122 JOHN C. ALMACK
postponing thereby the real struggle which began two years later.
Governor Chamberlain continued his opposition to the nor- mals. In his second message he again advised the assembly to "abolish at least two normals." He favored requiring the schools to adopt a uniform course of study, and prohibiting them from teaching pupils in the common branches.
The normals evidently felt that their chances for getting an appropriation from the twenty-third legislature were in danger. Reports of the contest in the state legislature began to appear in the press. The Oregon Teachers' Monthly in February, 1905, in an editorial said the normal schools are in danger and "have implacable foes," and
"Friends of the normals in the legislature resort to log-roll- ing tactics. They tack their appropriation measures on general appropriation bills, where other interests will carry them through."
Later on in the session (March, 1905) the journal again says the normals will probably get no aid from the state be- cause "the people dislike the log-rolling process, and political wire-pulling by which the schools are maintained." The schools were forced to pool their interests, and the omnibus appropria- tion bill was the result. This bill appropriated money for the normals, the state penitentiary, the insane asylum, reform school, the school for the deaf, the school for the blind, the Oregon Agricultural College, and the State University. The bill passed the legislature, but with the referendum clause at- tached. The legislature had evaded its responsibility on the Normal School Issue, and shifted it to the people. The elec- tion was set for 1906.
The necessity of waiting for money until the decision on the referendum precipitated a crisis in normal school finances. While the proponents of the schools felt certain the outcome of the election would be favorable, there was a period of a year to be bridged over before the appropriation would be available. Relief was immediate. In ten hours' time the citizens of Ash- land pledged $11,000 to carry on the school pending the elec- tion. The people of Drain met and voted a seventy-five mill
