The Elk Mountain pilot., 1923-12-06
LETTER FROM SENATOR CAsADAY

Hon. George Hetherington,
Vice-President of the Board of Trus-
tees of Western State College,
Gunnison, Colorado.
My Dear Mr.. Hetherington:
l have yours of Nov. 28th, and have
read the same very carefully. have
also on my desk copy of President
Quigley's interview with the Gunni-
son Press concerning my letter to
Governor Sweet. In this letter to
Governor Sweet, copy of which I en-
close herewith. you will notice that
my criticism concerned only the
wasteful expenditure of money, $685.
10000 of that wasteful expenditure
being in the building of what is
called the Western States College
dormitory. I have no desire and do
not intend to change my criticism of
this building. No one can look at it
and say that the State College re-
ceived a just return for the money
expended in this building.
My other criticism concerned the
building of hallway connecting the
Western State College with the Gun
nison High School at cost of $94, ,537.
If you have before you a copy of the
Bulletin of the Colorado State Nor
NAL School issued in January 1928,
you will notice on Page z, paragraph
l, President Quigley himself says that
after spending the sum above re-
ferred to, the building is really Of
little practical use to the Western
State College. Yet someone in au-
thority at what was then known as
the Colorado State Normal School,
spent this vast sum of money for a
building that was of no use either to
the school or to the State.
I also criticized q do not think Sc
verely enough) the false reports sent
out in the Bulletin issued by the Col
orado State Normal School relative to
the attendance at the school at Cum
nison, when the per capita cost was
based upon very large attendance
and the attendance was not more than
third of that called for in the
report. In justice to the State Ex-
aminers' Department of the Auditors
Office, they simply took the word of
President Quigley as to the attend
ance when they made their estimate
of per capita cost, and not until the
Examiners made a special trip to
Gunnison to check up the attendance
report and checked up the registra-
tion fees of the actual attendance
were they made aware that the fig
ures submitted to the State Auditor
and the Governor were erroneous and
that the per capita cost was so very
much greater than had been repre-
sented in the Bulletin sent out by the
Colorado State Normal School at Gun
nison during the session of the Twen-
ty-fourth General Assembly. This ne
cessitated the very able representa-
tive from Gunnison, the Honorable
Charles H. Cowan, having to apologize
for these reports, and only Mr.. Cow
ans personal popularity in the Twen-
ty-fourth General Assembly allowed
these reports to remain quiet, and
enable him to secure the passage Of
the Deficiency Bill of the Colorado
State Normal School to the extent of
$50, ,7S2.OO. The Bill was introduced
by Mr.. Cowan, was passed and signed,
and became law without any opposi-
tion from anyone in the State House.
In the year 1909 had the pleasure
of being member of the Colorado
State Senate. House Bill No. 5, in
troduced by Mr.. Lehrritter, having
passed the House came over to the
Senate by Senator Twinning The Bill
passed the Senate and had the pleas
ure and privilege of voting upon it.
Having lived in Gunnison in the early
eighties, I felt that the Western
Slope needed college and I voted
for the passage of the bill.
In no place in my letter to the Gov
ernor, nor anything that have said
to the Press, have done anything ex-
cept condemn the wasteful expendi-
ture of money for buildings at the
Normal School at Gunnison.
1t was my pleasure in the month of
August to visit, in my official capac-
ity, the Western State College, in
company with State Auditor Stong.
We found the summer school in oper-
alton, with over six hundred students
in attendance, and everything seemed
to be progressing very nicely, but the
summer schools are a separate part of
the educational work of the diffeent
educational institutions of the State
of Colorado, and the State is in no
way responsible for the operation of
summer schools in the different State
educational institutions, and it is my
contention that the receipts and dis