The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1909-03-12
foregon Daily Journal.)

with regard to appropriations for me-
cessary improvements at state insti-
tutions-it would still be the duty OF
the legislature to meet in special ses-
sion. m..H.
Common business honor toward
the normals demands that there at
fairs be wounl UP in legitimate
manner. No school can arrange for
it's contracts and obligations to end
in the middle of fthe school year. NO
teacher would teach, no pupil would
consent to be taught, under such
conditions. The honest debts OF the
normals must be paid If Oregon
would save itself from shame.
Graduates from eastern normal
schools and colleges teaching in Wes-
ton are positively aghast at Oregon's
seeming disregard or ordinary de-
cency toward it's schools. They are,
or have been state institutions, yet
are abandoned without dollar, with
every obligation to their teachers and
students unfulfilled.
/ have an interesting document on
file in my office in proof that they are
state institutions. 1t was sent me by
Mr. Dunbar, former secretary of
secretary Of state, and curtly in
formed me concerning the decision
OF the attorney general to the effect
that the constitution forbade that
should be paid for job printing done
for the Weston school, since 1t was
a state institution and it's work
should be done by the state printer.
At this very time Mr.. Dunbar was
quietly adding to his personal bank
account unearned fees that amounted,
it is charged, to 100000 during his
term of office
This reminds me that the normal
schools are the scapegoats for every
dollar appropriated by the state, and
suffer yicarious atonement for every
alleged graft. The 100000 given the
Portland fair did not bring dollar
into Umatilla county, and took thou
sands out of the pockets OF our citi-
zens; yet the fair was hailed as
blessing, while Umatila' county's nor
NAL school is stigmatized as graft.
The Crater Lake road, useful only
to bug -buzzing tourists, gets $780, 900
without protest from a single Port
land newspaper yet each tries to see
which can club the normal schools
the hardest. .....
The portage railway at Cello gets
$4,000, in addition to $175,000 for
merly appropriated. At the same
time it shows receipts of about $4,000.
this road Is undoubtedly of value as
a regulator of freight rates, yet 1t
costs the state a great penny to
regulate" counting the interest on
that quarter OF million invested. 1t
Is quite likely good thing-for some
body. I do not know, and am not
here to criticise.
Yet so is the training of teachers of
uEdoubted value to the state, and Its
physical divisions are such that 1t pos
itively needs three normals. Massa-
chusetts has eight, / believe, and the
man who would condemn them as
CRAFTS would be sought for by the dime
museums.
The agricultural college got $780,
900, and very likely was entitled to
every dollar. 1t is doing a great
work. Yet at this rate its 1925 stu
dents cost the state about $125 an
nually EACH The Eastern Oregon
Normal school has had $17.500 an
nually for the past two years-the
largest amount II ever received.
Just before its recent troubles 1t had
172 actual attendance in its normal
department, aside from 100 In the
training school, which l do not count.
AT this rate its students cost about
500 annually each. and more than
so per cent of them come from
counties other than Umatilla. 1t Is
bonafide eastern Oregon institute
on, and the legislature will find that
II has hosts of friends. 1t only be-
comes a local institution when Wes-
ton has to help it out, which the
town is doing right now, with fund
that has reached $4,000, with the aid
OF other contributions from outside
towns. Ten acres of ground and a
brick building were among Weston's
gifts in the past.
And the state university also. which
has handsome permanent mainten-
ance fund that did all In my power
t. aid In securing. Oregon needs this
institution, but the normals are no
more graft than 1t Is, and their
graduates we warrant do not cost the
state so much per head" In fact,
the graduates of the devoted and
gallant Monmouth normal. whose
history has been one of struggle and
sacrifice, are not at present costing
the state a dollar. Call the Mon
mouth normal graft and then call
the Angel Gabriel thief for the lar
ceny of his golden trumpet.
The district fair gets money; the
experiment station gets money; the
asylum, penitentiary, reform school
etc, get more money, the coyote
counties get bounty funds-money
goes out In streams from the state
treasury for every conceivable pur-
pose--and only the normal schools
are gratis" Oh, but this is tire
some world to those of us who have
time and again gone into our person.
al pockets for the aid of these state
schools.
The normal school question ought
to be submitted to the people for fin
al decision as to whether they want