OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 153
represented the opposition, and one is entitled to the conclu- sion that without the normal school issue ill-advised legisla- tion would have been adopted and meritorious measures killed.
It is equally difficult to formulate conclusions as to the extent of the activities and influence of the sectarian interests against the normals. The Ashland Tidings of March 18, 1909, refers to a statement on this subject by Colonel E. Hofer in the Salem Journal. Colonel Hofer was a member of the board of regents.
"Colonel E. Hofer published an apparently well authenti- cated story that the campaign to kill off the normal schools in Oregon was started by the various sectarian schools of the Willamette Valley. The schools were alleged to be organized for this purpose, the accomplishment of which was to be followed by an appeal to the legislature for the support of normal departments to be conducted in connection with these sectarian schools."
No appeal of this nature has ever been made, and should it be made there is the insurmountable obstacle in the way which was early encountered by Christian College: Article I, Section 5, of the Bill of Rights.
Following the destruction of the normals, the sectarian schools waged a campaign for students for their normal de- partments. Fletcher Homan, president of Willamette Uni- versity, wrote letters to the principals of the Oregon high schools dwelling at length upon the merits of his institution as a training school for teachers. In reply to one of these letters, Winfield S. Smith, principal of the public school, Brownsville, wrote:
"I believe and am creditably informed that the influence of the denominational schools helped to kill the normal schools in the last legislature."
The strongest opposition the normals encountered in the legislature came, generally speaking, from legislators repre- senting Marion, Yamhill, Clackamas, Linn and Washington
