Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1913-02-01


per, cent Of lAe people az West vir-
gipia ike OH FARMS ii Is easf ID un.
derstand the lmportance Of any leg
isiatloh ihat aaeds our agrieultural
interests. Xt
The farms or Our state are valued
at about 400 millions OF dollars, and
all other real estate at about 200 mil
lions Of dollars. The census Of 1910
shows that almost a million OF our
million and a quarter Of people live
in rural districts and in towns Of less
than 2500 Inhabitants, and the esti-
mated number OF children Of school
age in these rural homes is 200, 900.
You will THUS see that it Is not only
important TO legislate IN the interest
Of the people who own these rural
homes but coupled with it IS the very
important question Of providing ade-
quate facilities fof the children Of
these homes, be only sixty-three rural
children Of the same age die Of that
disease; about three hundred and for
ty-four city children out Of every one
hundred thousands under the age of
FIVE years die of diphtheria aud Group
while only about one hundred and
twenty-five rural children Of the same
age die of these. diseases
Some Things Needed.
The West Virginia. University
saosld have for its College of Agri-
culture a suitable building, properly
equipped, and In addition to that must
have more land II the efficiency of
the college is to be increased. The
past two years have been the most
successful in the history OF the uni
versity and ii should be dealt with
most literally. President Hodges and
his faculty, under the direction of the
state Board Of Regents, have done
much to increase the efficiency OF this
school and it is now serving the PEG
pie of this state as 1t has never done
before. We sometimes hear COM
plants Of the cost OF maintaining this
institution, but il you will take pains
to compare its per capita cost with
the per capita cost Of similar institu-
tons in other states you will find that
we have not been as liberal with our
university as we should have been.
This school should also have a law
building and | hope the day Is not
far distant when an appropriation
will be made for. that purpose. The
farmer cannot GET the best results
unless he has proper tools and ma
ehipery; the lawyer is not successful
unless he has an up-to-date library,
and it is too much to expect the
schools OF our state TO produce the re
suits that they are capable of produc.
ing unless we furnish them with the
tmeans and equipment with which to
do the work. | hope that you will be
liberal in your appropriations of mon.
eys to be used ianagrieulturai extern.
sion work. ampr 4at .a
o Normal Schools. 8
The number of Students in our nor.
NAL schools varies from 1873 at West
Liberty to $50 at Marshall College, and
the per capita cost, as heretofore
shown varies from $62,7772 to $lOO.32.
one of the greatest problems that
confront the educational world is that
OF housing and feeding students for a
reasonable sum. If we could board
and room our students for $500 or
$1,000 a month it would not be long
until we would very greatly increase
the number in attendance at our un.
iversity and normal schools and | dc
not know how this problem can be
solved unless we provide dormitories
and boarding houses. | believe that
money can be wisely invested for this
purpose. Two orthree years ago, in
company with the Board Of Regents,
visited the University of Wiscon-
sin at Madison and following that
went to Valparaiso, indiana to learn
something Of how they were able to
have such a large number of students
and at so small a cost, and | was fully
convinced that itrwas largely due TO
the fact that they were able TO board
and room their students at a minimum
cost. ON my return home | com
menced to investigate conditions in
our own state and found that at the
West Virginia Colored~Institute they
were boarding students for less in fact
than at any OF the institutions that we
visited on our western trip. The re-
port OF the State Board of Control will
show that this school boarded stu
dents at $500 per month and made a
profit of a little over $4,000 during the
last biennial period.
Our Colored Schools.