The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-05-10
A CHARGE OF BAD FAITH
STATES TREATMENT OF WHAT ARE
CALLED .SECTARIAN- COLLEGES.
Rev. DR.. r. a. Goodwin fscusse the
Question Before q Methodist Min
isterial Association.

terial Association of the Indianapolis dis
trict of the Indiana Conference. About
thirty ministers are present. The exercises
began last night by a very able sermon
from DR.. Lasby. of Central-avenue Church,
indianapolis, and the sacrament. The busi-
ness of the session opened this morning at
$50. The object of the meeting is mutual
Improvement through papers anddiscussions
Of theological and social questions and
problems in church polity. The scope of
these discussions may be inferred from the
following topics: THE Bible Doctrine OF
Depravity." .Heredity," What Changes
are Needed in Methodist Polity," and the
like. Great interest is taken in DR.. Quayle's
lecture. announced for tonight, or Stall
wartism." DR.. Goodwin's paper this morn
ing. prepared by request, on THE Bad
Faith of the State Towards the Colleges
of the State.' was listened to with profound
interest.
II need offer no apology" said DIR. Good
win, for obtruding upon this association
of Methodist preachers a subject that has
become strictly a political one, and is des-
tined in the near future to become a domi-
nant issue, especially in the choice of leg
islators and Governors and lieutenant gov
errors. for We are here to guard and pro-
mote all the interests of our church as
we'll as to study and maintain It's doctrines
and polity. A large part of our church ma
chinery. as everybody knows. is our inter-
est in the cause Of education, which has
led to the investment of hundreds of thou
sandS of dollars in college plant and en-
which is now threatened with
practical destruction by the bad faith OF the
State toward us and others who. under the
same necessity and for the same reasons,
have engaged in the same work. To under
stand the situation 1t is necessary to pre-
mise that for thirty-fve years under a Con-
stitution that imperatively demanded the
encouragement of higher education by the
State, never a dollar was appropriated for
that purpose, thus practically announcing
that If any college was ever built and sup
ported In Indiana 1t must be done wholly
through private enterprise. Driven by this
necessity many organizations engaged in
local corporations, others were merely in
dividuals who invested private funds in
buildings and equipments. and to some or
whom the Legislature granted special CHAR
ters authorizing the granting of literary de-
grees, and exempting plant and equipments
from taxation, while others were in their
scope more general and statewide. inyOly-
ing larger investments and contemplating a
broader field. With the exception of one
or this class, located at Bloomington upon
a township of land given to the State by
by the State given to that institution,
which was first known as The Indiana
oCilllldIN, later as the INDIANA SOllbR
and still later as the Indiana University
those that survived were more or less under
the general control of some religious body
and wholly Independent of congressional or
state aid, never seeking either.
mot to be derelict i'm such a work, the
Methodist Episcopal Church in Indiana ear
want which the fixed policy of the State
had created, and our Asbury University
was the result. At what sacrifice of time
and money this was done while Indians
yet occupied much of the best land of the
State and circuits were large and salaries
small this generation can never know. Out
something and many gave largely. and
Methodist pioneers yet in their cabins gave
literally, because the neglect Of the State
to supply the demand made this sacrifice
necessary, and it was practically the same
with other churches.
ITO intensity this necessity and stimulate
the friends of colleges in their work, that
which had been from the policy of the State
only an inference for thirty-ive years be-
came an open and avowed purpose in 1851.
when, acting under explicit instruction by
the convention, as expressed in a resolution
offered by Hon. 7. A. Hendricks, the COM
mittee on EDUCATION reported an amend,
the imperative command of the Constitu-
tion of 1s16, requiring the State to provide
colleges. to a positive inhibition: for the
amended Constitution must be interpreted
in the light of the resolution which de-
manded that the Legislature. shall not pro-
vide for or establish, at public charge, any
GSlACO Va
district or common schools
EFFECT OF THE RESOLUTION.
THE adoption Of this amendment, remov-
ing, as was supposed forever, the possibility
of State competition in the field of higher
education, gave a new impetus to voluntary
associations and individual enterprise for
educational purposes. County seminaries
were Immediately abandoned and private
academies and collegiate institutions were
established everywhere. offering greater or
less higher educational advantages. Most
of these, but not all, were under some de-
nominational control; in nearly every case
all denominations, in any. given, iocanty,
cordially uniting in the local school, because
the ultimate object had no appreciate con-
nection with UNCONVENTIONAL rivalry, IL De,
ing only TO meet a want tne state hdu
forced upon the people,, and because there
was no other form or organization so con-
venient as that. So great ana general was
this movement that twenty-three OF TINS
class of institutions were IN. our
church alone in less than ten years from
the declared purpose of the State TO never
engage in any school enterprise above the
What followed is history. The curriculum
of the common schools was wisely SO eN-
tended as to embrace what tn na nio pee erba H1o Sel
came a legitimate branch OF the common
school system, so that in less than a decade
ours hut the Moore's Hill College were
sbandoned and our people joyfully accepted
the situation, because the state not only
furnished as good instruction in tneSe nign
schools. but Ii furnished IL everywhere II
was needed. If one high school In a cry
was not enough TO accommodate the de-
mand, two or more were supplied, so tnat
instruction in them was equally open 10
ALL When il further extends the currlcu-
lum of the common schools so as 10 include
collegiate and professional education, and
in like manner builds enough colleges and
professional schools 10 make tuition IN them
free and equally open to all, collegiate ana
professional teaching will become equally. a
legitimate branch of the common schools.
and nonstate colleges will as cheerfuliy ac-
cept the consequences 10 them as the non
state academies did, but never until this Is
done. Meanwhile the indiana University
essayed 10 adopt itself to the new condi-
lions. 1t at once quit begging for appro-
priations from the State and went TO hust-
to sell scholarships like other colleges. but
for reasons not germane TO this paper IL
failed utterly in the undertaking. II was
simply nobody's school, though it had the
largest endowment OF any college In the
State. was located at one side of the State,
and nobody would buy scholarships. or so
few that selling scholarships was aban-
doned. Under a wasteful and extravaganza
business system that had always prevailed.
and which prevails yet, the college was
it had for twelve years wholly abstained
from begging from the State, not even
when its buildings were burned, in 1853. IL
was reduced to the necessity of applying
for an appropriation in 1863. but II got none:
the State Board of Education, then COM
not indorse the application; II was uncon-
stitutional. they said, and every other col
lege in the State was equally entitled TO
help: