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Luther College
this page was last updated on Thursday, 01 April 2021 |
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LUTHER COLLEGE ! It Comes Back to the Maternal Home at last ! Alter a Wearying Experience with the Deceptive Real Estate Speculators, The Re-building Committee Endorsed the Decision of the Fathers when they said “Decorah Shall be the Home of Luther College !” -Let us Rejoice |
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The St, Paul Boomers who swept down upon Decorah in June, to confer a great benefit upon tho Norwegian Luther Church of America-well,—they are not! These boomers were great—in talk; brilliant in promises; munificent and magnificent in generalities; but when it came to backing all these up with contracts and bonds and securities, their Boom (with a big B) became a boomlet (with a little b) and finally that faded out in an Oklahoma nothingness. When they had secured the College, on conditions, they could not meet the conditions, and the special committee to perfect the negotiations and put them in legal form, declined the responsibility. The matter was referred back to the original Re-building Committee. That body met at Minneapolis last week and considered the whole question over again. With St. Paul ruled out. The contest was then between Lacrosse and Decorah. Late Saturday afternoon the Committee decided, with a dissenting vote of only two members to re-build at Decorah, on condition that the waterworks mains are laid to the College and water supplied the College free for ten years. The Committee has had a wearisome round of it. Three months of valuable, time has been lost. This is a serious misfortune; but there are some redeeming features oven to this. The College comes back home, and the great mass of those interested in the project will now say “It is well!” The Committee has had an experience with real-estate schemers such ns they will never care to repeat. But had they rejected the St. Paul proposition at the start, none would have positively known how illusory were the offers, and thousands of those who will be called upon to contribute to re-building the College would have condemned the rejection as throwing away a gift which, if did it not re-build, might in time give the institution a handsome real-estate endowment. It is worth something to know these promises were soap-bubbles, and that the final decision is right and for the best. All honor to the Fathers who, when the sky was darkest, gave not up the contest, but clang to the idea that the College they planted more than a quarter of a century ago should not be uprooted and the institution wrenched from its home, Its traditions and the site of its early successes. These Fathers added Works to their Faith, and by their union they have won—we will not say victory. This would imply partisanship where there was only a difference of opinion as to what was wisest and best. But It is an approval that must be gratifying to their innermost hearts. The conditions on which the College comes back to Decorah is that in addition to the subscriptions made, the city water works shall be extended to the College and water furnished free for ten years. Last Saturday afternoon a special meeting of the City Council was held on call of the Mayor, in order that he might authoritatively answer a telegram of Inquiry whether the city would make this donation. The Council, seven present besides th Mayor, voted unanimously that they would extend the water mains to the city limits (as far as they can legally go,) and would supply water free for ten years after connections are made. They were also agreed in the opinion that the connection could be paid for by private subscription. It was understood that LaCrosse had made a similar promise with water free for twenty years. When the College was burned the Republican gave its picture as it was. Now that it is to be rebuilt, we once more give the picture, possibly, for the last time, unless it is to contrast the old with what the new will be. The College itself never was burned; only the home, the dwelling house, in which it was sheltered, was consumed. The experiences of a quarter century in what a College domicile should be, will be wasted if improvements are not suggested of a sweeping character. In re-building the present and the future, not the past, will be considered. Radical changes in not a few respects must occur. The outer form of the main building may not be radically altered, but around it will be grouped buildings for the faculty; dormitories for students, while inside there should be steam heating, electric lighting and such other changes as modern invention and science have shown to bo healthful, economical and prudential. The re-building will mean lively times in Decorah; work for overy man who can labor; and joined to the prosperity that is in sight in the granaries and on the cornfields of the prairies, it means life and bustle, and good times. LET US REJOICE ! |
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