Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-01-29
THE GOVERNORS PLANT.

1HE UVF GnNUn , FLdlNl.
Friends of Governor Geer will
be much surprised upon perusing
his late message to the legisla.
ture now in session. Many pas
sages and subjects treated re-
mind the reader more of a politi-
cal campaign speech than a
seriously considered and thor
oughly digested state document.
It handles great questions and
vested rights as fippantly as
boys toss marbles or play keeps.
The substantial people of the
country, who have confidently
relied upon him to do the right
thing at the proper time, are en-
titled to better things than the
disappeintments revealed in
what should have been an able
state paper. State legislators
assembled in session, each de-
sirous of pleasing and doing
something for his constituents,
are too likely to despoil the
rights of some other locality.
The governor, however should
be impartial, and above all,
should not flourish the frebrand
which leads one section on to
sPoilate or destroy what has
taken and cost others thousands
and thousands of dollars to build
up. Suoh action was not to be
expected of one mature in years
and occupying so important a
position.
Attention is called in that
remarkable document to the fact
that the state has bought $40
acres of land il Union county
for the purpose of building a
branch asylum thereon, and after
the supreme court had decided
that it would be unconstitutional
to erect the branch asylum OH
the land, it has been urged in
some quarters that it would be
an act of justice and good policy
to erect an agricultural college
on this tract of land. To con-
vince the legislature that it
should move along in this line
the governor calls attention to
the large resources of Eastern
Oregon; that 1t pays a consider
able portion of taxes; that much
of the school lands as we'll as
the agricultural college lands
were selected there, and that it
produces more than half of the
gold, sheep, and cattle exported
from the state. For just as good
reason he could as we'll argue
that an agricultural college
should be located in every coun-
ty in the state.
Again, he says, Gan expert
ment made at the Station at
Corvallis had as we'll been made
III Kansas SO far as any fact has
been developed that will be of
any value in Eastern Oregon. :"
This is a very remarkable obser-
vation when it is considered that
the sugar beet factory now
located in Union county was
attracted to the state from the
bulletins published and circu-
lated broadcast by the Expert
ment Station at Corvallis. The
governor has certainly lost his
bearing. Continuing, he says:
ut will be we'll, therefore, for
you to give thoughtful attention
to the suggestion that the object
of the federal law providing for
the Establishment OF experiment
stations at the agricultural col
leges in the several states had in
mind the location of them at
different points in the same state
when thought needfu1 or expe-
dent" This is astonishing
when we find in Circular No. 20,
promulgated by the director
at Washington, D. c., of the ex-
pertinent stations of the United
States, the following on the SUBJ
Ject of expenditures for expert
ment substations: "This de-
partment holds that the expendi-
ture OF funds appropriated in ac-
cordance with the provisions of
the act of congress of March e,
1887 for the maintenance of per
manent substations is contrary
to the spirit and intent of said
act. When
the legislature of a state or terri
tory has given its assent to the
provisions of the act Of congress
of March 2, 1887, and has desig-
mated the institution which shall
receive the benefit of said act,
it would seem to have exhausted
its powers in the matter. The