The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1908-03-19
Bill For 8
Schools OF
Agriculture
Our Cohgr ressmen
Will Vote For It

Some forty years ago the National
Congress voted "a large sum Of money
to be used in tile establishment, of Col.
leges os Agriculture This fund was
the cause Of the establishment Of sew
eral SAT- I:niyerkities an has tlone
unmeas.;ru5le good in the way Of gen
eral . "a ltton but have f:'l in a
large Le5r 3 Il. accomplish the pI:-
pose of t!.e 3hb namely. to train tie
farmer in the principles and practice
Of scientific agriculture. and the
tradesman in the theory as well as the
skill of scientific mechanics. The un-
iyersities in fact used much Of this
money Just to promote the old classi-
cal courses. and for years the agr::-
cultural courses and often the me-
chanical courses, were almost entirely
neglected, or made light of.
Later when they were taken up Sc
rlously, the universities found It diff
cult to get much contact with the peo-
ple-the farmers1who needed this in
struction the worst. Those young
men and women who CHANGED to take
the courses commonly taught in the
high schools in the towns. and most
Of them never went back to the farms
or lived among the farming classes.
Now the schools who teach those
who teach farmers, and the schools to
which the farmers boys come for the
too brief education which SO many OF
them receive are the State Normal
schools. II the country school teach
ers could be properly taught agricul-
ture, they could get it straight to the
children who are to be farmers.
So for three sessions of Congress u
bill has been introduced to "Provile
an appropriation for agricultural and
Industrial instruction in secondary
schools, for normaftnstructio in agri-
culture and Industrial subjects in
Normal schools" This bill has come
near to passing but has failed. 1t is
again before Congress- as H. R. 1S,204.
It's passage would mean very much
to this Normal school and to all those
young people in our community who
can't go to the university, but who
could come here for while and train
themselves in the arts whereby they
will make their living. But especial
ly will the good come to the farmer
boys and girls in the way of enlight-
ened instruction.
In reply to a letter from Mr.. Ben-
nett on this matter to Hon. Geo. c.
sturgiss, the latter says: 81 have
your letter of March 10, in relation to
H. R. 1S2O4, and have noted what
you say and have carefully examined
| the bfl. If it shall be favorably re-
ported by the committee, so that we
may have an opportunity Of voting up
on 1t, I shall take pleasure in support
ing 1t. My many years association
with the University gave me an op'
portunity to see the wisdom and pro-
prIety of some such enactment
1t is to be hoped that our other con-
gressman will see the matter in the
same intelligent light. AS a money
matter alone this measure is the equal
Of any which our community is con-
sidering. So to get the other congress-
men to see that this educational bill
is of great interest to us and that they
should give 1t Gas we'll as battleships)
their deep consideration. it would be
well II lot of our people would write
them. Sometimes people get things
who go after them-but they most
surely will not, If they do nothing.