Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/176



166 JOHN C. ALMACK

Eastern Oregon cities towards Weston may be gathered from an editorial in the East Oregonian, published at Pendleton, and quoted in the Weston Leader February llth, 1919:

"Should the Weston school ask for support under the initia- tive, but fail to receive favorable action by the people, then the field will become open to all towns of Eastern Oregon. Where the school should be located in the event Weston's proposed initiative measure loses out is a matter for future considera- tion."

But Weston refrained, and Ashland's plan was tried. The arguments for the bill were the usual ones and were advanced by the board of normal school regents. The regents an- nounced that in the event of the vote being favorable, building operations would not be commenced until the end of the war. This qualification was unnecessary as the proposition lost by a big majority : 49,935 for, 66,070 against. Willamette Valley again voted solidly against the normals.

One feature that accompanied the last two election contests a feature that dates back to 1880 was the proposal strongly advocated in some quarters that the University and Agricul- tural College should train elementary teachers. In recent years Mrs. Herbert Armstrong of North Bend has been the most persistent exponent of the idea. In a circular distributed in 1918 by the supporters of the plan it is said that "all over the country colleges and universities are educating grade teachers, while not a dozen normal schools have been estab- lished in 20 years." In contradiction to the last part of the assertion are the figures given by the state superintendent in a circular on certification published in 1919 showing that the increase in the number of normal schools has been from 131 to 234 in twenty-five years, a growth equal to 80%. Attend- ance in the same period has reached 221% and the number of graduates 365%. This matter will be considered in the dis- cussion of methods of solving the normal school problem in later pages.

Ashland will unquestionably make application for financial assistance either to the legislature or to the people in the im-