Cornell University Library LC 1045.B26 The colleges for the Industrial classes, 3 1924 002 322 000 LC Barnes, P 10i^5 The colleges for the industrial classes, B26 contemplated by the Act of Congress of 1862, If OH 5 K>ZL> THE LIBRARY •OF THE NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY THE COLLEGES I]SrnDTJ8TRI^L CLASSES CONTEIIFLATEO BY THE ACT 'of congress OF 1862. Beprinted from the Maine Fanuu'. The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002322000 LC /OLft) 6a(o AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. Messrs. Editors : — You copy, in the last Farmer, an article un- der this title, from the newspaper called The Nation. As you thus give currency, if not approval,* to the views put forth in that arti- cle, I respectfully submit, that those views are entirely incomplete, and therefore unserviceable, in their supposed application to the new question of " the liberal and practical education of the indus- trial classes " in this country, and especially in this part of it. The chief assertions of the writer in the Nation are to the effect, that the agricultural schools of Germany, after the experience of fifty years, are now regarded with less favor than heretofore, — that "strong objections" to them are developed — that it is now coming to be thought better to establish agricultural chairs or pro- fessorships, at the great universities — that, at Halle, such a profes- sorship was established three years ago, and that this new depart- ment has many students — that a similar professorship was estab- lished at Leipzig last year — that the " richer universities " have collections, apparatus, libraries and cabinets superior to the agri- cultural schools — that there is no need of large farms to teach the practical details of the farmer's business — that it is enough to teach the general principles of the sciences at these splendid uni- versities, and that agricullMSQPSh'KFYiE^I&elWSBIAflilfme, &c. * The editors of the " Far JlF''%xJrM^ dKauiBB S INDUSTRIAL Af'O mm II CORNELL. UNiVC (4) How much of this may be new and true, as regards Germany, I have not the means of knowing — but precisely similar assertions, put into the form of general argument, are, unfortunately, not new here. Ever since the Congressional endowment was granted in 1862, the air has been full of this kind of appeal in favor of the existing universities and colleges, as against separate "practical" scshools for the "industrial classes." But there is a broad and deep question, which the writer in the Nation leaves wholly untouched — one which controls the whole problem in Germany, as it does also, though in another direction, in the Northern States of America. To what sort of population is it, that the German universities are adapted ? Are the popula- tions of the German States homogeneous, and all substantially of one grade, like ours in Maine ? Or are they deeply and unchang- ably divided by distinctions of rank, and class, and caste? Is there not there, the widest and most impassable distance, between their superior, educated classes, and the actual hand-workers in the fields ? I am not personally familiar with German life, but I suppose that generally, in Europe, the hand-workers — the peasantry arid mechanics, especially the agricultural peasantry — are not supposed to need any except the most humble education^n some parts of Europe, not any at all. They are not expected to rise in the world, or to improve or even to change their condition. It is looked upon as a matter of course, that they shall be hand-work- ers all their lives, even to old age. In many European countries they never own land — do not in fact own anjithing, but their bodily strength, and the only profit they get from that possession, is a bare subsistence. This class is very numerous, and many of the countries, in which they live, are populous and rich. It follows, of course, that the labor of this humble class must be directed by a superior class. The landed proprietors, by themselves, or by their stewards and overseers, employ this labor, and wish to employ it profitably. Hence it follows, that the superior classes, who are wise for them- selves, desire the advantages of superior education, and, for cen- turies, they have had the most liberal provision and abundant means for their own general education ; and now, if the state- ments of the Nation are correct, they are adding improved courses and professorships of modern science, including agriculture, to the curriculum of their ancient universities. Beyond all question, (5>) it is from these superior grades of their society, that the new de- partments of agriculture, in the German universities, draw their attendants. When we hear that the German peasants, are leaving their fields to attend lectures at Leipzig and Halle, expecting to return and resume their peasant life, we shall then have a German example, that will give us something interesting and wonderful, if not something useful. In fact, long ago; the difiSculty of this great problem of caste was encoTintered even in the " agricultural schools " themselves, in Eu- rope. In some of the most distinguished and most useful of them, they have attempted to carry tbem along, with two sets of pupils — one from the higher ranks, destined to-be proprietors and overseers, who are not instructed in any actual work, and who pay tui- tion — the others, from the humbler classes, who receive a lower training, a part of which is labor, and who pay little or no fees. The diflSculties of such a system are obvious enough, but they are unavoidable, in their existing social condition.. A remarkable in- stance occurred at Cirencester in England, one of the most splen- didly endowed and most promising agricultural schools in Europe. [One or two statements of detail were here made, in the original article, which were found to be erroneous. The correction appears in the second article.] This really fine institution, with admirable appointments of every kind, including very distinguished profes- sors, whose names are seen, every day, in our agricultural books and journals, is, in fact, and has been, for a long time, in a languish- ing condition. But let an agricultural chair be established (if such a thing can be conceived) at Oxford ! or Cambridge ! and filled by a man of note as well as ability, and without doubt, a very respect- able number of the sons of noblemen and gentlemen, would enter their names as attendants upon the lectures. I would not say, that it is precisely the same sort of feeling, that gives popularity to the new agricultural departments at Leipzig and Halle — for the Germans are vastly more sensible, and more in earnest about such a matter, than the English are — but, to come back to the point before stated, it will be many years, I think, be- fore the laboring peasantry of the German States will be found flocking to the lectures of Professor Kuhn or Professor Knop. We can make an illustration close at home. Suppose, that at any time, in the Southern States, it had been under consultation, among their public enterprises, to provide a special and higher ed- ucation in sciences relating to agriculture, and that some one had (6) proposed to do this, by separate agricultural schools, in which the actual field laborers — the hand workers — the peasantry of the South, should receive superior training both in the sciences and in the practical details of agriculture — is it necessary to imagine what would have been the answer to such a proposal ? Everybody can supply it. Everybody sees that the proposal would have been re- pelled as the grossest absurdity. The counter proposition would have rushed swift to the lips of everybody else in the consultation — " That is not suited to our condition of society : what we need is to educate our own sons — the young men of the superior race — who are hereafter to be our planters, and managers of estates, so that they can profitably direct the labor of our working class. It is not necessary that our young men should be trained in practical labor, and in the application of principles, by their own hands. Our ob- ject will be sufficiently subserved, by establishing agricultural chairs and scientific departments, in our present colleges and uni- versities. This will do all that we need for gentlemen's sons, who are to be the directors of our agricultural labor," &c., &c. Perhaps we may, at some time, obtain from the writer in the Nation, his view of what the difference is, essentially, between the arrangements of caste in a Southern State, and those in a German kingdom — Wurtemburg for example. And since a part of his ar- gument is drawn from the case of the farmers' school of Hohen- heim, in tliat kingdom, where he would have us believe that things are not working well, I have gathered a few statements about that school from Flint's very minute and recent account of it. He tells us that, besides a " school of forestry " it was origi- nally established, and still subsists, under the form of " distinct schools." " let. The Institute or School of Agriculture for young gentlemen. 3d. The school of practical farming, jfor the sons of peasants. Pupils in th? higher paid (at first) $164 for tuition, lodging and board ; afterwards $41 for tuition and room, getting board where they pleased. The School of Practical Farming was begun with boys from the orphans of Stuttgart and other cities. These boys had but one instructor, who had to keep them at work, and train them to the greatest possible activity. This practical school was modified — and, instead of taking orphans, the sons of peasants especially, were to be admitted. The students of the higher institute are admitted without examination, are held to no very rigid discipline, they employ their time as they choose. Many sons of wealthy families are no doubt attracted there, by the beauty of the institution for an agreeable temporary residence. It may be proper to remark that there is a sort of impassable, aristocratic barrier between the institute pupils, and those of the school of practical agri- culture." Every word above is quoted from Flint, who was on the spot, less than three years ago ; and I submit, that the writer in the Nation, has no just ground for urging upon us the example of Hohenheim, (upon this fundamental question, who is to be edu- cated, and /low are they to be educated?) whether Hohenheim is working well or ill — gaining in favor or losing. If it is doing well, it is according to the Wurtemburg standard of social con- ditions, and class populations. If it is doing ill, the chances are more than equal, that one great reason is the fatal curse of caste, from which the New England populations are free. Let Hohenheim only drop out her lower school for the sons of peasants, and then she would be exactly suited for one of our Southern States. And I submit, whether the alleged favor shown to the new agricultural departments at Leipzig and Halle, may not be simply an indication that the tyranny of caste is working the other way, and the " sons of gentlemen and wealthy families" are finding it more agreeable to go to the universities than to Hohenheim. I had intended ta carry out in this article, the other side of the question — our own side — but time and space prevent. I will re- sume it at another time. P. Barnes. Portland, Feb. 22, 1866. Agricultural Schools — No. 2. What I wrote, in my former paper, respecting the Agricultural College at Cirencester, in England, was set down, at the time, from memory of the accounts given by Mr. Henry Colman, Presi- dent Hitchcock, Mr. Flint, and others. Eeferring in fact, to some of these authorities, I find that a part of my statement of detail was erroneous, but the general facts are fully confirmed, and the object for which I adduced this example, is most significantly made out. President Hitchcock, who was there in 1850, says : "Those residing in the building, pay $355 annually; those who board elsewhere, $175. Formerly, the school was open for the sons of the smaller (8) farmers, but could not find support on that plan, and it was found that if these attended, the wealthier classes would not send their sons. The price accordingly has been raised, and none hut the sons of gentlemen, such as clergymen and wealthy, laymen, now attend. None of the nobility send their children." Mr. Flint visited the college m 1862, twelve years later, at a moment, when the professors were resigning, and the institution was in a crisis of difficulty. He says : "A mistake appears to have been made at the outset, by fixing the charges too low. It was designed to meet the wants of those young men, sons of farmers, who wished to prepare themselves for stewards or bailiffs, and who could ill afford to pay even the £30 (say $150) which was the amount fixed, including board and tuition. Small farmers could not send their sons, and rich ones would not.''' Under a new management, he says : " They raised the charges. The institution still lives, with about sixty students, now consisting of the sons of the rich. The charges now are £90, $450. The farm appeared to be under a good state of cultivation. All the labor is hired, the regular farm wages being seven shillings a week, the laborers finding themselves. That is twenty eight cents a day." These last statements tell the whole story. Compare the young gentlemen, who are the students of this college; and pay $450 a year for their board and education, with the peasant laborers on the col- lege farm, who are paid twenty-eight cents a day I The object of adducing these examples in this discussion is, to show how inapplicable are any supposed analogies drawn ffom the European institutions, to the questions now before the American people, relating to "industrial colleges." And by so much the more, as we see and feel, clearly, the degradations of low caste in European society, shall we apprehend, the more distinctly, the peculiar and original problem now under discussion among our- selves, where we have no permanent class distinctions at all, and where, in respect to the temporary diversities of fortune and pur- suit, the very precise object before us is, not — to educate the gen- tlemen classes, but — the "industrial classes." Before renewing the discussion of the argument used by the writer in the New York Nation — that it may not be well for us to have separate agricultural schools, because, as he says, in Ger- many, such schools are now in less favor than heretofore, and it is thought better to have professorships of agriculture adjoined to their classical' universities — it is proper to say, that no such ques- (9) tion as that of purely agricultural schools, is presented to the American public by the act of Congress of 1862. That act does not contemplate nor provide for institutions designed to teach only the sciences of agriculture, and the art of farming. It embraces a great deal more. True it is, that on account of the great promi- nence of agriculture in our American life, and, especially because enlightened farmers and persons attached to the agricultural inter- est, have taken a more notable hold of this matter than anybody else, it is usual to think- of these new institutions, chiefly in their connection with agriculture ; and, in common parlance, and for a convenient appellation, we speak of the " agricultural college" of Maine, or of Massachusetts, when we refer to the institutions founded under the act of Congress. But this name is only partly correct, and the writer in the Nation is entirely in error, when he seeks to draw from the alleged case of Hohenheim — a strictly agricultural school^ — an argument for merging our " industrial col- leges " in the existing universities and literary colleges of this country. To resume the discussion of the great problems which lie under- neath all this comparison of the classical university and the proper industrial college, — namely — for what sort of populations, are these different means of training properly designed? Who are to be educated in the industrial college, and how are they to be educated, and with what ends in view ? — the examples of the argu- ment must be drawn, in our case, from the actual ranks of the actual persons, who compose the industrial, or hand-working class of our own communities, and who necessarilly compose the im- mense majority of every State, in the northern parts of our coun- try. For the strong lesson of absolnte contrast, we have instanced the European peasant, for whom there is no future, except the simple continuance of his peasant life to the end of his days, and who is not only himself ignorant that he needs any better culture, but who is surrounded by those who are equally ignorant, or wickedly indifferent, as to any improvement of his lot. We have instanced the negro field-laborer of the South, for whom, though a great light has dawned upon him, it is still a matter of struggle, what his future is to be, and a matter of doubt, how long that struggle may last. But nobler and more hopeful specimens of young manhood en- gage our attention in the Northern States, and especially in New (10) England. Here, in the State of Maine alone, we have more than forty thousand young men who are the sons of farmers (in the American sense,) who are the sons of mechanics — who are de- voted, of whatever parentage, to the labor of a seaman's life — including also the sons of our numerous class of small traders, and including also a large number of day-laborers, not attached to any particular art or trade. These are the young men of our industrial classes — these are the persons, whom the act of Congress designs to aid in obtaining a "liberal and practical education." Of these young men, from sixteen to twenty years of age, or thereabouts, who are now work- ing daily with their hands, it becomes us to think, when we are studying the form, and plans, and objects, of the " industrial col- lege." They are of divers pursuits, and therefore we are not to have a college for one object alone. They are not all to be far- mers, and therefore we do not want a purely agricultural school, like Hobenheim or Cirencester ; they are not all to be mechanics, and therefore we do not want instruction merely in mechanical science and art. But we want for them all, "practical" educa- tion, because the vast majority of them are to be practical men, and we want for them all, as "liberal" an education as we can reasonably give them, so as to develope their best powers, and give them as many means of usefulness, and as many sources of happiness, as we possibly can. Look at the real case — at the positive actualities in the life and condition of these young men, as they live to-day, and as their fu- ture lives will be. The great majority of thera now live in homes of actual labor. They are the sons of working men. They were bred to work, they are content to be working men, they expect to continue to be hand-workers, during at least the early part of their manhood, until, by prosperous industry, they can come to be directors of other men's labor, or until their sons shall take their work from their hands. But every one of these young men has a future — every one of them (not involved in indolence or vice) has hopeful and just aspirations to improve his condition — every one of them has an assurance, that friendly hands, on every side, will help him, if he tries to help himself, and that his efforts and his merits will be recognized by every sensible man and woman of whatever pursuit, in all the community, in every part of the State. In our communities, from the necessity of the case, as well as under the active and generous force of our institutions, it is from (11) the ranks of precisely these young men, that we are to draw for almost every kind of public service, and to fill an indefinite variety of useful and honorable stations. They are hand-workers now, and most of them will continue to be so, for various periods in their future. But, in a very few years, they will also be town offi- cers — selectmen, town treasurers, highway surveyors — they will be jurors and sheriffs and county commissioners — they will be rep- resentatives and senators — such men compose a majority of the Legislature every year, continually — some of them (by doubtful good fortune) will go to Congress. If we cannot, in the State of Maine, say that any such man, while still belonging to the indus- trial classes, has been made Governor of the State, yet certainly, most honorable examples of the kind have occurred elsewhere in New England. And even though they may go into no public sta- tion whatever, yet in their middle and maturer life, they will be the controlling strength and influence in every inland town. In the career of a strictly private life, every one of them has a right to expect — great numbers of them do expect — to attain to conditions of independent comfort and happiness. European peasants, and Southern negroes, scarcely know what is meant by a home, in its rudest form. But the son of the New England working-man, taking for his own lot, also, the life of a working-man, expects to be a " forehanded " owner, in fee, of house and land. He expects to have a wife, who will be proud of him, he expects to have sons and daughters, who will be the ornaments of his home, in his active days, and who will be his strength in his declining years. We should not forget, because it is among the most important of the future services, to which these young men will be called, that they will always compose a large majority of the four or five thou- sand schoolmasters, annually employed in this State. So also, out of the number of them who are seamen in early life, we shall make — we shall be obliged to make — ^our shipmasters, the captains of our important coasting navigation, and the commanders of our ships in foreign trade. Between these young men, who have such a future, and such opportunities, still belonging to the industrial classes, anU that other portion of our young men, who are expecting to embark in what are called the learned professions, there needs now to be made only this comparison — that the latter are, at any given time, only a very few hundred in number — the former are more than forty thousand at all times, even after allowing for that very con- (12) siderable proportion, who are designing to engage in tie business of merchandise. The working young men of New England, have always had bet- ter means of education, than any similar class in the world. Their facilities for mental improvement are good, to-day. The common schools and the academies have wrought most excellent results. The simple question is, how to give them a mental training still better, more varied and more complete, so as to open for them a wider and higher usefulness, and give them the command of richer sources of happiness ? and — how to do it in the most effective way ? and — to touch the matter in its very sharpest point — how to do it, so that, though educated much more completely than they now are, they shall still continue to be hand-working men — still continue to belong to the "industrial classes?" For, in these high northern latitudes, unless a very large major- ity of our people are actual hand-workers, we cannot live here. If we should educate all our young men and young women, in such manner and after such notions, that they should, thenceforth, cease to be hand-workers, and think to get a genteel living by their educated wits, our entire population would be obliged to migrate into some climate, which permits a softer life, and abandon these fields and valleys, to be covered once more with forest, and occupied again by the more sensible beavers and Indians and red deer. Was that the design of the Providence which planted us here ? In this way of putting the case, I am touching upon a course of facts, now current and patent, before the eyes of us all. Very considerable numbers of young men and young women, obtaining here, in this State, the best education open to them, and then as- suming, alas ! that because they are educated, they are therefore no longer to be hand-workers, and, finding but few and scanty chances of gaining their bread by merely intellectual pursuits, in this State, are migrating annually, and seeming to themselves to be obliged to migrate to other States, for employments suited to their educated capacities. And at the same time, some wise men among us are talking, or were recently, of importing Norwegians into Maine to increase our working population I We have come to a point in the discussion, where we stand and behold, unmistakably, the great line of distinction, that separates the ordinary literary college and university, from the proper " in- dustrial college " contemplated by the act of Congress. The ex- (13) isting colleges, of the ordinary type, were never designed nor expected to educate laboring young men as such, and with a view thai they should continue to be such, after obtaining their education. They take a great proportion of their students from pursuits of hand-labor, but, in every instance, with scarcely a possible excep- tion to be found or heard of, they educate them out of their labor, fully and utterly, and with express intent so to do. Great num- bers of young men have gone to the colleges from the families of farmers, and from the families of mechanics, but not one in a hun- dred ever went back to the farm — not one in ten thousand ever went back to the mechanic's shop. From the very nature of the case, it must be so. The whole idea of the common university and college is, and has been for hundreds of years, in Europe and America, to educate young men with a view to life in the learned professions, so called. The sum of the matter is this — in two parts : 1. In European communities, and wherever distinctions of caste are permanently fixed, there is not, and never will be, any thorough, public provision to give superior education to the young men of the laboring classes. Scientific chairs and agricultural professor- ships may be established at Halle and Leipzig, at Cambridge and Oxford, in whatever number, and with whatever profusion of en- dowment, but they will draw no peasant from the field, no artizan from his bench. 2. In the American States, we have a thousand colleges and universities, (as we call them) and, in accordance with the genius of our institutions, and the supposed demands of a new country, they educate great numbers of young men, who come from the ranks of actual laboring life. But of all these colleges, not one has ever made provision, so to educate a laboring man, that he will, by design and of choice, continue to be a laborer; not one of them sends out a graduate, with the purpose to be an educated man and a hand-laboring man, at the same time. Nor is there any probability that the existing colleges will ever try to do this. Is it impossible ? Is it inconceivable, that, in a college of a diflfer- ent stamp and aim, there can be a place of discipline and training, by which American young men shall be led to choose and love a life of labor, and, at the same time, be fitted to attain to that higher usefulness and happiness, which come from superior mental cul- ture? That is the problem before us at this hour — a problem forced (14) upon us, I submit, by every fair interpretation of the act of 1862, and one, which, here in the State of Maine, with our 45,000 work- ing young men, we ought not to leave untried any longer. March 8, 1866. Scientific Schools. Having, in two preceding papers, attempted to show what, I think, is a wide and unavoidable diversity, between the -methods of public education, which are resorted to, in those communities where deep and permanent distinctions of caste exclude the actual working classes from all benefit of superior mental culture, and the methods, which ought to be adopted, in those of our American States, where the "industrial classes" compose the immense ma- jority of the population, and not only hold so much power and influence, but have within their reach, so many resources of com- fort and happiness, if they are taught to know their good fortune — I place, at the head of this paper, not the title "Agricultural Schools," which I found, inaptly and erroneously employed, in the article from the New York Nation, but the title " Scientific Schools" — for the purpose, if you will permit me to occupy your columns a little futher, of showing how, and to what extent (within certain limits) the public opinion has been led away from a just observation of the distinctions I have pointed out, and how a mis- chievous delusion has obscured the aim of many good men, who really desired that the " industrial classes," might have the best benefits of education. What are called in this country, and particularly in New Eng- land, "scientific schools" are, in fact, a compromise between the forms of education for the so-called learned professions, and the demand of the times for the education of practical men, for prac- tical life. This compromise, like most others, has been somewhat at the expense of principle, and though it has efiected some very good results, it has caused a great mass of notorious facts to be wholly ignored, and many great duties of the governing power, in the Free States, to be wholly neglected. The history of this compromise is curious and instructive. For a time almost beyond history — for hundreds of years at least — uni- versities and colleges, in Europe and America, were devoted, as repeated so many times, to the education of young men for the { 15 ) learned professions — either to their general preparatory culture, or to their special training in the attached, professional schools of law, divinity and medicine, or to both. For a long, long time, the world was satisfied with this, and thought it all right and all suffi- cient. Within a half century past, the great and rapid advance- ment of the material sciences and the useful arts, particularly in this country, created a demand for a body, or class of men, who should have such training in early life, that they could carry forward those sciences and arts, to the highly important and valuable re- sults, called for by the peculiar civilization of the age, and by the new necessities of practical life. This demand was pressed, in various forms, by practical men, upon the colleges and universities. They were the seats of learning ; they were in possession of the apparatus of education ; they had the public endowments ; they professed to be taking care of this great public interest. It was insisted that they should do something more than they had been accustomed to, and that they should enlarge, or modify in some way, tbeir courses of instruction, so that young men, who desired to become engineers, and architects, and naturalists, and geolo- gists, and mining overseers, and chemists, or to devote themselves, under whatever appellation, to the higher uses of the improved practical life of the time, could obtain, within their walls and classes, the necessary general and special culture, as well as the future ministers, and lawyers, and physicians. To my knowledge, and within my recollection, no one of the ordinary colleges in this country, ever responded to this demand, in mariner and form, as made. True it is, the colleges were not insensible to the scientific progress of the times. They taught more science, and better science, and more of the principles of the practic&l arts, than they had done before. But only, as a part of the same continued curriculum, which embraced the training of the embryo lawyers and divines. No pressure of practical science, induced them to give up their elaborate routine of dead languages, or whatever other studies had usually been thought needful, for a career in the learned professions. No college, distinctively and designedly, introduced into its calendar, a course of study for the express purpose of preparing young men for such walks of prac- tical life as are above stated. Precisely now, as forty years ago, the great majority of young men, who spend four years in college, are expected to be ministers, lawyers or physicians. The courses (16) were made for them, aud are adhered to for them. That is the regular college course. Within a few weeks, I have seen a newspaper advertisement of Tufts College in Massachusetts, — not now at hand — where it is stated that certain courses of study, for practical life, as distin- guished from the learned professions, are introduced into the regu- lar college course, and form an integral part of the proper college routine. I know of no other such case.* Very imperfect at- tempts were made some years ag-o, in a few colleges, to make some provision of the kind, outside of the regular courses, and the pupils that came into these arrangements — few enough, to be sure — were called partial students, or students in the partial course I The public demand I have mentioned, was met in another way. The earliest response to it, that I remember, and a most laudable one, too, was the school for practical education in science and useful arts, founded by the noble-minded Stephen Van Rensellaer, about forty years ago, at Troy, New York, and long and well known by the energy and skill of its first instructor, Professor Amos Eaton. It flourishes to this day, as one of the best scien- tific schools in America. One such school, of course, was not enough. Not many years later, Abbott Lawrence made his liberal donation for founding the " Scientific School " at Cambridge, which bears his name, and which has been, very nearly, the model for several others since established. But at Cambridge, at Yale College, and at Dart- mouth College, these new undertakings are not brought inside of the regular college course, as integral parts — they remain on the oidside, as adjunct schools, nominally attached to the colleges, which, of and by themselves, are hedged round with Latin and Greek, as of old. This is only another way of stating the fact, obvious enough also in the nature of the case, that these establishments for train- ing young men in practical sciences and arts, are merely profes- * Shortly after writing these sentences, T was applied to by a young friend, whose contemplated college education had been interrupted by three or four years* service in the army, to advise him as to a place, where he might still obtain a superior general education, for practical life, without Greek and Latin or the higher mathematics, for which he now had not time. I mentioned to him the college above named, but, on ob- taining a catalogue, had the regret to find, that, although a tolerably satisfactory pro- gramme was there laid down, for such general and practical educatioa, yet the Faculty had distinctly inserted, along with it, their recommendation, that young men should Not adopt that course, but rather, the full classical curriculum of dead languages and mathematics ! (in sional schools, adjoined to the college or university, just as, in some cases, the schools of law and divinity and medicine are. Harvard College and Yale College have them all. The result is simply this : that we now have an enlarged variety of educated professions. Formerly we had but three — called the learned — now, by means of the scientific schools, we have the scientific professions ; we have professional engineers, professional architects, professional chemists, professsional geologists, profes- sional mining engineers, &c., &c. All this is a very great and fruitful advance beyond that former barrenness, where, even in these free and intelligent States, it was not thought necessary for anybody to be an " educated" man, except the lawyer, the minis- ter, and the doctor. The difference is very great. Its effect upon the aspirations of many ingenuous young men is most excellent. It has opened most honorable and useful careers to very consider- able numbers of them, who had not the time or the taste to go through the courses of dead languages and other such discipline, by which only, in former times, a professional position could be gained. It is now a very respectable thing for a college to have a "Sci- entific School " attached to it. It is thought to add to the dignity of the central institution ; it gratifies the governing and managing aspiration^ of trustees and overseers, and is supposed to increase the importance of presidents and professors, besides adding to the patronage and custom of people who live in college towns. Hence arose, undoubtedly, that very eager, and by some thought not altogether generous rush, that was made, throughout New England, to seize the endowments granted by Congress in 1862', for the education of the "industrial classes." On the showing of their hands, it was evident that these claimants had made up their minds, that the "scientific school," after such models as the Lawrence, with a little agricultural chemistry and veterinary sur- gery superadded, would answer all the purposes of the act of Con- gress ; and such schools, they would be most happy to " annex" to their respective colleges, "provided that" (as members of Con- gress say) they could also be allowed to annex the Congressional endowment to their college treasuries. In some cases, these claims have been consented to — in others, they have been resisted. Ee- sults are in the future. Now it is a simple question of the interpretation of a plain statute law, whether a scientific school, such as those we have, attached 2 (18) to some New England colleges, designed for the training of a very- limited number of young men to be professional engineers, archi- tects, chemists, geologists, naturalists and miners, meets that clause, which requires the endowment to be applied " in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the induslrial classes 1 " Towards an answer to this question, two or three observations may be made : 1. Congress does not undertake to provide for the education of persons, to oversee and manage, certain departments of business, in which the " industrial classes " are interested, such as road- making, and the construction of edifices, and the manufacturing of chemicals, and the working of factories and boring for oil, but it provides, explicitly, for the education of the " industrial classes " themselves. 2. It is perfectly obvious, that, here, in the State of Maine, for instance, if we should turn out from a scientific school, in a year, half a dozen professional engineers, and three or four professional architects, and two or three professional chemists, we should simply glut the market. We have not employment for half that number. They would have to starve or migrate. But the young men of this State, who belong to the " industrial classes," and who are of college age, are more than forty thousand in number. 3. Nor is this observation met by saying, that our " scientific school " would educate certain of our young men for scientific pro- fessions, who could then, in default of employment here, remove to the Western or Southern States, and find positions there, because^ in the first place, we need our educated young men here; and secondlj', because Congress has granted this endowment to every State, and therefore, there is not the opening for our young men, that the case supposes 4. Since the greatest of all industries, in Maine, is agriculture, it is a fact to be observed, that the general model of the " scientific school " as heretofore established, makes little or no provision for any instruction, which will be serviceable in practical agriculture. Yale College is inaugurating an attempted exception, which will be noticed below. I should say, it is well understood, throughout the community, that these schools are not usually designed for the education of farmers. The catalogue of the Lawrence School always places against the name of every pupil, the branch, which he is pursuing. Bnt, in a series of years, not a name can be found. (19) against which appears any indication that the student ever had, or intended to have, anything to do with farming. The Rensellaer School publishes, with its annual catalogue, a list of all its gradu- ates, showing, as far as practicable, what are, or were, their pur- suits in life. Of course, there is no account of the number, who left the school without graduating. But of the actual graduates, 36t in number, I find that only sixteen are designated as " agiicult- urists," and these are all in the earlier years of the school — for the last eighteen or twenty years, not one. The graduates are en- gineers, architects, superintendents of public works, and such pro- fessions. 5. The comprehensive observation of all — as partly indicated already — is, that the common scientific school, like the common college, though it may, like the college, draw- many of its students from the ranks of laboring life, returns few or none to those ranks. If it educates the young man who was a hand-worker, it educates him out of his labor — it does not usually so educate him that he will go back and belong to the "industrial classes." It makes of him a professional man — an honorable and a useful one, it may be — but by the very act of his education, in that form, he ceases to be one of the class, which the congressional endowment was de- signed to benefit and improve, as a class by themselves. I eannot believe, therefore, that the " scientific school" as now in fact known in New England, answers the requisitions of the act of Congress ; and although it is an admirable compromise between the old college forms and the new scientific and practical demands of this century, yet it is not a compromise, which reaches to the accomplishment of the end prescribed in the act — the liberal and practical education of the indusfa'ial classes. To bring forward here such a matter as details of expense, in procuring an education, would not, of itself, control the interpreta- tion of the statute, nor modify the essential reasons of the subject in hand. But it is well known, that the question of obtaining or not obtaining a superior education, is very often controlled and decided by the question of what it will cost. Prom the nature of the case, it is evident that, as a general rule, the cost of training in a scientific school, attached to a college, will be just about the same, as in the other professional schools, and just about the same, year by year, as in the college proper. It is the last, which makes the standard on tihe whole. Many of the college students are the sons of men of means. To a certain extent, they control the style (20) of living and the scale of expenditure. There are few facilities in any of the colleges, and fewer in the professional schools, for self- subsistence. College towns are apt to be expensive places, and notwithstanding their public endowments, the colleges and profes- sional schools expect to derive an income from their students. I have before me the year's bills of a young man, who was a pupil in the scientific school at Cambridge. The amount, embracing only the established catalogue charges, and board, omitting all extras and merely personal expenses, was over five hundred and thirty dollars for the year. In some other places, it would not cost so much, but, whatever the amount, it is, as we say, all cash, and is a burden, which only a very few o^ our young men can bear. To the scientific school of Yale College, there was added last year a "Course of- Agriculture" — two courses in fact, a full course and a shorter course. The full course is three years, and the charges, in the school bills alone, are stated to be about one hundred and seventy-five dollars a year. Add the cost of board, in a town like New Haven, and the result is an expense, such as could be borne only by a few of our young men. The shorter course differs from this, as to cost only, in leaving out one term in each year. The experiment at Yale College is an interesting one, and, if good results can be obtained anywhere in this country, by attach- ing a course of agricultural instruction to an attached scientific school, in a college town, without a farm, and without practical discipline in the field, they may be expected to be reached there. But however successful the experiment may be, with the few stu- dents, with whom it is possible to bear such expenditure, the question will still remain, demanding its answer, What is to be done for the thirty or forty thousand young men in Maine who stay at home, and who must stay there, until methods of educa- tion are provided, suited to their present and expected condition in life, and within their means to obtain ? March 19th, 1866. AffRICULTUEAL ScHOOLS — No. 4. The College for the Industrial Glasses — What should be Taught ? If then, the attempt ought to be made, to offer to the young men of our large and constant class of hand-workers, such man- (21) ner of education, as that, while abiding, through their early man- hood, in the ranks and pursuits of actual labor, they shall also command, for their life time, the happiness and the usefulness of superior mental culture, it is impossible not to see that we meet here, unavoidably, the next great question in the case, — What course of study and discipline is most likely to answer their spe- cific necessities? This question, it is plain, lies at the very foun- dation of the matter, side by side with that first problem — Who are to be taught ? No one ought to attempt a complete answer to this question, until after some honest and wise experience has been gained in this now untried field of effort. And I hold, without hesitation, that the best persons to devise the particular plans of study and discipline for such pupils, in such a college, are the very persons, who are to work out and execute the actual details of the daily life of the institution. If the managing overseers of such a col- lege, at the very outset, after determining to aim at some such object as I have brought to view, were then asking for some one to help them, about plans and subjects of study, and methods of internal policy and discipline, I know not what better advice could be given, than simply this : First of all, find the men who are to administer the internal life of the college, — make sure that they are the right men, sound and clear upon the essential principles of the business in hand — men, who heartily desire, and fully be- lieve in, the personal union of skilful head-work, and skilful hand- work, and let ihem devise the courses of study and discipline, which they themselves are to carry out. So I trust, there would be less danger of slipping into the ruts of old routine, and the pernicious facility of doing as other people do. Waiving, therefore, all pretension of laying down any scheme of particular studies — some of the departments, also, being quite beyond any province of mine to advise about — I venture, never- theless, upon a few general suggestions, as to some parts of the educating influences and means of influence, which I hope such a college may exert upon our working young men of New England — attempting, at the same time, to show how plainly and distinctly the act of Congress sustains the views I have advanced. 1. We must bear in mind the element of time, as affecting and controlling to some extent, the study and the life of the college. The seven or eight years required for such education as is obtained by the graduates of the other colleges, is wholly out of the ques- (22) tion here. The young men could not submit to it, and there is no reason in the world why they should. / 2. Since the Industrial Colleges are founded upon a public en- dowment, faithful recurrence is necessary to the specific terras employed in the act of Congress, so that we may observe both the range and the limits of the training contemplated. Congress has not established merely "agricultural schools," and nothing more, nor mere schools for instruction in principles of mechanic arts. Reflecting persons ought to be on their guard against settling down into the habit of calling the institution "the Agricultural College," lest, by the mere force of a name, they should come to think that it is designed only for farmers, and will tfeach nothing but agricultural science and art. It will be seen, also, that in the corps of instructors and direc- tors, there are to be other faculties besiJea those of teaching agri- culture and mechanics. General education is specifically provided for, as well hs training iu the rules and methods of practical work- ing life. 3. The