The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-19

from the State University, as we have
seen in nearly half the states in the
Union, was a blunder Which time win
deepen into a crime. With the union
of h two has come the rapid growth
of the Universities of Wisconsin. Ill.,
nois, Minnesota and Nebraska, where
the higher work Of the state is all
concentrated in one place,
Equally as strong letters pleading
with the people of Montana not TO
%fritter away their resources on a num-
Der of weak colleges We're received
from such men as Francis A. Walker.
President of the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of T~echnologE; II. C. Gilman.
President of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity: William r. Harper, President of
the University OF Chicago; William T.
Harris, u. S. Commissioner of Educa-
ton. and many others. MANY of these
men nave passed away, but others
still live who again plead with the
people of the state to restore TO the
youth of Montana the rights of which
they were robbed 10y well meaning
but short sighted lawmakers.
Twenty Yoars After.
Space permits lis to publish a few
out of hundreds of letters easily avail
able. They CONF from the very fore-
most men of the nation, men of the
largest experiencc, men who stand
upon the very piuuacles or learning.
He must indeed be IL. very bold man
who lifts his voice against the united
Ole of the great and good and disin>
terested men of Tho nation who are
again pleading with the legislature or
Montana to right the wrong which
twenty years ago their predecessors
inflicted upon the youth Of the state.
A letter has been received from
Professor Keyser head of the depart
ment of mathematics in Columbia
University:
Il nave seen in tho newspapers that
certain distinguished gentlemen of
your state have formed an Association
for the creation Of a Greater ITniver-
sity of Montana, and that this assoc
citation has formulated a plan for car
rying their purpose into effect. [
cannot refrain from writing you to
express the hope that the aims and
plan in question meet with your
hearty approval. For they seem 10
to be praiseworthv in every i'm !
portant respect ana in the highest de-
gree.
The plan, as given in the press, is
really a great state paper, worthy of
jefferson in his best prophetic days.
If the plan be adopted and carried
out, the State OF Montana will quickly
to Leadership in education of
every kind, including the very high
est. But If the plan fails, then the
state will suffer more and more as the
years go by, just as many other Amer
lean states ave ~Grievuus1y suffered
and are still suffering because their
higher institutions of learning lack
that peculiar kind Of force that comes
from concentrated. 1t is really pitiful
that so many o. our American states
hecauSe their hIshcr institutions of
learning are scattered, dissipate their
educational energies in waste and false
competition with one another amount
ing to conflict.
Il trust that n state which, like
Montana, has the mind to conceive a
plan so lofty and admirable as that
reported in the press, will have the
Will and genius to carry it into eff
feet before it is too late. If Montana
will do this, she will deservedly win
the applause and secure the following
of the entire nation.
G.. J. KEYSER."