Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1911-01-31

] PUBIC bCuOOl lcdCublo III inc SOu4ti j.
the well-to-do farmers are moving in
to the towns in order to send their
children to school; these children
cannot hope to progress higher than
the 18th grade of the public schools
without coming to the colleges west
of the Cascade mountains, or going
TO distant eastern educational insti-
tutions.
It is a fact, largely because Of
forced circumstances, that only about
20 per cent Of the 300 or more stu
dents which annually 90 away from
the Blue Mountain counties for col
lege education reach the state insti-
tutions west of the mountains. The
rest Of them go to the handler col
leges in eastern Washington and
Idaho, and to the great eastern col
leges, with goodly number to STAN
ford, and the University of Califor-
mia.
Eastern oregon is not a part of the
state that ought to be ignored in all
matters of education. Three-fourths
of the area of the state is situated
east of the Cascade Mountains, and
that great region, therefore, fur
nishes at least three-fourths of the
irreducible public school fund Of the
state.
More than that, most of the great
Willamette Valley was originally TAX
en- up under the donation land grant
system, which took Sections 16 and
S6 with the rest, and the state was
compelled to select indemnity lands
largely east of the mountains to sup
ply the place OF the land grant claims
in the Willamette Valley; thus the
Valley which now has practically all
the educational institutions of the
state and three-fourths of the school
children Of the state contributed very
little towards the irreducible school
fund Of which they have advantage
In other words, Eastern Oregon
has furnished more than three
fourths of the lrreducible school
fund and the Willamette Valley a
very small percentage of that fund,
and yet the Willamette Valley, by
reason Of its school population CON
sumes the interest on three-fourths
of this irreducible fund. Is not
Eastern Oregon entitled to some con-
slderation on this account?
Eastern Oregon also furnished al
most eight-ninths Of the land grant
which founded the State Agricultural
College at Corvallis and supports
that college, and when congress do
mated to the state of Oregon 100000
acres OF land for internal improve
ments, S3S,155.9O acres were selected
east Of the Cascade mountains. These
lands were sold at SLIPS per acre
Most Of the beautiful Grande Ronde
Valley, where my own fair city Of
La Grande is located, was selected
under that grant The proceeds of
the sale of this land, by legislative
enactment, went into the construc-
tlon of the locks at Oregon City, and
the remnant went into the irreduci-
BILE school fund, and thus we people
of the Grande Ronde Valley fur
nished the money that built your
locks at Oregon City, donated by an
improvident Legislature to a private
corporation, and the state is now
asked to buy them back for the sum
of $1,25OOOOl
We are asking for this school be-
cause there is a crying need of 1t in
that great section of the state, and
not merely because of the wrong
done to that great section hereto
fore.
The bill leaves the course of study
to be fixed by the state board, but re-
qures that 1t include Sanitary Sci
enoe and hygiene, domestic science
and agriculture. These branches
should be taught in all our public
schools, and the teacher should be
trained for this work. If my own
IDEAS were to find expression, our
Normal colleges would have one
year course for graduates of standard
colleges, a two-years course for grad
yates of our 18th grade high schools
and three year course for all 9th
ers, Respectfully
TURNER OLIVER.