Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-02-28

equipment inspected and reported on
by business and educational experts.
They have made every effort to play
fair with the state and to put mat
ters at the University on sound
business basis.
AS result OF a carefully itemized
inspectiOn-repairs on buildings
many of them now disintegrating
and falling to bits-has been placed
at $147,900.
Many of these buildings cannot be
used for class room work any longer.
They are rooms in old frame farm
houses wretchedly lighted. wretch
eddy ventilated. with paper board
partitions between. The repair
asked for is merely to prevent their
collapse. The experimental green
houses We're. some time ago, con-
demned. This year one of them
froze and eliminated a considerable
quantity of desirable growing ma
terial which must now be replao ed.
The dairy building for which funds
We're appropriated in 1917-these
funds We're turned back to the State
by the University as patti lotto duty
because OF the emergency-haS be
come actually unhygienic. The
total refrigerating plant is a med
ium sized closet ice-DoX smaller
than many that l have seen in pri-
vate houses.
The Department of economics, one
of the largest of the academic de-
partments. has it's main Office in the
underground basement Of Coburn
Hall. the biology building. Here in
a tiny room. several desks cramped
hn, inc t,,,,n vel, IN
are trying to turn out good business
men and citizens of the State of
Maine.
The rooms in the Mems dOrmi-
tories have by one Maine parent of n
Maine boy. been aptly described as
unfit for tho housing Of pcdigrecd
cattle. and by another prominent
citizen of the State. possessed of a
strong sense of justice, and Of in
formation on which to base his
judgment, as vastly inferior to the
quarters for state controlled Grim
mails and detectives. AS before
stated female students are each
year being denied admission because
of no housing facilities and yet the
Governor of Maine in discussing
with the Trustees of the University
their needs. has remarked that the
feeble minded at Pownal needed
dOrmitOries more than did the
University.
The teaching of the classes is
made next to impossible by the
absence of office, class room and
laboratory space. The housing
facilities are beggardly' or absent al
together. and these plain. ugly facts
Cry for the items of repairs and con-
StructiOn asked for.
Tho fnr CT
mere beginning of the imperative
wants-picked from many others
which will have to be pushed for
ward on succeeding budgets.
Equipment in the various labOra-
tories is either obsolete or absent
Students in science. engineering and
agriculture are being trained with
equipment which they will never
meet after graduation because of its
antediluvian nature and they will
have acquaintance with modern
equipment solely through it's pic
lures in catalogues.
The items Of equipment asked for
are merely a beginning. Other items
are sorely needed but must wait
their turn until other years.
The heating plant-absolutcly
vital to the continuance of any work
at the University-has been pro-
nounced by experts as liable of
general and permanent collapse at
any time. Murmurs to this effect are
heard frequently in the breaks
which occur at various places and
which are patched up in mako
shift fashion because we have no
funds available for any more extern
sive repairs.
A general collapse of the heating
~
University for an indefinite period
Whether and when such a collapse
occurs lies in the hands of the gods
The items for maintenance and for
teaching staff are similarly boiled
down to an absolute minimum. We
have listed and we believe we can
justify in these respects every re-
quest made.
H. The Relation Of the Budget to
that Of other Budget Items.
1t Is not my purpose to enter into
any very detailed analysis of the
place which the appropriation to the
University of Maine has borne to
other expenditures of the State
There are, however, certain points
so simple and startling that they
are factors to be considered The
State has recognized it's rightful
uuty Ill lIlc care VI ltS unlt. NO one
with even modicum of humanity
would have it otherwise. The rela-
ton. however. Of the expenditures
for the care of the unfit to those for
the higher education of the fit give
food for thought. Thus we find in
the 1920-21 report of the State
Treasurer the following figures:
The prison. reformatories and cor
rection activities of the State cost
s796,694.20. the care of the insane
alone $761806.45 and the care of the
sick and defective $744.OS1.63, a total
Of $2.302.482.2S. The State Univer-
sity this same year received 1925, 900.
The Budget Committees recon-
mendation for the years 1923-24
1924-25 averages about 100000 per
year. The total per year asked for
$6S2,735.7 and S7O4,276S3 is less
than any Of the three sub divisions
gwen above and less than one third
OF what the State spent that year to
care for deficients.
I should like to repeat that the
need for aiding the criminal. the in
sane. the weak and the feeble mind
ed, is obvious and imperative.
should also like to add that until the
State Of Maine recognizes the need
OF encouraging its best youth as well
as caring for it's dependents. it can
not expect it's best boys and girls to
ha opthusia cfin about