Budget Cuts Silence Washington's Farmers' Institutes
A Pullman college president tells The Ranch that six or seven faculty posts were cut, leaving no one free to carry agricultural lectures into the countryside in 1903.
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.
NO FARMERS' INSTITUTE.
The Ranch recently asked for a list of places and dates of 1903 farmers' institutes, and received the following reply:
Dear Sir: Replying to your favor of December 30th I regret to say that owing to the lack of funds we find it impossible to conduct any institutes until after the funds for the next fiscal year become available. It is not only the lack of funds for expense money for institute work, but owing to the lack of funds we were compelled to dispense with the services of six or seven members of the faculty, which threw a much heavier burden on the rest, rendering it practically impossible for them to get away. I sincerely hope that a special appropriation for institute work may be made by the coming legislature, and think this should be urged by the agricultural press. Very truly,
E. A. Bryan, President. Pullman, Wash.
“owing to the lack of funds we find it impossible to conduct any institutes until after the funds for the next fiscal year become available”
Then as now, public agricultural extension work depended on legislative appropriations; a squeezed faculty budget meant farmers lost a traveling classroom. The appeal to the coming legislature is a reminder that outreach and research funding is always a political choice.
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