Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1915-03-19
MlODlEBURY HEAR ING
Cause ofthe College Advocated by
President Thomas and
Judge Weeks.


Bill 351, which combines the scholar
ships in Middlebury College and appro-
PIRATES $4,000 to the institution in
place of the temporary appropriation of
two years ago.
President Thomas said in part
g have never urged bill in favor
of Middlebury College in opposition to
a measure in behalf of the public
schools. do not press the present bill
against any fair, wise and reasonable
measure for educational reform in this
State. l will never try to advance
Middlebury College at the expense of
the common schools. | say to you now
do all you can for the public schools,
in every reasonable way, and also do
what you can for Middlebury College,
and | will guarantee that no money ex-
pended by the State for education will
do more good for the boys and girls of
Vermont than the money you let me
administer at Middlebury
" do not ask for aid to three per cent
or five per cent or any other fraction of
the school children of the State. | ask
rather for support of necessary part of
Vermont's educational system, which
cannot be neglected without injury to
the whole. The speciality we have
undertaken at Middlebury is the train
ing of high school teachers. The
teacher makes or mars the school, And
the high school teacher affects every
other, since every elementary and rural
teacher receives a large part of her ed
ucation in the high school, The rural
school depends upon the high school,
and the institution which trains the
teachers of the secondary schools holds
the key to the situation. Now larger
percentage of Middlebury graduates go
into teaching than from any other col
lege in New England. There are more
Middlebury graduates teaching in Yer
mont schools to-day than any other col
lege can show. No appropriation you
will consider therefore, has a more i'm
portant bearing on the entire education
q, work of Vermont than that for the
department of teacher training at Mid
dlebury College. We hold the key to
the situation for wise, constructive
educational advance in the State of YER
mont.
Il ask also for the continuation of
State scholarships to worthy Vermont
students. For over century Middle
bury College has made a speciality of
encouragement and assistance to the
boy who has hard time to get start
| know something of the sacrifices
many of our students are making. |
do not believe in general free tuition.
Many Vermont people can well afford
to pay fair share of the cost of col
lege education, and they are perfectly
willing to do so, and ought TO do so.
But do believe there are many others,
well worth educating, who could not
possibly go to college without some
assistance, and | feel the State can
well afford to give it to them. Every
other State provides help in some form
toward a college chance, and Vermont
does not want to make it's most am
bilious boys and girls wish they had
been born in some other State so that
they might have had chance to go to
college
1t has been my consistent platform
that Middlebury College is a public
institution of the State of Vermont. |
made that declaration at my inaugura-
tlon in 1908 and have held to it ever
since. | have urged our graduates to
take up work in Vermont and to devote
their lives to the service of the State,
especially of the boys and girls in the |
small towns. | have preached the doc
trine that the first educational duty of
Vermont is to even up opportunity as
between the small schools and the city
schools-up and down this State for the
past six years.
- After that it is pretty hard to read
the advertisements headed, "The Col
lege or the Children. The college for
the children has been my motto-the
college to educate their teachers, and
the teachers of their teachers, the col
lege to give them outlook and ambition
for lives of power and of high useful
ness. Middlebury College for over a
century has been the helpful, sympa-
thetic friend of the children of Yer
mont, and will remain such as long as
you give her opportunity
" 1t is not true, as has been adver-
tlsed, that twenty-one per cent of the
students of Middlebury College come
from the town where it is located. In
the catalogue thirty-one students give
their address as Middlebury, but that is
only nine per cent of our student body.
OF the thirIV-one ten arn nntnnIl,, ,.lni