Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/139



OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 129

this plan was to get a school, Corvallis was mentioned as the site of one normal, all others were to be abolished, and the agricultural college combined with the university at Eugene. This suggestion came from Eugene, and the friends of Cor- vallis retorted by offering to help move the university to their city, and to use the university buildings for a state normal. A' county normal system as in Wisconsin was also put for- ward. 37 Once it seemed that Monmouth 38 would get an ap- propriation, but Ashland and Weston withdrew their support and she went down to defeat. The legislature made short shift with Drain. The normal school there was formally abol- ished, and the property deeded to the public school district.

The one normal idea persisted. Probably in compliment to Salem, the Oregonian on February 19th said there should be but one normal, and it should be located at the state capital. Senator J. N. Smith of Marion introduced a bill establish- ing a normal at Portland. Normal defenders said this was done in order to retain the capital at Salem, the normal school politicians having threatened to remove it to Eugene, Cor- vallis, and Portland. In the last hours of the session the "one normal at Monmouth" bill was proposed by the house as a compromise. President Bowerman of the senate said after the legislature had adjourned that this bill was defeated be- cause "Monmouth was a very small town, and would require dormitories." Clark Wood of the Weston Leader had prophe- sied that "if the Eastern Oregon normal is abandoned it will be because it has been traded off for a branch asylum a plum for which Pendleton and Baker will later do battle." In a similar vein the Oregonian of February 18th goes on to say that:

"Eastern Oregon lawmakers have been consorting with the normal forces. Eastern Oregon wants an asylum, a scalp bounty, and a portage road appropriation. They have found the normals ready for their uses at every turn."

The Oregonian also gently stated that an asylum was what

37 Oregonian, March 16, 1909.

38 Ibid, February 11, 1909.