To the editor:

As one who happens to spend a great deal of his time researching 19th century Kansas, I am repeatedly amazed at how much our politicians have failed to learn from the past! This week, as I was reading the Erie Ishmaelite (a Neosho County, Kan., newspaper published Feb. 24-June 2, 1871), I came across an editorial that is so modern that it could have been written yesterday in response to the failure of the state politicians to deal effectively with the mounting repair bills at our universities.

Commenting on the need for the state to more adequately fund higher education, the editor wrote on March 10:

“The university is cramped in its work by the parsimony of our ‘wise men’ in Topeka who refuse to be economical in any direction in which economy would be really profitable. The generosity of the citizens of Lawrence, in voting such a large amount to build and sustain the university, has so far failed to cause any credible emulation on the part of those wise men at Topeka, they having refused to pass the bill giving aid to complete the university, which should be the pride of every citizen of the State of Kansas, and they deserve the censure of all lovers of education throughout the state.”

John Mack,

Lawrence