The Fight for the Agricultural College
Colfax officials accuse the state government of fraud and collusion in the selection of the site for the new Agricultural College.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
As there have appeared in recent issues of your very valuable paper articles attacking the position taken by Colfax in regard to the location of the agricultural college, we ask, in all fairness, for a little space in which to present our side of the question. It has been openly charged, through the press, and it is generally believed, that the location of the agricultural college was made through fraud and corruption. We have reason to believe it was located by the acting governor in collusion with two of the commissioners before they left Olympia, and that their junketing trip over the state was but a pretense and that no place entitled to the institution under the act received an honest consideration at their hands. This is why we protest against any action of the board of regents, and will protest until the courts shall have decided that the locating board acted honestly and legally.
“It has been openly charged, through the press, and it is generally believed, that the location of the agricultural college was made through fraud and corruption.”
This political battle for the location of Washington State University (then the Agricultural College) illustrates the intense regional boosterism that shaped the geography of Washington's public institutions.
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