession of ii, for last summer at many,
If not all, the county institutes a >placard
was conspicuously displayed reading: Since
based upon Wisely's grammars be sure TO
get a copy Now, Wisely's gramma is one
which was rejected by the board as a text
hock for want OF merit, yet II is used In n
a professor in the State Normal School,.
This is an act of bad faith towards the
other colleges of the State that all honest
men ought to despise. 1t is an act OF bad
faith towards the other colleges of the
State that 1t continues this domineering
power in the hands OF one OF the private
colleges to the exclusion of all the others
over their vigorous protest, for the Indiana
University Is no more a state school than
is De PAW. or Wabash. or Earlham, or
Notre Dame. except what claims it has
through that act of the Legislature Of 1867,
and ii Is entitled to no precedence over
them. yet that precedence was con-
tinued by the late Legislature through an
education committee, packed in the Senate
by the lieutenant governor, over the pro-
test Of the real friends of education in the
State. with a corresponding in
the House, in which was not a pronounced
opponent to the great wrong. The pretended
concession of the masters to they are
pleased to call the 'sectarian colleges when
examined is insult added to injury, for It
comedies nothing. And now they go about
saying sneeringly: Didn't we snow you
they mockingly suggest that our remedy is
in the courts to test the question of the
constitutionality of such appropriations,
and of comforting two lucrative Offices upon
the same person. we'll knowing that there
is no individual or association Of individ-
uals that can afford to tackle such arrog-
ance backed by the treasury Of the State.
THE burning question of the hour is, not
what we ought TO do in the abstract, but
what can we do under the circumstances
We ought to test the constitutionality of the
act OF the Legislature of 1867, which made
one of the private corporations of the State
"a charge upon the State In defiance Of
the action of the constitutional convention
of 1916 as TO abolish the county seminary
system and the State University Also as
well as TO forbid the Legislatures making
any school other h the common
who has $1,000 TO spend in such an under
taking? In its thirty years of usurpation
this school trust has so taken the control
of politics that il dominates the superin-
tendent OF public instruction in both parties
and il manipulates the Legislature at pleas
IRE. May l sugges that we request the sew
cral district associations and tie district
and annual conferences of our church to
tokA ctnh anfinp nc will call tina Qtfantfnn