TOTALS

627.53 $

7,500.00 $ 8,127.53 $ 6,634.55 $

1,492.98

1,190.69

3,450.00

4,640.69

2,239.09

2,401.60

1,585.38

2,000.00

3,585.38

1,165.01

2,420.37

1,000.00

1,000.00

1,000.00

$ 3,403.60 $ 13,950.00 $ 17,353.60 $10,038.65 $ 7,314.95

PROFESSIONAL REPORT OF PRINCIPAL THORN.

When the Montgomery Preparatory Branch of the West Virginia University was established at the town of Montgomery there was considerable criticism of the Legislature by the citizenship of the state for locating a state institution in a town whose moral condition was reputed to be very bad. That criticism, because of the lapse of years, has abated to a very great extent, although there are many who yet believe that the location is not the best by any means and that the school would have rendered larger and better service to the state had it been located in a town and community of a better moral atmosphere.

This criticism may be just when looked at merely in the abstract, but viewed from the standpoint of a real helpfulness its loses much of its force. The real object of the state in planting and supporting institutions of this kind is to train its young men to be useful and intelligent citizens and its young women to be intelligent and cultured home builders. If this then be the object of the state, these institutions should be located where there is the greatest need. The communities where the ethical and intellectual ideals are low are the very communities which need and should have the state's support in maintaining educational institutions.

This school located here in the midst of the New River and Great Kanawha coal fields has rendered a service to this immediate section that can not be estimated in mere dollars. Young men and young women have received instructions in this school and have had held up before them high ideals of life, who would have been deprived of such privileges had this school not been located in their midst. It has