The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-02-11
4 Civic UNIVERSITY"
Clergyman's Plan For Uniting
the People of Kansas City.
HOW he WOULD HELP ALL GLASSES

Mo-, is advocating the establishment
of civic university-a university Of
the people-in Kansas City. Discuss
ing the question recently with q re-
porter of the Kansas City Times, Mr..
Ferguson said:
kansas City is growing big by mere
force of its Typographical position. The
place is metropolitan to an immense
area of the most productive territory
on the face of the earth. The city
stands at the crossroads Of an economic
empire. Nothing, not even civic con-
spiracy to thwart the laws Of nature
and enrich the few at the expense Of
the many. can prevent this city from
being the biggest city of the mid
continent, the London or Paris Of the
American prairie. Whatever we do or
leave undone the city IS bound to be
the gathering place Of million human
beings within twenty years.
THE laws of nature are throwing a
vast multitude of people together here.
but the wills Of the people must do
the rest, must settle the term on which
men shall meet here and the kind of
society that shall be established. If
the city shall be dominated by con-
spiracy of money makers enlisted to
circumvent those immutable laws of
art and science that condition the sue
cess Of civilizing enterprises the city
will be big indeed, but it will be mean
The people, high and low, will live sor-
did and uninteresting lives, and Kan
sas City will but add one more Baby
Ion to tale that is already told.
ION the other hand, if the predomi-
nant force of the city shall be not
conspiracy to balk the moral laws of
nature, but conspiracy to discover
and execute them, in spite of the regi-
ments of commercial and political
graft, then history will have another
story to tell. There will be a spot in
the Mississippi valley of impershable
and cosmopolitan interest.
what is wanted is a civic univer-
sity that shall be in effect a cOmpre-
hensive labor union, wide enough in
its ground plan to take in the whole
industrial life of the city and aiming
not merely to raise the wages Of
trade or class. but to increase the
purchasing power of all honest in
comes by furnishing the highest posi-
BILE artistic and scientific conditions of
social existence. Such a union would
use it's political and social power to
open up an opportunity for all kinds OF
public service and to close every other
career The hard truth is that as
things stand in this city today and in
every other American city the shortest
and surest road to social and economic
power does not lie through the service
of the community, but through devo-
ton to one or another special interest
more or less adverse to the common
welfare. The simple rule, therefore,
for building here a city rich and splen-
did beyond comparison with any of its
rivals is to create a social organization
that shall appreciate and promote all
| kinds Of social efficiency and so draw
the best brains and energies into the
service of the whole people. Kansas
City should add to the brilliant achieve
ment of it's Convention hall and its
bright hope of a union station the plan
Of a third great civic institution a uni
versity Of the people, to house its
working will as it sets itself to the
mastery of materials in the name of
the free creative spirit and the eternal
| laws
| Now, a section of the general stat
utes of the state Of Missouri relating
to educational and benevolent institu-
tons provides for the chartering under
the privileges of those statutes Of joint
stock building associations for the
housing of such institutions. Under
the provisions of this section a univer-
sity building could be erected that
could easily assure the stock holders 4
per cent On their investment
Under it's general aim of loeaising
the working force Of the public will
and in addition to its arrangements
for teaching and preaching the gospel
Of the arts and sciences, which, by the
way, should entail NO public expense,
the university building should furnish
accommoda tons and headquarters fer
three other distinct and subordinate
interests that are now crying aloud for
house to dwell in. And from those
three sources. helped out by other rent
ais Of Offices and studios, the institu
| ton could derive q self sustaining rev
enue
"Ftrst-The labor unions Of this city
/ are trying to build labor temple.
| They are not likely to do 1t all by them
selves in this generation, although they
have had some success in getting To-
gether a building Fund. The reason
that the labor temple idea makes slow
progress here as well as in every ether
Akeriean city where it has been
preached is that It has commonly been
| conceived as a class idea, and 50 y
fsreigl to the American ideal, If not
he actual, spirit Of American tns1tta-
tons The idea would fnd IT. kue
place and its full e1panaton under the
roof Of a civic university that aimed -
unfOnfxo All claaoeS Of WOrkers And