The Daily Missoulian., 1913-01-10
For Consolidation
Anemarinn Arn11mant nf Old Timer

! Editor MisSoulian-I have read with
great interest the article in The Mis-
soulian of January 5 in regard to con-
/ solidation. With the editors permis-
sion l should like to make some COM
ment on certain points made by the
!! author. The writer says that the plan
/ of consolidation in it's present form
was sprung suddenly, taking an 'un-
suspecting state by surprise 1t oc-
| ours to me that there can be little sur
| prise occasioned by the ''springing" Of
| the question of consolidation upon the
| citizens of Montana. They have
| had the question under consideration
off and on for the past 20 years. And
for the past four years the public have
had their attention forced upon this
matter constantly. There is little diff
ference in the plan, either. 1t is simply
worked out more in detail in such a
way as to show it's practicability. The
fight began by DIR. DuniWay in 1908 and
has been continued with very slight
intermission down to the present.
The writer then reverts to the strug-
gle made in the early.years of the uni
versitys life for consolidation, and
fears that the same bitterness will he
engendered and that the matter will
be dragged into politics. / see no rea-
son why bitterness should be engen-
dered by any question if the voice Of
the majority rules. We are used to
submitting to the will of the majority
in all matters relating to the public in
this country. If the majority of our
people now believe that a mistake was
made when our educational institu-
tions were segregated as they now are,
and that it will be cheaper and much
better in the long run to right the
wrong now, before it is too late, l am
sure the minority will submit gra-
ciously to the will of the majority.
AS to dragging the matter into poll
tics, the desirability or undesirable
of this action depends entirely upon
what kind of politics we drag the
question into. Most of our public
questions are settled by dragging them
into politics. In fact, there is no other
way to settle them. 1t is very desir-
able to drag things into politics at
times, especially If the people are run
ming politics.
The writer then quotes from the
Great Falls Leader to the effect that
the mistake has been made and that
it is too late to correct it. We all
know that old adage, ut is never to
late to mend.' and it applies as we'll
to public affairs as it does to private
affairs. Our mistake is not so ire
trievahle as some appear to believe.
When Minnesota found that she had
made a mistake in the matter of secur-
ing a campus for the state university.
the people of that state did not sit
down and supjnelv remark tina 1t was
too late to remedy matters. Instead,
the state spent s1.00O.000 in purchas-
ing land in the heart of he~ greatest
citv for such campus. Now. that
s1O0OO0O would furnish us with a
plant which would more than take the
place of the four divided plants we
now have. But in the case of Mime
sofa this was so much sheer loss, for
if this land had been secured at first
it would have cost but small frac-
ton of that sum. In the case of Mon
tana, we shall still have plenty of use
for the four plants We now have.
Those who are at all informed on the
subject know that the day of techni-
cal high schools has come. They
know that such an institution as that
at Menominee, Wis, will soon be de-
manded by the citizens of every state.
They know that the day of county in
dustrial and agricultural schools is al
ready here. Consequently, they know
that if Montana is TO keep pace with
her sister states at all, she must soon
prepare to give her youth training in
agriculture and the trades in their
high school courses. But it will be
impossible in Montana for some time
to come, for each city or each county
in the state to establish and main
tain such schools. Then why not util-
ize the four plants already at hand for
this purpose? There is nothing mere
ly theoretical in that. There is Moth
ing impractical about 1T. When we
hear of the farmers of single county
in the state of Illinois paying $4,000 a
year for the services of professor of
agriculture, as DeI<alb county has
done, and finding that it pays them to