Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-02-02

are sufficient proof that the higher
schools of Missouri do not get the pat
ronage they deserve, and that even
our public schools are too scarce A
man who would debar his neighbor
from the advantages of education be-
cause he himself refused them, is in
deed narrow and selfish"
The paragraph provocative of the
aboye gave expression to the belief
that the University as public parasite
is fraud; that if it is worth anything
it ought now be able to stand alone; and
if it cannot exist of own merit, it
should go the way of all unnecessary
burdens" IF iunatic asylums. schools
for the blind, and deaf and dumb, etc. :,
we're unnecessary burdens" in the
eye of the REGISTER, it would advocate
their adjustment; and it would con-
slider them unnecessary burdens" if
their chief use was TO maintain the
localities in which they are situated
Unfortunately they are necessary
evils, maintained by the public only
because of their abatement of still
greater evils Their establishment
and maintenance are necessary to the
protection and welfare of unfortunates
wholly unable to provide for and pro-
tect themselves. To maintain them
without grudging is the pride of every
citizen. But if the inmates of these
asylums were to become miraculously
possessed of all their faculties and
still insisted upon the State providing
for them, we take it the average citi-
zen would have a kick coming. Go,
and provide for yourselves. would be
the mandate. Take the roster of the
State University to-day. and ninety out
of every hundred pupils enrolled are
young men of means ample to provide
for themselves everything necessary
to useful existence. And none are so
poor but that they could with little
extra effort pay the pittance required
for tuition-for it is not the cost of
schooling but the expenditure for
clothing and subsistence, that taxes
the slender means of the struggling
student. If the University were left
to exist upon it's merit, merely, the
faculty of the University might be d.
minished - handicapped tables be
the Exception and not the rule-ple-
bian brick and stone supplant jasper
and onyx-Columb ian aristocracy of
profit and purse lie a. bleeding-but dmo
would conjugate the same. two mul-
tiplied by two continue to make four,
and it would still require the old null
tiplier and multiplicand to give the
product xs-ys. Columbia might suf
fer, but the State would be relieved of
an unnecessary burden. And why
should the State build up lawyers and
doctors any more than it should train
blacksmiths and wagon makers? Why
make cow-doctors and not skilled
butchersp Why chemists and not
compositors? All these are useful
trades and occupations and all are
equally entitled TO State aid. All con-
tribute to the support OF the State, and
the pie. under any except the Column
bian idea. should be impartially dis
tributed But the whole system is in
defensible under government founded
upon the theory that the citizen makes
the State. Paternalism pertains to
by divine right, but not to
republics. The fact is. every dollar of
public funds given the University i
as much of misrepresentation
as if it were voted to maintain a cotton
factory or a wooden mill. The Iegisia
tor who votes TO put a debt of two
millions dollars upon the taxpayers
for the benefit of an institution foster
I'd and pampered for fifty years
whose demands upon the public purse |
ever and ever increase. each new ex-
penditure being but a stepping stone |
for still greater outlay-will hear from |
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