The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-04-01
SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1905
ONE STEP

The favor with which the Perley bill
to divorce the educational institutions
of the state from their connection with
the board of control has been received
by the legislature is ENCOURAGING. The
terms of the bill are no more remark
able than the argument on which its
supporters mainly rely. There is no
reason why the state institutions for
the care of the dependent and de-
fective-that is, the institutions at
Faribault and the state school at
Owatonna-should not have been
Joined with the university and the nor
NAL schools and permitted to manage
their own affairs through local boards;
leaving, perhaps, the purchase of sup
plies and the auditing of accounts to
the board of control. This they asked,
and to this they were entitled. The
supporters of the Perley bill, however,
while refusing to include others in the
relief which they sought, did actually
expect and receive votes on the ground
that this measure would be an enter
ing wedge for the subsequent curtail-
ment of the powers of the board of
control to their proper limits.
This is the situation, characteristic
and worthy of the present legislative
body. 1t is self contradictory, and we
have to pluck from it what little pres
ent advantage we may. 1t is a great
gain to have the educational institu-
tons released from a control that
should never have been extended over
them. 1t would be greater gain to
have that control withdrawn from
other institutions also, and the great
est gain of all to have it abolished al
together. 1t would have been laugh
able, were it not humiliating to the
state, to see it's magnificent univer-
sity, Differed by men of the ripest ex-
perience and the widest judgment and
directed by an able board of regents.
at the beck and call Of a politically
constituted body utterly unfamiliar
with the requirements of the work
and unable, even if conscientiously de-
string to do SO, to interfere except
where interference would be hurtful.
AS far as the educational institutions
are concerned, it is clear that the
board of control must either be a
cipher or a detriment
established, is it not time to appeal
to the judgment and fairness, not of
this legislature perhaps, which has not
displayed either of those qualities
conspicuously, but to it's successor,
through the people, to lift from the
other state institutions the incubus
under which they rest. The alumni of
the state university and the graduates
of the state normal schools constitute
a formidable body Of voters who are
able to make their influence felt. Be-
cause of this, the legislature feels
compelled to act. Should we be less
mindful of the interests Of those whose
claim upon our care and service is
made greater by their own HELPLESS
ness? The deaf and dumb, the blind.
the mentally defective, the poor surely
deserve all the more of us because they
are at our mercy.
Why should not the institutions
where these are housed and cared for
have consideration? Why should not
the system under which they were
built up until they became renowned
throughout the country, and made the
name of Minnesota's public institu-
lions famous, be restored? Why should