OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 115
should be. This institution should receive financial aid from the state." 21
These recommendations were not without effect. Two years after being authorized to grant diplomas, the Monmouth and Ashland schools went before the legislature and asked for appropriations. The legislature did not lend a willing ear, however. Lacking organization, and probably doubting the wisdom of pushing their claims, the normal exponents with- drew without causing more than a ripple on the financial sur- face. In 1887 another request was put forward for state aid. The normal institute here crops up in opposition, County Su- perintendent T. T. Vincent of Washington County saying :
"As there are no training schools for the cause of education within reach of a majority of our teachers, it would be better if the legislature instead of appropriating $20,000 or $30,000 for a state normal or the university would appropriate said amounts to the various counties for the purpose of having in- stitutes for from two to four weeks duration each year.
Monmouth Normal insisted on bringing the matter to an issue. In the annual catalogue of 1887 a comparison between Oregon and other states in regard to support was drawn :
"The large and increasing appropriations of money made for the support of normal schools in those states where they have had a thorough trial show the estimation in which they are held on their merits."
But Oregon normals were to get no help from the session of 1887. In the committee on ways and means to which the appropriation bills were referred it was brought out that to give state money to a denominational school was contrary to the constitution, and that Monmouth and Ashland were in fact denominational schools, as their properties were held by church organizations. As a consequence no appropriation was made, and the normal school authorities turned their efforts to the discovery of means by which the obstacle to state support could be rendered inapplicable. There seemed to be but one solution of the question: namely, that mentioned by Super-
21 "The enrollment at Monnmuth for seven years beginning in 1883 was, in order, 104, 216, 202 (this was during the hard times when the rust took the wheat crop), 227, 261, 197, 216.
