Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/174



164 JOHN C. ALMACK

Not so. Two years after the failure of the referendum, the commercial club of Pendleton initiated a measure, shrewdly drawn, and backed up by excellent arguments and a strong organization. It asked for a levy of 1/25 of a mill for the support of each of two schools one at Pendleton, the other at Ashland and for a building appropriation of $125,000. But more interesting than these items were the clauses validating the locations of certain state institutions.

Under the state constitution, all state institutions shall be located within an area no more than five miles from the capital Salem in Marion County. The Pendleton Commercial Club claimed that the Monmouth Normal, the Agricultural College at Corvallis, and the State University at Eugene had been established in these places illegally. Technically speaking these were therefore not state institutions, and could not be given state aid. The initiative bill proposed to validate these locations by a vote of the people, make provisions for the Ash- land Normal, and for the new normal to be built on a suitable site donated by the city of Pendleton. The arguments said the institutions before mentioned had been established con- trary to the constitution, but admitted that the act of 1908 validated these by inference. The introduction of the refer- ence to other state institutions seems to have been for the purpose of drawing votes from people alarmed over the con- dition of invalidated and illegal institutions, particularly in places where these were located.

The arguments were well drawn and substantiated by facts and figures. In substance they were :

"A great need exists for trained teachers. Out of 6055 teaching in the state, only 791 are normal graduates. This is only 13% of the total ; therefore 87% are not properly trained.

"In 1903, 80% of the applicants for certificates had had no training above the eighth grade.

"1,000 new teachers are needed every year.

"Oregon students are now going to normals in Washington