The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-07
THOSE VROOMANS
Something About a Wonderful
Group of Kansas Boys.
New York World Tells About
Walter VrOOman's
WORK AT OXFORD, ENG.
His Recent Foundation of
Ruskin Hall
And His Wife's Project of Back
AT OXFORD, ENG.
And His Wife's Project of Back
worth Settlement.


sas:
The news that Walter Vrooman of St
Louis has established at Oxford, Eng
land, a school of economics is supple
mented with the announcement that
Mrs. Vrooman has organized at Oxford
the Backworth settlement, the compile
ment of Ruskin hall, of which her hus-
band is one of the founders.
Mr.. Wrooman has done many inter-
esting things since he quilted his boy
hood farm home-in Missouri, but even
those who know him best have not
known him to do anything else so in
teresting as his invasion of England in
the role of an economic educator and
his association with himself of COM
pany of reformers who will assist him
to teach reform at the very fountain
place of all British reformation.
Lee Meriwether, when he heard of
Mr.. Vrooman's plan to establish Rus
kin hall, said that If Vrooman said ne
was going to do it he would do it, and
it seems, from recent intelligence from
Oxford, that Mr.. Meriwether'S conf
dence in Mr.. Vrooman was well found
ed. for Ruskin hall has been established
and has been running since Washing
toms birthday. The literature issued by
Mr.. Vrooman and his associates, In ad-
vertisement of their school, supplies
those deficiencies which has caused
Americans to wonder just what sort of
institution Mr. VroOman was instftut-
ing in England. 1t is all cleared up in
the excerpts from his Salutatory circu-
lar:
".Ruskin hall has been organized by
several Oxford university students in
conjunction with number or young
residents of the town of Oxford.
Its purpose is to place a portion of
the Incompatible educational facilities
and advantages of this center OF learn
ing at the disposal of young men of
small means, enabling them to leave
their environment and devote them
selves, at least for a short period,
wholly to study under proper direction.
I'VE do not intend to encourage hon
est toilers to leave their class, and be-
come barristers, clergymen, physicians,
military officers or financiers We
therefore do not provide for the study
of ancient languages, mathematics, the
ology, metaphysics, medicine or law,
which to so great an extent occupy the
regular university courses. RuSkin hall
has no official connection with the uni
versity, and does not assist anyone to
obtain university degree.
The making and polishing of gem
tlemen' is not our object. We will sat
isfy our modest ambitions by helping
to make men, expecting the students
to return when they finish their resi-
dence here to their respective shops,
factories farms and mines, to raise
rather than rise out of the mass of their
fellow workers.
I'VE believe the great need of the
political and educational leaders from
among the people. This institution seeks
to help, however feebly, to supply this
need.
by joining Ruskin hall any man of
good character and the required intel
lectual qualifications can secure lodg-
ing board and other necessary living
requirement for 10 Sh1ll1ngS per week,
or % pounds per year. Tuition for spec
ial lecture courses and tutors fees are
10 shillings per month, or 6 pounds per
year We are pleased to announce,
however, that through the generosity of
a friend, whose name we are requested
to withhold, we have 100 allowances of
6 pounds each covering all tuition and
lecture fees to be given to young men
furnishing satisfactory evidence of their
worthiness and capacity. Opportunities
have also been found for a limited num-
Der of especially industrious young men
to support themselves completely by
their own labor.
THE course consists of one years
residence at Oxford and three years of
home reading. We aim in this time to
give a conception of how man came to
be what he is; a knowledge of the more
important existing institutions, and an
intelligent idea of the probabilities and
possibilities of future achievement. the
courses will consist of history, civil
government, sociology and the results
of science. Books for home reading are
furnished by the hall, the student pay
ing a light rental and postage.
THE courses of instruction are ar
ranged with special reference to each
other, and are intended to guide stu
dents in acquiring the knowledge which
is essential for intelligent citizenship.
The aim is to give them conception
of the forces of the past which have
contributed to the making OF modern
civilization; to acquaint them with the
social organism of which they are
part, with the political machinery of
the English speaking nations, and to
inspire them with a hope for still
greater achievements by mankind along
rational lines.
The Backworth settlement. of which
Mrs. Vrooman is one of the founders
and the correspondent, is also located
at Oxford. In an announcement of the
opening of her club Mrs. VrOoman says:
by labor among the OutcaStS of the
slumS we may hope to mitigate, though
not to eradicate, some of the worst re-
suits of social Embellishments. But
by contributing to the education and
training of individuals selected from
the working classes, we may touch and
may influence the EMBELLISHMENTS
themselves. With the organization of
the new labor college at Oxford, the
need of this new type of work was
foreshadowed. Here will be gathered
a body of young men, the flower of the
working classes, seeking, at the cost
of much personal sacrifice. the knowl-
edge and intellectual training needed to
make them wise leaders of their fellows.
Educational advantages which come
easily to men of better fortunes must
be to these men inaccessible except as
their thirst for knowledge is met by a
corresponding desire on the part of en-
hghtened men and women of leisure to
make it's satisfaction possible. The
power to help, not only individuals, but
the race, is one of the highest priv
ileges of wealth and learning, and the
exercise of that power is not an act of
charity. but the payment of a social
debt. 1t is in this spirit that Back
worth club enters upon it's work. The
founding of Ruskin hall is a call for
help of brain and hand, and to this