Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-17

IT will therefore be seen that pupils
who attend the established normal
schools from that great fertile section
of our State are obliged to go a long
distance from home. This is a fact
that has been fully exploited in the
various legislative hearings, and which
has done much to promote a popular
sentiment in favor of establishing u
normal school in Aroostook county.
During the last decade this county
showed an increase of % per cent,
in it's population and it is fully
believed that the next ten years
will show a much greater growth. In
fact, outside capital is already reaching
out for the vast resources of the great
Aroostook section, and gentleman
who has been prominent in the life OF
that county, and who lis in a position
to judge with accuracy of its present
and future business conditions makes
the confident prediction that during the
decade to come the II, 15o gained in pop
ulation from 1890 to 1900 will be nearly
doubled. At the present time the
county of Aroostooi has over 500
schools, with 1854 pupils, and this
does not include those who are not in
actual attendance.
The advocates of the Aroostook nor
NAL school call attention to the fact
that in the number of pupils their
county exceeds any other in the State,
with the single exception of Cumber-
land There has been, and will be, a
constant increase in the number of
schools in the county as its population
swells, with a consequent call for the
employment of additional teachers
Some six hundred teachers are now
finding employment in the county, only
a portion of whom are graduates OF
normal schools although the school au-
thorites in the county claim to give
preference to trained teachers when
ever it is possible to secure them.
The county of Aroostook appears to
be pretty we'll united in favor of loca-
ting any normal school that may come
to that section of the State in Pressure
Isle one of the most beautiful and at
tractive villages in the State of Maine,
surrounded by a farming community
of exceptional intelligence and prosper
ity. 1t is said that circle OF sixty
miles in diameter with Pressure Isle as
a center, will take in population OF
e. GOO or 11-20 of the entire population
of Aroostook county. In fact a school
located at Pressure Isle would be easily
accessible to pupils from all over the
county, and far more accessible 10
pupils from Washington and Penopscot
counties than are the present norman
schools to the greater part or the puplls
from Aroostook county.
The friends of this measure fully be-
lIieve that such a school would largely
create its own constituency from the
excellent material in the locality where
| # would be established, and that IN DO
ling so it would do the cause OF popular
lcducation in Maine substantial ana
lrermanent benefit which 1t would De
impossible to measure in dollars ana
cents.
The fact that the county of Aroostook
comes to the legislature with practical
lunaniu,tv in support of the claims OF
,oresoue Isle. that it is prepared TO
start the school with an excellent set OF
buildings already constructed, ana tnat
II is q section of the State when Is
maI,sng at the present time by far the
largest growth in population and IN
wealth of any portion of Maine, gives
this nroiect the benefit OF arguments
j+hat are specially strong and convinc-
ling. d.
This in brief is the ground upon
which Aroostook rests it's claims for
normal school. and which led the com
n,ittea on education and the committee
on finance to report unanimously II
favor of the proposition. So generally
Is the need of this institution recog-
nized that it is not probable that the
hin unanimously reported by these
two committees will encounter any OPP
position on its passage.