Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/137



OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 127

"Already the gaunt ghosts of Monmouth, Ashland, Weston and Drain are haunting the law-making body."

To this the Weston Leader, edited by Clark Wood, replied :

"The normals are not 'agitating' this year. They have no 'gaunt ghosts' at Salem as imagined by the esteemed Oreg- gonian. All the agitation, wire-pulling, and log-rolling are being done, if done at all, by their enemies and by enemies the Leader means the sectarian schools that have always been jealous of the normals, and have sought their undoing. They were back of the clause which makes a normal school diploma an honorary certificate only. . . . The same influence was responsible for the referendum movement against the appro- priation bill of 1906. It is also back of the Calkins bill of this session, which makes two years of high school work es- sential to entrance at any state school. . . . Superinten- dent Ackerman is doing some effective lobbying for the three schools."

In spite of the effective work of the state superintendent, the appropriations were making no progress. The Roseburg Review of February 4th evinced discouragement :

"It looks as if the legislature might kill all the normal schools and then perhaps resuscitate one 36 of them. Like the Portland papers, most of the law-makers can never grasp the idea of what the normal schools are for. If they reduce the schools to one, they will doubtless spend as much, or more, on one as they did before on three or four, thus making it a second state university."

The following day the daily Oregonian made this contribu- tion:

"The normal school nuisance has arisen again. Normal county law-makers are 'standing in' to continue their ancient raid on the state treasure, and are awaiting their chance for log-rolling."

On February 10th the Eugene Register reported that a big normal school fight was in prospect, and said the committee on

36 Roseburg Review, February 4, 1909: "Members of the legislature in both houses who have not been sent there from normal counties have grown weary of the continual struggle of the normal schools for increased recognition and exist- ence. The inclination is to settle the question once and for all by the abolition of all but one institution, which shall be conducted and built up in the same manner as the University of Oregon and the Agricultural College."