East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-07-27
LOWELL OPPOSES
CARNEGIE FUND
SAYS OREGON PEOPLE ARE
ABLE TO CARE FOR SCHOOLS
objects to Pritchett's View That the
state University Should be Removed
TO Portland-Thinks the People of
oregon Are Too Independent to Ac-
cept Carnegie Gold.


by Judge Lowell to the Portland
Journal:
Pendleton, Ore.-To the Editor of
he Journal-There appeared in your
issue of yesterday news item which
presents situation requiring public
discussion, if not rebuke, as touching
the attitude of the regents of the state
university in the matter of the Carne-
gle foundation fund so-called. The ar
ticle refers to the presence in the
state of a man bearing the name of
Prlchett, who comes as a representa-.
tive of such fund, and his suggestion
that the university should be located
in Portland.
Who or what Prichett is denotes
little. He is probably a worthy indi-
vidual. but in his position as Carne-
gie's man he is not entitled to partic-
ular attention. His opinion as to the
proper location of the university is
not likely to influence the views of
any citizen. Most men familiar with
the situation in oregon are satisfied,
and Eugene is not in danger of los
ing the institution.
The vital questions presented are
whether or not the board of regents
Of the university shall be permitted
to prostitute the state and institution
before the altar of Carnegie's gold
whether or not the instructors there
shall become the salient supporter of
discredited business system because
the muzzle of future reward is upon
its teachers.
To any such proposal permit me
as a private citizen of the state yet
with pride and hope of its future, TO
register protest in as vigorous Ian
guage as 1 can command, and with
such publicity as the press of the'state
can give, In the name u lndepend-
ence and that common justice which
is the foundation of hope to the
common people 1 PROFOUND the ques.
ton to the manhood and wOmanhood
of Oregon are you willing that this
commonwealth of whicn wou are a
part shall become an educational in
vertebrate, and that the regents of
your chief educational institution
shall make their charge a pawn in the
game of dollars.
/ know the people of Oregon.
have moved among them, addressed
them upon public platforms and met
them in their homes for nearly two
decades, and I believe them too in
dependent to sanction any such pro-
ceeding. They will never willingly
bow before Andrew Carnegie or any
of his class. Oregon is able and will
ing to pay to the teachers of its
youth reasonable salaries, and her
citizenship is inspired with pride and
self-reliance too great to permit the
work of the schools to be shadowed
with the memory of the Homestead
riots or tarnished with any Carnegie
association. If the future of the COM
monwealth shall be safe, the men
who train its youth must be free to
condemn the attainment of wealth by
methods which speak in vivid picture
when the names of Carnegie, Rookie
feller and Gould are mentioned.
The record of teachers lifework
is not written in houses or lands or
dollars, but in the heartbeat of the
nation, in the pulsing womb of the
future. God pity the memory of
Mark Hopkins, Thomas Arnold and
Mary Lyon if over them there rested
the pail of a Carnegie pension. If
the Pittsburg iron king has wealth
to distribute let him return it to the
men who in the heat and noise of the
mills gave their years and strength
to make it for him, and to the gov
ernment which threw about him that
unusual and unnatural protection
which made his fabulous profits pos
sible; but in the name Of every hope
and all the future let us keep our
state institutions free from obliga-
tions to him.
One college, private in its charac-
ter, of which 1 am one of the trus-
tees, has accepted the Carnegie boun-
ty, contrary to my judgment and
against my WILL but never before had
supposed that there was any dam
ger that this system would attempt
to touch the state institutions, and /
hope the regents will withdraw their
application now. Let me appeal to
the spirit of the commonwealth, to
the thoughtful citizenship of Oregon
to protest against this threatened
danger the independence of our
schools, against this making the state
mendicant, against a pension sys-
TEN which can only mean the closing
Of the lips of the faculty Of the insti-
tuition against business abuses which
are the supreme menace Of our age.
Let the university stand for manhood,
not for money, womanhood, not for
wealth.
STEPHEN A. LOWELL.