PURDUE UNIVERSITY.
On motion by Mr. PATTEN the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, [Mr. Adams in the chair] and proceeded to consider the bill [H. R. 427] making general appropriations.
Mr. WILLIAMS: I favor the motion to strike out the item to appropriate $24 000 to Purdue University. If I fail to convince the page: 99[View Page 99] House that this item should be struck out it will be because of my inability and not be cause my cause is not just. My opposition to this is that Purdue University is not a State institution. In such institutions as the prisons and benevolent institutions of the State the land, every item of furniture and fixtures belong to the State. Not so of Purdue University. Neither the land nor any of the property belongs to the State. The claim that this State entered into a compact with the United States to preserve Purdue can not be substantiated.
Mr. WILSON: Section 862 of the statutes says that the State shall observe the stipulations laid down by Congress. What was that?
Mr. WILLIAMS: That the State should take care of the principal of this money, that the State should pay the interest. Some have an idea that this appropriation is to be $24,000 for two years. This is erroneous It means plainly $24 000 per year John Purdue did not ask money from the State, but said he would support this institution himself. All he wished was to call once in a while at Purdue and examine the books. I wish that John Purdue could examine those books now and make a report here in place of the one presented by President James H. Smart Now is it a State institution? Two years ago President White, when a question was raised here regarding secret societies in that college, claimed that Purdue University was a private corporation and sent here through the Representative from Tippecanoe (Mr. Smith), who is still on this floor, a remonstrance against the Legislature meddling The gentleman from Tippecanoe presented the matter to this body.
Mr. SMITH: Don't misquote me about this. I made no such claim.
Mr. WILLIAMS: I guess I must resort to the official record. I will read from the Brevier Reports of the session of 1883 [Reads from Volume XXI.] This idea of a State institution is of recent origin. This communication of President Smart intimates that there was no opposition to an appropriation to Purdue University two years ago. But there was. The Honorable Speaker of this House was then Chairman of Committee of Ways and Means. That committee then reported an appropriation of $2,000 for Purdue. Mr. Smith moved to increase it to $25,000, and this was laid on the table by 48 yeas and 28 nays.
Mr. HAYDEN: If it is not a State institution why does the Governor appoint the Trustees?
Mr. WILLIAMS: The Governor appoints but two, and others are chosen by the State Board of Agriculture, and so on. Even if a State institution it would be held to a strict accountability as to its finances. All the State Institutions are compelled to cover back into the Treasury all unused money. When has Purdue even turned back a single dollar? If you can find the receipt for such I would like to see it and frame it that the public may see it. Every boy who goes there, President Smart to the contrary, pays $15 per year tuition, no matter whether he be sent by a county or not. This institution is kept up for Tippecanoe County. There are 176 enrolled there. Their first names are not given, so we can not tell how many are girls. As near as I can guess there are thirty-seven girls. But forty counties are represented. Tippecanoe County has eighty seven members. The claim is made that Purdue is young. It is as old as the Valpariaso Normal School, which has 1,600 stundents students , and some of them are from Tippecanoe County. The expense of that is not as much as Purdue. The gentleman from Tippecanoe says that Purdue University has a capital stock of $560,000 It is a private corporation. The claim is made that it is an Industrial College: that it is to make better blacksmiths and better mechanics.
Mr. TAYLOR: How much money does it take to run this?
Mr. WILLIAMS: No one can tell. President Smart, in response to this Legislature, says the salaries amount to $24 500; another time in his annual report it is given at $18,OOOr another time he puts it at $20,000; but I find the Lafayette Sunday Times gives an itemized statement which puts the salary figures at $28,000.
