Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-03-10

so that more than une-nnth of the
graduates received their preparation in
the Addison County Gram mar School,
or in the institution which has since
emerged from it. namely. the Middle
bury High School. Over fifty graduates
from a distance, attracted here for the
college life, have remained a greater or
less time as citizens of the town. From
all those attending from the town not
one penny of remuneration drilling lab
oratory or incidental fees excepted
has ever been asked or expected. but
the tuition and other expenses have
been gladly met by the institution.
The actual cost to the college at the
present time of tuition and other privi-
leges is over 5000 annually, and to all
students living in town this amount is
RENTED To the man of slender
means in NIiddlebury, with children
to be educated, this remittance be
comes a provision of most vital i'm
portance. Without it, no matter how
ambitious that his boy should feel the
incentive toward larger and more in
college training, he could not possibly
crafty this most laudable desire, since
he would be quite unable to meet the
bills incident to four years of residence
in an educational center removed from
the reach of the home. That many
thousand of dollars have been flowing
back to the town through free tuition
and other gifts is at once apparent OF
course every college Is dispenser of
funds and educational privileges to de-
serving students, even as our own college
is generous dispenser, generous even
beyond all claim. And that those be-
yond the town limits receive liberal
remission of dues, as well. if circum-
stances allow, is hardly to the question
here, since the claims of Middlebury are
prior to all others.
From a purely monetary, or com
mercial stand point, then, what splendid
returns during the past twenty years
in the case of Middlebury boys now
filling important educational and bust
ness positions, and receiving two, three,
four thousand dollars and even more,
annually! 1t was their good fortune to
be born here where the stimulus of the
home college gave incentive to lives
which otherwise would doubtless have
been barren and profitless in comparison.
But one need not speak of twenty-five
years since. Nor ten years. The embryo
lawyers, physicians, and business men
! are this very year passing out to sue
cessses equal to those achieved by their
predecessors in the field.
The citizens of our town need occasion
ally to be reminded that Nliddlebury
college is corporate body, where there
is no accumulation of sinking fund or
other assets, where there can never be any
division of profits, but, on the other
hand that it is a trusteeship spend
ing all its income, endeavoring to make
limited funds cover growing expenses,
cramped continue lily for means to carry
out Its larger hopes, anxious for the
future as it sees other institutions doing
for its students more than is yet possible
here. And it must be remembered, too,
that, while in the earlier years the town
and immediate community kept con-
trbuting the funds that were again paid
back in various ways, into their own
treasures, the college revenues are now
mostly from external sources.
What are some of the elements of
return at the present moment, other than
free tuition and general privileges to the
students from the town? There are now
in Middlebury about one hundred and
seventy people who are here because the
college is here. These people will have
paid into the town considerably more
than $40, 900 during the current year.
The sum, it is true, is small compared
with the expenditures of a college com
munity representing the wealth of some
of our larger universities. Middlebury
and fortunate it is-has no students
spending four or five thousand dollars
annually on 'incidentals' In the amount
given above is computed no tuition, MOI
roomrent, paid to the college; MOI
. several thousand dollars paid for rail
road fares; nor, in fact, is ANYTHING in
: cluded which is not paid to the business
men or householders of the town. The
estimate is not. loose nor general one
but taken from carefully scanned data
And, finally, there is no mistake in the
addition.
1t is much to be regretted that an i'm
preston should prevail in any quartel
that members of the faculty are no
1 bearing their share of the taxes imposed
l upon citizens of the town. Let us turn
n to the figures upon the collectors books
: In 1903 the total sum levied was S29 ,296,
81. This amount was assessed upon ont
i thousand and ninety nine individuals
s giving an average of S26.65 to eacl
e tax payer. In this list OF one thousan'
:, and ninety-nine individuals were clever
y members of the faculty who paid 1896
: or an average of S51.25 to each, or twic
It as much within a trfling sum- as tn
# general average These figures iron
the official record seem pretty con
y elusive answer to any criticism that ma
It have been made by any not acquainte
e with the facts, and misapprehensio
g upon this point ought no longer to exist
The limits Of this article are necessari
. too brief to speak of the prevalen
1t custom of tax remission in the case c
It institutions, manufactures, etc, tina
"a bring large revenue to the localitie
where they are established. In man
Is cases the provisions of the abatemer
r are much more sweeping and generou
ic than to any corporations in Middlebur
N or the immediate vicinity. The er