OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 163
priation which could be drawn upon to pay the traveling ex- penses of students who came one hundred miles to attend the school, the motive clearly being" to answer some of the argu- ments in favor of restoring the schools at Weston and Ashland on account of the long distances to be covered between Eastern and Southern Oregon and Monmouth. The bill went through the legislature safely enough, but was vetoed by Governor Oswald West with the succinct comment : "I can see no good reason for signing it." The bill came up again in 1919, but met its Waterloo in the senate.
Having failed in the initiative, Ashland and Weston in 1913 tried a new tack. They persuaded the legislature to create the schools, on the understanding that the referendum clause would be attached. The scheme succeeded, and the proposi- tion was put to the test in 1914. A tax of 1/40 of a mill on the dollar was asked for values having increased considerably since 1909. 53
Ashland put up pretentious arguments: the small cost to each taxpayer ; the need, since Monmouth graduated only 100 students a year while 800 were required ; the desirable location and favorable environment; and the fact that she had ever lent her aid to the agricultural college and the university. She closed with an appeal for the children in Southern Oregon who were without teachers.
Weston's arguments were less specious. She referred to the great need of teachers in Eastern Orgon, illustrated the small cost in a concrete fashion, and again referred to the value of the unused plant. No arguments were filed against the nor- mals, and the campaign was a quiet one. But the apparent apathy was no index to the results: the normals lost by a decisive vote: Ashland by a majority of 25,602; Weston by 17,895. The Willamette Valley cast the big proportion of the negative votes. ^113
One would have thought the results of the elections of 1910 and 1914 would have discouraged similar appeals to the people.
53 The assessed valuation of all Oregon property was in 1909 only $694,727,631.90; in 1914 it had increased to $932,413,080. 1/40 of a mill tax would have brought in approximately the same revenue as 1 /25 of a mill in 1909.
