The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-01-09
rIo 81 is a..

valley city IlleS- hSCOTus IN OH
editorial which was reproduced I'M
these columns yesterday, The Fargo
Courier News again discusses the
board of regents for state educational
institutions finding in that already dis
credited idea, many excellent things.
If The Courier News editor had be-
come enamored of the board of con-
troll for state penal and charitable In
situations, we might offer him some
sympathy, but when it comes to a COM
mon board of regents for all of the
state educational institutions. we can
see nothing in his arguments and the
experience of other states are all
against HMM fact, he does not cite
solitary instance where the plan work
ed successfully, but theories.
He advances but two arguments in
| favor of his pet theory--that it would
take the educational institutions out OF
politics and that it would make for
economy.
Have the educational institutions
been in politics in North Dakota? To
the extent that each institution has
gone before the legislature through its
local representatives and asked for ap-
preparations. and endeavored to secure
them, they have. 1T has amounted to
nothing more serious than healthy riv-
airy. Would this be changed in the
least by the board Of control? We fail
to see Just how it would. The power
full institutions would so after the
board in the first instance and there
would be no change from the present
trustee system.
Under the proposed regent system
politics would play even more inn
portant part In the first place, it
would create a lot of desirable salaried
positions which would be political
trading stock in every campaign. The
board controlling the destinies of our
educational institutions would be drag
ged through the mire of practical poll
| tics and would make a powerful politi-
| cal club. The board would be made up
of politicians who would make polit-
ical asset for their faction or party
out of the institutions themselves.
South Dakota presents an illustration
exactly in point Under their board of
regents the heads of state institutions
| have been traded and changed and the
institutions tempered with until their
effectiveness has been greatly demon
allied Under the present trustee sXs
| tenn the state educational institutions
have been singularly free from that
sort of thing. We have never heard
it charged in all the partisan bitter
ness which has been rife in the state
for the past four or five years, that
one Of our educational institutions has
ever been prostituted for political pur-
poses. The trustees are usually BUSH
ness and professional men and they
serve practically without pay. And as
rule they have been men of high
character and public spirit-there is
nothing about the jobs to appeal to the
undesirable political henchmen.
AS suggested above, it is hard to see
lust how the board would materially
relieve the legislature OF responsible
ity in making appropriations. The
board of control or regents would be
lobbied and the powerful institutions
would have just as much influence
with the board as they do now with
the legislature. The board would be
even more subject to political influ-
ences than the legislature as it would
be appointive and at the mercy Of the
faction or party in power. Again, the
recommendation of the board would
be acted upon by the legislature and
political power would b quite as effec-
tive to alter those recommendations as
1t is today in shaping appropriations
before the respective committees on APP
preparation or modifying them on the
floor of the house. A little reflection
on this pet theory of Bro. Gushing con-
vinces one that instead OF taking the
educational institutions out of politics,
1t will but inject them into politics.
AS for the matter OF economy, has
1t ever been charged that the educa-
tional institutions of the state have not
been economically administered? To-
dav they are educating more boys and
girls for the floor space occupied and
the money appropriated than almost
any group OF state institutions in the
country Instead Of working. for econ
ony. the board would in itself become
an enormous item Of expense.
On the educational side of the con-
troversy, there is no room for discus
sion-tTe whole plan savors of coll
lective socialism. 1t is admitted that
the whole trend of the age is toward
the simple and direct In government
the Capitalization OF responsibility.
and the connmercialization Of methods,
but this can be carried beyond the
practical. II is just and fitting that
educational institutions Of similar kind,
normals for instance, Should be under
q common board, but to group ali kinds
of institutions under a common board
is like trying to equalize the ind!vfdu-