The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1918-01-24
MILLION DOLLARS
ASKED BY SCHOOLS
PRESENT SESSION OF LEGISlA
TURE ASKED TO GIVE BIG SUM
FOR SCHOOLS OF STATE.
PRESIDENT SMITH BOOSTS
Head of A. and M. College Says Sono
Issue viii Enable institutions Of
State To Keep Pace With Sim
liar Schools of Other States.


Agricultural College.-In vigorous
advocacy OF the proposed bond issue
of S1,0O0,00O for permanent improve
ments and expansion at the four state
colleges, which is to come before the
legislature at this session, President
w. H. Smith of the Mississippi A. and
M. college, as one of the leaders in the
movement, recently presented some
striking reasons for this bond issue.
Aroused over the serious need OF
additional buildings and equipment to
keep pace with the rapid progress in
agriculture, engineering and science,
and speaking not alone for this col.
lege, but for all the state institutions
with which he is thoroughly familiar
by reason of his former position as
state superintendent of education, and
member OF the board OF trustees, Mr..
Smith said:
There has never been more pro.
pitious time or greater need for
bond issue to further high education.
The colleges have never meant so
much to the cause Of the state and
nation. They have never been called
on to supply trained men as they are
now. The burden of furnishing these,
and more particularly the greater num-
her of trained men that will be needed
during next year and on during the
next twenty years, will fall on the col
leges. To do this, new and modern
scientific facilities are essential.
"The time is exceptionally oppor-
tune AS state Mississippi in all its
history has never known such q wave
Of prosperity as we have now. We
have made bigger crops and have re-
ceived more money for them than ever
before.
"The shortage is not in money, but
in trained men who can multiply their
usefulness by greater knowledge. A
bond issue of a million dollars will
bring the educational institutions up
abreast of the times and turn out men
who by their very knowledge gained
in these institutions will produce
wealth and help pay back the princi-
pal, and such bond issue to be paid
In twenty years will be no more than
debt of about a dollar or two to the
Individual The annual interest on
such a sum will be about three cents
a person or the price Of postage
stamp.
Some of our progressive counties
have raised million-dollar bond issues
to build roads, in times that we're hard,
realizing that such improvements pay
for themselves.
'This is day Of big achievements
and not Of retrenchment. In agri.
culture, in mechanics, in education,
the non-essentials have been cut out
and with every effort to get practical
results we have advanced ten years
in one. To keep up with the demands
on them the colleges need to be ten
years ahead of where they were a
year ago.
TN this advancement are our boys
to be left behind? Can we not provide
for their education as our neighbor
states are doing? Arkansas and Ten
nessee have already voted million-dol-
lar bond issues for their universities.
During the past two years Texas has
spent 100000 on its educational in
situations. Heretofore Mississippi has
been in front in southedn education. AS
a result we are at the front in dairy
ing, in live stock production, home
conveniences and country life. Boys
educated in Mississippi have been
sought by other states because they
were recognized as thoroughly trained.
"A minutes thought will show that
this money is not alone to benefit the
students in the colleges It's value will
reach into every corner of the state.
The teachers and county agents, the
lawyers and physicians, and business
men go out from these institutions
and just in proportion to their mod
ern training will the schools and farms
and businesses of the state be run on
modern lines.
1--WE need bigger, better facilities at
our colleges, not for beauty of build
ings, not for ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, not for
convenience of the employees, but in
order that these colleges may best
serve the state by supplying it with
the we'll equipped, efficient men and
women for which there is such an in
sistent call"