Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/161



OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 151

Many of the criticisms arose out of conditions over which the normals had no control. Buildings, equipment, qualifica- tions of faculty members, are dependent upon the amount of money furnished by the legislature. In view of the rules of the game then and now persisting in legislative bodies, the resources the assembly had available from which to draw appropriations, the growing demands from other quarters, the competition for funds among state institutions, and the objec- tion of the people to increased taxation, the projection of normal school affairs into politics was inevitable. The state institution that was not in politics could not long have con- tinued a state institution.

The management of the normals did not appeal to politics from choice : rather the schools were used by skillful politicians a valuable commodity in which exchanges could be made in accomplishing individual and local purposes. It was quite natural that those fighting for a common cause should com- bine. However, the forming of combinations, the practice of trading votes, legislative log-rolling, and the general type of dealing known to every one who knows politics, did not end when the normal schools were eliminated. New subjects have simply been substituted, though it is improbable that there will ever be found another that served so long and well as the normal schools. That was the heyday for sections holding the balance of power. The system was responsible for the normals being in politics ; they did not choose to be, nor was it for their benefit. The cause of education was hampered by the circumstances, and the experiences of the past should suggest a rational way of dealing with state institutions in the future.

The persistence and loyalty of the normal school supporters is conspicuous. This was due in no small part to the pride perhaps something of the feeling of sharing in the ownership of an institution felt by the people of the community, and this feeling would be acccentuated by having contributed direct-