Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-03-24
RESULT Of UNREASONABLE AMBITION

The greed Of the various state coll
1eges in their scramble for Legislative
appropriations is about to take these
institutions away from control by sep
arate boards of trustees and place
them all under the management Of one
0pecial board Of control. The appro-
priations committees of succeeding leg
1slatures have grown weary OF all win
men and their unseemly scramble for
spork" Now the state university is
determined to establish a practical
science and engineering school
and the state college at Arnes Is bound
to build up university OF liberal arts
with the result that the present legis-
lature Is confronted with IL demand to
maintain two Immense universities.
each on Il scale commensurate with the
single state university of other states.
The board of control reform seems to
have been forced upon the legislature
by the colleges themselves.
In many respects the board OF con-
troll system is not suited to the wants of
educational management. Running a
college does not consist entirely in driv-
Ing shrewd bargains for the purchase
Of coal. The love for an alma mater
and the college spirit which a graduate
takes away with him fits him for sup
er,ior service when he returns as trus-
tee He loves his college as he does a
parent. To him 1t is the only super eX-
cellent school on earth. He breathes
its spirit, knows well It's wants and he
works for the school with an energy
and a wisdom which no board OF con-
troll could give to 1t.
However this same Unsuitable ambi-
ton of the trustee and the college presi-
dent has been the undoinsy of the sys-
TEN. Had the men of the Ames school
realized the necessity for Il distinct line
Of demarkation between the fields to
be occupied by their college and the
university at Iowa City and had they
held steadfastly to the field Of applied
sciences, giving such training In the llb-
eral arts as to provide what Professor
Curtis and Uncle Henry Wallace would
call balanced ration, the rivalry OF the
Iowa City people would not have been
10 greatly excited and the legislature
would not have been driven to the
board of contro! idea as an escape from
warning factions. Many good friends OF
state education today believe that II
was a mistake to establish two state
colleges. Now that the university wants
4 mechanical school, and the college of
science wants university equipment
and the state normal school aspires to
d complete collegiate establishment,
these men are sure mistake was mace.
The only remedy seems to be in central
szing authority. Two years ago when 1t
was proposed to put the state schools
under the management or the present
board Of control the T.-tR. opposed 1t
because of the complete sacrifice in the
school governing body of that special
knowledge which only school men
possess. 1t is far better plan to pro-
vide special board of control for the
state colleges and, il it is impossible
under the present trustee or regent sys-
tenn, to keep each state school within
the limitations of it's own special pur-
pose the single board of control for
educational institutions can safely be
tried as an Improvement.