Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1917-05-19
W. VIRGINIA WESLEYAN
COLLEGE FIGHTING
FOR HER EXISTENCE
Five Hundred Thousand Dollars
Must Be Raised By June 9Th,
Two Hundred anu Fifteen
Thousand Secured

twenty -Oue udyS West NlISiilid w 6A-
leyan College located here must finish
her gigantic campaign fer endowment.
To date two hundred and fifteen thou
sand dollars have been definitely
pledged. Two hundred and eighty.fiye
thousand dollars yet remain to be
raised. This, in a nutshell, is the
proposition that faces the little band
of workers that is prosecuting the
work in this great movement
Five hundred thousand dollars Is
the total that Wesleyan has set her
self to raise This amount is absolutely
essential to the continuation Of the
great work that this great institution
has been doing for the past thirty
years 1t can be said emphatically that
If this movement fails West Virginia
Wesleyan will have but two courses
open to her; one, to close her doors
entirely, the other, to attempt to do
nothing more than preparatory work
equivalent to that the first class high
schools of the state are doing. To be
forced to pursue either of these courses
would be an everlasting blot on the
record OF West Virginia Methodism
and a disgrace to the state
However, a perusal of the statements
given below will convince all that this
is the true situation.
Wesleyan College has had an annual
net loss on operating expenses of
seven thousand dollars for a number
of years past. There is an accumu-
lated Indebtedness that is pressing for
payment, which with the expenses of
the present campaign, repairs and i'm
proponents on the buildings and
grounds that are absolutely imperative
and other incidental expenses that re
qure the immediate expenditure of
one hundred thousand dollars in order
that the College may be placed on a
basis of solvency.
The college has a permanent endow-
ment Of about one hundred thousand
dollars at this time. OF the five hun
dred thousand that is to be raised,
one hundred thousand is to be used
in meeting the indebtedness and other
expenses as indicated above, and the
remaining four hundred thousand is
to be added to the one hundred thou
sand of existing endowment. This
will give the College gross endowment
funds of five hundred thousand dollars,
the revenue from which will amount 10
about twenty-five thousands of dollars
in income annually Inasmuch, how
ever, as one hundred thousand of 1t has
been available for a number of years
back, there will be a gross increase
in the income of the college amounting
to twenty thousand dollars annually if
the present campaign is successful.
1t is proposed to utilize this twenty
thousand in the following manner:
Seven thousand, of course, will be
needed to meet the annual deficit that
for years his existed in the operation
of the college. The teachers at Wes-
leyan are VIGOROUSLY poorly paid. The
majority of them receive barely one
half the amount paid to teachers in
other colleges which do work of no
higher grade than that done at Yves
leyan. 1t is absolutely essential, then,
If these teachers are to be retained
and if improvements in the teaching
force are to be made, that eventually
ten thousand dollars more be spent
each year on the teaching staff Under
existing salaries it is absolutely i'm
possible for the teachers to remain at
their posts. These two items, then,
call for seventeen thousand of the
twenty thousand additional dollars of
revenue the college will receive if
the campaign is successful It is be
coming more and more apparent to all
educators that if Wesleyan is to con
tinue to serve the best interests of
her constituency she must offer more
courses, agriculture being the one most
likely to be included in the curriculum.
This would call for an expenditure Of
fully the three thousand additional an
nually for the salary,of teachers and
equipment for instruction in this de-
partment, so that there can be no
reasonable claim that Wesleyan is ask
ing too much, or that she is asking
more than Is absolutely essential.
In fact, she cannot survive without
this aid and the decision must be
made before June 9Th Contributions
are coming in from every source, but
thew nuet ha< tn11lfipIiad 81 tha car,