The Tupelo journal., 1908-02-21
Needs of Mississippi's Colleges
By Kate Markham Power.

T
being duly informed as to their varied
and extensive needs, / shall take it upon
myself to tell the public, or that part of
the public which stays at home and
raises the crops, and consequently the
money upon which this great State of
ours is SO rapidly achieving success,
something of the needs of these institu-
tions, as these needs have been brought
to my attention.
/ think that few of the men or women
of Mississippi feel a deeper interest in
our great institutions of learning than
do l.. | know that none save the actual
founders of our splendid girls college,
take a greater pride in all of its noble
achievements than do my fathers chill
dren. And as for the A. & M. College,
it would be hard to find more loyal sup
porters than are we.
All this and more being true of our
personal interest in those schools, it may
vigorously fused in behalf of another of
the States institutions of learning. 1t
must be recalled, however, that when
there has been need of that same pen to
aid in its feeble best these others, it has
always been ready and glad to serve
them, and will serve them again i'll our
next letter. Today, however, its strong
est efforts are needed in the university's
aid, and my only hope is that some word
of mine may open the eyes OF the people
to the urgent needs of this splendid in
stitution of learning.
These things, dear friends, are not
hear-say; they are actual facts, based
upon what [ have seen myself and heard
on the ground from the students and
some members of the faculty themselves.
Like the distinguished chancellor of
the university, | am not a pessimist, nor
is it my custom to look on the dark side
of things. If there is the tiniest speck
of blue in the dark clouds, | can at least
find it, even if | do not use it. But the
blue in the clouds at the dear old uni
versity is so small that it takes a micro
scope to find it. Before going further,
let it be emphasized that it is, of course,
the physical atmosphere at the place of
which | speak, for | do honestly believe
that there was never a time Ill its his
tory when its mental and moral condi-
tons were better, or when the students
were more Loyalty intent on making the
best of themselves and of the alma mater
of the fathers of so many of them.
The number of students now matricu-
lated there is not anything like it should
be. The reasons for this condition l
hope to make plain before | finish.
The university eas not had any great
amount of pin money" to spend within
my recollection. Nor has the Legisla-
ture been flor some ~reason) liberal with
it in the appropriations for necessary ex-
penses.
1t is for these reasons that you see so
many Mississippi boys on the list of stu
dents at the great schools of the East
at the schools of technology, of electrici-
ty and various other special training
schools. This is the age of specialists,
and when a boy may get the special
training which his talent demands along
with his academic work, it requires a
vast amount of loyalty and State pride
to persuade him to stay at home and go
without.
We feel constrained to call your atten-
ton to the fact that all of these things
in which we rejoiced for the sake of the
university, occurred in Aud Lang Syne.
1t is not to be expected that we shall
keep pace today with the institutions
which are the beneficiaries of either gen
erous friends or Legislatures more gen
erous than ours has seen fit to be to-
wards this institution.
In our n~eighboring States of Alabama,
Arkansas and Georgia the universities
have recently been greatly advanced by
the generous appropriations accorded by
their respective Legislatures. Without
similar action by ours ~tunless some mir
acle works on the purse strings OF a
Rockefeller or a Carnegie, to our ever
lasting benefit) we are going to have to
slide ANONYMOUSLY down to a back seat
a very back seat-from which the eff
forts of even such a puller-up OF affairs
as Andrew A. Kincannon cannot res
cue us.
Unless we help ourselves-and that
speedily and generously-we are going to
continue to have to endure the mortified
ton of reading a short list of graduates
in the literary class and a shorter one
in the law class at the University of
Mississippi, while the Vanderbilt cata-
logue shows one III three-or almost that
of the various graduates to have come
from Mississippi.
With excellent buildings for the medi-
cal department, as well as for II or two
others, and as fine a faculty in the vari-
Gus schools as may be found in any of
these widely advertised colleges, and
with the young men fairly begging for
the best opportunities, it is a shame
that they must pass right by our own
university door and knock for admittance
on the doors of other States. just pick
up a Tulane University catalogue and
count the Mississippi boys who are tax
ing the medical course there, not to men
ton other lines of study. Look at the
Atlanta Dental College, and see how
many of our boys go over there to learn
to pull the teeth of the Georgians, and |
am sure that our State can furnish quite
as many candidates for that honor as
any other. In the law school we hold
u own, because the only apparatus re-
uuired there is brains, and brains come
not quite so high in the market as do
some other furnishings, such as electrical
apparatus, etc. To be quite honest,
when / was admitted, over the protest
of those in authority, to the rooms of
the upper floor of the medical depart
ment of the university, the only furnish
ing which l found there was a strangely
shaped bundle, which, in the nature of
things, could not remain there very long,
unless we except the odor thereof; a few
stationary basins, or two ominously
long tables and an old pair of shoes.
Whether these latter belonged to the