The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-30
STUDENTS IN SECRET CONTACT.
Manhattan AIercury Tells of the Con-
ditions at Agricultural College.

The first Manhattan paper to take
any notice Of the clash at the Kansas
State Agricultural college between the
students and President Nichols was
the Manhattan Mercury, which prints
| the following editorial:
''The differences between the stu
/ dents and. the faculty at the Kansas
State Agricultural college have been
aired in but a few of the papers of the
state. The local papers, with the ex-
ception of the Mercury were prob
ably seen, the Mercury editor, absent
from the city, had no opportunity to
refer to the matter.
while it may appear late in the
day to discuss this friction in the L.
S. A. c., the facts are that it is an
important question, far reaching in it's
effects for the good or evil of this
state institution. We do not believe
that mediocrity should characterize
agricultural college in the world. We
believe the college is of more impor-
lance than its president. We believe
that war is preferable to peace when
raanded. We have always believed the
Kansas State Agricultural college
should have an executive head fitted
by nature and education for the re-
sponsibilities of such an honorable
and arduouS position.
1--WE are reliably informed that two
thirds of the student body is now
pledged by secret compact against the
president.
Opposition is not confined to dis
like and passive respect. but intense
hatred and~open and bitter denuncia-
ton at the college, on the street, at
home and abroad, to strangers and to
prospective students, is the propa-
ganda of the organization. If report
is true, no head of a college was per-
haps ever so hated, despised and
spurned by a student body, as the head
of the Kansas State Agricultural col
seThe Mercury. in years past, has
printed more gratuitous matter in the
interest of the college than all the
other papers in Manhattan combined,
our social and financial interests are
all here, no citizen is Drouder of the
institution than the editor of the Mer-
curry and no one has done more to
sound it's praise in numerous and dis
tant states.
IAN Indifferent and incompetent
board of regents, appointed as pay for
political plugging personal ambition
of a regent to obtain the office OF
president of the college, are the only
reasons for the retention of an indif-
ferent executive head
MANY are of the opinion that the
attendance has been less the past year
than in the year previous to it, many
predict the attendance will be less the
coming year, all agree that the condi-
tons are not what they ought to be-
The tenure of office of professor de-
ponds upon the caprice of the coterie
that dictates conditions. Men of abil-
ity on the faculty have from time to
time resigned to accept other positions
because of the uncertainty of a steady
position, until the faculty has become
a scholastic Kaleidoscope.
IF these conditions are to continue,
the college will inevitably become a
and byword in the state.
1.-THE governor should instruct his
board of regents to reorganize the fac
u1ty to the end that the institution
may become what it ought to be.
worthy of the great state of Kansas"