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THE PRESIDENTS OF MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL 
 
 COLLEGE 
 J. R. Williams, 1857-1859 T. C. Abbot, 1862-1884 
 
 Edwin Willets, 1885-1889 Oscar Clute, 1889-1893 
 
 L. G. Gorton, 1S93-1895 J. L. Snyder, 1896- 
 
Semi-Centennial Celebration 
 
 of 
 
 Michigan State Agricultural College 
 
 MAY TWENTY-SIXTH, TWENTY-NINTH, THIRTIETH 
 AND THIRTY-FIRST 
 
 NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVEN 
 
 Edited by Thomas C. Blaisdell, Ph.D. 
 Published by the College 
 
Iwo Oooies •<SlV :? 
 
 SEP \2 )yo8 
 
 Copyright 1908 By 
 Thomas C. Blaisdell 
 
 Published July 1908 
 
 
 Composed and Printed By 
 
 The University of Chicago Press 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General Program i 
 
 Baccalaureate Sermon, by President Matthew Henry 
 
 BUCKHAM 13- 
 
 THE COLLEGE AND THE STATE 
 
 Address for the State, by Governor Warner . . 25 
 
 Address for the Grange, by George B. Horton, Master 29 
 Address for the Farmers' Clubs of Michigan, by 
 
 President Lucius Whitney Watkins ... 36 
 
 Address for the Agricultural Society of Michigan, 
 
 BY Secretary I. H, Butterfield .... 40 
 
 Address for the Michigan Engineering Society, by 
 
 Mr. Frank Hodgman 47 
 
 Address for the Normal Schools, by President Jones 51 
 Address for the Denominational Colleges, by Presi- 
 dent Bruske 55 
 
 Address for the Public Schools, by State Superin- 
 tendent Wright 57 
 
 THE BUILDERS OF THE COLLEGE 
 
 The College and the Students, 1857-1860, by Mr. 
 
 C. J. Monroe 61 
 
 Members of the Early Faculty, by Professor Cook . 71 
 How They Taught in the Early Days, by Doctor 
 
 Bessey 82 
 
 The College in 1870, by Doctor Beal .... 88 
 Early Members of the Governing Board, by Mr. C. 
 
 W. Garfield 93 
 
 Mendelssohn's Oratorio Elijah 99 
 
 V 
 
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 OPEN SESSION OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF AGRICUL- 
 TURAL COLLEGES AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Development of Agricultural Education, by Commis- 
 sioner Brown . 103 
 
 Development of Engineering Education in the Land- 
 Grant Colleges, by President Stone . . 114 
 
 The Authority of Science, by Director Jordan . . 128 
 
 ALUMNI DAY EXERCISES 
 
 The Alumni Business Meetings 149 
 
 The Alumni Luncheon 152 
 
 The Alumni Literary Exercises 
 
 President's Address: "The Alumnus as a Citizen," 
 
 BY Mr, R. a. Clark, 1876 157 
 
 Address: "Insulated Wealth," by Mr. Ray Stan- 
 
 NARD Baker, 1889 164 
 
 Poem: "To Old M. A. C," by Mrs. Pearl Kedzie 
 
 Plant, 1898 173 
 
 "Sketches by the Historian," by Mr. C. J. Mon- 
 roe, 1861 175 
 
 "Necrology," by Professor H. W. Mumford, 1891 184 
 
 Memorial Day Address, by Congressman Washington 
 
 Gardner 189 
 
 Campus Illumination, Reception, and Promenade Con- 
 cert ......... 199 
 
 JUBILEE EXERCISES 
 
 Address for the Department of Agriculture, by 
 
 Secretary Wilson ...... 203 
 
 Address for Michigan and its University, by Presi- 
 dent Angell ....... 208 
 
 Address for the East, by President Stimson . , 211 
 
 Address for the South, by President White . . 220 
 
 Address for the West, by President Wheeler . . 224 
 
 Address for the Middle West, by President Janes . 227 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS VU 
 COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Address, by President Roosevelt .... 239 
 Conferring of Bachelors' Diplomas, by President 
 
 Roosevelt 256 
 
 Conferring of Honorary Degrees, by President Sny- 
 der ......... 257 
 
 Congratulatory Addresses Presented by Delegates . 263 
 
 Congratulatory Messages Received by the Committee 307 
 
 List of Delegates and Distinguished Guests . . 363 
 
GENERAL PROGRAM 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 BACCALAUREATE SERMON 
 
 SUNDAY AFTERNOON 
 
 MAY TWENTY-SIXTH AT HALF-PAST THREE O'CLOCK 
 
 COLLEGE ARMORY 
 
 BY 
 
 MATTHEW HENRY BUCKHAM, D.D., LL.D. 
 President of the University of Vermont 
 
MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 THE COLLEGE AND THE STATE 
 
 WEDNESDAY MORNING 
 
 MAY TWENTY-NINTH AT TEN O'CLOCK 
 ASSEMBLY TENT 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 Address for the State 
 By His Excellency Fred Maltby Warner 
 
 Governor of Michigan 
 
 Address for the Grange 
 
 By Hon. George B. Horton 
 
 Master 
 
 Light Cavalry Overture (Suppe) 
 By the College Band 
 
 Address for the Farmers' Clubs 
 
 By Hon. Lucius Whitney W^atkins 
 
 President 
 
 Address for the Agricultural Society 
 By Hon. Ira Howard Butterfield 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Address for the Engineering Society 
 By Mr. Frank Hodgman 
 
 President 
 
 AuF WiEDERSEHEN {Bailey) 
 
 Address for the Normal Schools 
 
 By President Lewis Henry Jones 
 
 Ypsilanti Normal College 
 
 Address for the Denominational Colleges 
 
 By Doctor August F. Bruske 
 
 President of Alma College 
 
 Address for the State Board of Education 
 
 By Hon. Luther L. Wright 
 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction of Michigan 
 
 March Comique {Hall) 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 THE BUILDERS OF THE COLLEGE 
 
 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON 
 
 MAY TWENTY-NINTH AT TWO O'CLOCK 
 COLLEGE ARMORY 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 Chicago Tribune March {Chambers) 
 By the College Band 
 
 Address — "The College and the Students, 1857-1860" 
 
 By Hon. Charles Jay Monroe 
 
 President of the State Board of Agriculture 
 
 Address — "Members of the Early Faculty" 
 
 By Doctor Albert John Cook 
 Professor of Biology in Pomona College, Claremont, Cal. 
 
 Address — "How They Taught in the Early Days" 
 
 By Doctor Charles Edwin Bessey 
 Dean of Industrial College and Professor of Botany, University of Nebraska 
 
 Cornet Solo — Schubert's "Serenade" 
 By Mr. A. J. Clark 
 
 Address — "The College in 1870" 
 
 By Doctor William James Beal 
 Professor of Botany in This College Since 1870 
 
 Address — "Early Members of the Board" 
 
 By Hon. Charles W. Garfield 
 Member of Board from iSyy to iSgg 
 
MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 MENDELSSOHN'S ORATORIO 
 ELIJAH 
 
 WEDNESDAY EVENING 
 
 MAY TWENTY-NINTH AT EIGHT O'CLOCK 
 ASSEMBLY TENT 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 OPEN SESSION OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND 
 
 EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
 
 PROFESSOR LIBERTY HYDE BAILEY 
 Director of the College of Agrtculture of Cornell University 
 
 Presiding 
 
 THURSDAY MORNING 
 
 MAY THIRTIETH AT NINE O'CLOCK 
 ASSEMBLY TENT 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 Overture — "If I Were King" (Adam) 
 
 By the Bach Orchestra 
 
 Address — "Development of Agricultural Education" 
 
 By Doctor Elmer Ellsworth Brown 
 United States Commissioner of Education 
 
 Address — "Development of Englneering Education" 
 
 By Doctor Winthrop Ellsworth Stone 
 President of Purdue University 
 
 La Feria from "Los Toros" {Lacome) 
 
 Address — "The Authority of Science" 
 
 By Director Whitman H. Jordan 
 
 Of the Geneva {N. Y.) Experiment Station 
 
 Grand March {Christopher Bach) 
 
MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 ALUMNI DAY EXERCISES 
 
 THURSDAY 
 
 MAY THIRTIETH 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 II A. M. 
 
 Alumni Business Meeting 
 College Chapel 
 
 12 M. 
 
 Alumni Luncheon 
 Assembly Tent 
 
 2 P. M. 
 
 Alumni Literary Exercises 
 Assembly Tent 
 
 (For detailed program see next page.) 
 5-8 P. M. 
 
 Class Reunions 
 Various places 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 ALUMNI LITERARY EXERCISES 
 
 THURSDAY AFTERNOON 
 
 MAY THIRTIETH AT TWO O'CLOCK 
 ASSEMBLY TENT 
 
 PROGRAM 
 Overture — "Light Cavalry" (Suppe) 
 
 President's Address 
 By Mr. Russell Allen Clark, 1876 
 
 Oration 
 
 By Mr. Ray Stannard Baker, 1889 
 
 "Cavatina" (Raff) 
 
 Poem 
 By Mrs. Pearl Kedzee Plant, 1898 
 
 History 
 
 By Mr. Charles Jay Monroe, 1861 
 
 Fantasia from "II Trovatore" (Verdi) 
 
 Necrology 
 By Herbert Windsor Mumpord, 1891 
 
lO MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 THURSDAY AFTERNOON 
 
 MAY THIRTIETH AT FOUR O'CLOCK 
 
 ASSEMBLY TENT 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 Memorial Day Parade 
 
 By THE College Battalion 
 
 On Athletic Field at four o'clock 
 
 Musical Program 
 By the College Band 
 
 Memorial Day Exercises 
 Assembly Tent at the close of the Battalion Parade 
 
 Invocation 
 By Doctor Frank Gibson Ward 
 
 Memorial Day Address 
 
 By Hon. Washington Gardner 
 
 Member of Congress of the Third Michigan District 
 
 THURSDAY EVENING 
 
 MAY thirtieth 
 
 Illumination of Campus 
 
 At eight o'clock 
 
 Parade by the Students with College Songs 
 
 The "Oak Chain" Fancy March 
 By the Young Women of the College in Front of the Women's 
 
 Building 
 
 Bonfires in Front of Wells Hall 
 
 Reception to Delegates, Alumni, and Friends of the 
 
 College 
 College Armory at nine o'clock 
 
 Orchestra Concert 
 Assembly Tent adjoining College Armory from g to ii P. M. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION II 
 
 JUBILEE EXERCISES 
 
 FRIDAY MORNING 
 
 MAY THIRTY-FIRST AT NINE o'CLOCK 
 ASSEMBLY TENT 
 
 PROGRAM 
 Procession of Delegates, Alumni, Faculty, and Students 
 
 Invocation 
 
 Rev. Horace Cady Wilson 
 Lansing, Mich. 
 
 Reception of Congratulatory Addresses 
 
 From Other Institutions and Learned Societies 
 
 March — "Badger State" {Christopher Bach) 
 
 Polonaise from "Mignon" (Thomas) 
 
 Address for the Department of Agriculture 
 
 By Hon. James Wilson 
 Secretary 
 
 Address for Michigan and Its University 
 
 By President James Burrill Angell 
 University of Michigan 
 
 "The Nightingale and Thrush" (Bosquetto) 
 
 Address for the East 
 
 By President Rufus Whtttaker Stimson 
 
 Connecticut Agricultural College 
 
 Address for the South 
 
 By President Henry Clay White 
 
 College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, University of Georgia 
 
 Solo for Cornet with Orchestra 
 Address for the West 
 
 By President Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
 University of California 
 
 Address for the Middle West 
 
 By President Edmund James Janes 
 University of Illinois 
 
 Wedding March (Mendelssohn) 
 
12 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES 
 
 FRIDAY AFTERNOON 
 
 MAY THIRTY-FIRST AT TWO O'CLOCK 
 COLLEGE CAMPUS 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 March International (Lincoln) 
 
 Overture from "Martha" {Flotow) 
 
 Singing of Mendon 
 By the Audience 
 
 Invocation 
 
 By Rev. Elisha Moore Lake 
 
 Address 
 
 By the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt 
 
 Singing of America 
 
 By the Audience 
 
 Conferring of Baccalaureate Degrees 
 
 Conferring of Honorary Degrees 
 
 By President Jonathan LeMoyne Snyder 
 
 Overture from "Cyrano" {Christopher Bach) 
 
 SOCIETY BANQUETS AND REUNIONS 
 
 FRIDAY EVENING 
 
 MAY THIRTY-FIRST AT SEVEN O'CLOCK 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 
 
 PRESIDENT MATTHEW HENRY BUCKHAM 
 University of Vermont 
 
 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from 
 following the sheep, to be ruler over my people. — II Sam. 7:8. 
 
 This is so frequent an occurrence in human experience, the 
 calling of men from the sheepcote to national leadership, that 
 it has become a commonplace of moralists. But it never ceases 
 to be an impressive fact, and may well be studied for the instruc- 
 tion with which it is charged. The callings of divine Providence 
 rest on good reasons which we may well seek to discover. Why 
 are shepherds of sheep so often called to be kings of men ? 
 
 I. Let us try to get the essential out of that which is inciden- 
 tal in the fact under review. The pastoral calling stands for 
 much in itself. It is human life as first organized — social 
 life in its freshness and simplicity. Idealized in after ages it 
 inspires the poetry of the idyl and the pastoral. When life 
 becomes luxurious and corrupt a Tacitus or a Rousseau recalls 
 the pastoral life to men's imagination, and it becomes the fashion 
 to mimic its simplicity and innocence. But that which is good 
 in the pastoral life takes on a larger good in the more developed 
 agricultural life with its fixed homes, its seed time and harvests, 
 its granaries and fruits. God calls men to leadership also 
 from the furrow, from the harvest field, from the garden and 
 the vineyard. And we cannot stop here. From every humble 
 calling in Hfe men have been advanced to high station — from 
 fishing and tent-making, from type-setting and rail-splitting, 
 from the tanner's vat and the shoemaker's bench, from the 
 sailing craft and the ferry boat, from opening and shutting of a 
 steam valve, from a hundred arts and industries. And was 
 
 IS 
 
i6 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 not the world's supreme leader taken from the bench of the 
 carpenter ? 
 
 But we should make a great, though common, mistake if we 
 should conclude from these facts that the larger life is a soil in 
 which the masterful virtues cannot grow. This life also has 
 furnished to mankind its share of leaders. The noble famiUes 
 of the nations have had their representatives in the fields where 
 great deeds have been wrought. "Noblesse oblige" has been 
 not only a cry but a power. We look especially to this life for 
 certain quaUties essential to the highest manhood, for what we 
 call the chivalrous qualities, courtesy, refinement, a delicate 
 sense of the respect due to others, toleration, frankness, charity. 
 But these are councils of perfection not fundamental principles, 
 flowers rather than roots of character. A man can have them 
 and not be a leader. The prime, essential, indispensable 
 virtues and qualities which make strong and prevaiUng man- 
 hood and womanhood are of another order. What are they ? 
 Why do we look for them ; why does God himself seem to find 
 them more frequently in some callings than in others; and 
 how can we retain them as life becomes more complex and 
 artificial ? 
 
 2. We shall very soon in this quest, I think, reach the con- 
 clusion that what we call character depends largely on the 
 existence and paramountcy of a few simple primordial virtues 
 which are within the reach of all, not dependent on special gifts 
 or opportunities. They are : 
 
 a) The economic virtues, industry, thrift, sobriety, including 
 also an instinctive and persistent horror of waste, waste of 
 substance, of time, of opportunity, of life, of self. A teacher, 
 an employer of men, can usually pick out those who are fore- 
 ordained to promotion and success. They are those who are 
 toiling upward while their companions loiter and dawdle and 
 sleep. One great advantage which the shepherd lad and the 
 boy from the artisan's family have is that these are virtues of 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 17 
 
 necessity to them, and having been once acquired are available 
 in other and higher affairs. 
 
 b) Next are the domestic virtues — love of kin, fidelity to 
 home and friends and neighbors, the respect of the sexes for each 
 other, and the sanctity of marriage. Not only are these virtues 
 in themselves, but they safeguard all other virtues. One who 
 keeps himself in close touch with father and mother and sister, 
 who feels that everywhere kind eyes and kind hearts are follow- 
 ing him, and that to bring gladness to those dear eyes and 
 hearts would be the greatest joy to him, will never go far astray 
 and may even for their sake do things beyond himself. 
 
 c) Again, the patriotic virtues. We have seen in this country 
 — and have read the same story over and over again in the history 
 of other countries — how strong a force in the development of 
 character is the principle of patriotism — how it sobers, steadies, 
 and enlarges manhood, and womanhood too — how, when the 
 emergency comes which rouses patriotic feeling, it suddenly, 
 in a single day, changes a boy into a man ; a girl into a woman — 
 how it pushes aside with a Dante-like contempt those who can 
 only carp and jeer while others do the fighting and the work, 
 and steps out into the arena of strife ready to dare all and do 
 all for some just and holy cause. 
 
 d) And, crowning all, the rehgious virtues, those which have 
 their source in religion, and especially in what the Scriptures 
 call the fear of God, which does not mean dread of God, terror 
 in the thought of God — and yet is not the same as the love of 
 God which is a high attainment, the outcome of experience and 
 reflection and prayer — but that primary right feeling toward 
 God which is made up of awe and reverence and devoutness — 
 the feeling toward God which men have who get their religion 
 from nature and much personal thought and the spirit of God, 
 rather than from books and human teachings. Other environ- 
 ments are favorable to other types of religion — beautiful types 
 some of them, the ascetic, the contemplative, the mystic — but 
 
l8 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 the religion which tends to make men staunch, robust in practical 
 affairs, good at need, good in all winds and weather, is the 
 kind which comes through the experiences of shepherds and 
 tent-makers and fishermen. 
 
 3. But the youths that have had this training in the pastoral 
 and home-bred virtues, can they keep it in the larger hfe which 
 opens before them ? No doubt the life of freedom and oppor- 
 tunity endangers these virtues. They were never more sympa- 
 thetically portrayed than in the ''Cotter's Saturday Night," 
 and yet Burns went out from such a home to encounter the 
 temptations of luxurious society and to fall before them. The 
 son of the man whom God called from the sheepcote to leader- 
 ship lost the fundamental virtues of which we have spoken, 
 lost his strenuous manhood and became a voluptuary, lost 
 domestic virtue, lost national pride and loyalty in a lax cosmo- 
 politanism, lost the fear of God, and in consequence descended 
 from the high place he ought to have kept to be a roue, a cynic, 
 a trifler, a virtuoso in "ivory and apes and peacocks." Men 
 doubtless moralized on it as men do now, and said, " See what 
 has befallen the son of the man whom God called from the sheep- 
 cote to be leader of Israel, and know that wealth and prosperity 
 and power are not good for man ; they ensnare and corrupt him, 
 it were better for him to have followed the sheep." 
 
 But is this so ? Is such moralizing just ? Were it not strange 
 that God has made this life full of things of beauty and made us 
 eager to get them — has made us capable of manifold lovely arts 
 and high adornments and enrichments of life, and made these 
 things the rewards of virtue, of earnest striving and patient well- 
 doing, and then has put his curse on them and made them agen- 
 cies for our corruption and undoing ? Shall we bid the shepherd 
 lad remain in his sheepcote, the blacksmith stick to his forge, the 
 poet Uve on in his cottage, lest in the great world they come to grief ? 
 
 No — but we will say, "Be the king if you can, but be the 
 shepherd king. Be the United States senator if you can, but keep 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 19 
 
 the virtues of the blacksmith's home in the senatorial Hfe. 
 When you feel that the society around you is growing artificial 
 and intercourse is insincere and everything sophisticated and un- 
 real, go back and get in touch again with the simpler and more 
 genuine life out of which you came. As the queen used to go 
 to Balmoral and sit by the ingle of her humble cottagers and 
 learn useful lessons of life; as Mr. Lincoln loved to have a 
 chat with one of the plain men from whom he came; as every 
 wise statesman consults with his constituents back in the country 
 homes; as the divine, learned in rabbinical and patristic lore, 
 gets some of his best divinity and his sermons by talking with 
 his sexton or his gardener — so it is good, it is wholesome to the 
 mind and sanitary to the soul for everyone to keep connection with 
 that life, whatever it may be, which is nearest to nature and reality. 
 Again, we will bid our young aspirants cherish the spirit of 
 youth and cling to the best things gained in youth. Words- 
 worth wished that his days should be joined each to each in 
 natural piety. It were good for us all that the best of each 
 period of life should pass on to the next. It were good to keep 
 as long as possible the ideality of youth. There is, for instance, 
 the college idealism. One who has had the great privilege of 
 being a member of a college has a tie which binds him to the 
 conception of life for which a college stands. And then there are 
 one's church relations. Most right-minded young persons in 
 these times enter into church relations. They do this in those 
 youthful years when conscience is tender and active, when the 
 heart readily responds to the appeals of divine love, and the 
 will rejoices in acts of holy obedience. It is good to hold fast to 
 this early faith. It is not a sign of superiority to lose it, for it 
 is usually lost by neglect. In these stirring times when the 
 trumpet is ever ringing out the challenge, " Who is on the Lord's 
 side ?" it is good to feel that this question is decided, that one 
 is committed, and pledged, and can be counted on in the good 
 enterprises in which the Christian church is leader. 
 
20 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 And this brings us to say finally, Let us cultivate a religion 
 which puts due emphasis on the ethical and practical side of 
 human life. I do not plead for an undue emphasis on this side 
 — to the disparagement of the imagination, the emotional, the 
 mystic elements in the religious life — those which make men 
 devout and unworldly and saintly. But, strange as it may 
 sound, these are the easier attainments in religion. It was easier 
 for Solomon to make that sublime prayer at the dedication of 
 the temple than to live a blameless Hfe. It is easier for any of 
 us to be pious than to be honest. But hard as it is to be honest, 
 to be true to that in us and above which is deepest and highest 
 and best, it is easier with religion than without it. To bring 
 heavenly natives down to help us in the discharge of earthly 
 duties is one of the hoHest offices of religion. Therefore let 
 the man whose integrity is in danger of being overborne by 
 conventionalities seek aid in a rehgion which is strongly reaHstic, 
 which never gets away from the fear of God, which can sing 
 and soar with St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians and the 
 thirteenth chapter of Corinthians but never lets go of the Sermon 
 on the Mount and the Epistle of James, which so requires hard 
 work during six days, that Sunday will be welcomed as a day 
 of real rest, which sympathizes with and blesses men who use 
 tools and ply manual arts, which mellows and sanctifies the 
 cares and troubles, joys and sorrows of family and kindred, 
 friends and neighbors, which calls no human art or relation 
 common which it can fill with its blessing and so make holy. 
 Thus in great cities, amid civilization however splendid, in 
 society however luxurious, ministered to by all the arts, beset 
 by all the corruptions of modern life, young men and maidens 
 may keep themselves as simple, and pure, and true hearted, 
 and strong as in the days of antique virtues, and may add thereto 
 the new powers and f aciHties for living which the new civilization, 
 essentially a Christian civilization, has put into their hands for 
 the adornment and enrichment of their lives. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 21 
 
 Address to the Class 
 Members of the Graduating Class: 
 
 I suppose it would be regarded as a bit of baccalaureate 
 flattery to assume that college graduates are foreordained to be 
 leaders of men. As individuals, of course, they are not all so 
 destined — as a class they are. More and more in our time and 
 country they are coming to be, and are expected to be, leaders in 
 the communities in which they Uve — some leaders of few, some 
 of many. When a man emerges into public prominence and 
 his biography is given, we expect to be told at what college he 
 was graduated. This impHes the acknowledged potency of a 
 liberal education in life. But it implies much more than that. 
 Graduation in a college of high grade selects men and women 
 by their moral more than by their intellectual quaHties. Many 
 are called but few are chosen. Many start but few arrive. A 
 hundred enter a class and fifty are graduated. Not that all 
 who fall out by the way fail because they are unworthy to reach 
 the end. That we could not say remembering those who have 
 been with you for a time and whom you miss today. But in 
 general in our American communities the struggle for survival 
 to the end of a college course, the struggle with poverty and 
 hardship and the chances of life, is a moral struggle, and success 
 means the survival of the quaUties that make up strong, masterful 
 character. And the same law holds all through life. Success 
 in any high sense is moral superiority — the ascendency of virtue. 
 And the virtue which here prevails is the aggregate of the simple 
 and elementary virtues which all men may have if they will. 
 What I have been trying to do for you today is to glorify in 
 your minds these simple virtues, to help you to see that they 
 make a plain, humble life bright and strong and even noble, 
 and that no other quaUties however brilliant can in any life 
 supply the lack of them. You will be quite Hkely to meet men 
 who are not college men and who will be your superiors — men 
 who will do more for your art or profession, more for invention, 
 
22 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 or statesmanship, or philanthropy, or religion. It may be 
 because they will have more genius than you — but more prob- 
 ably because they will have more industry, more resoluteness, a 
 higher purpose. 
 
 Revolving very often in my mind during my many years of 
 college experience the question of the relative importance of 
 the moral and the intellectual factors in the product which we 
 call success in life — success of a high order I mean — I have 
 come to the deliberate conclusion that they stand in the ratio 
 of at least three to one, that saying nothing about heaven above 
 and the life hereafter, the worth of a man or a woman here and 
 now is one part intellect and three parts affection, conscience, 
 and will. Has one a brilliant mind? With adequate moral 
 force behind it and within it, it becomes a mighty power; not so 
 consorted and energized it avails little. Are you conscious of 
 having only moderate intellectual gifts? You can triple their 
 momentum by aid from the moral side of your nature if that is 
 true and strong. But some of you may say, "I do not aspire 
 or care to be a leader of men. I am content to sUp into an easy 
 place and go through life without ambition or struggle or 
 prominence." It is too late for you to choose that position. 
 It is shut against you. In accepting the great trust of a liberal 
 education, in consenting to receive from society this loan of 
 leisure and seclusion, and the costly appliances of study, you 
 have undertaken a great responsibility which you cannot now 
 throw off. Noblesse oblige. You are hereby called of God to 
 service, to influence, to the labor and dignity of leadership. 
 Your college expects this of you. It will be disappointed if you 
 do not, in some sphere, do some effective, helpful, honorable 
 work. Your Alma Mater will rejoice with the great joy at 
 once of self-congratulation and of sympathy when she hears 
 of such good work done by you. Go with her blessing and 
 prayers and come again to receive her felicitations and to join 
 with her in thanksgivings. 
 
THE COLLEGE AND THE STATE 
 WEDNESDAY MORNING 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE STATE 
 
 GOVERNOR FRED MALTBY WARNER 
 
 You will pardon me, I am sure, if at the outset I ask your 
 indulgence for a moment while I bid those of you who come 
 from without our borders a most cordial welcome to the Penin- 
 sular State and this great institution, and those of you who 
 claim Michigan as your home a no less cordial welcome to a 
 college whose name and fame is known throughout the civiUzed 
 world. 
 
 The exercises of this day and week mark an epoch in the 
 history of this important institution of learning and of the 
 state which made it possible. It is our fondest hope that the 
 close of another half-century may witness an institution and 
 a state that have kept pace with advancing thought, methods, 
 and ideals, and showered as rich blessings upon humanity 
 during those fifty years as have marked the marvelous progress 
 of each during the five decades that have just passed into history. 
 More than this could not be hoped for. Less than this should 
 not for a moment be anticipated. 
 
 The welcome which I bid you today, my friends, is not 
 simply an expression of my own pleasure that you have gathered 
 here. I but voice the sentiments of every loyal citizen of this 
 great state when I bid you a most sincere and cordial welcome. 
 Whether you are returning to this institution, your Alma Mater, 
 as those who years after their departure from the home of their 
 childhood return to seek renewed inspiration within its sacred 
 precincts and to live over again the days of long ago, or whether 
 you come with greetings as representatives of other institutions 
 which have a share in the great work of fitting young men and 
 young women to participate inteUigently in the great forward 
 
 25 
 
26 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 movement which has for its object the uplifting of humanity 
 and the betterment of the world, you are equally welcome to 
 this place and to the ceremonies of this week. I have faith to 
 believe that the experiences of these few days will so enrich you 
 in all the essentials of genuine manhood and womanhood that 
 you will return to your homes, whether they be far or near, 
 better fitted to face the duties and responsibilities of life and 
 better equipped to reader valuable service to your fellow- 
 citizens, to your country, and to humanity. 
 
 We of Michigan believe that the fathers of our state builded 
 even better than they knew when they incorporated in the 
 constitution of 1650 the requirement that " the legislature encour- 
 age the promotion of intellectual, scientific, and agricultural 
 improvements and shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the 
 establishment of an agricultural school for instruction in agri- 
 culture and the natural sciences connected therewith." 
 
 Following the adoption of this constitution by the people, the 
 legislature, in obedience to this requirement, laid the foundation 
 for this great institution of learning by enacting a law which 
 made provision for a "high seminary of learning in which the 
 graduate of the common school can commence, pursue, and 
 finish a course of study terminating in thorough theoretic and 
 practical instruction in those sciences and arts which bear directly 
 upon agriculture and kindred industrial pursuits." 
 
 This broad foundation, established by our farseeing prede- 
 cessors, has enabled this College to keep pace with advancing 
 thought and take advantage of opportunities as they presented 
 themselves for broadening its courses and thus increasing its 
 usefulness. 
 
 Having been the first state in the Union to establish and 
 equip an educational institution for the direct promotion of 
 technical training in agriculture, Michigan was prompt to profit 
 by the enactment by Congress in 1890 of the Morrill law which, 
 through the increased revenue it provided, enabled it to extend 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 27 
 
 the scope of this institution's usefulness by adding a mechanical 
 department. Subsequently, in response to the demands of the 
 people of the state, the legislature made provision for the estab- 
 lishment of the women's department, now one of the most 
 valuable adjuncts of the College. 
 
 You come then today, my friends, to the pioneer agricultural 
 college of the United States, an institution which has blazed the 
 way and set the pace for all similar enterprises that have since 
 been established to aid in the great work of educating the masses 
 of our people, elevating the standard of American citizenship, 
 and developing our great country. 
 
 Rising amid the stumps which, in that early day, covered 
 this beautiful campus and standing out from a background of 
 virgin forest which stretched away to the farthermost limits of 
 this now fertile farm, the unpretentious buildings which housed 
 the sixty students who were enrolled at the opening of the College 
 in May, 1857, furnished ample accommodations for all who 
 sought instruction here. Meager as was the number of students 
 who entered the College when its doors were thrown open fifty 
 years ago, it doubtless was as great in proportion to the popula- 
 tion of the state as is the greatly increased number of young men 
 and young women who now avail themselves of the opportunities 
 here presented for securing a practical education which will fit 
 them properly to fill the positions in hfe to which they are called. 
 
 The growth of this College has been commensurate with the 
 development of the state. Its equipment has been increased and 
 its courses of study enlarged and expanded to meet new demands 
 and new conditions. Successive legislatures, recognizing the great 
 value to the state of the work done here, have been judiciously 
 generous in providing for the financial needs of the institution. 
 
 How well it has repaid the fostering care of the state is a 
 matter of history and common knowledge. Its hundreds of 
 graduates have gone from its portals to take the lead in all indus- 
 tries and all movements for the development of the state and 
 
28 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 its resources. They have ever been the leaders in the advances 
 that have been made in agriculture and kindred sciences; they 
 have been at the forefront in the onward march of the mechanic 
 arts; they have been prominent in the professions; they have 
 been foremost in all movements having for their object the 
 improvement of society and the betterment of humanity. 
 
 These young men and young women have gone from this 
 institution into all the walks of life and everywhere have taken 
 advanced positions among their fellows. Their great services 
 to the state have more than repaid the people of Michigan the 
 investment they have made here — repaid them many times over 
 in a material way, while in a greater and grander sense the return 
 has been such that cannot be measured by dollars and cents. 
 It has taken the form of increased knowledge, increased happi- 
 ness, improved conditions of living, better environments, higher 
 ideals, and nobler lives. This great reward is like unto that 
 treasure which is laid up " where moths and rust do not corrupt 
 nor thieves break through and steal." 
 
 While Michigan has naturally and properly been the greatest 
 gainer in every way by the work of this grand institution of 
 learning, the great good accomplished has spread far beyond 
 the borders of our state. It has found its way into every state 
 and territory and even into lands beyond the seas. Everywhere 
 the graduates of this institution are in demand to carry forward 
 the work of development and progress. No better or more 
 positive proof of the standing and character of this College could 
 be adduced than is found in the fact that from all states and 
 countries there comes a call to it for aid and its graduates have, 
 from year to year, responded to this call and demonstrated their 
 ability to measure up to all demands and meet all requirements. 
 
 And I doubt not that this great institution will go steadily 
 and grandly forward, keeping step with the onward march of 
 humanity, broadening its work, and increasing its usefulness 
 throughout the years that are to come. 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE GRANGE 
 
 GEORGE B. HORTON 
 
 Master of State Grange 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 
 
 As we pass along through life we at times meet with inci- 
 dents and occasions which in after-years are marked as of such 
 special importance that they stand out conspicuously from all 
 other events, and often we find ourselves recognizing these 
 happenings as fixed times from which the dates and the impor- 
 tance of all other happenings are reckoned. 
 
 I believe that this occasion, because of its broad significance, 
 will become a prominent milestone in the lives of all who par- 
 ticipate in and attend the exercises incident to this, the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the Michigan Agricultural College. Fifty years 
 is but a short space of time when considered as a part of the 
 ages, but in this case it comprises the whole. 
 
 It marks the time of the beginning, and following along it 
 leads up to the present. The most profound thought, however, 
 in connection with this occasion is that while the life and work 
 of the College up to the present make a history rich in achieve- 
 ments along the lines of agricultural and human progress and 
 development and in this work have measured the full fives of 
 many gifted and devoted men, comparatively speaking a com- 
 mencement only has been made. While we would not shadow 
 the past record of the College and all its valuable and more 
 than expected or before thought possible contributions to the 
 development of our state and its people, we may nevertheless 
 pause and marvel at the great work before it, if the rate of prog- 
 ress and development of the recent past decades are to con- 
 tinue. For this occasion it is enough to congratulate our state 
 
 29 
 
30 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 that the fathers who provided for this College, along with others 
 in our educational system, possessed that wisdom and foresight 
 which led to the laying of a foundation so eminently fitting to 
 a state destined to be recognized as a leader in agricultural, 
 industrial, and intellectual development. 
 
 It is well for our people to gather and to assist in celebrat- 
 ing important anniversaries of the estabUshing of prominent 
 state institutions, but it is expected that, without lacking a full 
 appreciation of the value of all others, we give distinctiveness 
 to each separate event. 
 
 This College exists most conspicuously for the development 
 of agriculture and, as a fit companion, to give such mechanical 
 and technical training as will permit the head and the hands to 
 work together, and to assist each other in being progressively 
 useful. The term agriculture in its broad sense may include 
 horticulture, floriculture, stock raising, and all things incident 
 to soil production. 
 
 It is therefore fitting to consider at this time the importance 
 of agriculture and how it leads out and directly afifects all 
 other interests and the welfare of the state itself. From such 
 line of thinking we may also decide for ourselves the relative 
 importance of this College to all other educational institutions 
 of our state. 
 
 As the foundation of it all, Michigan is, in the main, an 
 agricultural state. Although there exist within its domain rich 
 deposits of iron, copper, salt, and coal, and there are within 
 its thrifty cities numerous manufacturing and business interests 
 employing many people, yet those engaged in interests akin 
 to agriculture more than equal all others combined. The 
 products of its farms, gardens, and orchards, including live 
 stock, make up an annual aggregate value of more than that 
 of all other interests. 
 
 Michigan is also a state of ideal American homes. These 
 are estabhshed upon a soil so fertile and exist under such climatic 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 31 
 
 conditions as to give a range of production surpassed by no state 
 or country. Originally covered with a dense timber growth 
 of a wide range of varieties and of prolific size, it is therefore 
 the home of trees for commercial profit and to add to the adorn- 
 ment of farm and landscape. These same conditions give us a 
 wide variety of fruits of such quality as to add fame to our 
 commonwealth as a fruit-producing state. 
 
 All the staple cereals are grown here with profit, and all 
 of the best varieties of pasture and fodder grasses are native and 
 abundant. All these contribute to make possible the ideal 
 home state and to give the occupants thereof a broader range of 
 opportunity and profitable husbandry than can easily be found 
 elsewhere. For a broadly mixed husbandry, or a shifting from 
 one specialty to another, Michigan offers opportunities unsur- 
 passed. So bounteously favored, it perhaps is but naturally 
 resultant that our state is a land of schools and educational 
 privileges of a high standard. Our general system has been 
 commended by representatives of a foreign nation after extensive 
 travel to discover the best system for adoption in their home 
 country. Our rural schools are the basis of it all, for histories 
 and biographies of successful men and women, in all of the laud- 
 able ambitions of life, quite generally trace back to the school- 
 house in the country as the place where the foundation part of 
 their education was attained, and in many cases it furnished the 
 total of their school education. In these schools, so near to 
 the homes of the people that the education of the head to think 
 and to deduce conclusions can co-operate with the hands in 
 doing useful things, the essential foundation for usefulness and 
 happiness is laid and the correctness of our plan is proven. 
 
 Then after laying this solid foundation, our state has pre- 
 pared itself still further to educate and to equip, even to what 
 we may term a finishing point, our sons and daughters for the 
 many open avenues to industrial and professional usefulness. 
 
 From the standpoint of preparation for educating the youth 
 
32 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 of our state, perhaps our normal training schools should be 
 of first consideration, for it is here that those who are to teach, 
 guide, and mold, receive instruction to aid in securing com- 
 missions for this all-important service. It is fast being proven 
 that no mistake has been made in providing the larger normals 
 in different sections of our state and the county system to make 
 it possible for more to prepare for the business of teaching. 
 The great demand is for more and better equipped teachers for 
 the common schools of the state. 
 
 There comes a time after children and young people have, 
 as a general mass, attended school together, when each must 
 go his or her way in quest of still further education in prepara- 
 tion for some particular line of occupation or profession. For 
 all this our state has wisely provided various opportunities 
 for technical and professional education, through our School 
 of Mining, the Agricultural College, and our great University. 
 Besides these we have denominational colleges and business 
 training schools. Verily, Michigan stands in the front rank 
 for equipment for rearing an intelligent and progressive citizen 
 population. 
 
 Albeit, as the crowning glory of it all we must recognize 
 and do homage to our intelligent and progressive citizenship. 
 To inherit, as our people have, a country so rich in opportuni- 
 ties as to draw from ambitious men their best energies, brings 
 about a condition of citizenship which for high ideals and 
 grand achievements cannot well be surpassed. 
 
 Here let us pause and ask the relation of the Agricultural 
 College to all this thrift and well-doing. Although the institu- 
 tion was born of wisdom and good intent, it might have failed 
 to get a good start or it might have maintained a mere existence 
 void of progress or of recognized merit. 
 
 The opposite from this, however, has been and is true. It 
 has done an incalculable work in the development of an intelli- 
 gent home life upon the farm. From small and humble begin- 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 33 
 
 nings, side by side with the pioneer, this institution started in 
 the dense woods. Here through the same processes as were 
 followed by the people of the state whom it was organized to 
 assist, woods were cleared away, stumps were grubbed out, lands 
 were drained, and, step by step, as its usefulness could be proven, 
 it has grown until today it exists a monument to the wise councils 
 and untiring energies of those who have managed its affairs 
 and a great credit to the state. Aye, beyond this, it stands as 
 more than a peer of all like institutions in all the states of our 
 whole country. In all of its beauty, magnitude, and broad 
 influence, is it all that it should be ? We answer, No, and it 
 cannot be so long as there exists other of our state educational 
 institutions receiving greater support from the state than does 
 this College. 
 
 Not that I would make the University less, but I would 
 make the Agricultural College more. I would make it more 
 nearly representative in point of magnitude, scope of work, and 
 equipment, of the interests it represents or stands for. It 
 would seem but in line of justice and for the real welfare of the 
 state that our higher schools of learning should be placed and 
 maintained upon a basis reasonably comparable with the impor- 
 tance of the interests each may most directly represent. 
 
 This comparison should go deep enough to consider not 
 only their relative social, intellectual, and professional impor- 
 tance to the state, but as well the comparative numbers of people 
 engaged in the different interests and the comparative importance 
 of each to the state's welfare. Then we must consider the 
 technical training and the experimental results necessary to 
 enable each class to meet successfully the intricate propositions 
 which are essential to success, and which are of such a nature 
 as to make them impossible of attainment by individual effort. 
 The greatest good to the greatest number of people can be laid 
 down as a safe and sane poHcy of state, but this must not be 
 interpreted to mean that even the welfare of the few is not essen- 
 
34 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 tial to the ideal aggregate development. Ideal development 
 takes into account all of those social, moral, educational, 
 business, and professional attainments, which, when blended 
 together through the influence of each upon the other, go to 
 make up an intelligent, progressive, and strong community, 
 state, or nation. The people of a state, constituting the state 
 itself, should, in providing the ways and means for its greatest 
 good, deal justly by all people and all interests. The time is 
 at hand when the demands are imperative for a broader and 
 more thorough industrial training. When we take into account 
 the fact that the industrial interests, both in point of state welfare 
 and of people engaged therein, so far outclass all other interests 
 and professions combined, the way would seem to be clear to 
 provide for an expansion of this College which is so justly needed 
 and demanded. 
 
 Incidentally and by a further reference to our state Univer- 
 sity, I will hazard the following and for further consideration 
 refer it to the people of the state of Michigan. In the light 
 of the developments of recent years and of the trend of affairs 
 and of the demands educational and material, I insist that the 
 time is here, when we, as citizens who furnish the propelling 
 power for it, may well pause and ask how far shall state pride 
 carry us beyond the requirements of our state in supporting by 
 direct taxation an educational institution chiefly for the profes- 
 sions which are for a very small minority of our people, so as to 
 vie successfully with like institutions in other states, richly en- 
 dowed by gifts from the princely fortunes of philanthropic men ? 
 Time will not permit further comment. The question is asked 
 in all sincerity and a full discussion thereof by the people of 
 our own state will surely lead to a wise and just conclusion. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I am given a place upon this anniversary 
 program, not because of myself, but that I might represent the 
 Grange organization of our state on this occasion. For this 
 recognition we feel grateful. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 35 
 
 Education is the rock-bedded foundation of the organization 
 I have the honor to represent. 
 
 Organization of the farmers of Michigan is but an outgrowth 
 of their desires to improve and to progress in such measure as 
 the present time demands. Farm famiUes are separated by 
 broad acres, and the various helpful agencies, desirable but not 
 in natural evidence, must be provided and brought near at 
 hand through associated effort. The Grange is broad in con- 
 ception, conservative, and yet progressive in its work and 
 influence. Through frequent council and exchange of thought 
 it leads the farmers of the state to a position of self-respect and a 
 better understanding of a citizen's privileges and duties. 
 
 The Grange has always been an ardent friend of the College, 
 and in fact of all of the educational institutions of our state. 
 Through its efforts and support this College has no doubt been 
 assisted to long steps forward in its efforts to provide for the 
 agriculturaUsts, the mechanics, the artisans, the home-makers, 
 and home-keepers of Michigan, an opportunity for preparation 
 to meet the many scientific and intricate problems natural and 
 inseparable from the duty they have assumed, to feed, to clothe, 
 and to add to the progress of the world. Because of the timely 
 and essential work in which the College is engaged, and because 
 of its eminently successful administration, I feel safe in prom- 
 ising a continued loyal support from the entire mass of agricul- 
 turalists of Michigan. 
 
 Hoping for the College many returns of its semi-centennials, 
 and that it may always be alert in keeping up with the demands 
 of the interests and of the people it was organized to assist, in 
 behalf of the Grange Organization I say, Good-will and God- 
 speed ! 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE FARMERS' CLUBS OF MICHIGAN 
 
 LUCIUS WHITNEY WATKINS 
 President of the State Association of Farmers' Clubs 
 
 Mr. President, Brother Alumni, and Friends: 
 
 It seems particularly appropriate that the two great agricul- 
 tural organizations of this state should have a part today in the 
 celebration of the Semi-centennial of her College of Agriculture, 
 the sturdy pioneer of its kind in all America. 
 
 Michigan has shown a disposition to be very generous with 
 her agricultural interests and with this great school; and the 
 Board of Agriculture and Dr. Snyder are most courteous in the 
 recognition upon this program of the farmers' important part 
 in the industrial and educational progress of our commonwealth. 
 
 In the past, as now, the Michigan Agricultural College has 
 added in no small measure to the grand sum of things which 
 go to make every resident within our borders both glad and 
 proud that he lives here in Michigan, instead of somewhere else, 
 and that he lives here now. 
 
 I can assure you that to the present speaker it is a very 
 great pleasure indeed to convey, generously and without restraint, 
 to this institution, so dear to him as an alumnus, a message of 
 continued good-will and hearty congratulation from the great 
 democratic organization of farmers' clubs which he has the 
 honor to represent. 
 
 It is an exceedingly great pleasure also, and one which 
 affects me more than I can tell, to look into the faces of the 
 dear old boys of my college days, and before, and to see the 
 same faces again, changed only slightly with lines furrowed by 
 work and care; but the same boyish faces still, and remaining 
 M. A. C. boys, always loyal, until the end. 
 
 36 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 37 
 
 It is interesting to know that so many of these men are 
 members of farmers' clubs ; determined to better the conditions 
 of home and farm and the community in which they live. Then 
 those farmers who become active in a political way and are 
 elected to the legislature, organize a farmers' club there; probably 
 because of their daily proximity to bell-cows and lemons, mules, 
 pumpkins, etc. (outside of the legislature, as they pass along 
 the streets of Lansing to and from the capitol). And the 
 members of other clubs than these, even those of the great 
 cities, have as abundant an agricultural fare upon their tables 
 each day as can be found anywhere. So we see that nearly all 
 are directly or indirectly connected with the farmers' club. 
 
 It will be seen that our organization has been from the first 
 very closely associated with this institution. Six of the thirteen 
 ex-presidents of the State Association of Farmers' Clubs are 
 graduates of Michigan Agricultural College and of the remaining 
 seven, three are the fathers of M. A. C. men. I think the 
 professor of animal husbandry will tell you that this is a pretty 
 good pedigree. 
 
 And, friends, the strongest fraternity, and not secret either, 
 in this College is designed to foster and promote an interest in 
 rural life and the business of agriculture, and is attended by the 
 agricultural students and faculty. I refer to the splendid local 
 chapter of the State Association of Farmers' Clubs. 
 
 It is a great college that can turn out a first-class governor 
 from a poor farmer boy in less than a year of its agricultural 
 course ! It is an institution that will in every case develop men 
 and women, in the fullest sense of the term, out of all those who 
 have capacity and desire to learn. 
 
 The work of the farmers' clubs is most informal : a meeting of 
 kindred spirits to consider the questions which naturally arise 
 from local conditions in the various communities. In them 
 the home is discussed, with its most sacred associations, and 
 the flowers and lawns and trees; the school with its crowds of 
 
38 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 little folk; the farm, which is the provider and maintenance of 
 luxury and comfort and the playground of the family and their 
 friends. And for the protection of the welfare and happiness 
 of these homes, which are very little different from the purest 
 t)rpe of homes an)rwhere, those problems affecting the rights 
 and interests of the people of the state at large are considered 
 freely, for just what they are worth and what they stand for in 
 the scale of equity and justice; though it must be admitted 
 that the farmers labor under the very great disadvantage of 
 not having at their ready command a prodigious mass of statis- 
 tics and compilations, from which convenient deductions may 
 be drawn, and are not favored with the enlightenment of the 
 oratorical efforts of hired attorneys, so learned that they can 
 argue with equal powers of persuasion and equal display of 
 sincerity upon either side their clientage may desire. 
 
 And so we hear from certain sources that the country people 
 are immeasurably crude in their logic as compared with others, 
 and that they are disposed to advance startUng fads and most 
 dangerous ideas of needed and corrective legislation. Well, 
 possibly ! These erratic fads are, however, as a rule, important 
 enough to call forth the attention and ridicule of a majority of 
 the poHticians, for two or more years, then to engage them in 
 what appears very like a combination of the games of football 
 and leapfrog for about the same length of time, when they are 
 glad to indorse them as their very own; too valuable and too 
 necessary to pubHc progress to be longer kept from the dear 
 constituents, over whose interests they preside. 
 
 My friends, the decision of the common people upon meas- 
 ures for pubUc good, arrived at under the sane and natural 
 conditions of the home, and far removed from the persuasion 
 and tumult of the caucus and convention, are much surer to lead 
 him who champions them in the public service toward the 
 United States Senate than over the much-trodden pathway 
 to the penitentiary. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 39 
 
 The meetings of farmers' clubs partake of the spirit of the 
 New England town meetings, and their unselfish verdict rings 
 true and clear to the wishes of the common people. Gathered 
 together in the farmer's own cosy home, under the auspices of 
 the good housewife, who provides a bounteous dinner; with 
 friendly greetings of famiUes, one with another, and in the pres- 
 ence of flowers and little children, with music and laughter, 
 the stern, cruel consideration of business affairs is tempered 
 with love and appreciation of truth and honor and godhness. 
 
 We join with all persons and institutions, whether of the 
 higher or the industrial education, in an effort to make more 
 pleasant and remunerative and more worth living not the 
 lives of the few but of the great masses of our people. 
 
 Allow me then, humbly and in the spirit of sincerity which 
 prompts the good-will of thirty thousand brother farmers, to 
 convey in their behalf my hearty greeting to old M. A. C. today, 
 and to bid her Godspeed in her career of endeavor for great 
 public good. 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF 
 MICHIGAN 
 
 IRA HOWARD BUTTERFIELD 
 
 Secretary 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to represent the Michigan State 
 Agricultural Society in extending congratulations to the Michigan 
 State Agricultural College on this occasion. 
 
 I have heard men express the wish that they might have been 
 born years later in order that they might live in times of greater 
 progress than has yet been witnessed, but I am satisfied to have 
 lived during a time when the state and its institutions were 
 building, and am glad that I have known some of the men who 
 laid the foundations and those who began the superstructure 
 and have thus far builded. 
 
 It has been said that the men who founded the institutions 
 of this country builded better than they knew. I would say 
 that they did not build, but that they did lay foundations on 
 which they expected their successors should build most elegant 
 structures. 
 
 Consult, if you please, the plans made by John D. Pierce for 
 the public-school system of the state, and say if it has been 
 necessary to widen the foundations one whit, that they might 
 support one of the best public-school systems in the country. 
 Is not the same true of the University and of our system of 
 charitable and reform institutions ? 
 
 Read the utterances of the men who were prominent in 
 founding this College, the first agricultural college estabUshed 
 in the United States, and tell me. Gentlemen of the Board and 
 of the Faculty, if they did not lay out work enough not only 
 
 40 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 41 
 
 for the fifty years behind you, but in a great measure for fifty 
 years to come. 
 
 And this is no reflection on the men who succeeded them. 
 They, too, have done their work well, all of them to this day, 
 with an unselfish devotion to the interests of this institution. 
 
 The Michigan State Agricultural Society was organized in 
 1849, just eight years previous to the opening of this College. 
 At that time Michigan was the twentieth state in population 
 and the fifteenth in wealth by the assessors' books. Today 
 she is the ninth in population and the fifth in wealth. Detroit 
 was in 1850 the twenty-third city; now she is the tenth in popu- 
 lation. 
 
 In 1849 agriculture exceeded in value all other industries 
 in this state. The vast mineral wealth of the state, its silver, 
 iron, coal, salt, and cement had not been developed; its vast 
 wealth of timber was not known as a source of revenue but 
 rather as a hindrance to agriculture. Hence the interest of 
 public men, as well as of farmers, in agriculture. We remember 
 the first president of the State Agricultural Society as the gov- 
 ernor of the state and the members of its Board of Managers 
 were men most prominent in public affairs. 
 
 It has been well for agriculture and for this College that it 
 has always had for its friends those whose private interests were 
 largely in other professions and pursuits than agriculture. They 
 have been better and more courageous friends at times than the 
 farmers themselves. 
 
 I recall how, in the earHer years of this College when the 
 struggle was on to decide whether the College should be a 
 separate institution or become part of the University, John 
 C. Holmes, for many years secretary of the State Agricultural 
 Society, never a farmer but always interested in agriculture, 
 stood in the breach, almost alone, and prevented its absorption 
 by the University. 
 
 The Agricultural Society was organized for the same purpose 
 
42 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 as the College. The object as stated in the first constitution 
 was " to promote the improvement of agriculture and its kindred 
 arts throughout the State of Michigan." It made it the duty of 
 its Board of Managers "to annually regulate and award prem- 
 iums on such articles, productions, and improvements as they 
 may deem best calculated to promote the agricultural, house- 
 hold, and manufacturing interest of the state, having special 
 reference to the most economical or profitable mode of compe- 
 tition in raising the crop or stock or in the fabrication of the 
 article offered." It was directed " to publish a report embracing 
 such statements of experiments, cultivation, and improvements, 
 proceedings, correspondence, statistics, and other matters, 
 the publication of which will exhibit the condition of the agri- 
 cultural interests of Michigan, and a diffused knowledge of 
 which will in the judgment of the Board add to the productive- 
 ness of agricultural and household labor, and therefore promote 
 the general prosperity of the state." 
 
 Was not this a grand work for a society of mutual organiza- 
 tion to take up, with no possible hope for pecuniary reward, 
 and thus to continue for now fifty-eight years? Shall we not 
 call these men patriots ? 
 
 While the State Agricultural Society may be called an elder 
 brother (or sister) to this CoUege, it is to a great extent its 
 parent. 
 
 Hon. E. H. Lothrop, in a public address at the first fair, 
 September 26, 1849, sounded the first note for an agricultural 
 school. 
 
 Here is his plea for agriculture in the common schools, a 
 pleading we have been more than fifty years in answering: 
 
 As four -fifths of the children of our state are intended for, and probably 
 will pursue agriculture as a profession, and as a means of livelihood, then 
 I say, make our common schools what they should be, and let the branches 
 there taught have a direct reference and bearing upon the future business 
 of oiu- children. Make our common schools the nursery of farmers. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 43 
 
 Have we not been repeating these words in later years and 
 fancied we were proposing something new ? Again Mr. Lothrop 
 said: 
 
 While our governments, both national and state, are truly liberal and 
 pour out their money like v/ater in the establishment of literary and other 
 public institutions, and dot our land over with theological seminaries, 
 with law seminaries, v/ith medical seminaries, and with military seminaries, 
 poor agriculture, whose hand sov/s the seed, and whose arm gathers the 
 harvest on which all our earthly comforts and even our very existence 
 depend, as yet has no seminary in which to teach her sons the most valu- 
 able of all arts. 
 
 Mr. Lothrop also outlined a Women's Department as 
 follows : 
 
 As I have impressed strongly on those gentlemen v/ho have sons, the 
 importance of educating them thoroughly in the business in v/hich they 
 are destined to follow, let me say a word to you v/ho have daughters: In 
 addition to a daily and thorough training in the care and labor of the dairy 
 and all household affairs, educate them in everything that v/ill have a 
 tendency to make them plain, modest, sensible, and useful v/omen and 
 fit companions for those of our sons who shall become scientific and prac- 
 tical farmers. Teach them that industry is honorable and adds to their 
 charms, and that the domestic circle is to be the theater of their futvire 
 fame and glory. 
 
 Forty-seven years later this College established a course for 
 women, a course which proposes to give the training that Mr. 
 Lothrop named as essential for women. 
 
 The members of the Constitutional Convention of 1850 
 evidently had heard something of this movement for agricultural 
 education and embodied in that constitution the provision that 
 the legislature should as soon as practicable establish a school 
 of agriculture. But legislatures do not always adopt new meas- 
 ures "as soon as practicable." They often need the prodding 
 of the people behind them to urge them along. But the people 
 who organized the Agricultural Society had in mind an institu- 
 tion which should develop work which the society could only 
 begin or barely suggest. 
 
44 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Hence at the annual meeting of the society held December 
 19, 1849, in the village of Jackson, Mr. Bela Hubbard offered 
 the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, that our legislature be requested to pass such legislation as 
 shall appear necessary or expedient for the establishment of a central 
 agricultural ofl&ce, with which shall be connected a museum of agricul- 
 tural products and implements, and an agricultural library, and, as soon 
 as practicable, an Agricultural College, and a model farm. 
 
 A memorial to the legislature of 1850 was adopted, from 
 which I quote: 
 
 Having established successfully a State Agricultural Society, with its 
 annual fairs, it is hoped that, with its central ofl&ce, museum, and library, 
 a great step has been accomplished toward perfecting our agricultural 
 system. The next most important step in this process is the founding of 
 a State Agricultural College and Model Farm. 
 
 The memorial is quite long, and outlined the work that 
 might be done, and the need therefor. 
 
 Hon. Jos. R. Williams, who later became first president of 
 this College, in an address before the society at its second fair 
 at Ann Arbor in 1850, started the call for an experiment station. 
 Speaking of the publication of addresses, he said, "One short 
 expose of study, of John's experiments, or Molly's industry, 
 may prove more instructive than a whole oration. On this 
 account it should be our duty to preserve the history and prog- 
 ress of each experiment in bringing a product or animal to 
 perfection" — a broad suggestion for an experiment station. 
 
 On April 2, 1850, a joint resolution was passed by the legis- 
 lature asking our senators and representatives in Congress to 
 use all honorable means to procure from the United States a 
 donation of three hundred and fifty thousand acres of land to 
 this state for the piurpose of estabhshing and maintaining agri- 
 cultural schools therein. 
 
 Who can doubt the distinguished senator from Vermont had 
 heard of this resolution before he introduced his "land grant 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 45 
 
 bill" ? However, if Michigan made the suggestion, we honor 
 Senator Morrill for carrying it to a successful result. 
 
 In 1852 both the Normal School and the University an- 
 nounced to the society that each had arranged for a course of 
 lectures on agriculture and were ready to carry out the wishes 
 of the society relative to an agricultural school, which should 
 be a department of these institutions. 
 
 In January, 1853, the society sent a committee of its members 
 to visit these institutions and learn their facilities for teaching 
 agriculture. They came back and reported hearing some fine 
 lectures, but, said the committee, "we do not think the infor- 
 mation to be derived from these sources is sufficient to constitute 
 the education of a professional and practical farmer," and 
 recommended the purchase of a farm "where practical and 
 scientific education shall be taught, and that it be not connected 
 with any other educational institutions." 
 
 The society kept resolving to the legislature until in 1855, 
 by an act approved February 12, the president and executive 
 committee of the Michigan State Agricultural Society were 
 authorized to select a location and site of not less than five hun- 
 dred acres, within ten miles of Lansing, for a state agricultural 
 school, and in June of that year they came over and selected 
 this spot. 
 
 Do you think the men who gave such earnest work toward 
 the establishment of an agricultural school would not stand 
 by it in after-years ? They supported the CoUege in its forma- 
 tive period, when it needed friends, with the same zeal and 
 energy used in promoting its organization, and for years held 
 its summer meetings at the College. 
 
 In many cases the same men have served at the same time 
 on the Board of Agriculture and on the Executive Committee of 
 the Society. 
 
 The Agricultural Society appreciates the friendship and co- 
 operation of the College. No shade of jealousy has ever crept 
 
46 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 in and nothing but a desire for mutual co-operation in helping 
 to raise the agriculture of the state to its highest condition exists 
 between these two organizations. 
 
 Mr. President of the College and members of the State Board 
 of Agriculture, I am authorized and directed on behalf of the 
 Michigan State Agricultural Society to extend its best wishes 
 for further growth and success. 
 
 May the next half-century be more prosperous for the College 
 than the one just passed, and may your efforts be so directed 
 and your work so ordered during these coming years that the 
 people of the state may justly claim this to be not only the 
 oldest but the "best agricultural college in the country." 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE MICHIGAN ENGINEERING 
 SOCIETY 
 
 FRANK HOD OMAN 
 
 President 
 
 What is the Michigan Engineering Society, and what has 
 it to do with the Michigan Agricultural CoUege, or the CoUege 
 with it, that I, as its representative, should be called on to speak 
 for it at this great celebration? 
 
 It is an incorporated society composed of men who have 
 graduated from colleges and universities and then spent the 
 rest of their Hves studying in that greatest of all finishing schools, 
 the school of experience. It is a purely educational society, 
 and for the twenty-seven years of its existence has been a power- 
 ful educational force, not only in our own state, but all over 
 the country, and reaching out into foreign countries. Through 
 its influence laws have been made and unmade. Through its 
 literature courts have been guided in making their decisions in 
 cases which came within its special lines. It began as a society 
 of surveyors. For a time its principal discussions were of 
 topics connected with land surveying. Now they have broad- 
 ened out until they include topics in every field of civil engi- 
 neering. Its papers and discussions are pubhshed in an annual 
 volume now called the Michigan Engineer. Last year 2,800 
 copies were pubhshed and went to engineers from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific coasts, and from Canada to South America. By 
 its system of exchanges, each member of the society gets annually 
 from twelve to sixteen similar pubHcations from other engineer- 
 ing societies. These publications are filled with papers and 
 discussions, up to date, and of the best type, by men who are 
 known masters of the subjects of which they treat. As I have 
 
 47 
 
48 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 said, we began as a society of surveyors. Numerous problems 
 were discussed of which there were no solutions in the textbooks 
 on surveying. Most of them were questions of law and not 
 of mathematics or of the use of instruments. The very first 
 thing the society did was to appoint a committee whose duty 
 was to prepare a Manual which should give authoritative 
 answers to all these questions. The committee spent all their 
 spare time for six years preparing and getting out the book. 
 They studied up every decision of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States and every decision of the courts of the several 
 states bearing on the location of boundary Hnes. The outcome 
 of the labors of the committee was A Manual of Land Surveying, 
 which came out in 1886 and is now in its fourteenth edition. 
 It is the standard authority in the United States land department 
 and all over the United States on the subjects of which it treats. 
 Since its first issue a number of textbooks on surveying have 
 been written and pubhshed, but there is not one of the whole 
 lot which has not taken some portion of its matter from this 
 book. More than one supreme court decision in recent years 
 has been made in language taken from it, and many another 
 court has found in its pages the authorities on which to base a 
 decision. About the time the book was pubhshed, the supreme 
 court of Michigan gave its decision in the boundary case of 
 Wilson vs. Hoffman, in which it was stated that the court 
 followed the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States 
 in the case of Brown's lessees vs. Clements. The Michigan 
 decision was criticized in the society and it was shown that the 
 Brown's lessees vs. Clements decision had been reversed years 
 ago by the same court which made it, in another suit over the 
 very same boundary fine, as not being good law nor in accord- 
 ance with the settled practice of the land department in the 
 sale of the pubhc lands. When this criticism reached the 
 Michigan judges, they promptly, of their own motion, recalled 
 the Wilson vs. Hoffman case and reversed their own decision. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 49 
 
 The active members of the committee who prepared that Manual 
 of Land Surveying and who from the knowledge gained in its 
 preparation were enabled to criticize our supreme court with 
 such results were M. A. C. men. 
 
 The production of this Manual practically settled all the 
 knotty questions with which the land surveyors had to deal. 
 From that time on, the papers and discussions in the society 
 took in a wider range of subjects covering nearly the whole 
 scope of civil and mechanical engineering practice. Members 
 who had been only land surveyors began to develop into en- 
 gineers. The annual conventions brought them in contact with 
 some of the brightest and best men of the profession from whom 
 they learned directly, while from the publications which they 
 received from the society they got a mass of up-to-date engineer- 
 ing literature which was an education of itself. 
 
 The character of the subjects discussed in the society has 
 changed from time to time, but at all times the leading papers 
 and discussions have been on live topics in which both the 
 profession and the people were interested at the time. At one 
 time sanitary engineering had the lead ; at another, road-making 
 was at the front; at other times mechanical topics have led; 
 but whatever the subjects discussed, the prime object and 
 underl3dng motive has not been individual advancement but 
 the public welfare ; to learn how to give the public better service, 
 better roads, better health, better everything with which the 
 surveyor or engineer has to do. What had M. A. C. to do 
 with all this ? Professor R. C. Carpenter of M. A. C. was one 
 of the two projectors and promoters of the society. Whether 
 the conception originated with him or Mr. J. E. Sherman I am 
 not certain, but they two brought about the organization of the 
 society. After the organization Professor Carpenter was its 
 secretary and treasurer for six years and was then elected its 
 president. Following him as secretary was another alumnus 
 of M. A. C, who up to that time had been a district vice-presi- 
 
5© MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 dent and who filled the office of secretary-treasurer for twenty 
 consecutive years, leaving it to become president. Of the 
 sixteen men who have held the office of president, four have 
 been M. A. C. men. Of the membership at large there has 
 always been a liberal number who came to us from M. A. C. 
 
 The society has a warm feeling of friendship for aU the 
 schools which are fitting men to become members of the profes- 
 sion. We have a special pride in the two great schools of our 
 own state, the University of Michigan and the Michigan Agricul- 
 tural College, which are engaged in that work. Those of us 
 who laid the foundations of our professional education right 
 here are more than proud of our Alma Mater, of what she has 
 done and what she is now doing for the education of what we 
 deem one of the finest types of manhood — honest, true, and 
 able engineers. 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE NORMAL SCHOOLS 
 
 PRESIDENT LEWIS HENRY JONES 
 Ypsilanti State Normal College 
 
 I have the honor to bring greetings from the oldest insti- 
 tution for the training of teachers west of the Alleghenies to the 
 oldest institution in the West which devotes itself to technical 
 training in agriculture and the mechanic arts. Our fervent 
 wish is that prosperity attend you in all your ways to the end 
 that the commonwealth may continue to receive at your hands 
 well-trained citizens, with that happy balance of culture and 
 efficiency which you so well represent in your courses of study 
 and your teaching practice. We have recently had coined three 
 catching phrases descriptive of tendencies more or less evident 
 in American life, and more or less represented in our educational 
 institutions. The celebrated French preacher, Charles Wagner, 
 coined and placed in circulation the phrase, "the simple Ufe," 
 thereby eulogizing that happy poise of mind resulting from a 
 kind of culture which finds its interests mainly within — or at 
 least within the domain of — the spiritual fife. Our honored 
 President of these United States has invented and exempHfied 
 the phrase, "the strenuous Hfe," laying emphasis at least upon 
 the outward struggle in which power delights itself in contending 
 with problems which tax its utmost strength. Hon. Frank A. 
 Vanderhp, vice-president of the New York City Bank, in an 
 address before the National Education Association, at Asbury 
 Park, used the phrase, " the efficient life," as expressing a modern 
 idea of the union of knowledge and effort by directing these 
 in practical ways toward the accomplishing of ends directly 
 increasing the comfort and happiness of the people. 
 
 Each of these phrases is in a way a happy putting of a half - 
 
 51 
 
$2 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 truth about life; but of the three the last is by all odds the 
 best. It requires all the poise of the first and the enthusiasm 
 of the second, but it harmonizes them so that the former may 
 not rust itself away in inglorious ease, nor the latter waste itself 
 in tempestuous riot. This is what it seems to me this institution 
 typifies and stands for. Your classrooms and laboratories stand 
 for intelligence, knowledge, and culture; your broad acres and 
 your varied industries stand for practical use of those ideas 
 gained in classroom and laboratory. There is no place here 
 for intellectual conceptions or abstract philosophies dissociated 
 from throbbing and pulsating life. Nor is there any mere 
 place here for purposeless wear and tear of nerve and muscle 
 in undirected labor — no place for mere strenuosity undirected to 
 desirable ends — rather, the happy combination of culture and 
 effort which seeks first to find out nature's laws and then to 
 adapt them to the accomplishment of beneficent ends under 
 direction of quickened brain and cultured mind. 
 
 But as a state institution this College stands as one of the 
 great forces which the commonwealth of Michigan maintains 
 for the purpose of sustaining its own Hfe and defending itself 
 against unproductive people. In the end the agricultural col- 
 lege must justify itself on this ground — it must produce efficient 
 citizens, who shall be worth to the state all the state pays for 
 their education, with enough margin left to make it expedient to 
 organize and carry out the elaborate plans everywhere in evi- 
 dence about us. 
 
 Undesirable citizenship may assume Protean forms and hide 
 itself under many disguises. But broadly considered we may 
 cluster the undesirable attributes under two great heads — 
 criminality and incompetence. The former includes the posi- 
 tively bad, and the latter the good, so long as they are good 
 for nothing. There is a widespread conception among a large 
 class of people that the ordinary forms of pubhc education are 
 too abstract and formal in their character, and that in their 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 53 
 
 present forms they do not tend toward morality and efficiency. 
 It is true that in many instances pubHc education is entirely 
 too formal, being devoted more to books than to things, to 
 general than to special matters, and to abstract truth rather than 
 to practical affairs. Nevertheless, even in its present form, the 
 whole tendency of public education is distinctly moral and tends 
 directly toward competency, I may be allowed to illustrate 
 two cases briefly. Some time during the 90's my attention was 
 called to a report made by the superintendent of the Detroit 
 House of Correction in which the statement was made that 75 
 per cent, of the inmates of that institution could read and write. 
 One of the Detroit papers commented editorially upon this 
 fact, implying that because 75 per cent, of the criminals confined 
 in the Detroit House of Correction were educated in the limited 
 sense of being able to read and write, and only 25 per cent, of 
 the criminals confined there were totally ilUterate, therefore 
 public education, such as these people had, increased their 
 tendency toward criminaUty in the ratio of 75 to 25. I had 
 occasion to answer this accusation before a meeting of the 
 National Education Association. I called attention to the 
 fallacy in the editorial by showing that, according to the report 
 of the state superintendent of public instruction for that same 
 year, 96 per cent, of the population of Michigan could read and 
 write — that is, were educated to that extent, some of them 
 doubtless beyond that point; and that 4 per cent, only of the 
 population of Michigan was at that time totally illiterate. It 
 resulted, therefore, in the fact that the 25 per cent, of the 
 persons confined in the Detroit House of Correction, represent- 
 ing as it did the entire state, came from this 4 per cent, of the 
 population; while the 75 per cent, of the criminals came from 
 that large proportion of the population who could read and 
 write, namely, the 96 per cent. Reducing to a common denom- 
 inator, therefore, it was discovered that the 4 per cent, of the 
 population of Michigan which was at that time totally ilUterate 
 
54 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 produced seven and one-half times its proper ratio of criminals. 
 This has been shown to be substantially the fact time and 
 again in the study of statistics over wide areas — that even that 
 small degree of education which is indicated by the power 
 to read and write has its distinctly moral effect upon those who 
 receive it. 
 
 The same point which I wish to illustrate with respect to 
 efficiency was discovered in 1837 by Horace Mann, then secre- 
 tary of the State Board of Education of Massachusetts. He 
 examined the pay-rolls of the factory workers in the manufac- 
 turing districts of Massachusetts, especially the mills at Lowell 
 and Lawrence. He discovered, by making the test suggested 
 by the ability on the part of the worker to write the name to the 
 pay-roll instead of being compelled by total iUiteracy to make a 
 mark, that those who were able through slight education to 
 write their names received one-third more pay than did that 
 contingent of those persons who were obHged to place their 
 mark upon the pay-roll instead of writing their names. In the 
 ability to write one's name there was evidence of a one-third 
 increase in competency. 
 
 But here stands an institution that is dedicated to the making 
 of education distinctly moral and efficient, in that it tends to 
 develop that capabihty which comes from the power to do things 
 well. This is distinctively a moral force, since it develops self- 
 respect in the individual and brings out the spirit of noblesse 
 oblige upon his part. But beyond this, the tendency of this 
 institution is to make people distinctly intelUgent and capable 
 of doing certain work efficiently because of the investigations 
 which they have made in classrooms, laboratories, and fields 
 belonging to this institution. Many times over does this insti- 
 tution return to the state the amount expended for it in the 
 increased morality and efficiency of the citizenship of this 
 commonwealth, and because of this it deserves the constant sup- 
 port and good-will of the people of this state. 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES 
 
 PRESIDENT AUGUST F. BRUSKE 
 Alma College 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 
 
 I am here as the representative of a church school to offer 
 heartiest felicitations to a state school. I am glad of the privilege 
 of rendering this service, both because of our agreements and 
 because of our differences. We are agreed in that we are seek- 
 ing the highest culture of the young people placed under our 
 care. This is the rock foundation of every school in the world. 
 This is the sacred unity of all education. In the name of this 
 unity of culture I greet you today. 
 
 But we are equally happy in our differences. The peculiar 
 purpose of your culture is indicated in the name you bear. 
 You are an "agricultural college." Your outlook is upon the 
 farm. The fragrance of the grain fields is yours; the sweet- 
 ness of the clover fields is yours; and the "cattle upon a 
 thousand hills" are yours. This does not mean that all of 
 your graduates will become farmers; but that all the graduates 
 choosing that vocation will be intelligent and scientific farmers. 
 Not every law student becomes an attorney; not every medical 
 student becomes a physician; and not every student of Alma 
 College becomes a preacher. Our constant endeavor is so to 
 train him that whether he becomes a preacher, teacher, or mer- 
 chant, he shall be a cultivated Christian gentleman, true to 
 the church, true to that "kingdom which is an everlasting 
 kingdom and that dominion that endureth through all genera- 
 tions." Your outlook is upon the farm, our outlook is upon 
 the church. Therefore there can be no strife between us. Our 
 congratulations this day are as sincere as they are hearty. We 
 
 55 
 
56 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 rejoice with you in what you have achieved, in what you are 
 achieving, and in what you are destined to achieve. 
 
 This vast multitude gathered here, these beautiful grounds 
 and buildings, these many hundreds of students, these distin- 
 guished alumni from every part of our country, all bear abundant 
 witness to the splendid work of fifty years. Of this much will 
 be said in these jubilee days. Let me rather therefore say a 
 word concerning the present and the future of your noble work. 
 
 Certain orators are fond of telling us that we are living in 
 the days of agricultural renaissance. Not so. It is not a 
 rebirth that we are witnessing, but rather a new birth. We 
 are Uving in the six days of the Creation of Scientific Agriculture. 
 Science for the first time is moving onto the farm. That hopeless 
 picture of "The Man with a Hoe" may be true of the past. It 
 is not true of the Ufe of today, thanks to the agricultural colleges 
 of the world. They have changed the hopeless, brainless " man 
 with a hoe" into a Robert Clark Kedzie, father of the beet- 
 sugar industry of Michigan — into a Luther Burbank, creator 
 of a new world of flowers and plants and trees. 
 
 They tell us. Sir, that the trend toward life in the city cannot 
 be arrested; that in 1800 less than 4 per cent, of our population 
 dwelt in cities, and that in 1900, 33 per cent, were to be found 
 there. They tell us that the appHcation of machinery to agri- 
 culture has driven multitudes from the farm. In 1870 there 
 was one man engaged in farming to every seventeen acres of 
 cultivated land, in 1890 there was one to every twenty-six acres. 
 This machinery has driven four and one-half milHons of farmers 
 together with their famiUes from the soil to the city. And this 
 is bound to continue. If so it only means that the farmer 
 of the future will be a brain worker rather than a hand worker. 
 It means that the agricultural college will be a greater necessity 
 to the future than it has been to the past. That future, radiant 
 with the promise of abundant usefulness, beckons to you. In 
 the possibilities of that future let all men rejoice ! 
 
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION AND THE STATE 
 
 [Summary] 
 
 LUTHER L. WRIGHT 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 
 I admire and reverence this beneficent institution because 
 it has always been democratic, has always kept close to the 
 people, and has never forgotten its purpose. I congratulate the 
 state on having at its head a man who has the ability to make 
 it what it is. 
 
 The public school is the creator and preserver of democracy. 
 In it every individual takes his rightful place. It levels among 
 children all distinctions of wealth. It humbles pride of birth. 
 Native, rugged strength is the leader in that democracy. There 
 is no fear for democracy from the hordes and swarms of foreign- 
 ers who have come and are daily coming into this country Uke 
 a cloud of locusts. The pubHc school will make Americans of 
 their children in language, ideals, thought, and customs. This 
 Americanizing process cannot be stayed or thwarted so long as 
 the public school can have these children. 
 
 The common school is a hopper into which are poured all 
 kinds of grain, German, Irish, PoHsh, Scandinavian, Itahan, 
 and Hungarian, but it all comes out flour whose grade is essen- 
 tially American. The elephant feeds on the trees of his native 
 jungle, but what he absorbs becomes elephant and not tree. 
 So whatever America absorbs from Europe, if it can but go 
 through the American public school, becomes American and 
 not European. 
 
 Industrial education is the problem for this state, and you 
 who make public sentiment will solve it. Speed the day when 
 manual training, domestic science, and agriculture shall be 
 
 57 
 
58 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 taught in every school in Michigan. I hope to hve long enough 
 to see public trade schools estabUshed in the centers where the 
 state shall aid, not only in the education of the culture side, but 
 in that practical education that will train boys and girls to earn 
 a living and to do work with their hands. 
 
 Training in agriculture, in the scientific knowledge of the 
 art of farming, will add more to the wealth of the state than 
 will all its copper and iron mines. Manual training and the 
 trade school will add infinitely to the skill of craftsmen and the 
 products of our factories. Domestic science will give us better 
 homes, better health, more comfort, and lasting happiness. 
 
 This practical industrial training will ampHfy and round 
 out the purely mind-studies and will make for the complete man. 
 This, to my mind, should be the great purpose of the states. 
 
THE BUILDERS OF THE COLLEGE 
 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON 
 
THE COLLEGE AND THE STUDENTS, 1857-1860 
 
 CHARLES JAY MONROE 
 
 The College, when I first saw it May 10, 1857, consisted of 
 a tract of mainly timber land, without an acre fully cleared. 
 A few acres had been slashed down and the logs and brush 
 cleared. On every hand were old stubs and partially burned 
 trees. The fire had scorched the timber next to the clearing, 
 so that at every point of the compass to which you turned, you 
 beheld dead and blackened trees which presented a most deso- 
 late scene. There are a few pictures in the library which give 
 a faint idea of it. 
 
 College Hall, a dormitory, and a small brick barn constituted 
 the buildings. The old dormitory, known for many years as 
 "Saints' Rest," stood a Httle east of the present site of WiUiams 
 Hall, and was burned in 1876. These buildings were sur- 
 rounded by logs and stumps, the carpenters' and masons' 
 leavings, and other rubbish. The roads to the buildings were 
 lined with stumps which had been dug or pulled out and in 
 some cases partially burned. 
 
 The road from the College to lower Lansing was fairly good, 
 judged by the road standard of those days. Lansing consisted 
 of three parts. Upper, Middle, and Lower, and the distances 
 and partition woods between them were sufficient to make them 
 distinct towns. 
 
 The travel to the College was mainly from Middle Lansing, 
 via Michigan Avenue. This street was usually a mud hole from 
 the hotels to the College, particularly in the spring and fall, 
 and was lined with timber except now and then a small opening 
 made by new settlers. In this connection I wish to call attention 
 to the large stone beside the road with a fair-sized tree seemingly 
 
 61 
 
62 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 growing through it. As I remember it, the crack was then 
 small and only partly across the stone, and the tree was about 
 the size of a finger. It was the frequent resting-place on the 
 trips to and from Lansing. I suspect that the growth of the 
 tree is largely due to the mud scraped from the shoes of the way- 
 farers, which furnished soil and water and created a sort of 
 common ownership in the many contributors. I doubt if any 
 boy in subsequent years passes the stone and tree without think- 
 ing of college days. 
 
 Lansing had no railroads. The nearest were the Detroit 
 and Milwaukee at St. Johns, and the Michigan Central at 
 Jackson. Most of the boys came by these routes. From Jack- 
 son to Eaton Rapids there was a plank road, but it had so many 
 broken or missing planks that for a good deal of the way the 
 square edges of the plank made it worse than the round logs 
 of a corduroy. From Eaton Rapids to Lansing it was mainly 
 mud holes. We regarded ourselves as fortunate if we got our 
 trunks through, even by carrying a pole or rail for considerable 
 distances to pry the old stage out of mud holes. 
 
 Personally, I did not know as to the road from St. Johns. 
 I only recall that when there was a comparison between those 
 from the north and from the south, one would conclude that 
 both were among the worst in the state. It is fair to state that 
 the vacations in those days were in the spring and fall, and so 
 at the seasons of the year when the roads were at their worst. 
 
 The dedication exercises were held May 13, 1857, in the 
 college room usually known as the chapel. This room has 
 been the general meeting-place for all sorts of gatherings for 
 fifty years. At the dedication it was crowded to its limit, and 
 many stood about the doors, both inside and out. With two 
 others I stood in the south center window, the platform being 
 on the north, or opposite, side. 
 
 The next day those wishing to enter the College met in this 
 same room as requested by the president. They were required, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 63 
 
 as I remember, to register their names, ages, residence, and 
 occupation, and state the occupation they expected to follow 
 after leaving college. Then the rooms were designated where 
 they could go for examination. Fortunately for many of us, 
 the questions were easy. The next day we again assembled, 
 and all who had passed were assigned rooms. There were 
 four students to each room, to do their own chamber work. 
 Within a day or two we were again called to the chapel by the 
 president. He stated that for the present he wished to assign 
 the work as far as possible to those famiHar with the work desig- 
 nated. A show of hands was asked, for those accustomed to 
 driving horses. Probably four-fifths responded. After a few 
 questions, the teamsters were chosen. Next, those famiHar with 
 oxen, a less number, responded. I was named to drive one 
 yoke. The call was continued until nearly all the different 
 sorts of work were mentioned and someone of those lifting the 
 hand would be designated. 
 
 The first work, in which nearly all took part, was cleaning 
 up the carpenters', painters', masons', and plumbers' rubbish, 
 and clearing away the logs and brush near the buildings. As 
 I remember it there was not an acre fully cleared on the farm — 
 that is, with stumps out as well as logs and brush removed. 
 Later there were many changes made in the assignments. As for 
 myself, I continued to drive the oxen through the summer of 
 1857, mainly on the stump machine. In the summer of 1858 
 I drove the same team as a logging team, and they were extra. 
 
 Visitors coming to the logging field who were familiar with 
 that sort of work were sure to notice and admire the team. 
 Those remembering back to the days when clearing and logging 
 were a prominent part of the work in Michigan will realize that 
 a good logging team was highly valued, and their abiHty to make 
 a log snap was often praised. 
 
 I recall an incident which occurred at a near neighbor's. 
 A Mr. Seaver had an extra yoke of oxen of which he was very 
 
64 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 proud. As I was passing the field with several friends where 
 he was logging, one of the party expressed the wish to drive 
 out and see the men roll up a log heap. I introduced my friends 
 and stated they would hke to see a heap made ; I also remarked 
 that I was sure they would hke to see his oxen draw the logs. 
 He hitched to a long one and waved to everybody to keep away 
 from the switch end, then sprang toward the oxen with raised 
 whip, caUing out, " Haw, Buck." This brought the oxen toward 
 him and he, dancing back to keep out of their way, stammered 
 out, "I beg your pardon, I beg your pardon, Buck, I meant. Gee." 
 
 In the winter of 1857 and 1858 chopping was the principal 
 work. Over a hundred acres on the south side of the river was 
 slashed into windrows and burned the following summer. We 
 worked in three divisions, two and one-half hours each — first, 
 7 to 9:30; second, 9:30 to 12; third, 1:30 to 4. The second 
 was expected to be out in time to take the tools of the first, the 
 rule being that the same boys should follow each other in the 
 use of the same ax. 
 
 An incident occurred the latter part of the winter which 
 furnished considerable amusement and was made the subject 
 of a very entertaining essay read before the Lyceum. As 
 division No. 2 was leaving the dressing-room (where clothes 
 were changed or overalls put on over the ordinary suit) word 
 was received that a bee tree had been found and that the boys 
 of No. I division were having a treat of honey. The boys of 
 No. 2 abandoned the usual custom of marching in Indian style 
 of single file and struck a double quick for the scene of feasting. 
 The bridge was a large fallen tree reaching from bank to bank. 
 Ordinarily it was adequate, but on this occasion when the 
 whole squad were having a neck-and-neck race and all were 
 wanting to cross at the same^time, it resulted in several taking a 
 forced bath before the coveted feast. Arriving at the scene, a 
 pitched battle occurred which discounted a college rush. 
 Besides, the bright sun warmed up the bees, and they with 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 65 
 
 natural patriotism sought in a very stinging manner to defend 
 their home and honey. They inflicted a good many wounds 
 which soon became prominent and remained so for several 
 days. Like all great battles the sad scenes came afterward. 
 While none were killed and only a few wounded as above stated, 
 the after effects of the hearty feast of honey mixed with rotten 
 wood proved very disastrous in its relaxing effects, and sent 
 most of the participants to the hospital. Few wanted any dinner 
 and a less number went to the afternoon classes. 
 
 The principal work of 1858 was clearing the land, especially 
 that cut over the previous winter. Some corn, oats, potatoes, 
 and garden truck were raised and the old apple orchard was set 
 out. The most notable and impressive event of the season was 
 the fever and ague. The plowing and stirring of a hundred 
 acres or more of new land with all its decaying vegetation turned 
 loose an immense amount of miasma. The remark often made, 
 "that it was thick enough to cut with a case knife," had much 
 truth in it. In the latter part of August and fore part of Sep- 
 tember there were 70 out of 100 students unable to attend classes, 
 at least they could come only every other day, as the fever was 
 mainly intermittent. That is, one day the patient felt as well 
 as ever, and the next, never felt worse. The main consolation 
 the sufferer got was the frequent assurance that it was only the 
 ague and nobody ever died from it. Classes were greatly inter- 
 rupted and in some cases suspended for a short time. Many 
 of the students became very impatient at the interruption of 
 classes; some not famihar with fever and ague declared that it 
 was unnecessary, that the boys were just as well as ever part of 
 the time and might get their lessons and not be holding others 
 back. I had a roommate who was of this way of thinking and 
 unwittingly expressed it too freely. As my boyhood home was 
 on the windward side of a mill pond I knew personally of its 
 debilitating effects and still more of it from frequent observa- 
 tions of others, and reminded him it was a more weakening and 
 
66 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 serious disease than he could appreciate without actual expe- 
 rience. A little later it got hold of him. He was a sturdy, 
 pushing New Englander and fought it off bravely, keeping up 
 his work and study. One morning about lo o'clock I came in 
 from work and found him behind the stove doing his best to 
 keep his knees from shaking, his chair from ratthng, and his 
 teeth from chattering. He put up his hand imploringly and 
 said, "Don't say a word; if I ever get over this I'll never say 
 another thing about anybody, as this is the meanest disease I 
 ever saw." 
 
 The principal work of the winter of 1858-1859 was chopping, 
 only instead of slashing it down we cut a large amount into 
 four-foot wood, which was drawn to a long shed just east of the 
 old boarding-hall. This furnished us rainy-day work or enter- 
 tainment, fiddhng it up with a bucksaw. 
 
 About a dozen of us remained through the spring vacation 
 doing chores, cutting wood, etc., and four of us were able to 
 recall in the Lincoln campaign that we had been rail splitters. 
 A pleasant event of this vacation was our invitation to and 
 attendance at the marriage of our Professor Tracy to Miss 
 Sessions, professor of mathematics of the Michigan Female 
 Seminary, of which I shall speak later. 
 
 The summer of 1859 the College can fairly reckon as its 
 first year in which the production of farm crops and garden 
 truck was the principal work of the students. All of the ordinary 
 farm crops were raised and the quaUty and quantity compared 
 favorably with those of the best farms in this vicinity. The 
 garden in variety, quality, and quantity was by far the best 
 up to this date and added greatly to the pleasure, comfort, and 
 economy of hving at the College. 
 
 The late Professor Prentiss of Cornell, who was a classmate, 
 had the superintendence of the garden and directed the work in 
 the afternoon, and it was my pleasure to assist him by having 
 charge in the forenoon. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 67 
 
 As the work of the four previous terms had been mainly such 
 as I had been accustomed to in the childhood home — it being 
 heavy timber and the clearings commenced about the time I 
 was born — I got little that was new or helpful, except as the 
 continued doing of any task makes one more expert in it. But 
 the work, experience, and observation which I had in the two 
 summer terms of 1859, which included the gathering, labehng, 
 and arranging of seeds, I have felt were of great advantage to 
 me, for which I have always been grateful. 
 
 I have previously mentioned the "Fern Sem," a short name 
 for the Michigan Female Seminary, at Lansing in charge of the 
 Rogers Sisters. There was some visiting of the girls at their 
 college during the summer of 1858, possibly started and en- 
 couraged by the fact that Professor Tracy, in whose charge the 
 overseeing of the boys principally was, was in the habit of 
 visiting one of its teachers, to whom he was subsequently married, 
 as stated above. The mutual interest and visiting between the 
 two colleges were greatly increased in October, 1858, when the 
 M. A. C. boys were invited to a husking bee at the " Fern Sem." 
 A field of several acres of corn, as I remember, stood just east 
 of the buildings, now used for the School for the BHnd. The 
 night was lighted by one of those brilliant harvest moons and 
 also by the smiling faces of the "Fem Sem" students who acted 
 as partners in the husking. The number of red ears found was 
 quite remarkable, in fact so many and so well scattered over the 
 field were they, that they occasioned a good deal of querying, 
 some declaring that the planter must have had foreknowledge 
 as to the future buskers. When the corn was all husked and 
 picked up, and the stalks bound and set up, we were treated 
 to a bountiful lunch and then to a jolly social time, not soon to 
 be forgotten. We were allowed to hnger into the small hours, 
 probably on account of the good work done. 
 
 In passing, I cannot help remarking that this was more than 
 a pleasant event to the boys and girls for an evening; it was an 
 
68 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 important event for the colleges and especially to M. A. C, 
 situated as it was three and a half miles from Lansing in a 
 sparsely settled neighborhood. There were no seniors, juniors, 
 or sophomores to introduce the new comers. For a year and 
 a half about one hundred boys were deprived, except at the 
 short vacations, of the companionship of mother, sister, or 
 friends. The visits of the boys to the "Fem Sem" and of the 
 girls to the College were of great benefit. I feel sure that memory 
 serves me right in recalling the improvement in personal appear- 
 ance, the greater attention to dress and address, the more 
 frequent care of rooms and of the college premises, and an 
 elevation of the moral tone. It was the assuming of a normal 
 condition in the mingling of the boys and girls, with mutual 
 advantage to both. 
 
 There was always plenty to do for busy heads and hands 
 in study, reading, farm work, the care of rooms, and the mending 
 and care of our clothes. Our sports were mainly of the country 
 sort, "one-" and "two-old-cat" ball games, running, hop-step- 
 and-jump, "pom-pom pull-away," tag, and leapfrog. Some 
 of them were not very dignified; still there were no smashed 
 noses, cracked heads, maimed limbs, nor any killing. 
 
 The principal event of general interest, and of special interest 
 to those taking part, was a pubhc exhibition at the close of the 
 term, November i6, 1859. Nine students took part, besides 
 a quartet which sang. The exercises were similar to those of 
 the better class of district schools, and consisted of original 
 orations and essays, interspersed with music. The old chapel 
 was crowded to its fullest capacity, the larger portion of the 
 audience coming out from Lansing. 
 
 The CoUege was a typical Michigan pioneer in starting in 
 the woods, in opening up roads, in logging and burning green 
 timber, much of it in the wet season of the year, in the pulling 
 of green stumps, and in ditching where an ax was as important 
 as the spade or shovel. It was hard work for the boys and 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 69 
 
 expensive for the College. I recall one large oak stump with 
 a large tap root and a mass of others needed to sustain the tall 
 sturdy tree, cut from it. It was only a few feet from the front 
 door of the boarding-hall. Digging away the dirt and cutting 
 off the roots required about ten days' work. Then it took the 
 stump machine to roll it out and two yoke of oxen and four 
 span of horses a half-day to draw it to the river bank near the 
 president's house, costing about $20. 
 
 I have also a distinct recollection of some of the ditches. 
 One between College and Abbot was in places one and two feet 
 deeper than the height of the boys. The dripping from the dirt 
 thrown out and the spatter of the water from the chopping of 
 the roots made the boys look as though they had taken a mud 
 bath. 
 
 The administration was frequently criticized for this exten- 
 sive work, but the legislature which fixed the Hmit of the location 
 of the College and those who selected the site should share the 
 responsibiUty. 
 
 I have imperfectly and hurriedly mentioned a few of the 
 happenings of the six college terms ending November, 1859, and 
 can now simply add that about two hundred acres had been 
 cleared, four residences, a barn, and a small toolhouse had been 
 erected, the lots well fenced and in condition to produce good 
 crops, and a creditable garden and a greenhouse were well 
 started. Better than all this, I believe the boys generally had 
 reached that point where they appreciated that the work helped 
 pay their way, gain health and vigor, and assist rather than 
 hinder their studies. 
 
 I mentioned the dearth of female society during most of the 
 terms until partially supplied by the girls of the "Fem Sem." 
 I would not have it understood nor leave it to be inferred that 
 the wives of the ofi&cers were not thoughtful and ready with 
 kindly assistance; but they lived in Lansing until the latter 
 part of the period covered and so could do little. I am sure 
 
70 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 those at the College, when the steward and all his help left and 
 the boys for a considerable time did the housework, recall how 
 Mrs. Williams came daily to the College and gave generously 
 of her time to assist us. Nor did we forget the many acts of 
 kindness rendered by Mrs. Shearer who naturally left with her 
 husband. For her motherly care and numerous helpful services 
 in previous terms she will ever be held in grateful remembrance. 
 
MEMBERS OF THE EARLY FACULTY 
 
 ALBERT JOHN COOK, 1862 
 
 Brothers and Sisters, Alumni and Alumnae, and Friends All: 
 
 I come with you to bring my tribute of respect, admiration, 
 and love for our cherished Mother, imder pecuHar difi&culties. 
 When the summons came to leave duty and join in the glad 
 festivities, I thought it would be quite impossible. But when 
 the invitation came to speak for the men who planted this 
 institution, men who seemed inspired in thought and purpose, 
 so well did they build; men who worked with a Titan's energy; 
 how could I say ''No," though obstacles, high as Olympus, 
 pushed themselves between me and this beloved place ? Besides, 
 no other one living knew all the men who wrought so admirably 
 to lay the foundations of this splendid institution, who though 
 they must grope in unknown fields, yet varied not from the 
 course to the stars. 
 
 The late James A. Garfield spoke wisely in his memorable 
 eulogy of President Mark Hopkins. Yet forsooth, unless the 
 log were very short, there were better no log at all. Not even 
 a log held the early professors of this College away from those 
 first fortunate students. Indeed, it was the glory of the old 
 Michigan Agricultural College that teacher and student were in 
 closest touch. We old boys were ever welcome to closest inti- 
 macy with WiUiams, Abbot, Tracy, Thurber, and Miles, and 
 we shall never fully appreciate the value of the inspiration that 
 came to us from such helpful and wholesome association. A 
 college is just what its teaching force — its faculty — gives out 
 of energy, scholarship, and character. Were there ever teachers 
 of more sterHng stuff, more keenly alive to duty, than was that 
 fine galaxy of men who so eagerly opened to us the pages of 
 
 71 
 
72 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 science, art, and literature ? Scholarship is what most gilds a 
 college. No college ranks high, unless scholarship is its watch- 
 word, ever kept at the forefront. What an example of scholar- 
 ship we had in the pedagogical founders of this institution! 
 No wonder that with such examples of scholarship as that of 
 WiUiams and Abbot and their colleagues, the students were 
 stimulated to keenest mental effort ! 
 
 But the greatest glory of any college are such examples 
 of noble hving that the students will most Hve, and so "will think 
 most, feel the noblest, and act the best." Who that were here 
 in those early days, and were touched by the impress of Dr, 
 Abbot's sweet, true, loving spirit, can ever think of that life 
 and influence, without being ennobled, even though so many 
 years separate us from those glad hours? This College was 
 well planned from its very inception ; but what would planning 
 avail, had we not had devotion to scholarship, purity of life, 
 and keenness of conscience ? 
 
 We have all reaHzed how discouragingly short those golden 
 years of study were ! Have you not marveled that so many of 
 our men took positions side by side with men whose opportuni- 
 ties had been of much broader range, and yet that our men were 
 often in the lead ? Two things the great college must needs 
 do: it must teach its students how to grasp truth — to acquire 
 knowledge rapidly ; it must also inspire in its students a genuine 
 love for study, which shall be an unquenchable passion. When 
 it has done this, it may send its students forth, and they are 
 potentially equipped. I beheve this College has been pecuHarly 
 happy, through its scholarly men, in achieving these results. 
 
 Nor were our professors without able support. Bright, 
 eager, responsive students did much to give impetus to mental 
 "dig" in those days, when educational history was in process of 
 making. Such men as Prentiss and Dickey and Clute and 
 Preston and hosts more Uke them were as stimulating to our 
 strenuous teachers as were the teachers inspiring to the pupils. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 73 
 
 Yes indeed, our professors had splendid timber to fashion, and 
 less wonder is it that their strokes were heavy and true. 
 
 PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. WILLIAMS 
 
 This CoUege was peculiarly happy in its first president. He 
 was a man of fine physique, pleasing presence, keen, active 
 intellect, and possessed of a ready humor, that made him the 
 ever-welcome companion of the student. He was also a man 
 of broad, tolerant views, and were he alive today, he would 
 keenly appreciate the proposition of a "square deal." The 
 pecuHar ideas which dominated in the early history of the 
 College, whose wisdom was affirmed by results, originated 
 largely with President Williams. When we remember that 
 this was the pioneer agricultural coUege and that he was emphati- 
 cally a pioneer, blazing a path in an entirely unexplored realm, 
 it is a marvel that he fashioned so wisely and well. Moreover, 
 he had no experts, as we have now, to whom he might turn for 
 aid, in guiding this new enterprise to a successful issue. His 
 masterful mind was well illustrated in his selection of the men 
 to assist him in the new experiment. Mrs. Williams was a 
 real colaborer, and the home of the first president was a bright 
 spot for many a student who enjoyed its ever-open hospitality, 
 in those days when agricultural college was parsed in the singular 
 number. 
 
 PROFESSOR CALVIN TRACY 
 
 Among the first of the professors whose pleasure it was to 
 throw Hght into dark places, was our tall, eager, enthusiastic 
 professor of mathematics. Professor Calvin Tracy. He had 
 written books that had won high praise. His health was poor, 
 as indigestion was his constant companion. He told me more 
 than once that he did not know what it was to feel well, and yet 
 how ready and cheerful he was to help us over hard places! 
 He was not only a close student but he was so transparently 
 
74 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 true that his character rooted in the hearts and lives of his 
 young companions, so that as they went forth, they had a firm 
 grip on the best things of Ufe. Such genuinely Christian char- 
 acter as guided the life of Professor Tracy never fails or ceases 
 to influence every life that it touches, to higher thought and 
 endeavor. It was jocosely remarked that "Professor Tracy 
 loved the truly good boys and the 'digs;'" with his frail health 
 and love for good scholarship, one can easily imagine him 
 possessed of such prejudice. Can anyone who participated in 
 those memorable geometry contests ever forget the ecstatic 
 pride of our teacher, as the rapid, accurate work was reeled 
 off as by a whirlwind ? No one can know of Professor Tracy's 
 life and thorough, earnest work, and not ascribe to him a large 
 place in giving to the College its trend and temper. 
 
 PROFESSOR LOUIS R. FISK 
 
 Professor L. R. Fisk was one of that first faculty. He was 
 a tall man with pleasing manner, and was ever gracious to all 
 who came to him for consultation and advice. After the resig- 
 nation of President Williams, Professor Fisk was acting presi- 
 dent, until President Abbot was called to the presidency of the 
 CoUege. Professor Fisk was not so scholarly nor so thorough 
 and accurate a teacher as were some of his colleagues, yet he 
 was devoted to the interests of the College, and did much in 
 those early first days to aid in placing the College on a perma- 
 nent foundation and to create a loyal student body. 
 
 PRESIDENT THEOPHILUS C. ABBOT 
 
 Dr. T. C. Abbot was not at the College at its opening, in 1857, 
 but he came soon and remained, honored and loved by aU, until 
 he was called to a higher realm of glory and usefulness. No 
 one ever connected with this College did more to inspire sound 
 scholarship, to exalt manhood, to develop in the students the 
 very best of endeavor and accomplishment, than our revered 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 75 
 
 Professor Abbot. "His life was gentle, and the elements were 
 so mixed in him, that nature might stand forth and say to all 
 the world. This was a man!" Why did President Abbot have 
 the entire confidence and reverence of the student body to a 
 greater degree than I have known in any other, in all my college 
 experience ? He was a great student, and never appeared 
 before his classes except when he was master of the subject he 
 was to present. His deep, strong, but quiet enthusiasm, tem- 
 pered by modesty and simplicity, inspired his students, and I 
 often heard them say: "I would rather flunk in all my other 
 classes than in President Abbot's." There was no shadow of 
 pretense in his mental make-up, and he was a bold student who 
 would ever venture to palm off anything that was not genuine in 
 President Abbot's lecture-room. How fondly he touched his 
 precious books! To see his reverent handling of books made 
 us all love books the more. How free his great library was to 
 all of us! How doubly careful were we that no spot or stain 
 should mar those sacred volumes while in our care and keeping ! 
 Busy as was his life, whoever remembers the time when he would 
 not eagerly take an hour if he could lift any of us over our troubles 
 and difficulties? His quick, unselfish love for us all left no 
 room for question, and the dullest, most heedless student among 
 us knew that Dr. Abbot was his certain friend. Thus he 
 proved to us "what is the greatest thing in the world." 
 
 How Tennyson, and Milton, and greatest of all, Shakespeare, 
 took on new life as he opened their treasures to our dazed appre- 
 ciation. Lycidas became a gem which we have always treasured, 
 since he revealed its rare polish. Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, 
 and the Merchant of Venice were all transformed as he brought 
 out the rare beauties and the deeper philosophies of those great 
 dramas. Rhetoric and logic and English Hterature took hard 
 study; yet as he flooded these themes with light, they became 
 fascinating to us, and we wished the recitation hour longer and 
 the time for study not so short. To have known President Abbot 
 
76 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 as a teacher, and to have enjoyed his masterful lectures, pre- 
 sented with a splendid diction and rare finish, explain the fact 
 that highest ideals in culture and life were at the very first a 
 treasured part of the equipment of this institution. The cause 
 of agricultural education owes a great debt to this College, and 
 to no one man more than to Dr. Abbot. 
 
 As can truly be said of President Abbot, so we can say with 
 equal truth of Mrs, Abbot, " None knew her but to love her, 
 none named her but to praise." She was the true wife, cultured, 
 bright, scintillating; she made their home the dearest place on 
 the campus. It was a very Mecca to us students, and ever held 
 its hospitable arms wide open to give glad welcome to us and 
 our friends. How far I am from being alone in my feeHng that 
 I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to President and Mrs. 
 Abbot! 
 
 He was the ideal college president, great enough to consult 
 with and hsten to his faculty and ever to keep the respect and 
 confidence of his board. Such a president always commands 
 a loyal student support, and his influence will ever be in the 
 ascendency. Until disease laid its heavy hand upon him. Dr. 
 Abbot was a tremendous power in the College, and better, a 
 power that always made for righteousness. 
 
 DR. MANLY MILES 
 
 Dr. M. Miles, though not in the faculty at the opening of 
 the College, came very soon, and for twenty years was a colossal 
 force in molding its character and steering its course. Dr. Miles 
 was a born scientist, a hard student, a close, accurate observer, 
 and he loved to unearth truth as he loved nothing else. He made 
 the truths of physiology and zoology fairly glow with interest. 
 It was pleasure to give hardest effort to master his subjects. 
 We knew that he burned the midnight oil, and the perfection 
 of his work won the respect which every good teacher must 
 command from his pupils. Laziness and good teaching are 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 77 
 
 never bed-fellows. It is not too much to say that there was not 
 a lazy hair in the capillary envelope of our beloved professor of 
 agriculture. When he commenced to teach us entomology, 
 there were no suitable textbooks, but what cared he ? Like 
 Agassiz, whom he so much admired, he taught us to study the 
 things of nature and not what others had said of them. His 
 enthusiasm kindled a quick flame in the minds of his students; 
 and how he loved to dig out the hidden truths of agriculture ; and 
 what a superb course he built up in that branch ! Next to Dr. 
 Abbot, and I am sure that Dr. Miles would wish me to make 
 this exception, were he with us today, he did more than any 
 other of that early staff, to direct this College rightly. It was 
 a sorry day for this institution, when the governor demanded 
 his resignation. If "dirt is matter out of place," then a short 
 word describes that governor. Wliat Agassiz was to natural 
 science development and teaching in this country, so was Dr. 
 Miles to the development of agriculture and agricultural instruc- 
 tion. Dr. Miles's versatiUty was surprising. He had rare 
 genius in all lines of mechanical invention, and his readiness of 
 resource added to his power over his students. This College, 
 and agricultural education as well, must never forget how 
 much that is best in their fabric came from the hard work and 
 rare genius of Dr. Manly Miles. 
 
 DR. GEORGE THURBER 
 
 Dr. Thurber was very much like Dr. Miles in many ways. 
 He was here but two or three years, and yet his hard work and 
 marked ability in the science which he loved so well, and his 
 vivacious enthusiasm made him a great favorite among all the 
 students. The exceeding pleasure that came to me in the 
 multitudinous walks with Dr. Thurber, and the love of natural 
 science that came as he opened the great book of Nature in his 
 marvelous fashion, awaked in me a loving appreciation that 
 has deepened with the years. Dr. Thurber's government work 
 
78 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 had given him rich opportunity to solve Nature's problems, 
 and he improved them to the utmost. The students thought of 
 Dr. Thurber as a walking encyclopaedia, and indeed he deserved 
 the title. He was quick with advice and information upon 
 almost every subject; and his perpetual fund of wholesome 
 humor made him the center of attraction in every social gather- 
 ing. His telHng service in the horticultural department, and 
 his exceptional ability to make science clear and fascinating, 
 constituted seed of the right kind, when agricultural education 
 was first taking root. Except for his one lamentable failing, 
 what a power for good he might have become, in this first agri- 
 cultural college ! I have often wished that he might have had 
 in boyhood and youth such influence and companionship as 
 would have come with association with one like Dr. Abbot. 
 How different might have been his life, and how he might have 
 enriched the science department of this College through his 
 rare ability and genius ! 
 
 PROFESSOR ALBERT N. PRENTISS 
 
 Professor A. N. Prentiss was one of the first two alumni 
 called to the faculty of this institution. My intimate association 
 with him, and friendship for four years of college life, and my 
 equally pleasant relation with him as a fellow-teacher, make it 
 difficult to speak dispassionately regarding his character and 
 work. Of all my college associates, next to Dr. Abbot, he did 
 most for me. He was clean, true, able, industrious, and of that 
 gracious make-up, that would never barter character for aught 
 that life or man could offer. In the seven years that he taught 
 here, he builded up the department of botany and horticulture 
 in marvelous fashion. How little he had to help him, and yet 
 how the students loved him and his work ! His dignity of bearing 
 and purity of life were a constant inspiration to the entire student 
 body. Cornell took a gem from us, when she captured Professor 
 Prentiss. This College has made mistakes; I think the first 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 79 
 
 was when she permitted Cornell to swoop down and rob us of 
 the invaluable services of Professor A. N. Prentiss. 
 
 PRESIDENT EDWIN WILLETS 
 
 Many of you knew Edwin Willets as well as did I ; but I am 
 sure that none of you loved him more. He was a man of broad 
 outlook. He had a great heart and every student knew that 
 President Willets was a friend that could be coimted on. We 
 all had reason for sadness, when it was announced that President 
 Willets had been called higher, and had accepted. With Presi- 
 dent Willets came a change in the management of the College. 
 I think it was a sad mistake, not to say a disastrous one. Before 
 this, changes in internal management were suggested and all 
 new appointments to the faculty were nominated by the presi- 
 dent, but only after fullest conference with and approval of the 
 faculty. The board only confirmed. No college board ought 
 ever to do more. With President Willets came a lamentable 
 change ; I feel sure without his desire. Additions to the faculty 
 and startling changes in the internal management were made, 
 with no consultation at all with the faculty, and at times, I 
 think, without the knowledge of the president. I know not if 
 this plan still prevails, but if it does, the College is laboring under 
 a serious handicap, and one that the alumni should undertake 
 at once to remove. 
 
 PRESIDENT OSCAR CLUTE 
 
 President Clute was the other of the first two alumni that 
 served on the faculty. He was also a loved classmate. He 
 was scholarly in his habits, and clean and true in his life. I need 
 not speak to you of his quick response to duty's call. I must, 
 however, give a page or two from the last chapter of his hfe. 
 He lived near me, and I saw him often. He suffered great pain, 
 and led a lonely hfe. At the last, he was in a great room at the 
 Soldier's Home, and so knew no privacy or retirement. To one 
 
8o MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 of his peculiarly sensitive nature, this must have been a severe 
 trial. Yet he made no murmur, and never was he more loved 
 and respected by those closest to him than in those last sad 
 days when pain and solitude laid such heavy hands upon him. 
 He exemplifies in the last hours how real Christian character 
 may glorify life, even in the "dark valley of the shadow of 
 death." 
 
 PROFESSOR C. L. INGERSOLL 
 
 We were proud of Professor IngersoU. His work here was 
 excellent. Subsequently, as a professor in a prominent univer- 
 sity, and as president of one of our prominent agricultural 
 colleges, he added new laurels to his fame. With us, he made his 
 lectures so virile that though his students must work hard, yet 
 they loved and respected their teacher, and were full of regrets, 
 when another institution, that placed a higher value on his 
 services, took him away. I have spoken of two mistakes made 
 by this College, in bygone years; one was emphasized when 
 such men as IngersoU, Garfield, Davenport, Durand, and 
 Bailey were suffered to leave us. Think what prestige has 
 come to Champaign, from the admirable work of Davenport! 
 And what glory limited not by country's shores has come to 
 Cornell, from the splendid work of Bailey ! All of this prestige 
 should have come to their own Alma Mater, and would, had 
 the value and the rarity of great teachers been appreciated. 
 The faculty makes the college. Two things are of such incom- 
 parable importance, that they must be insisted upon: the 
 greatest pains must be taken in securing new men, and the 
 valuable knowledge of the faculty must be utiHzed to the utmost 
 in making selections. We must have high scholarship, aptness 
 to teach, and most important of all, men of transcendent char- 
 acter. The other point is just as important: when the right 
 man is secured, hold to him with a relentless grip. Such a 
 course will push any college into the ascendency. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 8 1 
 
 E. M. PRESTON AND S. M. MILLARD 
 
 I cannot forbear to give meed of loving appreciation of two 
 of our alumni. Preston and Millard were samples of scores 
 of the old-time boys : clean and spotless in their lives, possessed 
 of a manly chivalry that was sweet and wholesome here, and 
 that changed not as they stepped forth from college halls — men 
 who set a pace, in that nothing was permitted to crowd between 
 them and lessons thoroughly learned. The example of both 
 was ever shouting, " Dig," in the ears of all of us students. Is it 
 any wonder that both became marked men in the states they 
 honored by citizenship ? Millard was for years the president 
 of the regents of the University of Illinois, and Preston has his 
 name perpetuated in one of the excellent institutions of Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 As we come back to the dear old College, we are happy and 
 proud to note the great growth and advancement that she has 
 made; we deHght in the splendid men that have gone forth to 
 true manly lives. And may we not drop tears in grateful memory 
 of the men, who from the first gave of the best in their lives, that 
 this College might be an example of highest excellence and that 
 the alumni might honor their teachers, and their Alma Mater, 
 by doing nobly their part in the world's work ? 
 
HOW THEY TAUGHT IN THE EARLY DAYS 
 
 CHARLES EDWIN BESSEY, 1869 
 
 Picture these grounds as they were forty years ago, with one 
 college building (now, I think, called Wilhams Hall, but in 
 those days merely " the College Building"), one small dormitory, 
 four dwellings for professors, a barn, a toolhouse, and a shed for 
 sheep; the grounds mostly ungraded, the surrounding fields 
 undrained and still retaining many of the giant stumps left when 
 the recent forest was cut away. About the College Building 
 was a little spot of graded bluegrass lawn, with a few gravel 
 walks bordered with flower-beds and shrubbery. Here had 
 been retained some of the broad, spreading oaks of the primeval 
 forest to give dignity to the landscape. North and south and 
 east and west, the nearby forests still loomed, cool and shadowy, 
 filled with wild shrubs and countless wild flowers. And through 
 the grounds ran the Red Cedar River, with its overhanging 
 trees, its single wooden bridge, and many inviting swimming- 
 pools. It is a quiet, rural picture which comes back in memory 
 as I think of the College of the days when I knew it best. 
 
 The faculty as I first knew it consisted of six men : Abbot, 
 our beloved president; Kedzie, the strong and sometimes stern 
 chemist; Miles, the philosophical naturalist; Prentiss, the 
 polished disciplinarian; Clute, the thoughtful student; and 
 Fairchild, the mild-mannered scholar, now all resting in their 
 graves ; added to a year or two later by Cook, the genial teacher, 
 who is still Hving. There was one assistant, Daniels, a quiet, 
 helpful man who assisted Dr. Kedzie in the laboratory work in 
 chemistry. These men gave all of the instruction then offered in 
 the single college course of study. The College Building con- 
 tained thirteen rooms, namely: the Chapel, and the Chemical 
 
 82 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 83 
 
 Laboratory on the first floor; two recitation rooms, and four 
 office rooms on the second floor; and the Library, Museum, and 
 three recitation rooms (two quite small) on the third floor. 
 The Chapel and Museum were sometimes used for recitations, 
 so that there were seven rooms available for class purposes — 
 not a bad showing for the little college of about a hundred 
 students, when it is remembered that there were at most not 
 more than four recitations each hour, and only six professors in 
 all to hold recitations. In fact, but four rooms in addition to 
 the Chapel were ordinarily used for classes. The chemical 
 classes always met in the Chapel, since it was possible to bring 
 apparatus to it very easily from the laboratory on the same floor. 
 The classes in botany met in a small room at the southeast corner 
 of the third floor. The other rooms were common, and were 
 used by classes in any subjects. All of the regular classrooms 
 were supplied with blackboards and plain wooden chairs, and 
 these constituted the "appliances" of that day. In most cases 
 the professors had neither tables, desks, nor cupboards. Each 
 professor quite literally occupied a chair, and nothing further. 
 
 It was emphatically the period of the textbook. Some of 
 the professors gave lectures, but in every subject the student 
 always had his textbook as the basis of his study, and daily 
 recitations were the rule. We learned things from books, and 
 were asked to repeat them orally at greater or less length to our 
 teachers. We were not asked to write out what we knew, but 
 were required to stand up and tell it under the keen eye of the 
 professor, and the brutally critical attention of the class. In 
 this way we learned to think on our feet, and I have always felt 
 that much has been lost by the general abandonment of the old- 
 time recitation, and the substitution of the written quiz and 
 examination. 
 
 Chemistry, even at that early day, was taught by practical 
 work in the laboratory. We had one lecture or recitation a day, 
 and in addition two hours daily of laboratory work. In the 
 
84 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 lecture the professor accompanied his presentation of the subject 
 by carefully planned demonstration experiments, greatly to our 
 edification, and occasionally to our amusement. In the labora- 
 tory we plunged at once into the qualitative analysis of unknown 
 substances. We learned to handle chemicals and apparatus 
 by the very simple plan of actually handhng them ourselves. 
 Of course we broke apparatus, and blew up things rather often, 
 but finally we learned to be careful, and no one was killed or 
 seriously hurt in the process. 
 
 In marked contrast to chemistry, was the presentation of 
 physics which was wholly a textbook study. We used Olm- 
 stead's Natural Philosophy, reciting and demonstrating (on 
 the blackboard) from its pages, but neither making experiments 
 ourselves nor seeing any made by the professor. 
 
 Surveying was made a living subject for us by the addition 
 to a stiff textbook of a considerable amount of field-work, with 
 compass, transit, and level, and the accurate plotting of results. 
 
 Our geology was still a textbook subject only. There was 
 no thought of the use of specimens of rocks or fossils by the 
 class, nor was there any required field-work in connection with 
 the subject. Yet there were in the Museum on the third floor 
 many such specimens. The idea of their use by the students 
 had not yet taken hold of teachers in American colleges. The 
 Museum contained specimens to be looked at through the glass 
 doors of the cases by the public and occasionally by the students, 
 but such specimens were for preservation, not for handling. 
 
 In zoology we used a textbook, but its required use was small, 
 indeed. The professor (Dr. Miles) loved to talk to us, and he 
 led us in his talks far deeper into the subject than did any 
 textbook of that period. Thus while we got less of detail, we 
 were given broader views and larger generalizations than would 
 have been possible by the textbook method. We always had 
 before us the skeleton of a cow or some other creature, and to 
 it the lecturer recurred for illustration times without number, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 85 
 
 no doubt greatly to our benefit. Still the fact that we made no 
 use of the mounted animals in the museum shows that the idea 
 of illustrating the subject by specimens had not yet been adopted 
 in zoology, to say nothing of the laboratory idea, of which 
 apparently no one had yet thought. 
 
 Even the subject of entomology was mainly a textbook study. 
 We memorized so many pages and repeated them as nearly as 
 possible verbatim. Here we looked at specimens brought to 
 the class. There was also some desultory collecting of speci- 
 mens, and now and then a student was seen frantically pawing 
 the air with a ''bug-net," in his efforts to capture some beetle, 
 bug, or butterfly. But we were under no supervision as to 
 any field-work we might undertake. A few of us were fortunate 
 enough to be employed in arranging and labeling the college 
 collections under the supervision of the professor, and here we 
 learned much about insects, their appearance, classification, 
 and the practical work of making a scientific collection. It 
 was laboratory work, but none of us recognized it, nor did we 
 ever use the word "laboratory" in connection with it. 
 
 In my own science of botany the work was then mainly con- 
 fined to daily recitations from a textbook, accompanied later 
 by dissections and "analyses" of plants in the classroom, under 
 the direction of the professor. We had a few simple dissecting 
 microscopes which we used in these exercises. Here was no 
 doubt the germ of the laboratory idea as applied to botany. 
 But the purpose was not so much to find out the structure of the 
 plant as to find its name. When that was accomplished we 
 stopped further study of the plant. The name was the impor- 
 tant thing and when it was found there was nothing more to be 
 done, unless perhaps to check it off on the margin of the manual. 
 In pursuance of this phase of botany we were required to do a 
 good deal of field-work. We wandered over the fields, through 
 the woods and swamps, often for long distances, in search of 
 plants whose names we found out and duly recorded. Yet 
 
86 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 our work was neither supervised nor corrected, nor were our 
 lists of species submitted as a part of our work. We were not 
 required to make herbarium specimens, although encouraged to 
 do so, and some of us did make herbaria on our own account. 
 
 There was at that day a considerable collection of plants 
 known as the "Cooley Herbarium" that had come into the 
 possession of the College, and fortunately for me, it was in need 
 of being mounted and labeled, and it fell to me to do it. This 
 work which occupied my time for many weeks gave me most 
 valuable experience in a department of the subject that was 
 not taken up in the classroom. 
 
 The College then owned an immense Ross compound micro- 
 scope, which we used to see standing in a case in a corner of the 
 botanical classroom. It was never taken out for use in class, 
 but always stood there as a challenge to us. I do not know 
 what anyone else did, but at last I could stand it no longer, and 
 getting permission from Professor Prentiss, who gave me the 
 key to the case, I locked myself in the classroom, and taking out 
 the ponderous instrument, looked it over, studied its complex 
 machinery, and made myself familiar with its structure and use. 
 This was my first use of the compound microscope, and this 
 was all the practice I had with the instrument while in the 
 CoUege. It was not much, but it was a beginning, and it enabled 
 me to handle the next instrument which came into my hands 
 when a teacher myself, and to this extent made my own work 
 more successful. 
 
 It was a primitive coUege, and the teaching of the sciences 
 was primitive. We may smile now at the kind of instruction 
 we received at the hands of the professors of that day, but it 
 must not be forgotten that science teaching was rather new in 
 all colleges at that time. Sciences were not well taught in any 
 of them. In many they were not taught at all. And it is the 
 glory of our Alma Mater that she encouraged the study of these 
 sciences. Forty years ago this was the only college in the West 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 87 
 
 in which one could study all of the great sciences in any manner, 
 or after any fashion at all. And it is greatly to her credit that, 
 with the possible exception of Harvard University, this College 
 then gave the most extended and thorough course in botany in 
 this country. 
 
 It was a pioneer in science teaching, and its primitive methods 
 were due to the fact that nowhere were better methods known 
 or practiced. Elsewhere they were generally still more primi- 
 tive. The College stood then as now for the study of things, as 
 shown especially in its teaching of agriculture, horticulture, and 
 stock breeding. In so far as possible even then the thing rather 
 than the book was studied. The College was instinctively, though 
 unconsciously, moving toward the modern laboratory method. 
 It led the way toward illustration and the direct study of things 
 themselves, and gave a strong impulse in aid of the incoming of 
 the laboratory idea. 
 
 That the professors of that day builded better than they 
 knew is no doubt true, but we cannot on that account withhold 
 from them our praise for their good work, nor our gratitude for 
 what they did for us. No alumnus of this College need be 
 ashamed of the kind of work done in the early days, but rather 
 should he be proud that his Alma Mater, though so young among 
 the colleges of that time, was among the first to adopt modern 
 methods of teaching and study. 
 
THE COLLEGE IN 1870 
 
 WILLIAM JAMES BEAL 
 
 Early in May, 1870, 1 made my first visit to this College, then 
 13 years old, to teach botany during the summer. As a con- 
 tributor to the Prairie Farmer I came with keen interest and 
 wrote out my first impressions. Lansing was a town of 6,000 to 
 7,000, in the midst of which was the old capitol constructed of 
 wood. There was but one railroad passing through the city 
 from Jackson to Saginaw, and that was of primitive style. I 
 secured a ride to the College with a farmer, and on the way soon 
 learned that many farmers within twenty miles placed a low 
 estimate on the value of the "state farm," as it was often called 
 at that time. The course extended over clay knolls and cordu- 
 roy, the poles of which were to keep the wagon wheels from get- 
 ting deep into the mire. I saw how it was that President Abbot 
 rarely rode in a buggy that was not well plastered over with clay. 
 We were welcomed to the campus by driving through a patent 
 self-opening gate — often out of order. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to give a detailed description of the 
 campus. Large numbers of the trees of the oak opening were 
 dotted over the ground, most of which had been heavily cut back 
 from the top with the thought that it would improve their appear- 
 ance. This work had been done by C. E. HoUister, then a 
 student and later a member of the first class to graduate in 186 1. 
 
 At the right of the main gateway, then nearly due north from 
 College Hall, were four small brick dwellings for the president 
 and three professors. The bricks for these and the two halls 
 were manufactured on the college campus, west of the present 
 armory. Here^ is old College Hall, Williams Hall just com- 
 
 I While reading this paragraph Dr. Beal pointed to various locations on 
 a large map of the campus as it was in 1870. — Editor. 
 
o 
 
 W o 
 
 O ^ 
 
 U 
 
 bO 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 89 
 
 pleted, the old Boarding Hall later dubbed "Saints' Rest," for 
 reasons which I never fully appreciated. Here the old brick 
 horse-barn, there the farmhouse, herdman's house, the old barn 
 for grain and cattle, a greenhouse of primitive form, and the barn 
 for use of the horticultural department. There is the town line 
 between Lansing and Meridian. What is that zig-zag Une along 
 the road ? Do you not recognize a drawing of a rail fence which 
 has nearly gone out of fashion ? Names of the faculty here, and 
 there the list of buildings, and up there the number of students 
 in different classes ; and on this chart are the names of the studies 
 pursued. 
 
 COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN 1870 
 
 FRESHMAN CLASS 
 
 First term 
 
 
 Second term 
 
 Algebra 
 
 
 Trigonometry 
 
 Geometry 
 
 
 Surveying 
 
 History 
 
 
 Practical Agriculture 
 
 Bookkeeping 
 
 
 Geology 
 
 
 SOPHOMORE YEAR 
 
 English Literature 
 
 
 Entomology 
 
 Botany 
 
 
 Analytical Chemistry 
 
 Elementary Chemistry 
 
 Botany 
 
 
 
 Horticulture 
 
 JUNIOR YEAR 
 
 Physics Physics 
 
 Agricultural Chemistry Meteorology 
 
 Inductive Logic Rhetoric 
 
 Animal Physiology 
 
 SENIOR YEAR 
 
 Zoology Landscape Gardening 
 
 Practical Agriculture Civil Engineering 
 
 Mental Philosophy Moral Philosophy 
 
 Astronomy Political Economy 
 
 French French 
 
 In 1870 the income of the College was less than .$40,000, the 
 year closing with a deficit of $6,000. 
 
90 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 The College was young, poor, and small. No member of the 
 faculty had a chair to himself, but occupied a whole settee. For 
 example, the professor of botany also taught history, some Eng- 
 lish, algebra, and civil engineering. The students took break- 
 fast a little after six, and got out of chapel by seven, where the 
 president called the roll. Classes extended over a period of four 
 hours, all closing at time for dinner. In the afternoon for three 
 hours all students were engaged in manual labor. While the 
 classes were small and much rough work to be done, such as 
 ditching and chopping wood, it was possible to enforce the law 
 regarding manual labor, but as the College became older, the 
 students more numerous, and foremen insufficient, the manage- 
 ment of student labor was very burdensome and was perplexing 
 in the extreme. Student labor was paid for at a maximum of 
 seven and one-half cents an hour, and very little of it was in- 
 structive. 
 
 The regular system of hours for all exercises was recognized 
 by horses as well as by students. For example, the department 
 of horticulture worked an old black stage horse called "Old 
 Prof.," which always started for the shed as soon as the after- 
 noon bell rang. He was very orderly, soon learning to back the 
 cart into a certain place under the shed. 
 
 The rough lane in place of the present one extended south 
 across the river ending in a tamarack swamp known as "Num- 
 ber 12," and all beyond was in forest. No railroads crossed the 
 farm in those days. 
 
 Fifty-nine students had graduated, of whom three had died. 
 The ten women students selected such studies as suited them 
 from the only course offered at the College, viz., the course in 
 agriculture. Even at that day. President Abbot urged that some 
 special provisions be made for a course suited to women, includ- 
 ing household economy. 
 
 The college year consisted of two semesters, beginning late in 
 February and closing with commencement in November, thus 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 91 
 
 affording an opportunity for students who desired it to teach a 
 district school in winter. As will be seen, the entrance to the 
 college classes was easy and of low standing. There was only 
 one laboratory, and that was for chemistry in the north end of 
 College Hall. 
 
 In 1870 it was not difficult to plan a course of study for an 
 agricultural college. Except some points gathered from man- 
 ual labor, which were not numerous nor very important, the 
 students received, all told, eight weeks of daily work in horti- 
 culture and ten weeks in agriculture, and these topics were 
 chiefly taught by the slow process of lectures. There were few 
 books and papers to aid students in their pursuit of agriculture. 
 The College was in the woods, so to speak, with no model to 
 follow. Nowhere in this broad country were students taught 
 advanced stock judging, stock feeding, the examination of 
 dressed meats, soil physics, dairying, plant breeding, plant 
 histology, ecology, plant pathology, the critical study of grasses, 
 weeds, or trees, plant physiology, farm economics, the growing 
 of forest trees, spraying for insects and fungus. Bacteriology as 
 related to animals, dairying, soils, and plants was a sealed book. 
 
 The College had been started long before there was much 
 demand for it by the best of farmers. This was due to the per- 
 sistence of John C. Holmes, then secretary of the State Agri- 
 cultural Society, more than to all other persons combined. 
 Inaugurated under such conditions, adverse criticism was inevi- 
 table. Newspapers gave the College plenty of negative or left- 
 hand advertising. For many years the only advertisements 
 paid for was a part of a page in the Michigan Almanac. As 
 late as 1870, the College had little contact with farmers by way 
 of institutes or extension correspondence. 
 
 A few staunch men stood nobly by the College, notable among 
 whom was Hon. Jonathan J. Woodman, afterward master of the 
 State Grange and later master of the National Grange. From 
 1869 to 187 1 he was speaker of the House of Representatives 
 
92 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 and admitted that the College was not what it should be; but 
 that was no reason why it should be discontinued, rather, "it 
 is a reason why we should hold on, rally to its support, doing 
 the best we can to help make it better, that it may become a 
 credit to the state, the nation, and the whole civiHzed world." 
 A word about this chart on the wall, to which Mr. Monroe 
 has referred. Six inches in length represents a year, and the 
 width indicates the number of students in each year. The 
 additions and endowments are represented on the upper side; 
 the names of the presidents appear in the middle of the stream, 
 sometimes deep and often turbulent. Leading events are named 
 on the lower edge of the canvas. The widening stream repre- 
 senting I, coo students, on which appears the name of President 
 Snyder, is not the delta as it might seem, right at the entrance to 
 a great sea, but is believed to represent this College fairly enter- 
 ing on a long series of years of ever-increasing prosperity when 
 the students shall be numbered by thousands. 
 
EARLY MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNING BOARD 
 
 CHARLES W. GARFIELD, 1870 
 
 To successfully manage an educational institution which 
 connects itself with important matters of statecraft requires the 
 highest type of public-spirited citizenship. To perform the best 
 work in this capacity a man's purview must exceed the range of 
 vision which is hmited by a desire to serve his own ambition. 
 Men of this type are not so plentiful as to make the task of their 
 selection an easy one. 
 
 In any special type of education, which has to work its way 
 into popular favor by the development of resuks which appeal 
 strongly to the average man who feels it his right and privilege 
 to criticize, there are special difficulties which often become a 
 menace to the highest grade of management. When this 
 management is in an appointive board the authority which is 
 responsible for the appointments really holds the reins of the 
 institution. In our own state the governor has from near the 
 beginning of the Agricultural College had the appointment of 
 the members of the Board of Agriculture. He has not always 
 been guided by the highest purposes, but has occasionally con- 
 sidered these appointments as opportunities to wipe out the 
 lesser political obligations incident to a political campaign. 
 
 However, as I review the history of our College management 
 and recall the anxieties connected with its growth, I think we 
 have been extremely fortunate in having at every period in its 
 history representatives of the highest type of citizenship in the 
 management of the institution. 
 
 In the early days the position of a member on the Board of 
 Agriculture was far from being a sinecure. Not only did the 
 members serve without pay, but the closest economy in their 
 
 93 
 
94 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 personal expense was required. I recall on many occasions 
 seeing these dignified gentlemen drawn through a continuous 
 mud hole from Lansing to the College in a farm wagon very 
 poorly provided with elasticity in its springs. These men were 
 domiciled with the various members of the faculty during the 
 periods of their meetings, and in the reports of the auditor- 
 general I notice that in many instances the only bill rendered 
 in the expense account was the railroad fare. It was at no small 
 sacrifice of life comforts that these gentlemen performed the 
 service of managing the CoUege. 
 
 During those early days the students graded higher in age 
 than now, and full-bearded men were common in the student 
 body in the years immediately following the Civil War. I recall 
 an instance when one of the recent appointees upon the faculty 
 mistook a board member for one of these students and the 
 conversation, which was intended to be patronizing, became 
 extremely ridiculous. 
 
 I have been fortunate in having had acquaintance with 
 nearly every member of the Board of Agriculture since it became 
 the controlling body of the CoUege. Of nearly fifty men who 
 have served in this capacity under appointment of the various 
 governors, I can speak of but few and choose them rather be- 
 cause of the impression they made upon my own mind as ac- 
 complishing results in connection with the evolution of the 
 institution of more than ordinary value. 
 
 First of all, towering above his colleagues, is the figure of 
 Judge Hezekiah G. WeUs, whose home was in Kalamazoo. He 
 was a man of poise ; he had a wide range of ability and the most 
 courtly manners; he was a natural leader. He came upon the 
 board when his type of character was most needed. He was a 
 fearless advocate of agricultural education when it had no popu- 
 lar favor; he was an earnest and persistent defender of the faith 
 when an agricultural education was sneered at by the educators, 
 and encountered the opposition of a united farm community. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 95 
 
 Never once, while he was a member of the Board of Agriculture, 
 did he falter in his purpose to make this first attempt in giving 
 an education toward agriculture a successful object-lesson in the 
 state of Michigan. While he did not live to see the full fruition 
 of his faithful service, the dawn appeared before he laid his 
 armor down. 
 
 Mr. S. O. Knapp, of Jackson, came upon the board when his 
 practical knowledge of affairs was most needed in the erection of 
 the second set of buildings and in the development of the campus. 
 Unusual duties were placed upon the shoulders of Mr. Knapp 
 because of his abihty and his nearness to the College. His knowl- 
 edge of business methods enabled him to economize the re- 
 stricted appropriations granted by the legislature so as to make 
 every dollar count for the institution. For many years he gave 
 freely of his time and energy, and to him, perhaps more than to 
 any one of the earlier members of the board, belongs the credit 
 of instituting the poHcy of definiteness in the financial pohcy of 
 the institution. 
 
 J. Webster Childs, of Ypsilanti, came upon the board after 
 having poHtical training and the acquirement of knowledge as 
 to the points of view taken by the farmers of the state. He was 
 a leader in the Grange movement and it was through the in- 
 fluence of his strong individuality that the farmers, through this 
 organization, new at that time, were brought into sympathy with 
 the College and began first to understand the possibilities in its 
 methods of education. 
 
 George W. Phillips, of Romeo, was a leading stock man and 
 one of the managers of the Michigan State Fair. He was also 
 interested in the first movement to establish farmers' institutes 
 in this state. He brought great strength and sympathy to the 
 CoUege through his commanding position in agricultural organi- 
 zations and his profound faith in the purposes of the College. 
 
 Franklin Wells, of Constantine, performed the longest service 
 of any man in the history of the Board of Agriculture of Michigan 
 
96 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 and every year's service from the first to the last was of increasing 
 value to the College. He was a practical business man and gave 
 his attention largely to the handling of the finances of the College. 
 He had Httle patience with glittering generalities. Exactness in 
 method and clearly defined purposes, with complete records of 
 all transactions in which public funds were employed, were 
 matters of great concern to him. Governor Bagley, in naming 
 him at his first appointment, said, "I want a good business man 
 in the college management," and in selecting Mr. Wells he 
 performed a most valuable service to the institution, the impress 
 of which was etched into the College history during a period of 
 more than a quarter of a century. 
 
 For many years the alumni of the College, while not criticizing 
 the action of any governor in making the appointments, argued 
 that there should be a graduate of the institution on its board of 
 management, and Henry G. Reynolds, of Old Mission, was the 
 first selection which recognized this expression and influence of 
 the Alumni Association. Mr. Reynolds brought into the atmos- 
 phere of the board a new element. He was closely in touch 
 with a large number of the graduates of the College; he under- 
 stood their contentions for modifications in the trend of the 
 College, and was fortunate in having a disposition which harmo- 
 nized with the other elements of the board, and from the very 
 outset his influence became strongly in evidence in the activities 
 of the board. 
 
 Col. William B. McCreery, of Flint, came upon the board 
 after having filled various positions in the state government and 
 with a very clear understanding of the elements of opposition 
 which had been so strongly in evidence during the earlier years of 
 the college history. From the very outset he was ready to fight 
 for the institution and would not for a moment listen to adverse 
 criticism without putting up an aggressive defense. He was 
 a man of quick intuition, ready in alternatives, earnest in his 
 methods, a good story-teller, and never knew what it was to be 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 97 
 
 discouraged. His keen sense of humor many times enlivened 
 sessions of the board which under the serious conditions would 
 otherwise have been very somber. 
 
 Henry Chamberlain, of Three Oaks, twice served the state 
 for a term of six years on this board. He was an example of 
 old-time gentility, courteous in manners, a student of educational 
 methods, a practical pohtician of a most excellent type, and a 
 broad-minded and determined man. He was always a fine 
 member to work with whether in committee of the whole or upon 
 a special mission. He was a keen observer of men, and during 
 his term of service perhaps had more to do with the selection of 
 members to go upon the teaching force than any other member 
 in the history of the Board of Agriculture. Wherever Mr. 
 Chamberlain went he was a partisan for agricultural education, 
 and he never considered it out of place to talk about the Michigan 
 Agricultural College. The institution was on his heart as well 
 as on his mind. 
 
 Cyrus G. Luce, of Coldwater, was rather a caustic critic of 
 the College previous to receiving his appointment upon the 
 board. He soon became convinced, however, of the great value 
 the institution could subserve in the state, and because of his 
 leadership in the Grange and in legislative halls he became a 
 power for good in the development of the institution. And when 
 he came into the gubernatorial chair, he, of aU the governors, 
 was the most regular in his attendance as an ex-officio member 
 of the board. 
 
 Ira H. Butterfield, of Lapeer, came upon the board after 
 having had a wide experience in the management of the State 
 Fair Association and in filling a position of trust imder the United 
 States government. Having had journalistic experience also, 
 his services were of pecuUar value to the College in that he gave 
 voice to its methods; and because he was a master of details, 
 he was always ready with a wealth of information to meet almost 
 any possible contingency in the movement of the College to 
 
98 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 catch the sympathies of people generally in its behalf. He 
 had genius in originating methods of promotion; he was re- 
 sourceful in plans for advertising the institution, and he knew, 
 better than any other member of my acquaintance, how to gather 
 in adherents to the cause of agricultural education without mak- 
 ing antagonisms. 
 
 As my mind recalls the other names connected with the 
 College management in the early days, it seems as if I was com- 
 mitting a serious error in not calUng attention to other men who 
 did special services, but time will not permit. All honor to 
 these citizens of Michigan who fought the good fight for a type 
 of education which has permeated the whole vast field of school 
 and college and university influence. They builded better than 
 they knew, and today it would make our cup of happiness to 
 run over if we could see these pioneers in the service of agri- 
 cultural education witness the fruition of which they scarcely 
 dreamed. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 99 
 
 MENDELSSOHN'S ORATORIO 
 
 Elijah 
 
 WEDNESDAY EVENING 
 
 Soprano — Mrs. Lillian French Reed 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Contralto — Miss Viola Paulus 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Tenor — Mr. John Young 
 
 New York 
 
 Basso — Dr. Carl Dufft 
 
 New York 
 
 THE BACH ORCHESTRA OF MILWAUKEE 
 Christopher Bach — Conductor 
 
 COLLEGE CHORUS 
 Miss Louise Freyhofer — Director 
 
OPEN SESSION OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND 
 
 EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
 
 THURSDAY MORNING 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 
 
 ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN 
 Commissioner of Education 
 
 The pioneer farmers of America had a double interest in 
 life. First and foremost, they were pioneers, with all of the 
 dangers and excitements of that pioneer life. Secondarily, 
 they were farmers. It was hard and rude and unskilful, the 
 farming in which they were engaged, but it gave them the necessi- 
 ties of Hfe. When the first dull opposition of nature was over- 
 come, when cabins had been built and woodlands cleared and 
 the plow had in some way done its first work, the soil showed 
 itself responsive and fertile enough. For a time, at least, life 
 was easier. But the zest of pioneering was gone, and the more 
 adventurous of our people soon moved on to the West, where 
 they might feel the thin edge of civilization still cutting its earhest 
 way through raw nature and barbarism, and know that that 
 keen edge was their own life and endeavor. The farmers who 
 remained behind were now farmers only and no longer pioneers. 
 They saw the first rank fertility of the soil fall back into more 
 moderate bounds. Their Hfe became tame and binding. New 
 wants arose with the rise of new social relations. A few in every 
 community were able, by insight and energy, to keep still in the 
 forefront of things in that new age, but for many the occupa- 
 tion which made up the greater part of their Hfe had become 
 an unpromising, uninspiring, unenlightened servitude. In this 
 jubilee today we are to recall the ways in which new zest has 
 been brought into the depressed Hfe of the American farmer, the 
 ways in which his farm has been made part of a new frontier, 
 and he has been made once more a pioneer. 
 
 At first the improvement of our husbandry was the work of a 
 
 103 
 
I04 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 few men, and these were men whose interest in farming was, in 
 large part, a public interest. George Washington was one of 
 the earliest and one of the most influential of these. First in 
 war and first in peace, he was also, it would seem, the first 
 American farmer of his day. His outlook over the educational 
 needs of the new nation included proposals for the estabhshment 
 of boards of agriculture, a military academy, and a national 
 university. Other statesmen with a care for agriculture and 
 other farmers who were statesmen in their view urged that prac- 
 tical provision be made for the collection and dissemination 
 of agricultural information. In the opinion of these men it was 
 information that was chiefly needed — information regarding the 
 experience and experiments of those who were already most 
 advanced in the practice of agriculture — to insure the general 
 improvement of the farming industry. The new awakening in 
 European agriculture had great influence among the leaders of 
 American agriculture at this time. 
 
 It was while we were still under the Articles of Confederation 
 that a beginning was made in the formation of agricultural 
 societies. Pennsylvania and South Carolina had established 
 such societies before the adoption of the Constitution. New 
 York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut followed during Washing- 
 ton's administration. The publications of these societies had 
 begun to appear before the close of the eighteenth century, and 
 agricultural fairs came into being in the first decades of the 
 nineteenth century. Various endeavors to secure the establish- 
 ment of a national board of agriculture had led, before the day 
 that we here celebrate, to the first seed distributions through the 
 national Patent Office, and to the first separate agricultural 
 appropriation, in 1854. 
 
 Through these several movements, supplemented by a 
 comparatively early development of an agricultural periodical 
 literature, and through many later developments of agricul- 
 tural organization, the growth of interest in the improvement of 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 105 
 
 rural conditions has long been actively fostered. But our atten- 
 tion today must be centered upon the development of organized 
 agricultural education, and to that subject we will turn without 
 any further delay. 
 
 Let us first note some bearings of agricultural education 
 which have often been discussed, but must be considered here 
 again in the interest of true educational perspective. Historically 
 it has been found extremely difficult to bring the subject of agri- 
 culture into any manageable pedagogic form. The fact that 
 everybody in the country knows something about it is at first 
 a hindrance rather than a help. It is difficult to treat the sub- 
 ject in such manner as to avoid, on the one hand, an excess of 
 platitude, a repetition of what everyone knows or thinks he 
 knows, and, on the other hand, an excess of unutilized natural 
 science, deeply interesting in itself but hard to apply on the farm. 
 Certain other subjects, of which education itself is one, share in 
 this handicap. It is a difficulty met with in European schools 
 of agriculture, and it had not been overcome in Europe or Amer- 
 ica when the Michigan State Agricultural College came into 
 being. The most effective training for manual occupations was 
 still some form of apprenticeship, apart from schools, while the 
 school had long held the foremost place in preparation for liter- 
 ary pursuits. How to combine, in one educative process, the 
 advantages of the school and the advantages of the apprentice 
 system was the problem of agricultural education. In one form 
 or another it has been the problem of all our education for spe- 
 cial occupations in the past half-century. For the student of 
 educational history, then, this problem of agricultural education 
 appears as one phase, and a pecuUarly difficult phase, of the 
 larger problem of training for any particular vocation in life. 
 You will not look to me to contribute anything to the special 
 history of this institution, which others, here on the ground, 
 may be expected to treat so much more effectively than I could 
 treat it. But my theme deals rather with the broader move- 
 
io6 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 ment of which the notable history of this institution forms a 
 part. 
 
 It would be difficult to say just where and how systematic 
 instruction in the principles of agriculture took its rise in this 
 country. Such instruction was given in some sort in Moor's 
 Indian school, out of which Dartmouth College arose, back even 
 in colonial days. Benjamin Franklin proposed such instruction 
 for the academy at Philadelphia, the forerunner of the University 
 of Pennsylvania, but it does not appear that this part of his plan 
 was realized. In the 20's and 30's of the nineteenth century 
 great interest was excited in the so-called manual-labor schools. 
 It was proposed that a farm be attached to the schools, and that 
 those who were studying during a part of the day should engage 
 in ordinary farm labor during another part of the day. The 
 purpose, to be sure, was primarily to provide a way by which 
 students might "pay their way" through school. But there was 
 a thought, too, of instruction in the better methods of farming, 
 and at least a vague dream of something better yet, the vital 
 union of thought and manual toil. Some of the old-line colleges 
 showed at least good-will toward the scientific aspects of agri- 
 culture, Columbia even establishing a professorship under which 
 agriculture was ranged alongside of other sciences. Then just 
 at the middle of the century, the state of Michigan provided in 
 its constitution of 1850 for the establishment of an agricultural 
 school, and seven years later this institution, the first of its kind 
 and grade in the United States, was ready to enrol its first stu- 
 dents. Pennsylvania had already incorporated its Farmers' 
 High School, but it was preceded by two years in the actual 
 opening by this State Agricultural College of Michigan. A 
 little later in that same notable year, 1857, Justin S. Morrill of 
 Vermont first introduced his measure for the endowment of 
 agricultural and mechanical colleges in the several states by the 
 national government. 
 
 What is especially worthy of note at this point is the fact that 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 107 
 
 this movement, which was primarily a movement of the people 
 or rather of the leaders of the people, found parallel embodiment 
 in both state and national legislation. At first both the states 
 and the nation moved but slowly and tentatively. But within 
 a few years large beginnings had been made. In this, as in other 
 public interests, within the broad limitations of the national 
 constitution, working adjustments of state and national agencies 
 to each other have been made from time to time, in view of 
 practical needs rather than of academic theories. 
 
 The great, epoch-making act of this whole movement was 
 undoubtedly the Morrill Act, which finally reached its passage 
 when civil war had lent new power to the spirit of nationahty in 
 the national legislature. In signing this act, on July 2, 1862, 
 Abraham Lincoln, that "new birth of our new soil," that sur- 
 veyor of western lands, who was to drive the labor of slaves from 
 our American fields, now joined his work with that of Washing- 
 ton, to make our American tillage the doing of men made free 
 by knowledge and enUghtened skill. 
 
 By the Morrill Act of 1862 the national government gave aid 
 to the states, in the way of liberal grants of lands; it encouraged 
 the states to do in their own several ways the work of higher 
 education in the domain of agriculture and the mechanic arts. 
 While technical studies were brought to the front in this act, it 
 refused to draw a line of opposition between those technical 
 subjects and the training which makes for liberal culture. And 
 both technical and liberal training were joined with preparation 
 for the defense of the nation's life. 
 
 Other important acts soon followed: That estabhshing a 
 national department of agriculture, in 1862, which department 
 was raised to cabinet rank in 1889; and that estabhshing a 
 department of education in 1867, which department was re- 
 duced to the rank of a bureau in 1869. In their different ways, 
 these two government offices have both had to do with the 
 administration of the later acts for agricultural education; and 
 
io8 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 I think I may add that on their effective co-operation depends 
 the full realization in the future of the high purposes for which 
 those acts were passed. 
 
 After the Civil War the estabHshment of agricultural colleges 
 went steadily forward till such institutions, aided by the land 
 grants of the general government, had been erected in all of the 
 states, with eventually sixteen schools for colored students added 
 in the southern states. The association of these colleges was 
 organized, the Hatch acts brought new aid from the general 
 government for the maintenance of experiment stations, the 
 second Morrill Act added its large federal appropriations for the 
 furtherance of the ordinary work of the colleges, the summer 
 graduate school was organized, the Adams Act provided for 
 advanced research in agriculture, and finally the Nelson amend- 
 ment to the agricultural appropriation bill of 1907 has brought 
 still larger financial support to the colleges, together with per- 
 missive provision for the use of a part of the federal grant in the 
 training of teachers of agriculture. It is a record of notable 
 advance, and we can hardly doubt that the great heart of Wash- 
 ington would have been glad to see the results that we may see 
 today. 
 
 When we attempt to interpret the course of this educational 
 development and to plan for further advance, we need the help 
 of some general conceptions relating to our social organization. 
 For it is evident that agricultural education cannot be a thing 
 apart and alone. Its real and lasting strength is to be found in 
 its connection with general education. And the strength of 
 general education and of all of its special developments is to be 
 found in the connection of the schools with the real life of our 
 people. 
 
 Passing over all other views of our democracy, however 
 essential and interesting they may be, permit me to caU attention 
 just now to the function of those who are called leaders in a 
 democratic society. For we now commonly recognize the fact 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 109 
 
 that democracy does not dispense with leaders, but rather makes 
 the strongest demand for positive leadership. But in such a 
 society it is not for one individual or one class simply to lead, 
 while another class simply follows. The true leader in a democ- 
 racy is one who, while leading in all reality, is capable of learning 
 from his followers. And the followers of such a leader in a true 
 democracy are not those who follow because they do not think, 
 but those who follow because they think and are able to recog- 
 nize their leader. They follow because they are convinced. 
 So our whole social fabric is made up of leaders who must learn 
 if they would continue to lead, and their peculiarly restless and 
 skittish constituencies. Here as everywhere the relation of 
 leaders to constituencies is permanent and essential, but within 
 that permanent relationship there is continual interplay and 
 shifting of parts. It is a normal condition with us that those 
 who have the subordinate part should be increasingly intelligent, 
 critical, and ready to assume the actual leadership. 
 
 This is the state of things that our system of education fosters 
 and must continue to foster. It must bring forth scientific 
 experts who shall be able to teach the people the principles under- 
 lying the arts of life, and it must train up a people to make for 
 the expert an intelligent constituency, quick to seize on all that 
 he may offer for the betterment of their practice, and quick to 
 reject those suggestions that they cannot put to use. So our 
 public health rests upon the co-operation of highly trained ex- 
 perts in medicine and sanitation and a people who can act intelli- 
 gently upon their directions and regulations. So our public and 
 domestic architecture is improving slowly — very slowly — through 
 the co-operation of architects who know their art and a building 
 people who know their architects, and who follow them in part 
 and frustrate them in part. So, too, our agricultural education 
 must proceed. There must be training of the highest sort for 
 our agricultural experts. More than that, at the topmost reach 
 of our agricultural education there must be that which is not 
 
no MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 commonly recognized as education at all, the pure research of 
 the pure scientist. For no education can continue to be really 
 alive unless it draws directly, from some source of new and 
 abounding knowledge, a fresh supply, never yet handled and 
 made common among mankind. It may be very little that any 
 year or any age may have to give that is altogether new, but that 
 little will sweeten all the rest. Then our system of education 
 must reach down to schools of the lowest grade, the little country 
 schools, in which the capable constituency of the great experts 
 is to be trained; and there, too, some of the future leaders are to 
 make their first beginnings. The most of those in such schools 
 are to live by the practical art of farming. But in these days 
 they are to have the skill to take the science of the scientist and 
 transform it into the art of their Hves. They are to read agri- 
 cultural bulletins and understand and use them. They are to 
 pick their way and keep from being mired in the mass of such 
 literature now provided for their reading. They are to attend 
 institutes and conventions, where they will listen with discrimi- 
 nation to long and learned papers, and make short and pertinent 
 speeches of their own. They are to find the farm interesting 
 in the highest degree, because of new hopes of profitable pro- 
 duction which it offers and because of its connection with the 
 great world of ideas. 
 
 When we grow more skilful, we shall make elementary 
 schools of a better-rounded type, in which the book-learning 
 that has long been the distinctive province of the school shall 
 join to itself the best things in the old system of apprenticeship ; 
 and from that combination shall arise something better than 
 either one in its lonesome isolation. Already we are beginning 
 to make institutions somewhat of this order, and it will be done 
 much better yet as time goes on. 
 
 This, then, is what we may see as the ideal, in agricultural 
 education and equally in education of other kinds, and perhaps 
 of every kind: A system of schools complete in its sequence 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION iii 
 
 from the lowest to the highest, in which the study of books is 
 closely joined with training for some of the practical arts of life ; 
 in which all practical training is kept in vital touch with general 
 education; in which the ability to form sound and stable judg- 
 ment is sought throughout as a thing of very great price; in 
 which the higher schools send into the lower schools an unbroken 
 succession of teachers who both know the truth and are able to 
 bring others to a knowledge of the truth ; and in which, finally, 
 the stream of knowledge fresh and new, from some department 
 of pure research, shall never fail to keep fresh and bright the old 
 wisdom of the ages gone before. Or, in more concrete state- 
 ment, our elementary schools and high schools in country com- 
 munities are still to be primarily schools of general education, 
 but with much more of training in the arts of the farm, and the 
 sciences lying near to those arts ; our state colleges of agriculture 
 and mechanic arts are to prepare young men and young women 
 to read intelligently the literature of scientific agriculture, to 
 form independent judgments in agricultural matters, and to 
 bring their new knowledge into connection with the real work 
 of the farm; these state colleges, moreover, are to provide well- 
 trained teachers of agriculture and related subjects for the 
 elementary and secondary schools; the colleges of agriculture, 
 still further, are to be co-operative educational institutions and 
 not merely special and local institutions — they are to co-operate 
 with similar institutions in other states, in order that the work 
 of one may be strengthened by the work of all, and co-operate 
 with the universities of their several states for the innumerable 
 advantages to both which may come from such united effort. 
 The National Department of Agriculture is undoubtedly to 
 continue its remarkably wide and influential work, its expert 
 investigations, the issuance of manifold and vastly useful publi- 
 cations, and its furtherance of all manner of agricultural educa- 
 tion and research in the several states. Finally, the Bureau of 
 Education is to do as thoroughly as possible the part of this work 
 
112 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 assigned to it. I venture the hope that with enlarged resources 
 it may do more than it is now expected to do, and that without 
 trespassing on the proper field of other institutions. 
 
 Let me speak a little more particularly of the part of this 
 program which falls to the education office of the general govern- 
 ment. It can do its best work, I think, as a co-ordinating 
 influence. It can bring to the notice of the less favored institu- 
 tions information concerning the experience of more advanced 
 institutions. It can call attention from time to time to the 
 relation of agricultural education to general education. It can 
 survey the educational field and possibly point out dangers to 
 be averted or weak places to be strengthened. It can, finally, 
 discover things that need the doing and are not attended to by 
 any other agency, and can see that some part of such lack is 
 supplied. So much as this I hope the Bureau of Education may 
 be able to do for our agricultural education. And so much as 
 this I may say it will undertake to do as far as its resources will 
 permit. 
 
 Just at this time, a survey of the field seems to show that the 
 paramount need is the need of a supply of qualified teachers. 
 Arrangements have already been made for the publication in 
 the fall of an issue of the Bulletin of the Bureau of Education 
 devoted to the present condition of the agricultural and mechani- 
 cal colleges, and particularly to the ways by which teachers may 
 be trained in those colleges to meet the needs of high schools 
 and normal schools in which agricultural subjects are taught. 
 A preliminary account of the history and present condition of 
 agricultural education throughout the world is to appear in the 
 near future, in another issue of the Bulletin, which will, it is 
 hoped, be of help in such training of teachers and a help to those 
 teachers who are already in the field. 
 
 In conclusion, the view cannot be too strongly stressed that 
 all of this^agricultural education is a contribution to the general 
 education of the American people and to the betterment of 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 113 
 
 American life. You who celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 
 this institution reaUze, as the history of this College has shown, 
 that it is not simply larger crops and better breeds of stock and 
 a more profitable output of farm manufacture for which you are 
 laboring; but through these means and through all other inter- 
 ests of the modern farm, you are worldng for the improvement 
 of American citizenship, and that with special reference to the 
 needs of this great state of Michigan. May you long continue 
 to serve the commonwealth and the larger repubhc as faith- 
 fully and as successfully. And may every good cause in this 
 land feel the reinforcement of a wholesome and vigorous life in 
 the homes of our country communities, which have been made 
 more prosperous homes and better homes because of the work 
 that you are doing here. 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING EDUCA- 
 TION IN THE LAND-GRANT COLLEGES 
 
 WINTHROP ELLSWORTH STONE 
 
 It is matter of conjecture as to how far Senator Morrill and 
 his colleagues foresaw the great and true significance of the now 
 famous act of Congress estabhshing the land-grant colleges. 
 That it was to become the actuating force in a new educational 
 movement, and that it was to influence the industrial and com- 
 mercial growth of the nation profoundly, were generahties in 
 which its advocates undoubtedly beheved without being able to 
 conceive of the details of their operation. The rapidity with 
 which these institutions have sprung into commanding positions, 
 have overcome prejudiced opposition, and have won public 
 confidence and respect must have been beyond the compre- 
 hension of these men, for never in the previous annals of educa- 
 tion has anything of equal or similar character or extent been 
 recorded. 
 
 But now, after the passing of little more than a generation, he 
 who would chronicle the manner and extent to which these land- 
 grant colleges have developed in respect of the single department 
 of engineering education finds himself — so extensive is the sub- 
 ject — dealing with the leading facts of the times in regard to edu- 
 cation, applied science, and industrial and commercial progress. 
 
 The impulses set in motion by the passage of the Morrill Act 
 have developed, in a remarkably short time, a new education; 
 have achieved great popularity and influence; have appealed to 
 the democracy; and have proved its inestimable value to the 
 industries. As is well known, the act, while remarkably broad 
 in its scope, specifically emphasizes two principal lines of educa- 
 tional effort, viz., in "agriculture and the mechanic arts," and, 
 
 114 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 115 
 
 properly, these colleges have from the beginning in accordance 
 therewith expended their energies mainly in these two industrial 
 fields. 
 
 My duty at this time is to set forth what has been accom- 
 pHshed by the land-grant colleges in the sphere of mechanic arts. 
 In this discussion I shall broadly include all of those institutions 
 receiving state or federal support, in which engineering is taught, 
 since with few exceptions the state universities and colleges en- 
 gaged in engineering instruction are also beneficiaries of the 
 Morrill Act. 
 
 It is worthy of note that, in nearly every instance, the de- 
 mands upon these colleges for instruction in "mechanic arts," 
 especially in the earlier days, have greatly exceeded those for 
 "agriculture." The aggregate enrolment of students of colle- 
 giate grade in engineering courses in these institutions has been 
 many times greater than in courses in agriculture. Frequently 
 the representatives of agriculture have shown impatience at 
 these conditions, ascribing the inequality of attendance in these 
 departments to unfair discrimination on the part of the college 
 management. The real causes, however, seem to lie elsewhere. 
 Instruction in engineering was earher and better organized as 
 regards pedagogical form; the industries included under me- 
 chanic arts have had a better appreciation of the value of tech- 
 nical training; there has been and is a tendency among young 
 people to regard agriculture unfavorably as compared with other 
 pursuits; and, finally, the recent extraordinary developments 
 in manufacturing, mining, and transportation have created a 
 great demand for men trained in the mechanic arts, which no 
 inducements in the field of agriculture could match. The rapid 
 development of engineering education, therefore, has obeyed 
 the influence of distinct public needs and demands to meet which 
 has given college authorities no end of difficulty and which, 
 under these conditions, they certainly have had neither power 
 nor desire to stimulate. 
 
Ii6 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 The conditions which have been less favorable to agricultural 
 education are now, happily, disappearing and there can be no 
 doubt that the agricultural courses in the land-grant colleges are 
 soon to become quite as popular, attractive, and effective as 
 those in engineering; a situation which I am sure will be wel- 
 comed by everyone who desires to see these colleges fulfilling 
 their original purpose to the highest possible degree. 
 
 In endeavoring to trace the development and present status 
 of these engineering schools, one soon is impressed with the fact 
 that he is dealing with practically the whole history of engineer- 
 ing instruction in America, and, next, he realizes that this record 
 constitutes an important part of the world's progress in this field. 
 In fact in the essential development of engineering education the 
 land-grant colleges, in their various forms of organization, have 
 always been foremost and in the aggregate are today the prin- 
 cipal exponents of this phase of education. 
 
 Systematic instruction in engineering science is a recent 
 thing; it is a constituent part of the remarkable development 
 of industrial and technological training which is recognized as 
 the principal educational event of the last half-century. It is 
 true that some isolated and vague experiments in this field were 
 undertaken nearly a hundred years ago, but an estimate of the 
 scope and value of these efforts may be had by considering how 
 imperfect was the existing knowledge of pure science until well 
 into the nineteenth century, while the applications of these 
 sciences to the arts and industries were scarcely recognized, much 
 less organized into any pedagogical system, until very recently. 
 With two or three exceptions^ there was in America no organized 
 attempt at engineering instruction prior to the Civil War. Con- 
 temporaneous with, or following, this period came three epoch- 
 making events, each of which was in itself of great importance but 
 which, in conjunction, have wrought an extraordinary national 
 
 ' Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824; the Lawrence Scien- 
 tific School, in 1846; the Shefl&eld Scientific School, in 1847. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 117 
 
 influence upon education and industry. These events were: 
 the estabhshment of the land-grant colleges; the great wave of 
 scientific discovery and invention; and the remarkable com- 
 mercial and industrial development of the country. Under 
 these conditions the growth of engineering schools has been 
 little less than remarkable. 
 
 In claiming thus for the land-grant colleges a considerable 
 degree of prestige on account of the development of engineering 
 education, I am not unmindful of the great contributions to 
 progress in this field made by other institutions. For this all 
 due credit should be given. Nevertheless, if one could con- 
 ceive of the annihilation of what has been done and is being 
 done in the land-grant colleges in engineering science, the loss 
 would involve, I am sure, a very large part of the present pos- 
 sessions of engineering education in America, if not of the entire 
 world. 
 
 That this should be so is, after all, quite natural. If any- 
 thing less had been achieved upon this special foundation and in 
 the stimulating industrial atmosphere of America, our institu- 
 tions would be blameworthy indeed. The conditions have 
 been unusually favorable and, in general, they have been uti- 
 lized with marked success. 
 
 This development has been on characteristic and, in some 
 respects, unique lines. Because these institutions were new 
 foundations — for the most part — they were free to build new 
 structures untrammeled by conventionalities and free from use- 
 less imitations. Just as our engineers are notable for their 
 initiative, adaptability, and resourcefulness, so our engineering 
 schools have met and solved problems on the ground, in a practi- 
 cal way. Without ignoring what was of value in previously 
 existing systems, they have been free to strike out in new lines. 
 Wisely, they have from the first endeavored to adapt their meth- 
 ods and scope of instruction to the distinct needs and conditions 
 of our industries. This poHcy has evoked much sharp criticism 
 
ii8 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 as to its real educational value, but the schools have gone steadily 
 on, creating a new education with a new spirit; winning the 
 confidence of the commercial world; and becoming the chief 
 bulwark against the growing prejudice against "the college 
 graduate." Recognizing that engineering is an intensely practi- 
 cal profession, they have sought to impart a training which 
 should develop in their students the power to do things effect- 
 ively, in the belief that this is the modern criterion of education. 
 To these estabhshed characteristics of originality, adaptabiUty, 
 thoroughness, and efficiency, our engineering schools undoubt- 
 edly owe their high standing, popularity, and the confidence of 
 the professional and technical world. 
 
 Since these institutions by reason of their origin and functions 
 form a class by themselves, it is important to classify and enu- 
 merate their features of organization, method, and curriculum, 
 which constitute the present basis of engineering education in 
 this country. 
 
 The institutions are for the most part of collegiate grade, 
 receiving students from the secondary schools and administering 
 a full four-years' course upon the completion of which a variety 
 of degrees of the bachelor's rank are conferred. With few 
 exceptions, the land-grant colleges are coeducational and women 
 students are occasionally found in the engineering courses. A 
 few have been known to graduate, but of their subsequent 
 careers the engineering chronicles are significantly silent. 
 
 Measured by the conventional standards established by 
 schools of liberal arts, the requirements for entrance are not 
 high, varying in different parts of the country from six to sixteen 
 high-school units. In many instances these requirements are 
 higher than for the agricultural school in the same institution. 
 As a rule, in any given part of the country admission to the 
 engineering school is practically on the same basis as to the 
 college of liberal arts, although usually not identical. The 
 authorities are agreed, for the most part, that in state institutions 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 119 
 
 it is unwise to require preparation which the average public 
 schools of the community cannot supply. Nor is it the practice 
 to include Greek or Latin in these requirements. Weight is 
 laid chiefly upon English, mathematics, and the sciences, as 
 being directly necessary to the work of the engineering courses. 
 In other matters, the engineering schools have not been bound 
 by the practices of others, but in their entrance requirements 
 have given consideration to the educational opportunities and 
 needs of the industrial classes. On the other hand, they recog- 
 nize elements of training and preparation which are quite ignored 
 in the purely academic requirements for colleges of Uberal arts. 
 It may be claimed, consistently, that entrance requirements to 
 engineering schools should differ from but not be of lower grade 
 than those of colleges of liberal arts. Everyone knows that 
 book knowledge alone does not give power and efficiency, and 
 it would seem that in standardizing entrance requirements to 
 engineering colleges some weight should be given to the maturity 
 and experience of the applicant. In short, our engineering 
 schools are coming to recognize that a valuable part of the prep- 
 aration for an engineering course may be obtained in the field, 
 shop, or office, and cannot be measured in high-school units 
 alone. 
 
 The curriculum of our engineering schools is characterized 
 by the weight given to mathematical, scientific, and technical 
 subjects in contradistinction to the classics and humanities, 
 although in all of these there is an evident purpose to retain in 
 the course of study as much as possible of the cultural elements. 
 English, the modern languages, history, and economics are for 
 this reason given much weight. The physical and chemical 
 sciences, mathematics, shop practice, and drawing are the 
 fundamentals of engineering education, and following these in 
 sequence come the subjects of mechanics, machine design, 
 thermo-dynamics, hydraulics, and the various speciahzations 
 pertaining to the different branches of engineering practice. 
 
I20 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 The student has httle choice of subjects in any given course, 
 for the elective system is unsuited to the mastery of a logical 
 sequence of facts and principles. The curricula of engineering 
 courses are, therefore, almost exclusively prescribed. There is, 
 moreover, a characteristic blending of the theoretical and prac- 
 tical. A knowledge of the hypotheses and theories of pure 
 science is fundamental to the training of an engineer, but they 
 are valueless to him unless their applications are traced. Natur- 
 ally the laboratory has a large place in this scheme of instruction. 
 It is necessary that the student have contact with and an intimate 
 knowledge of the machines and materials with which he is later 
 to deal. The laboratory courses and equipment are, therefore, 
 striking characteristics of our engineering schools. In chemistry, 
 physics, electricity, steam engineering, shop practice, material 
 testing, hydraulics, and drawing each student must be supplied 
 with a work place and equipment for the study of the actual 
 phenomenon or object under consideration. The shops and 
 laboratories of a modern engineering college have all of the 
 aspects of a commercial estabhshment, and contain types of the 
 real machines and materials of commerce. These methods 
 and equipments are responsible for the costliness of engineering 
 education in marked contrast to courses in liberal arts. 
 
 From the nature of the subjects taught, the standard of schol- 
 arship in our engineering schools is high. The predominance of 
 mathematical subjects; the accuracy of observation and state- 
 ment required; the analytical character of much of the work 
 render it impossible for a dull man to succeed. These schools 
 are not training mechanics or skilled workmen. Manual dex- 
 terity is important and a knowledge of practical operations is 
 essential to the engineer, but his power lies in his capacity to 
 organize and utiHze forces and materials, and his training is 
 intellectual rather than manual. The actual expenditure of 
 mental effort required of the engineering student is, I believe, 
 quite exceptional, for the successive steps of advancement to 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 12 1 
 
 which he must attain are fixed and absolute; they involve the 
 exercise of opinion and criticism but slightly; they require 
 rather a definite knowledge of facts and their application which 
 permits of no error or half -knowledge. High standards must be 
 maintained, for the graduate must, ultimately, sustain the most 
 exacting tests in practical experience. Nothing would more 
 speedily destroy the efficiency of engineering training than low 
 standards of scholarship. 
 
 The scope of engineering instruction is as broad as the coun- 
 try itself. In all of the schools the general principles and fun- 
 damentals are taught, but beyond this is a wide variety of devel- 
 opment into special lines related to sectional or local interests. 
 Civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering are the subjects 
 most commonly presented, but several institutions offer courses 
 in mining engineering, while sanitary, municipal, and chemical 
 engineering and architecture all have honorable place in the 
 list. Certain institutions offer instruction also in engineering 
 principles as specially appHed to sugar-making, irrigation, 
 forestry; marine engineering is also taught in one or two schools, 
 and there is an interesting and increasing development of 
 engineering instruction as applied to farm machinery and opera- 
 tions — which is perhaps best designated as farm mechanics. 
 
 The extent of the courses of instruction in engineering is, in 
 point of time, usually four years, of which the first two are spent 
 upon the fundamental and general subjects, and the last two 
 upon those which are special and technical. Among other 
 usual requirements for graduation is the completion of an origi- 
 nal study or investigation, the results of which are presented in 
 a "thesis." The graduate receives in most cases the degree of 
 "Bachelor of Science," which is frequently further qualified with 
 reference to the particular line of study pursued. A few institu- 
 tions give professional degrees, such as "Electrical Engineer," 
 "Civil Engineer," etc., for the completion of undergraduate 
 courses; the larger and better equipped colleges also administer 
 
122 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 graduate courses, for which advanced degrees are granted. 
 In a few instances, the honorary degree of "Doctor of Engineer- 
 ing" has been given. 
 
 By no means a minor phase of the work of these institutions 
 is that of research and investigation. Countless problems pre- 
 sent themselves in connection with every industry, in regard to 
 the improvement of methods, designing of apparatus, use of 
 materials, fixing of standards, etc., and for information on these 
 matters the pubUc applies with confidence to the engineering 
 schools. Scientific and technical literature teems with articles 
 from teachers and students of engineering, and many of the 
 contributions to knowledge from this source are of national, or, 
 indeed, world-wide fame. 
 
 Having thus briefly outHned the present methods and work 
 of the engineering schools, I would broadly characterize their 
 distinguishing features to be : First, an adaptation of instruction 
 in theory and practice into a course of training which is at once 
 of high educational value, and of special application to practical 
 affairs; and, second, the high efficiency in turning out a product 
 which commends itself to practical men, and which is ready for 
 immediate participation in the work of the world. 
 
 WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 The immediate products of these schools are thousands of 
 young men trained in accurate, scientific methods of thought and 
 study; skilled in the appHcation of scientific principles to prac- 
 tical affairs; and grounded in the fundamental principles of 
 engineering work. That there exists a great demand for young 
 men of this type in all kinds of manufacturing and productional 
 enterprises immediately makes clear that to the individual this 
 kind of education is profitable because of the good market for 
 his accomplishments, and not only is the immediate opportunity 
 for the young graduate exceptionally good but the way is open 
 to a career of great responsibility, influence, and remuneration. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 123 
 
 On the other hand, the value of these trained forces to the 
 industrial and commercial interests of the country cannot be 
 overestimated. There could be no continuous development or 
 progress without these trained men and, though the graduates 
 of these schools are still young, their influence upon methods, 
 practice, and operation is already an important factor in our 
 country's development. 
 
 A further result of this breeding of trained engineers is to 
 educate the pubUc to a better appreciation of the value of the 
 application of scientific study and methods to all business and 
 industrial operations. The development of this understanding 
 is altogether significant. A few years since, any young man 
 who based an application for a business position on the fact that 
 he was a college graduate would probably have been treated 
 with contumely. Now all of this has been changed, and it is 
 the ordinary experience of engineering schools that all of the 
 members of their graduating classes are sought for professional 
 positions before they have received their diplomas. This broader 
 appreciation of the value of trained men and of the application 
 of scientific methods means true progress in our industrial and 
 commercial development. It means better public utilities; 
 higher factors of safety and health; and cleaner, saner, and 
 safer living for the whole people. 
 
 StiU further, and quite aside from the professional and techni- 
 cal influence of the graduates of these schools, I regard it as not 
 presumptuous to claim for them a citizenship of high quality. 
 I claim that no other training is likely to breed so genuine a 
 contempt for shams and hatred of dishonesty as the engineering 
 training, and that no other class of men are so likely to stand for 
 right principles in the administration of public offices as well as 
 for private honor and honesty. Of course there will be excep- 
 tions to this rule, but if there is anything in dealing with the 
 immutable laws of nature; anything in the engineer's concep- 
 tion of accuracy hkely to develop respect for law and sincerity 
 
124 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 of purpose, then the training which the engineer receives cannot 
 but have its corresponding effect upon character. 
 
 Finally, among other results of the work of engineering 
 schools, we may not ignore the actual contribution to technical 
 and scientific knowledge made through investigations and re- 
 searches carried on in the laboratories of their institutions. 
 These investigations relate to every possible phase of the pro- 
 duction and utilization of power, the performance of machines, 
 and the characterization of the physical properties of materials 
 of construction. To illustrate more fully what is meant by this 
 statement, I may point out that a generation ago it was the 
 exception that any machine was constructed or purchased on a 
 specification as to its efficiency of performance, or for any ma- 
 terial of construction to be supplied on a specification of quaUties. 
 Now the effort is to base all transactions upon a specification of 
 quality or efficiency based upon accurate scientific tests. For 
 instance, no one now buys a steam boiler except on specification 
 of its evaporative efficiency, or steel, except upon specification 
 of its strength, or paint, or coal, or cement, except upon certain 
 guarantees of quality, and even the physical characteristics and 
 quahties of timber are now being determined and fixed in engi- 
 neering laboratories as a possible basis for future use in this way. 
 The work of determining these standards, of devising methods 
 of testing, of accumulating the vast data of reference, and of 
 actually carrying on these tests and determinations has been 
 the contribution of our engineering laboratories. How vast 
 this is and to what an extent it controls and improves engineering 
 practice can be imagined, but scarcely comprehended. In the 
 great engineering societies, engaged in promoting and fixing 
 engineering standards, the teachers and graduates of engineering 
 colleges are prominent and, through these channels, exercise 
 their influence on professional practice. Another important 
 contribution from the teachers of engineering has been the 
 development and organization of the material of instruction. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 125 
 
 A generation since, scarcely anything had been done toward 
 systematizing engineering instruction, but during this time 
 curricula have been perfected, texts written, laboratory experi- 
 ments devised, and the entire plan of teaching brought to a high 
 degree of efficiency. 
 
 These facts indicate that the work of the engineering schools 
 of the land-grant colleges has been quite as extensive, valuable, 
 and useful in its way as has ever been accompHshed in any 
 educational field in a like time. Indeed, in view of their rapid 
 development and the extraordinary contemporary interest in 
 technical affairs, probably no other schools have exerted so 
 great an influence in so short a time. 
 
 WHAT IS TO BE THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR 
 ENGINEERING SCHOOLS ? 
 
 Up to this time, engineering instruction as an organized force 
 of education has been occupied with laying foundations; with 
 systematizing and developing its teaching; with preparing texts 
 and lectures; and with the adaptation into teachable form of an 
 enormous mass of material. It has been burdened with the 
 demands for practical men. It has been called upon to solve 
 problems; to supply men; and to meet the exacting demands 
 of an unparalleled commercial and material development. 
 Much of this work has been, of necessity, of an elementary 
 character because of the absence of any other agency to perform 
 it. The requirements growing out of these conditions are now 
 being fairly well met in the various engineering colleges. We 
 shall probably next see a differentiation of this instructional 
 work by which the elements of engineering and industrial train- 
 ing will be administered in industrial, trade, and manual-training 
 schools. In this way, the opportunities for this kind of training 
 will be greatly multiplied and made available to far greater num- 
 bers of students than at present, and the general effect of this 
 upon the public will be vastly beneficial. The engineering schools 
 
126 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 will then be free to devote their resources to instruction and re- 
 search in the higher branches of technology. 
 
 A logical step in this direction will be the establishment of 
 bureaus or laboratories devoted entirely to investigations of 
 engineering problems and the fixing of standards. I beUeve we 
 shall come in this way to the engineering experiment station, the 
 analogue of what has now become so important an adjunct of 
 agricultural instruction, namely, the agricultural experiment 
 station. One state^ has already established such a research 
 station with generous financial support. There can be no logi- 
 cal argument advanced for the agricultural experiment station 
 which will not apply with equal force to the engineering sta- 
 tion, be it on account of the important interests involved, the 
 problems inviting solution, or the industrial value of such an 
 institution. 
 
 In conclusion, one cannot contemplate the developments of 
 these institutions without a feeling of pride in their achievements 
 and a conviction that the phase of education which they typify 
 is destined to become more and more important in America. 
 The essential basis and foundation of a nation's welfare is to be 
 found in its industrial conditions. It is true that those abstract 
 qualities which contribute to national greatness and patriotic 
 citizenship are the offspring of ideals rather than of material 
 things, but these can never come to their fullest fruitage with- 
 out that substantial foundation afforded by rational and well- 
 balanced industrial forces. The highest development of national 
 ideas is like a flower whose beauty is unfolded in a clear atmos- 
 phere, while its roots find anchorage and nourishment in the 
 fertile stratum of an intelligent industrial democracy. True 
 industrial progress consists in utilizing with ever-increasing 
 economy and accuracy natural forces and materials, in more 
 scientific methods of operation and management, in securing 
 
 I The University of Illinois established an engineering experimental station 
 in 1903. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 127 
 
 better conditions of life for industrial workers, in furnishing 
 products of better quality at lower cost, and in narrowing the gap 
 between the employer and the employee. Education alone can 
 accomplish these things, but it must be an education which 
 reaches the industrial classes and appHes to industrial condi- 
 tions, and this is the true aim and spirit of our land-grant colleges. 
 
THE AUTHORITY OF SCIENCE 
 
 WHITMAN H. JORDAN 
 
 As a prologue to the subject that I have assigned myself, 
 permit me to present to the officers and students of the institu- 
 tion whose guests we are, my greetings and fehcitations. This is, 
 indeed, an occasion for well-deserved congratulation and praise. 
 We are assembled within the borders of an institution that for 
 fifty years has rendered distinguished service in a new field of 
 education, and there are some features of this service which 
 merit generous and grateful recognition. 
 
 To the trustees and faculty of this College, I would say that 
 it is a notable achievement to have taken a leading part in build- 
 ing new avenues along which knowledge has approached more 
 closely to human needs, especially when to do this in the face of 
 imbelief or of dogmatic opposition has required on your part a 
 tenacious faith and an abiding courage. At the same time you 
 and your predecessors have manifested a spirit of rational and 
 safe conservatism. While your College has departed widely 
 from the curricula of the older institutions, it has held fast to the 
 great truth, the soundness of which can never be successfully 
 assailed, that the only way to upUft any industry is to develop 
 among those who are engaged in it not only technical knowledge 
 and skill, but intellectual and moral force. To this end the 
 vagaries and educational poverty of extreme speciaHzation have 
 not been allowed to seize upon your courses of study. Evidently 
 you have not beheved that "intensive knowledge" of one subject 
 compensates for "extensive ignorance" of everything else. It is 
 clear that you have not been willing wholly to subordinate to his 
 vocational skill a man's intellectual and social well-being. This 
 
 128 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 129 
 
 much of the faith and practice of the fathers has remained with 
 you. May you never lose it ! 
 
 I suspect that your wise conservatism has been due partly to 
 the fact that you have had among your number great leaders and 
 teachers who have been both expounders of truth and centers of 
 inspiration. Two of these I came to know a quarter of a century 
 ago, one of whom, ripe in years and full of honor, has entered 
 into his rest. The other with unabated zeal for truth and 
 undiminished loyalty to your interests is still your beloved associ- 
 ate. Evidence of the influence of these men and of the policy 
 that they helped to sustain is seen in the remarkable number of 
 the sons of this College who, in all parts of the United States, 
 are occupying positions of honor in the field of agricultural 
 science as teachers and investigators. 
 
 I congratulate you on the record of fifty years. As a fitting 
 commemoration of the spirit and influence of your honored 
 institution and as pointing to the true philosophy of all education, 
 I would that in passing we might pause to erect a wayside altar 
 and, in characters so bold that he who runs may read, leave on 
 it this inscription: What man is determines what man achieves. 
 
 The suggestive title of a recent book written by a distin- 
 guished graduate of this College is The Outlook to Nature. 
 This volume, that fifty years ago would not have been well under- 
 stood, is symptomatic. It worthily expresses a trend of thought 
 in education and in practical affairs that is one of the most note- 
 worthy features of the present time. Man is just now very busy 
 discovering himself and his relations to the physical world. He 
 is studying and mastering his environment as never before. 
 The rise of institutions of investigation, the crowded state of 
 university and college courses in the sciences and their applica- 
 tions, university-extension courses along popular scientific lines, 
 the wide attention given to nature-study, the many assemblages 
 of farmers for the consideration of subjects semi-scientific in 
 their character, and indeed the knowledge appHed to our whole 
 
130 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 economic progress, are convincing evidences that the outlook 
 to Nature's methods is earnest and widespread. 
 
 The serious side of this world-wide movement is the conviction 
 that science is a trustworthy guide in directing our activities. 
 In all ages man has been prone to seek the guidance of authority. 
 He Hstened in faith to the prophets, sought the counsel of the 
 ancient oracles, accepted the dogmas of the church as arbitrating 
 aU truth, both temporal and spiritual, and has been the dupe of 
 the necromancer and the faker. But now we have turned to 
 science and, excepting in things spiritual, it utters the final word. 
 To be sure there are still those who scoff at the scientific man as 
 unworthy of confidence, sometimes with good reason, but on the 
 other hand, many trust him over much and behave toward his 
 utterances as though they are infallible. Comparatively few 
 use knowledge in a discriminating way ; indeed few are qualified 
 to do so, for in this, as in many other weighty matters, the masses 
 walk by faith and not by sight. If, then, science is the oracle 
 of today, what a grave responsibility attends its teachings ! He 
 who assumes to interpret Nature must reckon not only with 
 truth but with his fellow-man whose welfare is to be safeguarded. 
 
 This is more than a fancied obUgation. Science has come to 
 be closely concerned with the large affairs of human Hfe and 
 activity. It lays its compelling hands upon Nature's great forces, 
 directs agriculture and the industries, designs machinery, builds 
 bridges, protects health and prolongs life, feeds the intellect, 
 is a theme for literature, and essays to invade the great mysteries 
 of religion and the future life. Its conclusions guide our voca- 
 tions, are the dicta of the classroom, and are proclaimed as truth 
 from the platform and pulpit. 
 
 How intimately, too, has science laid hold upon our individual 
 lives ! It has greatly increased our comforts and intensified our 
 pleasures. Whether we travel abroad or abide at home, we are 
 the subjects of its beneficence. Indeed, it has also entered into 
 our anxieties concerning our most serious relations. When we 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 131 
 
 survey our morning meal, we consider in terms of chemistry 
 whether the repast is nutritively sufficient and what our chances 
 are in a physiological contest with its germs and germicides. 
 A glass of water on the railroad train is taken with proper scien- 
 tific reservations as to our future prospects in the hands of the 
 doctor and the nurse. The wisdom of the crucible and the 
 microscope have even been invoked in the domain of our 
 religious thought, sometimes to assure us concerning the verities 
 of the Christian religion and sometimes to assuage our fears as 
 to the certainties of divine retribution. 
 
 But what is science and from whence comes its authority? 
 On what grounds may it rationally appeal to our confidence? 
 Those of us who accept its verdicts as a part of our intellectual 
 equipment, to whose activities truth is a blessing and error a 
 disaster, whose personal and material well-being may be jeopar- 
 dized by unsound conclusions, have a right to ask these questions 
 and ask them insistently. I crave your indulgence while I 
 attempt to answer them. 
 
 Concise definitions of science are, ''knowledge amassed, 
 severely tested, co-ordinated and systematized, specially regard- 
 ing those wide generalizations called the laws of nature." Or, 
 what is simpler, "knowledge gained and verified by exact obser- 
 vation and correct thinking." The specifications, "knowledge 
 severely tested," and "knowledge gained and verified by exact 
 observation and correct thinking," clearly indicate, not only 
 what science is, but what it is not. It is not opinion, it is not 
 platform speculation, however eloquent, it is not truth diluted 
 or distorted by much repetition, it is not magazine exploitations 
 of the new and wonderful in a way that fires the imagination but 
 deceives the understanding, it is not theories partially supported 
 by data, it is not dangerous conclusions vitiated by confessed 
 errors or propped up on all sides by "ifs" and "provided," it is 
 not a "report of progress" that shows little more than what the 
 investigator hopes some time to prove and will take up again 
 
132 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 when he has opportunity — true science is none of these things. 
 Some of them may be steps in its direction, but they do not con- 
 stitute "severely tested" or "verified" knowledge. So obvious 
 a truth would scarcely need stating, were it not for the fact that 
 our scientific hterature is submerged with increasing records of 
 imcomplete and inconclusive observations. It is a sobering 
 thought that only a minor proportion of the mass of 
 generaUzations that are published endures severe scrutiny 
 and becomes permanently incorporated into the body of 
 science. 
 
 Scientific generahzations at their best are far from infallible. 
 Every spot of truth is so surrounded by unpenetrated, and there- 
 fore unknown, regions, that many conclusions are properly held 
 to be tentative. Even some deductions, the result of researches 
 apparently most exhaustive, that are stated without reservation 
 or modification, are abandoned as larger knowledge is gained. 
 A most striking example of this is furnished by the investigations 
 as to the sources of nitrogen to the plant. In 1857-58, Lawes, 
 Gilbert, and Pugh carried on at Rothamstead, England, what has 
 been pointed to many times as a classical research on the ques- 
 tion of the use by plants of the free nitrogen of the air. The 
 inquiry was most severe. All available knowledge was brought to 
 bear on it, and the conclusion was reached that uncombined at- 
 mospheric nitrogen is not available plant food. This verdict is 
 now reversed by later evidence of the soundest and most incontro- 
 vertible kind. In 1857 knowledge of the biological activities of 
 the soil was very meager. The Rothamstead investigators worked 
 with sterilized earth, not realizing that they were thus destroying 
 the germ life which, as we now know, somehow functions in 
 aiding the legumes to utihze atmospheric nitrogen. While the 
 plants did not acquire free nitrogen under the conditions in- 
 volved in the investigation, these conditions were made greatly 
 unlike those prevailing in nature. Science will always be sub- 
 ject to such reversals. Its progress has been, and always will be, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 133 
 
 a series of advances and retrogressions, with the outposts of 
 knowledge steadily advancing. All this but emphasizes the 
 supreme importance of organizing inquiry on a thoroughgoing 
 basis, coupled with a judicious conservatism in the formulation 
 of conclusions. 
 
 If, then, what we call science is a mixture of truth and error, 
 of the enduring and the transient, by what standards shall we 
 measure its reliability ? You will agree with me, I am sure, 
 when I state that wise critics estimate the value of scientific 
 deductions by their authorship. When new conclusions are 
 brought to our attention our first inquiry is for the name of the 
 author, and three factors enter into our judgment of him and 
 consequently of his work. These factors are, (i) his personal 
 equipment for investigation, (2) his motives or point of view, 
 and (3) his environment. 
 
 The primary consideration is the man. It is a fundamental 
 fact which should receive greater emphasis, that what is presented 
 to us for truth takes form in the human mind and the quality of 
 what we are asked to believe bears a close relation to the develop- 
 ment and equipment of the producing intellect. Unripe minds 
 will inevitably produce unripe science, and while intellectual 
 conquests are won of which we are proud and that bear ripened 
 fruit, much so-called science is being forced upon our attention 
 today that is as unripe and unassimilable as the proverbial green 
 persimmon. 
 
 The man-side of research is emphasized at this time because, 
 in my judgment, it is not sufficiently considered in our develop- 
 ment and support of the work of inquiry. This development 
 must begin with the preparation of men properly fitted to con- 
 duct research that is worthy of the name, and until this is accom- 
 plished other means, such as money, buildings, and apparatus, 
 are inefficiently and wastefuUy applied. Material equipment 
 is subsidiary to the intellectual. The normal and only success- 
 ful order of procedure in this, as in every other effort, is first an 
 
134 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 efl&cient instrument and then the means for utilizing it. Any 
 other sequence is irrational and unsafe. 
 
 Again, an investigator in science should be judged by his con- 
 trolling motives or point of view. It has been said, with what 
 accuracy I do not know and shall not inquire, that an EngUsh 
 university once wrote over its portals: "No useful knowledge 
 taught here." One of our own scientists is absurdly re- 
 ported to have expressed a regret that chemistry was ever put 
 to money-making uses. Those of us who are devotees of applied 
 science repel such sentiments and, having right on our side, 
 declare with great fervor that we will have nothing to do with 
 knowledge that cannot be brought into the service of humanity. 
 We are glad that learning has escaped from the monastery into 
 a throbbing, busy world. We have no sympathy, either, with 
 the modern monastic spirit sometimes manifested by those who 
 claim to be working in the field of what is designated as pure 
 science and affect contempt for the utilitari an. 
 
 But, on the other hand, it is time for us to give practical 
 recognition to the fact that great victories never have been won 
 in science, and never will be, when knowledge is sought merely 
 that it may be weighed in the balance as bullion. The investi- 
 gator whose foremost thought is financial advantage, either to 
 himself or to others, has an inferior point of view and is devoid 
 of the highest inspirations. I know that some good people of 
 an ultra-practical frame of mind take exception to the statement 
 that the investigator should "seek truth for truth's sake," and de- 
 clare that the controlhng point of view should be that of utility. 
 Granting that knowledge reaches its best estate when it serves hu- 
 man needs, it is still to be said that inquiry is not on safe ground 
 unless the dominant impulse is to know the truth. The true 
 scientific mind is the truth-loving, truth-seeking mind. He who 
 possesses it is dominated by a desire for knowledge that leads 
 him to sacrifice, if necessary, opportunities for power, distinction, 
 wealth, or pleasure. In these days of money-making invention, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 135 
 
 rather than of a desire for larger intellectual vision, when the 
 imaginations of ambitious men are dazzled by the opportunities 
 for financial gain, we need a renaissance of the spirit which in- 
 spired and upheld the fathers of science in the classic researches 
 that have laid the foundations of modern knowledge. Until 
 this comes in a greater measure than we now have it, we may 
 not reasonably hope for the solution of many of the great un- 
 solved problems of agriculture. 
 
 In the third place, research efforts take color and value from 
 the environment in which they are carried on. No investigator 
 is likely to be immune to the influences that surround him, and 
 there are modifying conditions, the presence of which must be 
 regarded as essential to the highest type of inquiry. If, as is 
 obviously true, science is an individual product, the initiative 
 and Uberty of the individual should be safeguarded. The re- 
 search worker must be allowed, within reasonable limits, to 
 follow his inspirations and enthusiasms in his own way. Inves- 
 tigation that is too highly organized into a mechanical system, 
 so that duties are assigned as in the routine of an administrative 
 department, is infertile. It is a station worker's inspirations 
 rather than his director's commands that are fruitful. Science 
 that is worth anything will never be ground out by machinery, 
 however costly and elaborate the mechanism may be. Neither 
 should the investigating mind be subject to the coercion of public 
 sentiment or the demands of expediency. Its operation should 
 be carefully guarded in an atmosphere of quiet and unbiased 
 reflection. This should also be an atmosphere of deliberation and 
 not of haste. New knowledge that is reliable is reached with ex- 
 ceeding slowness for it is wrought out only by immense labor and 
 with untiring patience. Perhaps what I have said concerning the 
 authority of science may be summarized and made more specific 
 by the statement that the knowledge most trustworthy is that 
 which proceeds from the domain of conservative scholarship — 
 such scholarship, if you please, as is bred in the atmosphere of 
 
136 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 our best colleges and universities. Despite the dangers from 
 academic dogmatism, it is in such surroundings that we now 
 generally find the most critical and impartial judgments and 
 the most careful deliberation in the formulation of conclusions. 
 
 The conditions essential to effective inquiry have been briefly 
 outlined at this time in order that they may be compared with 
 those under which agricultural research is undertaken in the 
 United States. But before such a comparison is made, I would 
 like to meet one thought that I suspect is already in your minds 
 concerning what has been said. Doubtless your mental comment 
 is that the specifications laid down are ideal and at present are 
 unattainable by the institutions here represented. If this be 
 true, then so much the worse for the prospects of scientific prog- 
 ress among us. When the temperature necessary for the hatch- 
 ing of eggs in an incubator is unattainable in a given instance, 
 why, the eggs will not hatch. But I do not concede that there 
 is anything extreme or impracticable in these specifications. 
 They have existed, and they exist now, in some places and it is 
 only where they are found that research is in its best estate. 
 
 In considering the present status of agricultural inquiry in 
 the United States, we are impressed first of all by the great 
 magnitude of the effort that, according to the language of the 
 laws authorizing it, is known under a variety of terms such as 
 "scientific investigation and experiment," "original researches," 
 "diffusion of useful information," and similar phraseology. 
 In 1906 the experiment stations expended nearly two million 
 dollars. Assuming that of the seven milHon dollars appropriated 
 to the United States Department of Agriculture, 60 per cent, was 
 assigned to those bureaus engaged in the work of inquiry and 
 demonstration, we find that in 1 905-6^0 ver six millions of dollars 
 was appUed by the federal and state governments to the pro- 
 motion of agricultural science. This is outside the funds used 
 by the land-grant colleges in the work of instruction. The 
 number of persons now employed in the expenditure of this vast 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 137 
 
 sum of money is not less than four thousand. Millions of copies 
 of bulletins and reports are now issued annually by the experi- 
 ment stations, and the mass of literature sent out by the federal 
 department is something prodigious. Department and station 
 men are found frequently on the platform at agricultural con- 
 ventions and farmers' institutes, and their contributions to 
 agricultural literature in the way of books and newspaper dis- 
 cussion are extensive. History records no other instance of an 
 organized attempt to aid agriculture or any other industry on a 
 scale so magnificent in its proportions and so far-reaching in its 
 results. 
 
 But in all candor it must be confessed that, whatever may 
 have been the phraseology of law or of common speech in char- 
 acterizing this movement, it has been mainly an effort, not of 
 research, but of the exploitation of existing knowledge. We have 
 not reached far into the unknown, and although important new 
 truths have been brought to light, our efforts at inquiry have 
 neither produced results nor commanded the respect of the 
 scientific world to an extent commensurate with the generous 
 means applied. During the past twenty-five years we have been 
 busy instead with much agricultural speaking and writing. The 
 chemist has been called from his crucible, the botanist from his 
 microscope, the editor from his desk, and the farmer from his 
 plow, to aid in spreading the gospel of an agriculture based on 
 exact knowledge into almost every hamlet in the land. The 
 unknown, but greatly inadequate, facts and principles of science 
 have been exhibited with kaleidoscopic effects and have been 
 turned inside out and upside down in order to meet conditions 
 almost numberless in their variety. 
 
 Doubtless it may be argued in a way more or less convincing 
 that the diffusion of existing knowledge was necessarily the first 
 step in bringing the people in harmony with, and to the support 
 of, the kind of educational and research work that is our goal. 
 There is much to be said for this position, but we must not forget 
 
138 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 that the largest asset of the priests of agriculture is their igno- 
 rance. Fifty years ago we began to import German science, 
 and, with a due respect for a foreign product and because we 
 didn't know any better, we accepted it all without modification 
 or even adulteration as applicable to the agriculture of this new 
 and rapidly developing nation. Some of us elder brethren 
 remember with what confidence we advised the farmer as to 
 rations for plants and animals, for had not the Herr Doctor 
 Namenlos worked it all out and was he not authority? But 
 since those days we have become one of the great powers and we 
 now have a right to some things of our own, even our ignorance. 
 We are seeing with greater distinctness every year that the 
 more complex and more important problems of agriculture are 
 still unsolved, and that because of this our utterances to the 
 practical man are still lame and halting. Do you doubt this 
 statement and ask what these problems are ? Who of us is able 
 to stand on his feet and define fertility, or even demonstrate the 
 relative value of its various factors? Do we not often quail 
 before the simple and direct questions of the farmer when he 
 seeks information as to the production of crops and sometimes 
 return him answers bedecked with gHttering generalities ? We 
 say much, and not too much, about the wonderful value of the 
 legumes. Clover and alfalfa have been the most valuable asset 
 of the institute speaker and yet we are in profound ignorance as 
 to how much nitrogen they take from the atmosphere when they 
 are grown under the ordinary conditions of farm practice. Once 
 we had the German standard rations for farm animals and our 
 ex-cathedra formulae were convenient and much admired. Now 
 we have practically lost these standards in the misty mazes of 
 new data and nutrition problems still harass our minds. Con- 
 trol of results in the breeding of plants and animals is still an 
 unsolved riddle. (This statement should be made, I suppose, 
 with an apology to the mathematical formulae of the disciples 
 of Mendel.) Tuberculosis in farm animals is an unconquered 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 139 
 
 scourge. Do not say that there are no great agricultural prob- 
 lems left for us to attack. They are both great and many, and 
 their successful study demands investigation of wide scope and 
 masterful ability. We should not feel that because agricultural 
 science deals with things common and familiar its problems are 
 easy and may be solved by correspondingly easy methods. AU 
 that is required for progress in any other field of inquiry what- 
 ever in the way of efficiency of organization, scientific acumen, 
 and severity of method is required here. 
 
 In repeating the assertion that we have failed to grapple with 
 the large problems of agricultural science, as has been our privi- 
 lege and opportunity, do not understand me as disparaging the 
 results of your efforts. You and your predecessors have been 
 engaged for the past thirty years in a noble enterprise which you 
 have loyally sustained. It is a common remark from those who 
 come in contact with this body for the first time that it is made 
 up of men of unusually earnest endeavor, who are evidently 
 seeking most conscientiously to do the work that they have in 
 hand, and those who have frequented these meetings for many 
 years know that such a comment is entirely just. Much has 
 been accompHshed. It is generally conceded that no instance 
 is on record where technical knowledge has been brought into 
 such close and practical touch with the people as has been done 
 for our agriculture during the past twenty-five years. The 
 comprehensive organization of the effort and the sympathetic 
 relation of the various agencies involved, from the university 
 to the home reading-course, are worthy of our admiration. The 
 uplift of agricultural thought and practice has been great and has 
 abundantly justified the new democracy of education. I am 
 convinced, nevertheless, that, as was inevitable imder new and 
 imtried conditions, some serious mistakes have been made in our 
 attempts at research. But just now we are assuredly on the 
 verge of substantial gain in the purposes and methods of our 
 work and it may not be amiss to glance briefly at some of the 
 
I40 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 conditions, not yet entirely removed, that are inimical to scientific 
 efficiency and progress. 
 
 The quaUty of work accomplished in agricultural science 
 in the United States has been menaced, and still is, by the 
 extraordinary growth of institutions for agricultural investigation. 
 Comparatively few persons outside of those directly interested 
 appreciate how remarkable this development has been. Up to 
 1887 there had been estabhshed in the United States only seven- 
 teen experiment stations, no one of which was receiving anything 
 more than meager support. The passage, in 1887, of the Hatch 
 Act, granting $15,000 to each state, or a total of upward of 
 $600,000 for the maintenance of agricultural experiment stations, 
 resulted in the prompt organization of twenty-nine more stations, 
 making forty-six in all. This required the immediate employ- 
 ment by the Hatch stations of nearly four hundred men, a 
 large part of whom had not previously been engaged in the work 
 of inquiry. The number of stations is now fifty-five, which 
 employ nearly eight hundred persons and expend annually 
 nearly $2,000,000. '''\^ll'iEi 
 
 During this time the development of the United States Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture has been even more remarkable. In 1888 
 the congressional appropriation to this department was $1,019,- 
 219; in 1900, $3,006,022, and in 1907, $7,175,690. From June 
 30, 1897, to July I, 1906, the number of employees of this de- 
 partment has increased from 2,043 to 6,242. It is approximately 
 accurate to say that over 4,000 men employed by the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture and the experiment stations are giving their 
 time to the work of research and demonstration, in the support 
 of which between six and seven miUion dollars are annually 
 expended. This marvelous development along one line of 
 effort has taken place within the past twenty years. 
 
 Unquestionably the quahty, if not the integrity, of scientific 
 conclusions, has been endangered by this unprecedented enlarge- 
 ment of funds. In the first place, research efforts of a high type 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 141 
 
 are not made to order. They are an evolution that is by no 
 means rapid. We say, and with truth, that age alone brings to 
 a college the atmosphere most congenial to educational results 
 of the highest value, and institutions of research develop and 
 ripen no less slowly. Moreover, a large body of real investiga- 
 tors is not summoned in a day or in a year from among the mass 
 of educated men. The real investigator must have what we 
 speak of as initiative, fundamentally a natural quality that has 
 been trained and developed in an atmosphere of scientific inquiry. 
 Such men are not abundant. They are slowly gathered about 
 any given center and their selection calls for the divining-rod 
 rather than the dragnet. 
 
 Again, investigators in certain fields of agricultural research 
 should be something more than mere technicians in science. 
 They should be ripened men who see relations broadly, men 
 who know affairs as well as principles. To be sure, agricultural 
 problems relate to the common things of everyday life, but this 
 in no way lessens their depth and complexity or the severity 
 and thoroughness of the methods necessary to correct 
 conclusions. 
 
 The difficulty, then, where endowments for research have in- 
 creased by milHon-dollar steps, has been to secure a correspond- 
 ing equipment of men with a genius for observation, who have 
 ripened into usefulness, especially when we have so few institu- 
 tions that are giving adequate training for scientific inquiry in 
 agricultural directions. The fact is, funds appUed to agricultural 
 research have at times been increased so fast and on such a 
 tremendous scale, though never beyond the needs of agriculture, 
 as to exceed the possibilities of a normal and sound scientific 
 growth correspondingly rapid and extensive. It is my judg- 
 ment, which you may estimate as a purely personal point of view 
 if you like, that agriculture has no right to ask for larger sums of 
 public money to be used in the study of its problems until there 
 are available more men who are adequately equipped for the 
 
142 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 work of inquiry. In our enthusiasms we have proceeded, I am 
 convinced, to create a condition that is out of balance. We 
 should bring the situation into balance by giving more attention 
 to the development of men. 
 
 Another condition, more or less unfortunate, is that agri- 
 cultural research work is largely dependent upon annual legis- 
 lative appropriations, either national or state. The legislative 
 mind, for most excellent reasons, is peculiarly sensitive to popu- 
 lar sentiment. It also very generally holds the quid pro quo point 
 of view. The query in legislative halls is quite naturally apt 
 to be, not "What is truth ?" but "What is truth worth in com- 
 mercial units?" A closely related fact is that the agricultural 
 public is not always patient or discriminating. Only investi- 
 gators themselves understand the length of time and the per- 
 sistent effort necessary to the formulation of sound conclusions, 
 and because a constituency that has no adequate conception of 
 what research involves complains to its representatives in the 
 legislature that the appropriations for agricultural investigation 
 are not producing equivalent values, the investigator is placed 
 in a position of defending himself before a jury that does not 
 understand him. The condition of expectancy that prevails 
 on the part of the public that it must have results of immediate 
 value to practice, and on the part of various institutions that they 
 must have public support, has been an element most dangerous 
 to the''quality and integrity of our work. 
 
 As among the remaining factors related to agricultural in- 
 vestigation in the United States, permit me to refer briefly to 
 the much discussed adjustment of teaching and investigation in 
 its bearing upon the efficiency of our experiment stations. There 
 is an unquestioned advantage to an experiment station, we all 
 admit, in locating it in a college or university environment, 
 provided the relations estabUshed are of the right sort. The 
 college atmosphere is essentially speculative and is conducive to 
 reflection and inquiry, or should be, and in a community of 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 143 
 
 teachers and students we generally find a desirable intellectual 
 and social stimulus. 
 
 But the record of the past twenty-five years does not justify 
 us in expecting a fruitful research effort when teaching of the 
 kind and amount that must be done in most of our land-grant 
 colleges is a part of the duty of members of a station staff. It is 
 conceivable that giving a few lectures on advanced subjects 
 might be a distinct advantage to a research worker, but this can- 
 not reasonably be claimed for routine instruction in fundamental 
 subjects. Observation shows that classroom work of this 
 character will inevitably claim the first place in the use of the 
 teacher's time and energy. It is useless to ignore the plain re- 
 sults of experience. The fact that this combination of duties 
 seems for the most part to have been unavoidable in our experi- 
 ment station organization may excuse the situation but does not 
 nuUify its effects. 
 
 It is of little avail, however, to dwell on the past, excepting 
 as we glean the wisdom of experience. Our problems are with 
 the future. As I see it, the further development of agricultural 
 research in the United States hes primarily with the colleges and 
 universities in the preparation of men and, secondarily, with the 
 extent and conditions of the endowment of such research. Con- 
 cerning this secondary factor, Httle will be said at this time 
 beyond the remark that it will be fortunate when our research 
 efforts shall be farther removed from the disturbing influences 
 of an indiscriminating public sentiment and the uncertainties of 
 legislation. We have no assurance that either education or 
 research will develop normally or symmetrically if the purposes 
 and methods of the classroom and laboratory are to be standard- 
 ized by a public conception of what is their immediate vocational 
 or commercial value. 
 
 The present fundamental need, however, is for more young 
 men endowed with a love of learning, of scholarly habit, and 
 with integrity of mind and heart, whose ambition is not for 
 
144 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 notoriety but for the conquest of truth, and who, with more 
 thought for service than for salary, are anxious to aid in laying 
 broad and deep the foundations of human thought and activity. 
 For this reason, in the progress of agricultural knowledge, I 
 place the influence of the teaching institutions as the primary 
 factor, because, when there exists a body of men really possessed 
 by the research impulse and with adequate training, inquiry 
 will not wait on legislative authority and support, but will proceed 
 even under adverse circumstances. Whether the land-grant 
 colleges are to train such men sufficient in numbers and abiUty 
 to meet the demand is yet to be determined. So far these institu- 
 tions have appealed for public support, chiefly on the ground 
 of educating farmers, and have pointed to farmer graduates 
 and crowded short winter courses as a sure way of convincing 
 the popular mind that public funds are successfully applied to 
 the supposedly chiefest aim of agricultural education and are 
 not being exhausted in the labyrinths of learning characterized 
 as useless. 
 
 It is a serious question whether we are right in our educational 
 plans when we place almost the entire emphasis upon the 
 commercial or business side of agriculture and the industries, 
 or whether in doing this we are promoting the highest utiUty 
 of agricultural and industrial education. Is it not now 
 the privilege and duty of at least some of the colleges and 
 universities here represented more fully to nourish and 
 develop the spirit of inquiry? Should you not deliberately 
 set about recognizing and encouraging scientific initiative 
 among your students and organizing courses of instruction 
 that shall give a substantial preparation for the work of 
 investigation ? 
 
 A New England college president, having in mind, doubtless, 
 the older institutions of learning, once expressed the half -formed 
 conviction that "the college is farther from the market-place than 
 is the church." It was evidently his thought that in the college, as 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 145 
 
 nowhere else, are nourished and cherished the highest intellectual 
 and moral ideas. 
 
 But here are institutions with new purposes and new rela- 
 tions. On their doorposts is written the word "practical," and 
 in their classrooms the student is asked to consider the vocational 
 side of Hfe and he learns of machinery and slaughter-houses 
 and railroads and markets; in short, he learns of all that man is 
 doing, rather than of what man is thinking and dreaming and 
 hoping. Is the future investigator with his imagination fired by 
 ambitions for larger knowledge to come out of such an environ- 
 ment ? We may well be solicitous whether the spirit of learning 
 can survive in centers of thought where facts and principles are 
 so constantly weighed and measured with reference to their 
 material or commercial value. It is a serious matter if the new 
 education that is now attracting to it thousands of our young 
 men is to serve chiefly in commerciaHzing, rather than inteUec- 
 tualizing, the most virile manhood of a nation that is already 
 grossly materialistic. 
 
 Friends and fellow-workers, these problems are your prob- 
 lems. Now that an apparent transition in the aims and meth- 
 ods of education is in progress, the institutions you represent, 
 founded as they are upon the broadest possible basis of educa- 
 tional function and leading as they do an invasion into new and 
 untried fields, occupy a position of critical responsibility. May 
 you possess such wisdom, and such initiative tempered by the 
 lessons of experience, that your efforts will advance the intelli- 
 gence and prosperity of the farm and shop, promote the love 
 of learning, and uphold the standards of the scholar. 
 
ALUMNI DAY EXERCISES 
 THURSDAY 
 
THE ALUMNI BUSINESS MEETINGS 
 
 The preponderance of the old alumni, in influence at least, 
 came out clearly in the subjects which absorbed the interest of 
 both the forenoon and afternoon session of the Association. 
 Easily foremost of these subjects was the preservation of old 
 "College Hall." The rumor had circulated that this building 
 was to be removed to make way for a new one, and earnest pro- 
 tests were voiced from all sides. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand the affection of the old gradu- 
 ate for this building when we remember that until the middle 
 8o's it was by far the most important building upon the campus. 
 It contained the offices of the secretary and the president, and 
 the library, chapel, and Young Men's Christian Association 
 rooms were within it, as well as society and fraternity rooms, in 
 addition to its designed use as a place for laboratories and class- 
 rooms. The building having been so largely the center of the 
 old graduates' interest, the frequent expression that it was the 
 "one landmark which reminded the early student and graduate 
 of the early days at the college" was well within bounds. The 
 resolution which a special committee reported, asking the state 
 Board of Agriculture to retain this landmark, was therefore 
 unanimously adopted. 
 
 The "Alumni Advisory Council" was easily the topic of 
 second interest to the members of the Association. The institu- 
 tion of this new college body has been somewhat belated, the 
 idea having had its beginning fully ten years ago. The reso- 
 lution of the State Board of Agriculture inviting the establish- 
 ment of this council shows the designed sphere of the council and 
 is as follows : 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 Resolved, That it is the unanimous belief of the members of this board 
 that the continued prosperity and growth of this College will, of necessity, 
 
 149 
 
I50 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 be largely dependent upon the loyal and practical support given it by the 
 alumni; and that the best means of securing such support is to bring about 
 a feeling of earnest and active co-operation betv/een the state board and 
 faculty, and the alumni. Be it further 
 
 Resolved, That in accordance with the spirit manifested in the foregoing 
 resolution, the State Board of Agriculture hereby suggests and recommends 
 that at the business meeting of the alumni, to be held at the College on 
 June 1 7, there be elected from the alumni an advisory council of six mem- 
 bers, whose duty it shall be to confer together from time to time upon 
 the general welfare of the institution. And finally. Be it 
 
 Resolved by this board in regular session, that we hereby extend to 
 such advisory council, as soon as it shall be organized, an invitation to 
 meet with us, at least once each year, and as much oftener as said council 
 shall consider desirable, for the purpose of mutual conference upon all 
 matters pertaining to the work of the College. 
 
 This ten-year-old invitation from the board was heartily 
 accepted by the Alumni Association and directions were voted 
 as to the method by which the new council should be constituted. 
 Prolonged tardiness on the part of the alumni in creating this 
 new board may prove indeed quite other than ominous to its 
 future usefulness. The celerity with which the first council, 
 consisting of R. S. Baker 1889, Eugene Davenport 1878, Wil- 
 liam Prudden 1878, George J. Jenks 1889, E. N. Pagleson 1889, 
 and L. W. Watkins 1893, has organized for its purposes fairly 
 atones for the delay. 
 
 Subordinate in the interest which they aroused but scarcely 
 so in importance were the additional topics which aroused 
 discussion. Chief among them were the desirability of a per- 
 manent alumni secretary to be designated by the Board of 
 Agriculture, the preparation of a history of the College through 
 the authority of the Board of Agriculture, and the appointment 
 of a memorial fund committee by the Advisory Council, all of 
 which were recommended by the Alumni Association. 
 
 A review of the proceedings of these notable meetings may close 
 perhaps in no better way than with the final resolution proposed 
 by the committee on resolutions and adopted by the association: 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 151 
 
 That the alumni congratulate the people of the state that the institution 
 has closed so long a period of honorable history. We all earnestly hope 
 and believe that, v.'hile encouraging all forms of healthy activity, from the 
 athletic field to the forum of practical affairs, the influence of the Michigan 
 Agricultural College will always be for the highest attainable scholarship, 
 upon which alone the enduring reputation of the institution may rest. 
 
 The alumni officers for the ensuing triennial period are : 
 
 EXECUTIVE 
 Judge W. L. Carpenter 1875, President 
 Professor P. M. Chamberlain 1888, Vice-President 
 Professor W. O. Hedrick 1891, Secretary-Treasurer 
 
 LITERARY 
 Hon. C. W. Garfield 1870, Orator 
 Mrs. Katherine C. Briggs 1893, Poet 
 Mr. G. L. Stewart 1895, Historian 
 Mr. S. B. Lilly 1907, Necrologist 
 
ALUMNI LUNCHEON 
 
 Thursday Noon 
 
 One of the most pleasant events of the week, as far as the 
 alumni were concerned, was the luncheon served in the big tent 
 on Thursday at noon to about 1,200 of the alumni and old stu- 
 dents. Nothing elaborate in a menu was attempted, and yet an 
 abundance of things good to eat was served. It was not eat- 
 ables themselves, however, that made the luncheon such a 
 decided success. The fact that 1,200 former college students 
 and chums were eating together, grouped in classes, talking, 
 joking, singing, and in these various ways living over again the 
 good old college days in one great family picnic, was what made 
 this feature of the program such an overwhelming success. 
 
 On entering the tent alumni were informed: "Classes are 
 numbered," and members of each class found a placard con- 
 spicuously planted as a rallying-center for them. In this way 
 with ease and without the slightest confusion the old students 
 were placed in an atmosphere entirely congenial and among 
 old classmates, some of whom had not been seen since the 
 college days. Many long-time mysteries were cleared up, and 
 the missing links in many college romances were forged into the 
 chain. The folly of serving beer in a dormitory was one of the 
 topics of discussion in the 1883 camp, and 1884 was still chuck- 
 ling over the way they put 1883 in the hole on the faculty in- 
 vestigation over Knapper's buggy. Tallman's pear-swiping 
 expedition was brought to light by 1895, ^^^ "How a Lamb 
 Was Led to (the) Drink" was under discussion in the camp of 
 1898. What became of the college bell will be revealed in 1957, 
 along with other mysteries that develop and become the life- 
 history of the institution, and are of necessity milestones in the 
 lives of the student population. 
 
 152 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 153 
 
 The paper napkins with the likeness of Dr. Beal, the surviving 
 member of "the Old Guard," are treasures, and the menu book- 
 let with its reminders of dear old Dr. Kedzie and of the college 
 presidents was a pleasing feature of the occasion and is a valuable 
 souvenir of the jolly, rolHcking days that have passed into his- 
 tory, days in the institution which we all love. 
 
 How many of us will meet again on the old campus at the 
 next milestone? Assuredly not all and mayhap not many; 
 but, old or young, let us all resolve firmly that "some time we'll 
 wander back again." 
 
ALUMNI LITERARY EXERCISES 
 THXJRSDAY AFTERNOON 
 
THE ALUMNUS AS A CITIZEN 
 
 RUSSELL ALLEN CLARK, 1876 
 
 In speaking of the alumnus as a citizen, one must accord to 
 him a plane above that occupied by the average citizen, or by the 
 community as a whole. I think the correctness of this assertion 
 needs no demonstration. 
 
 Every alumnus has incurred a debt of gratitude to his Alma 
 Mater, which has looked after his needs, heeded his peculiarities, 
 expanded his special faculties, rounded out his nature, and made 
 him a cultured, self -poised, resourceful citizen. 
 
 His first duty, therefore, is to repay that debt of gratitude to 
 his Alma Mater. I fancy if we should ever attempt to compute 
 the cost to this commonwealth in providing each of us with our 
 diploma, that we would be amazed at the magnitude of the 
 figures. 
 
 While this seems like a great burst of philanthropy on the 
 part of the commonwealth, yet it is largely a selfish movement 
 on its part, as it makes this investment with an eye single to the 
 fact that such an investment will raise the standard of citizen- 
 ship as a whole, and thereby decrease the expense of poHcing 
 the state, decrease the number of penal and pauper institutions, 
 increase the value and productiveness of each man's labqr, and 
 add to the safety and security of human life, and to the joy and 
 pleasure of living. 
 
 If each alumnus is true to the obhgations thus imposed on him, 
 he will undertake earnestly and faithfully, to repay his debt to 
 his Alma Mater. 
 
 The most efficient way of doing so, is to make himself worthy 
 of the institution whose name he bears, by adopting a high moral 
 standard of living that will reflect credit upon his Alma Mater, 
 
 157 
 
158 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 and be an influence for good in his community, as well as by 
 manifesting a spirit of loyalty and devotion that will prompt him 
 to sing its praises at all times and on all occasions. If each 
 alumnus present takes heed of this latter suggestion, a new 
 dormitory will be required to house the inflow of new students 
 at the opening of the college year. 
 
 Another debt of my alumnus citizen, equal in importance to 
 the one he owes his Alma Mater, is his debt to society. The 
 higher plane accorded him in the community brings with it 
 corresponding burdens and obligations. The declaration that of 
 him that hath much, much is required, appUes to the alumnus 
 with peculiar force. Society demands that an educated man 
 be a leader of broader thought and higher morals, and it is a 
 responsibiUty that he cannot well escape. 
 
 An educated man has no business to conduct himself in a 
 manner that will detract from the public morals, whether it be 
 laboring on the Sabbath day, using profane and vulgar language, 
 or spitting on the sidewalk. 
 
 "If meat maketh my brother to offend, I will eat no meat, so 
 long as I shall live," is just as good ethics today, as when it was 
 the rule of conduct of that great teacher and moraUst of 1900 
 years ago. 
 
 Such is the spirit of kindly consideration and love of kind, 
 that I would have manifested by my alumnus citizen; and yet 
 I v/ould not advocate a spirit of meekness of the Uriah Heep 
 variety, if you please, but the spirit of meekness manifested by 
 Jesus when he took httle children in his arms and blessed them, 
 and the spirit of righteous indignation manifested by him, when 
 he scourged the money changers from the Temple. 
 
 Another debt imposed upon my alumnus citizen, and one 
 quite as important as the others, is his duty to his country. It 
 is in the discharge of this duty that the educated man bestows 
 upon his fellow-citizens and upon the state that educated him 
 the greatest benefit of his intellectual training. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 159 
 
 I used often to recite at our rhetorical exercises a selection of 
 Onille Dewey's, entitled "Liberty." I appreciated it then for 
 its high-sounding phrases, and still more because it saved me 
 the trouble of committing a new selection, but I am going to 
 repeat a portion of it again today, because I now appreciate it foi 
 its plain statement of our present national needs, and for its 
 spirit of patriotism. He says in the opening sentence : 
 
 Liberty, gentlemen, is a solemn thing, a v/elcome, a joyous, a glorious 
 thing, if you please, but it is a solemn thing. The subjects of a despot 
 may be reckless and gay, if they can, but a free people must be a thought- 
 ful people, for it has to do the greatest thing that ever was done in the world — 
 to govern itself/ 
 
 Emerson says, "Society is the lengthened shadow of one man." 
 If society, then the state, and you, then, are the state, and to you 
 we are to look for the proper administration of its affairs. Your 
 ancestors, after long years of hardship, suffering, and bloodshed, 
 created an infant repubhc, which was brought to them by an 
 eagle instead of a stork, and under their fostering care it has 
 grown to be a giant in the community of nations. For its proper 
 guidance and control they formulated the most wonderful docu- 
 ment ever created by the mind of man. 
 
 This is the splendid heritage that your illustrious ancestors 
 have handed down to you; and the question of the hour is, 
 What are you going to do with it, my brethren ? 
 
 Did you ever notice a field of|wheat on a June day, as it was 
 kissed by the sun, and fanned by the gentle summer breeze, or 
 frowned upon by threatening clouds, and lashed by the gale that 
 precedes the thunder storm ? And did you notice the heads of 
 rye, that here and there towered above the wheat; and that 
 whether it was the summer breeze that gently swayed the mass 
 of wheat, or whether it was lashed to violent motion by the angry 
 gale, the heads of rye stood erect, unmoved, and seemed to look 
 with calmness and compassion upon their lowly brothers, but 
 wholly unmoved by the influences that disturbed their neighbors ? 
 
i6o MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 My brethren, the rye in the wheat field typifies your position 
 among the masses, in the political field. If this republic is to be 
 perpetuated, and it will be, it will be accomplished by your zeal 
 and splendid patriotism, as well as by that of your brothers of 
 kindred institutions, who, whenever a great crisis arises in human 
 afifairs, will bring to it disciplined minds, a high standard of 
 moral honor, a broad altruistic spirit, and a calm, dispassionate 
 outlook upon the whole problem, that will enable you to decide 
 it in the interests of the greatest good to the greatest number. 
 And having so decided it you will be able to influence the masses 
 for their own, and their country's good; for from the skyline of 
 history, to the present day, the minority has always beaten the 
 majority in the end, when the issue was a moral problem. 
 
 There are undisciplined minds in every community, who 
 assert, with a good deal of gusto, that the spirit of this age is that 
 of the classes against the masses, and that there is one law for 
 the capitalist and another for the laborer. Now, while this is 
 the marshmallow age of fiction, yet exactly the opposite of that 
 is true in the administration of governmental law and order. 
 
 It is a long way from Mount Sinai to America, but the thim- 
 dering voice of thou shall not, speaks in louder tones today 
 than when uttered on Mount Sinai, just as our civiHzation is 
 higher than the age in which it was first uttered. 
 
 My brethren, into your hands is given the keeping of the Ark 
 of Liberty, and for its sacred care and protection, you shall 
 answer to posterity. 
 
 The greatest debt of my alumnus citizen is the one he owes 
 to himself. 
 
 If there is any message more than another that I would bring 
 to you, it is to live your life. Do not expiate it, do not creep, or 
 crawl, or apologize for living; but stand up, proud in your 
 conscious manhood, facing the world courageously, and bearing 
 the imprint of the Godlike spirit within you. Make your life its 
 own excuse for being ! 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION i6l 
 
 The man who looks the world squarely in the face, who is 
 afraid of no man, and of whom no man is afraid, views the 
 world from the mountain tops, as did the gods on Mount 
 Olympus. 
 
 Perhaps some of my younger brethren, who, like myself, 
 took their postgraduate course in the College of Hard Knocks, 
 have often asked themselves the question, "Is it worth while 
 to make a living ?" 
 
 No, most emphatically, no ! It is not worth while to make 
 a living; but I tell you, it is worth while to make a life. Why, 
 making a living is the lowest ambition that ever entered the 
 breast of man. Everything that lives and breathes, from the 
 mountainous elephant to the coral insect, makes a living ! 
 
 Cassie Chadwick made a living, but Frances Willard made 
 a life! 
 
 The courageous man, and the resourceful man is one who 
 builds a temple of success on a foundation made of his failures ! 
 Do you say that I have pictured an ideal life, and one that could 
 be lived only in Utopia? Perhaps so; but don't you know, 
 my brethren, that we are all traveling toward the beautiful City 
 of our Ideals, and while we know perfectly well that we shall 
 never reach it, yet dwelling in the suburbs is very delightful. 
 
 To my youngest brethren, who will receive the right hand of 
 fellowship and be taken into full communion on the morrow, I 
 want to extend my congratulations, and my condolence : Con- 
 gratulations, on your having received such a splendid training 
 at the hands of this great commonwealth of Michigan, my 
 Michigan, on which it has set its great seal, in joyous approval; 
 condolence, at your handicap in entering the race of life ; for any 
 young man living four years under the fostering care of his 
 chosen college develops certain false notions of life, one of which 
 is that the world must certainly recognize and cater to — a col- 
 lege degree ! 
 
 I recall, very distinctly, my inclination to carry a club and 
 
i62 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 whack every plebeian head that failed to show me the deference 
 to which I felt a college man was entitled. 
 
 Another of these false notions is the mistaken idea that a 
 college degree and a permanent income are synonymous terms. 
 
 Another is the feeling of discom-agement you will experience 
 when you return to your respective homes, and find that the boys 
 you left behind on the farms have farms of their own, and the 
 boys who drove delivery wagons have stores and warehouses 
 of their own. 
 
 The advantage you have over the boys who stayed at home 
 and gained dollars, while you gained knowledge, is that they 
 have reached their limitations, while the educated man "trains 
 on," and his development here is his academic training for the 
 larger life beyond. 
 
 Whatever the fates may have in store for you, rest assured 
 there is always vouchsafed to you God's greatest blessing to 
 man — the blessing of work! Love, laughter, and work! 0/t, 
 blessed trinity of man^s existence ! 
 
 A gentlemen recently wrote the Carnegie Steel Company in 
 behalf of a young friend who had just completed a course at 
 Princeton; he closed his letter by saying he felt certain his 
 yoimg friend would give them entire satisfaction, as he was 
 a very sharp young man. 
 
 The officer to whom the letter was referred returned it with 
 a memorandum across the bottom of the letter, saying, "The 
 Carnegie Steel Co. has no place for sharp men; what the com- 
 pany needs is broad men sharpened to a point." 
 
 He that hath ears to hear, let him heat. 
 
 If I were asked my personal viewpoint of life, I could best 
 express it in a beautiful prayer of Max Ehrman, in which he 
 «ays: 
 
 Let me do my work each day; and if the 
 Darkened hours of despair overcome me, 
 May I not forget the strength that comforted me 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 163 
 
 In the desolation of other times. May I 
 
 Still remember the bright hours that found me 
 
 Walking over the silent hills of my childhood, 
 
 Or dreaming on the margin of the quiet river 
 
 When a light glov/ed within me 
 
 And I promised my early God to have 
 
 Courage amid the tempests of the changing years. 
 
 Spare me from the bitterness and sharp passion 
 
 Of unguarded moments. May I not forget 
 
 That poverty and riches are of the spirit. 
 
 Though the world knows me not, 
 
 May my thought and actions be such 
 
 As shall keep me friendly with myself. 
 
 Lift my eyes from the earth and let me 
 
 Not forget the uses of the stars. 
 
 Forbid that I should judge others, lest I condemn myself. 
 
 Let me not feel the glamour of the v/orld, 
 
 But walk calmly in my path. Give me 
 
 A few friends who will love me for v/hat I am; 
 
 And keep ever burning before my vagrant steps 
 
 The kindly light of hope; and though 
 
 Age and infirmity overtake me, and I 
 
 Come not v/ithin sight of the castle of my dreams, 
 
 Teach me still to be thankful for life, 
 
 And for time's olden moments that are 
 
 Good and sweet; and may the evening twilight 
 
 Find me gentle, still. 
 
INSULATED WEALTH 
 
 RAY STANNARD BAKER, 1889 
 
 I have two or three things I should like to talk about here 
 today — some things I have been turning over in my mind for a 
 long time, things I am especially glad to have the opportunity 
 of saying at a jubilee gathering like this, the real object of which 
 13 to survey the accomplishment during half a century of a new 
 kind of education. 
 
 Not long ago I was talking with one of the foremost charity 
 organizers of New York City a man who spends a great many 
 thousands of dollars every year in advancing various good causes. 
 I asked him if he did not find difl&culty in raising the immense 
 sums of money required by his activities. His answer some- 
 what surprised me. "Of course," he said, "but the chief diffi- 
 culty is not in raising money but in knowing how to spend it 
 wisely." He called attention to the immense benefactions of 
 Rockefeller, and Mrs. Russel Sage; he said that Carnegie was 
 finding it a harder task to give away his fortune wisely than it 
 had been to make it. He told me of a rich man who had worked 
 for months devising a method of expending $250,000 for a cer- 
 tain benevolence, so that in the end the money would not do 
 more harm than good. 
 
 My friend was talking of charity, but his remarks, it seemed 
 to me, applied more widely to the activities of our modern Ameri- 
 can life. It is popular at this moment to execrate our richest 
 men, our Rockefellers and Carnegies; but after aU, are they 
 not a pretty fair representation of us as a people ? 
 
 Broadly speaking, we Americans have learned how to pile up 
 wealth, but we faL in knowing how to use it wisely. 
 
 In the last seventy years we have learned to apply machinery 
 
 164 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 165 
 
 to the development of nature's resources. I do not need to 
 describe here how machinery has revolutionized agricultural 
 industry and transportation. Our grandfathers could not have 
 imagined the crops of dollars which by means of machinery we 
 now gather from our fields and mines. The country has become 
 literally intoxicated with the possibilities of speedy fortune- 
 making. We have come dangerously near, as a people, to 
 honor men not for wisdom or goodness but according to their 
 abiUty in accumulating dollars. For how long have we held 
 up as a hero to our schoolboys the man who, beginning with 
 nothing, has made his way upward — to what ? Why, to money, 
 loads of money! We have worshiped the "self-made man," 
 the "captain of industry." The chief activity of our educational 
 system has been to produce wealth-makers. What does the 
 word "success" commonly mean as it is applied today ? Suc- 
 cess means the ability to make money, to own a fine house, to 
 ride in an automobile, to give a good dinner ! 
 
 Our life, every phase of it, shows our great capacity for mak- 
 ing money — our failure to spend it wisely. What an example is 
 presented by the rich American who, having accumulated a 
 fortune in a few years, is running about the world trying to buy 
 excitement. 
 
 Having had no training except as a money-maker, no intellec- 
 tual resources beyond that, no knowledge of how money may be 
 made really useful to himself or to society, he cuts, indeed, a 
 pathetic figure ! One of the things he does first is to build and 
 furnish a huge house in which he does not know how to live. 
 One such palace has just been completed at the cost of millions 
 of dollars in New York City by a rich man who is also a United 
 States senator — by purchase. It is visited by foreigners as a 
 pattern of American vulgarity and crudity. Millions of dollars 
 are expended every year in wasteful eating, drinking, and dress- 
 ing by people who know how to make money, but who do not 
 know how to use it. Visit any of our cities and you will find 
 
i66 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 that the popular temples of worship are not the churches but 
 the eating and drinking-places, the mighty temples where 
 expensive raiment and jewelry may be purchased. Our news- 
 papers treat us daily to the scandals, divorces, and crimes 
 of men and women who have more money than they know how 
 to use — except in that senseless and selfish material luxury which 
 breeds immorality. And this is not confined to the obvious 
 examples of the great millionaires whose doings are reported 
 in the daily journals, but the same rule apphes in the small cities 
 and even in country neighborhoods. How many times have we 
 seen men ruined by the wealth they had worked so hard to win — 
 because they never learned how to use it wisely. 
 
 Our pubhc activities show the same conditions. No states 
 or cities in the world are able to raise such vast sums as ours. 
 Our country is very rich. Almost unlimited amounts of money 
 can be obtained for pubhc purposes. But how do we spend 
 it ? Let the stories of graft and political corruption told in the 
 last few years answer that question. Our governments, whether 
 state or city, have not learned how to use their money wisely 
 any more than those who inhabit them. The state of Pennsyl- 
 vania has just finished a gorgeous new capital building costing 
 miUions upon millions of dollars. The money was easily raised, 
 for Pennsylvania is a wealthy state ; but we are just now finding 
 out that those who supervised the expenditure of the money 
 wasted or stole over one-third of the amoimt appropriated. A 
 city is cursed with bad pavements as in Chicago; corrupt police 
 service as in New York, which not only allows but encourages 
 crime; or with a water-system Hke that of Scranton, Pennsyl- 
 vania, which, instead of improving the health of the people with 
 pure water, actually spreads typhoid fever; and these things 
 do not exist because there is not plenty of money to build good 
 pavements and supply good water but because the city adminis- 
 tration does not know how to spend the money it has. For a 
 government, after all, is just like the people who make it. We 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 167 
 
 can't expect public servants who know how to use money wisely 
 and honestly when we as a people use our money wastef ully and 
 selfishly. In short, we Americans have overtrained the facul- 
 ties which produce wealth; we have sadly undertrained the 
 faculties which use it. 
 
 But we are beginning to recognize this national weakness. 
 We are beginning to pay less honor to the mere "captain of 
 industry." We inquire not how much cash a man has, but how 
 he made it, and how he is using it. Every day we are looking 
 more sharply to the "swollen fortune," and demanding that the 
 possessor of it give an account of himself to the public. Rocke- 
 feller and Harriman have become, in spite of their wealth, the 
 most execrated of our citizens. We even hear discussion as to 
 whether or not a community should accept a library given by 
 Carnegie, or whether a college can safely take Rockefeller's 
 so-called "tainted money." When we come to think of it, does 
 not that show a most remarkable change in public sentiment ? 
 In other words, the proper use of money, as well as the produc- 
 tion of it, is being more widely discussed. 
 
 So unusual is the capacity today for knowing how to spend 
 money wisely that the man who possesses it cannot only obtain 
 all the money he wants, but is in a fair way to become famous. 
 You all know the story of the unknown New York reporter, who 
 had a plan for spending millions of dollars in playgrounds and 
 parks for the East Side poor. It appeared to be a scheme of 
 impossible magnitude, but Jacob A. Riis not only succeeded in 
 getting the money, but won a country-wide fame because he 
 knew how to spend it. A negro boy who had been a slave — 
 Booker T. Washington — has asked for $2,000,000 to build a 
 school — and has got it, because he had a wise way to use it. 
 After the San Francisco earthquake the country poured out 
 milHons of dollars to help the sufferers. It was no trouble to 
 get money; but when I was in San Francisco last September, I 
 saw what a gigantic task it was to use it properly. Much of it 
 
1 68 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 was wasted, not because the administrators were dishonest, but 
 because they did not know how to spend it. 
 
 It is a great thing to teach a boy, as he is taught in the engineer- 
 ing department of this College, the art of producing electricity — 
 producing it cheaply and in large amounts. Having taught 
 him that, we should regard it as a strange sort of education that 
 did not also train him with equal care in the methods of con- 
 trolling such a dangerous agency to the use of man. For, turned 
 loose over broken or uninsulated wires, the more electricity, the 
 more ruin. Wealth is exactly Kke that. We have learned to 
 produce it with immense faciUty in hitherto unequaled amounts; 
 but we have sadly failed in that insulation, that control, which 
 harnesses a powerful and dangerous agency to the use of man. 
 We are the victims today of what may be called uninsulated 
 wealth. Wealth used properly is our servant ; used improperly, 
 our master. 
 
 The greatest need today in our American life is the expert 
 money-user — men who know how to use money wisely for them- 
 selves or for the pubHc good. And they are hard to find ! Let 
 me call your attention to two or three significant things. One 
 of the greatest beneficences of recent years was that of Mr. 
 Carnegie when he founded the Carnegie Institution. What is 
 the purpose of the millions of dollars at the disposal of the direct- 
 ors of that fund ? Why, to find men who have ideas of how to 
 spend money wisely — and having found them, to give them the 
 money they require to work out theii plans. The essential 
 question that they ask is this: "Can you spend money so that 
 it will help the human race ?" — and if they are satisfied that a 
 man can do it, all the resources of the institution are placed 
 behind him. 
 
 And just recently, as you all know, Mrs. Russell Sage has 
 given a vast fund of money, $10,000,000, which is to be used, 
 not to relieve poverty, not for education, but in finding out how 
 money can best be expended in helping the poor. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 169 
 
 Think of giving $10,000,000 to find out new ways of spending 
 money ! It shows, does it not, how clearly the great possessors 
 of money like Carnegie and Mrs. Sage appreciate the problems 
 of using wealth with wisdom. And they, of all people, having 
 unlimited millions in their control, ought to know ! 
 
 I come now to the application of what I have to say. Gentle- 
 men, we are not farmers, or professional men, or business men, 
 merely to mahe money; we have also a great responsibility in 
 using it. If we teach our boys that the only object in life is 
 cash, we shall expect them to produce nothing but cash — and 
 afterward waste it, or use it to their own ruin. In a new country 
 perhaps it was inevitable that the main emphasis should be 
 placed upon wealth production. But we are no longer new; 
 and we are very lich. Is it not time in our educational system, 
 and in our home-training, to give more emphasis to the proper 
 use of wealth ? Is it not too common to consider an education 
 as a mere business proposition ; so much book-learning invested 
 with nn idea that it will produce, in ten, twenty, or forty vears, 
 so much cash ? 
 
 What, then, do we need in our schools and colleges that we 
 have not got ? 
 
 We need two different things. In the first place the individual 
 man must be trained not only in money-making, but he must 
 be given knowledge of how money should be used in something 
 besides fine houses, fine clothes, and wasteful eating and drink- 
 ing. There must be training in how to get the best things out 
 of life — in literature, art, music, travel. Unless surplus wealth 
 widens our opportunities for development and happiness along 
 these higher lines, of what real use is it to anyone ? There is a 
 danger, in school? devoted wholly to technical or industrial 
 education, which train men for money-making, that the other 
 side of life should be forgotten. 
 
 But however much we need to know how to spend money 
 wisely for ourselves, there is even a greater necessity for proper 
 
I70 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 training in the methods of using it wisely for public purposes. 
 The importance of that education in a time hke the present, in 
 which questions of vast national concern are crowding for at- 
 tention, cannot be overemphasized. We need in our colleges 
 a broader and more careful training of boys and girls in what 
 may be called the human sciences. I speak of them here as 
 human sciences. They have been for the most part treated in 
 a way inhumanly dull, impossibly forbidding. I mean the 
 science of sociology, economics, political economy — those sub- 
 jects which treat of the relationships of men and the duties and 
 responsibiUties which grow out of them. In most schools these 
 subjects, which are in many ways more important to the citizens 
 of a democracy than anything else, are commonly neglected. 
 We produce excellent farmers, doctors, lawyers, chemists, engi- 
 neers, and we train each of them to make money from his calling, 
 but we fail dismally in training our boys and girls for citizenship. 
 We make Httle or no attempt to develop that social sympathy 
 and responsibility upon which, after all, every free government 
 must rest. 
 
 I was greatly impressed yesterday with Dr. Bessey's address 
 on the old methods of science teaching, in which the student 
 learned of nature, not from nature, but out of books. When he 
 studied botany he studied only to know the names of plants, 
 not the plants themselves. That is exactly the stage, today, 
 which our teaching of citizenship, of social responsibiUty, has 
 reached. I tell you, if we would govern'^ourselves wisely, we must 
 first learn to do it. We must teach it not merely out of books 
 but out of Hfe. The great contribution of the Michigan Agri- 
 cultural College to education, it seems to me, has been the 
 inspiration it has given to the study of life direct, the widening 
 of the laboratory system of education. Now, what we need 
 today in the teaching of economics and sociology is the laboratory 
 method. I can only throw out a few suggestions here, trusting 
 that they may not, among so many educators, be lost. If I had 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 171 
 
 a class in sociology I should not begin by considering the struc- 
 ture of the human family, the departments of government — the 
 whole universe of history which can be had only in books. I 
 should do exactly what you botanists and chemists do when you 
 hand your class a real plant or a bit of actual earth to work upon. 
 I should say to my class: In front of the schoolhouse you will 
 find a hole in the pavement. Go out and study it; find out 
 exactly what it means. And I'd have a report on that hole, and 
 before I got through with it, I warrant you, my class would 
 know more about the alderman and the mayor and the political 
 boss than most voters you and I are acquainted with. And if 
 I had a class in economics, do you know what I'd do? I'd 
 give them specimens to work on, too. I'd bring in a new shoe 
 and cut open the sole. I'd show them that while it was sold 
 at a high price as solid leather, in reaUty it was half paper. I'd 
 set that class at work on the shoe and keep them at it until they 
 knew the whys and wherefores of the fraud. 
 
 Under present conditions, even when educated men are 
 called upon to serve as public officers, or to vote for public offi- 
 cers, or to spend the pubhc money, they do not know how to go 
 about it. The result is that the government of our cities too 
 often falls into the hands of inefficient or corrupt men, who 
 waste or steal the wealth with which the public intrusts them. 
 Is it not astonishing, when we come to think of it coldly, as a 
 fact, that while we cunningly train our engineers, our lawyers, 
 and our farmers, we are willing, in many instances, to take 
 untrained men, even saloon-keepers, ward-heelers, and crimi- 
 nals, and place them over us as our officers, our governors, 
 legislators, mayors, and give into their control all of the vast 
 sums of public money ? Think of it ! I wonder what a visitor 
 from Mars, coming down here to study our institutions, would 
 say about such a system. We might expect him to write to his 
 home paper, something to this effect : 
 
 "They educate everybody in this country called America: 
 
172 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 they have wonderful schools for lawyers, doctors, engineers, 
 farmers, but strangely enough, they do not think of educating 
 their rulers. Everybody is taught to work for himself; nobody 
 is taught to work for the public good. They try to govern them- 
 selves without learning how to govern. They raise immense 
 sums of money for improving their cities, but much of it is 
 wasted or stolen because the rulers they elect are ignorant. It 
 is a strange and childish people!" 
 
 But I think we are coming to the time when we shall recognize 
 the needs in our schools of a proper training in citizenship, I 
 wish, at this great celebration, when our minds are turned to the 
 subject of education and educational methods, that we might bear 
 this matter in mind; remembering that our nation cannot hve 
 unless men are in some way trained in the knowledge of those 
 social relationships and awakened to that social sympathy which 
 lies at the foundation of democracy. 
 
 We need to know how to produce wealth. That art is al- 
 ready pre-eminently ours; but we also need more and more to 
 know how the great power of wealth may come, by proper insu- 
 lation, to illuminate, not to destroy our lives. 
 
TO OLD M. A. C. 
 
 MRS. PEARL KEDZIE PLANT, li 
 
 Now thy children here assemble 
 
 For thy glorious jubilee; 
 Thy stately halls and campus fair 
 
 Tell thy prosperity. 
 Full fifty years of service 
 
 Thou hast rendered to our land, 
 And the triumph of the labors 
 
 We proclaim on every hand. 
 
 Chorus — 
 
 To old M. A. C. we'll sing. 
 And we'll make the echoes ring; 
 Loyal hearts and hands we bring 
 To this jubilee. 
 So with spirits free and gay, 
 We will our homage pay, 
 On this grand Alumni Day, 
 To old M. A. C! 
 
 There are many well-known faces, 
 
 Some there are v/e see no more, — 
 Ah ! the years have gone by swiftly 
 
 Since our college days were o'er. 
 Now we come again as ever 
 
 On this campus green and fair. 
 And clasp the hands of schoolmates 
 
 And bid good-bye to care. 
 
 Chorus — 
 
 Our hearts are full to bursting 
 With the love we hold to thee, 
 
 Our dear old Alma Mater, 
 Our grand old M. A. C. ! 
 
 173 
 
174 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Now we meet to do thee honor, 
 
 And to own our boundless debt 
 For thy fostering care and precepts, 
 "Lest we forget, — forget." 
 
 Chorus — 
 
 We are proud to be thy children, 
 
 Proud of thy great w^ork and fame, 
 Proud of noble men and women, 
 
 Who have labored in thy name. 
 And whate'er of riches, fame, or power 
 
 We bring, as here we meet, — 
 We gladly and most proudly 
 
 Lay all down at thy feet. 
 
 Chorus — 
 
 Fifty years ! A half a century 
 
 By the cycle of the stars; 
 Fifty years of upward striving 
 
 And the path no failure mars. 
 Of thy progress through the decades. 
 
 Men with wonder hear the tale; 
 Now we hail thee in this triumph, 
 
 Our Alma Mater, hail ! 
 
 Chorus — 
 
SKETCHES BY THE HISTORIAN 
 
 CHARLES JAY MONROE, 1861 
 
 Mr. President and Brother Alumni: 
 
 But for the thoughtful reminder of President Clark not long 
 ago, the program would probably have been my notice that I 
 was to be the historian, for, if I had known of the election, it had 
 escaped me. 
 
 After considerable thought about the alumni, widely scattered 
 over this country and many parts of the world, and of the large 
 number holding honorable and responsible positions in similar 
 institutions or in alHed work, I concluded after much worry and 
 consideration to throw the material aside and give a brief talk 
 about our Alma Mater, feehng that on this the fiftieth anniver- 
 sary of the College, when we expected a large number to return 
 to it^ many, after years of absence, would be glad to have their 
 memories refreshed by recaUing very briefly the history of the 
 inception, organization, dedication, growth, and some of the 
 work of this College. 
 
 The College was pre-eminently a pioneer, created by pioneers 
 of Michigan, and it has been a leading pioneer in nearly every- 
 thing pertaining to its organization, building, administration, 
 plans of work, and courses of study. 
 
 Its existence, like the university, normal, and common schools, 
 finds its warrant, if it needs any, in the ever-memorable ordi- 
 nance of 1787 where the need of knowledge is tersely stated and 
 the command to encourage it is definitely given. 
 
 Michigan has intelligently and liberally heeded that command. 
 Its second territorial governor, General Cass, who held the 
 ofl&ce from October 29, 18 13, to August i, 1831, when he re- 
 signed to fill President Jackson's appointment as secretary of 
 
 17s 
 
176 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 war, was active and enthusiastic in promoting agriculture, as 
 evidenced by his being chosen by the State Agricultural Society 
 (whose officials were familiar with his interests in agriculture) 
 to deliver the address at its third annual fair, in 1857. In 1850 
 he addressed the Kalamazoo County Society, and others might 
 be mentioned. These addresses would be worthy of repetition 
 whenever or wherever agricultural interest or education was 
 being considered. In 181 7 when the first act to establish a 
 university was adopted by the governor and judges of the Terri- 
 tory of Michigan, providing for thirteen professorships, the pur- 
 pose of at least three of them and the provision for botanic 
 gardens and laboratories indicated the desire and intention to 
 provide for instruction in agriculture. 
 
 The first constitution of the state was framed by a convention 
 in 1835 and provided, among other things, that ''the legislature 
 shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellec- 
 tual, scientific, and agricultural improvement." 
 
 Stephen T. Mason, who practically acted as governor from 
 Cass's resignation, August i, 183 1, until he was elected and 
 qualified as governor, January i, 1838, had become thoroughly 
 imbued with a sense of the importance of agriculture to the 
 growth and development of the state ; so, in his first message in 
 January, 1838, he declared in substance that the real prosperity 
 of the state is most dependent upon the cultivation of the soil, 
 that whatever encouragement is secured for the agricultural 
 interest extends a benefit to other departments of industry. 
 Agriculture being a primary and most important branch of 
 state economy, it is the duty of the legislature not only to protect 
 its members from disproportionate burdens, but to facilitate to 
 them the advantages derived from the researches of science and 
 the discoveries and improvements of the age. With this object 
 in view he recommended the creation of a board or society, to 
 foster and encourage this great source of national prosperity 
 and independence, to gather desirable information, and at the 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 177 
 
 public expense to distribute it to the farmers of the state. A 
 year later, he again called the attention of the legislature to this 
 subject, sa)dng: 
 
 The agricultural interest is one of great importance and claims with 
 justice the protection of the government, and yet it has received less aid 
 from direct legislation, than any other department of industry. But I feel 
 that when it is recollected how essentially the real prosperity of Michigan 
 depends upon the cultivation of her soil and the labor of her husbandmen, 
 the subject will receive your earnest consideration and favorable action. 
 
 From the widespread interest at this time, and the activity 
 of influential men throughout the state, and particularly at 
 Detroit, I believe the feeling is warranted that but for the specu- 
 lation and "wild-cat money" resulting in the panic of 1837, 
 Michigan would have had an agricultural school or college start- 
 ing with the new state. Probably because of the disorganizing 
 and depressing influences following the panic, little was said or 
 done for some years; at least I have found httle of pubHc record, 
 although the need of better educational facilities for the farmer 
 continued to be a feature of the address at state and county fairs 
 and in articles written for the press, and the interest was kept 
 alive. 
 
 In March, 1849, while the legislature was in session, some 
 sixty members issued a call for a meeting to organize an agri- 
 cultural society. An act to incorporate was approved on April 2. 
 Most of those who had been active in promoting the agricul- 
 tural interests and education of the state, with others, became 
 members and organized the State Agricultural Society. 
 
 Governor Ransom was elected president and J. C. Holmes, 
 who had persistently worked for its organization, was naturally 
 chosen secretary. It held a fair at Detroit in the fall of that 
 year, and E. H. Lothrop, a farmer living at Galesburg, delivered 
 the address. I will quote only a single paragraph of the many 
 good things he had to say : 
 
 While our people and our government, both state and national, are 
 truly liberal and pour 'out their money like water in the establishment of 
 
1 78 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 literary and other public institutions, and dot our lands with theological 
 seminaries, with medical seminaries, and with military seminaries, poor 
 agriculture, whose hand sows the seed and whose arm gathers the harvest 
 on which all our earthly comforts, and even our very existence depend, as 
 yet has no seminary in which to teach her sons the most valuable of all arts. 
 
 While this may sound a Httle Uke a fault-finding wail, it is to 
 be remembered that he was in a new part of a new state, with 
 little income and much outgo; seed was scarce and expensive. 
 After planting, it was usually a fight against the gophers, black- 
 birds, crows, and other enemies to save the seed. 
 
 In the fall, before it was fully ripe, the squirrels, woodchucks, 
 coons, and hedgehogs were on hand early in the morning and 
 late at night devouring the crop. He had to battle against an 
 army of insects and numerous diseases of vegetable and animal 
 life. The soil seemed fickle; floods and droughts came, and the 
 blighting effects of frost and heat withered the crop. With 
 these and many other things to contend with, his plea was not to 
 deprive other professions or classes of business, of money for 
 education, but that "poor agriculture" should get a share of the 
 money to obtain knowledge of meteorology, zoology, entomology, 
 chemistry, physics, drainage, conservation of moisture, and other 
 sciences needed in farming. Mr. Lothrop is named because 
 by education, experience, and observation he showed by his 
 utterances that he was able to interpret and express the feelings 
 of the farming class truthfully and effectively. The widespread 
 sentiment of the farmers was further expressed and urged by 
 such influential and persistent men as Bela Hubbard, J. C. 
 Holmes, and Joseph R. Williams, the first president of the Col- 
 lege and a member of the constitutional convention which put 
 that important article in the constitution of 1850 requiring the 
 legislature, "as soon as practicable to provide for the estabhsh- 
 ment of an agricuhural school." The legislature of Michigan 
 instructed its delegations in Congress to ask for 350,000 acres of 
 land to estabUsh an agricultural school in this state. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 179 
 
 In 1851, Governor Barry called attention in his message to 
 the constitutional provision, which received some attention from 
 members of the legislature. In 1853, a bill for an agricultural 
 coUege was passed by the senate but lost in the house. 
 
 Governor Bingham in his message to the legislature, in 
 January, 1855, recommended the establishment of an agricul- 
 tural school and at some length strongly urged action. A bill 
 passed the senate by a vote of 24 to 5, and the next day passed 
 the house by a vote of 52 to 13, and was approved February 12, 
 1855. College Hall, a dormitory, and a small brick barn were 
 erected in 1856 and on May 13, 1857, the College was duly 
 dedicated. But the discussion as to whether it should continue 
 as a separate institution, or exist at all, did not end, as is shown 
 by the frequent discussions at various meetings and by articles 
 in the public press, as well as by the opposition and strife at 
 nearly every session of the legislature when the College appropri- 
 ation was up for consideration down to 1869. In that year when 
 the appropriation bill of $70,000 for the College had passed 
 the house and came to the senate for concurrence, a carefully 
 prepared bill was offered transferring the College to Ann Arbor, 
 as a department of the university. This was defeated, and the 
 $70,000 was given the College by a vote of 22 to 8. An 
 editorial in the State Republican, under the heading of "End of 
 a Ten-Year Fight," mentioned the vote as ending a fight to 
 destroy an institution which a democratic majority had provided 
 in the constitution, and a republican majority had put into 
 active operation. 
 
 A partial record of this long struggle will be found in the 
 reports of either the State Agricultural Society, the State Board 
 of Agriculture, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or the 
 Pioneer Society. 
 
 I wiU not follow this farther except to quote a paragraph from 
 the Detroit Post of March 31, 1869, which fairly voices the gen- 
 eral feeling at that date. 
 
l8o MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 It declared: "But the action of the state government has 
 been so sweeping and provident that the Agricultural College 
 may be looked upon as a permanent institution, unless it con- 
 tains some inherent defect that no money or state aid can sup- 
 ply." The article ended by "urging a cordial support of the 
 College, and to invite a renewed interest in it and in its capa- 
 bilities for educating and developing a strong, earnest, intelli- 
 gent farming community." Thus it was fifty-two years be- 
 tween the first legislative enactment hinting at agricultural 
 instruction and the passage of the last act which seemed finally 
 to settle and fix the status of the College. 
 
 To get a broad view of the present and to meditate a Httle on 
 the past, the roof of the new engineering building furnishes a 
 good place. Walk around near the edge of it and think of fifty 
 years ago, recaUing the three buildings, the few acres partially 
 cleared, with charred logs, stumps, and the litter of the builders 
 strewn around; the vision limited to a small circle bounded by 
 a wall of forest trees, burned and blackened while clearing the 
 few acres above mentioned. Recall the crooked road to Lansing 
 with its mud holes, corduroy and roots of tiecs extending into 
 the traveled part which had not been cut or worn away. Think 
 of roads from Lansing to your respective depots, and of the rail- 
 roads carrying you nearest to your home, and of the variety of 
 vehicles, whether carriages, stage, lumber wagon, or on foot, 
 the latter usually the most comfortable. Forgetting the past, 
 stroll leisurely around again and inspect the campus, with every 
 sort of tree, shrub, or vine common to this latitude, its walks and 
 drives, its cozy nooks and winding paths, its flowers and plants 
 in great variety, all or nearly all labeled and well kept. View 
 the fifty or more buildings and think of their equipment and con- 
 tents, constituting a very complete outfit for the purposes 
 intended, especially when we get our agricultural building and 
 fire-proof library, which we hope for in the near future. Linger a 
 few moments more, and beyond the campus scan the gardens, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION i8i 
 
 fields, forest, and the experimental plats, all surrounded as far 
 as the eye can reach with homes and farms indicating thrift and 
 comfort. When ready to depart, you can safely go in patent- 
 leather shoes over the macadem road to Lansing, ride comfort- 
 ably in carriage or wagon, or rapidly by automobile, or make 
 use of the cheap and convenient street cars, any of these landing 
 you at or near the depots, where you may take commodious cars, 
 running speedily over smooth tracks to or near your home. 
 You may query, "What are some of the results of this vast expend- 
 iture of time and money?" The following are suggested as a 
 partial answer: Graduates, including 1907, 1,288, about half 
 remaining in Michigan, and the other half scattered into every 
 state and territory in the United States and about a dozen foreign 
 countries. Non-graduates, 7,393, or a grand total of 8,681, 
 besides 1,007 who have taken special courses in agriculture. 
 Most of the non-graduates and many of the graduates are on 
 farms, and the College has representatives in nearly every agri- 
 cultural college and experiment station in the United States and 
 a few in foreign countries, occupying positions from president 
 down. A majority are following pursuits along the line of their 
 college training or allied work. And it has been a matter of 
 frequent remark that those who have been at the College and 
 gone into the professional or commercial employments have 
 taken a deeper or more lively interest in rural affairs. 
 
 By the latest published Institute Report I find that the total 
 attendance at farmers' institutes for 1905-6 was 126,535. The 
 frequent lectures and talks given by those connected with the 
 college to Grange gatherings, farmers' picnics, state and local 
 horticultural societies, farmers' clubs, women's clubs, and to a 
 large number of graded and district schools, easily swell the 
 number to 150,000 during past year who get direct benefit from 
 the college instruction, and all of these have an indirect influence 
 on the people, difiicult to estimate. 
 
 A number are employed in newspaper and magazine work. 
 
1 82 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 mainly writing on topics of special interest to the farmers and 
 industrial classes. Thirty-four, the latest number I have seen, 
 are employed in the Agricultural Department at Washington. 
 In this connection, I wish to remind you that near the beginning 
 of this College, there was a mere pittance expended by the 
 United States for agriculture, and the Senate had dropped its 
 committee on agriculture. Today, the government has a 
 Department of Agriculture, regarded by the mass of its citizens 
 as of equal importance to any other of its great departments. 
 
 In my opinion, the creation of this department is largely due 
 to the work and influence of this and other agricultural colleges 
 and experiment stations. I will not detain you to enlarge upon 
 its widespread and valuable services, as we are to have the 
 pleasure tomorrow of hearing Hon. James Wilson, its present 
 efficient secretary. 
 
 My brother and sister, I appreciate that I have given you 
 much with which many of you are familiar and that you will 
 regard most of it as ancient history. But experience and obser- 
 vation have convinced me that it is well to review at times the 
 history of the struggles of the Revolution and of the Civil War. 
 It increases our appreciation of what it cost to establish and 
 maintain a government and so increases our patriotism and 
 anxiety to guard, improve, and perpetuate it. So of our Alma 
 Mater. She has had a long struggle and exists because of the 
 host of intelligent and farsighted men and women who have 
 through years of unwearying persistence and patience stood by 
 her. AH this has undoubtedly made her a more efficient and 
 helpful mother, enabling her to send out a stronger heritage. 
 She being older than her sister colleges, her children have gone 
 out in the past to work in other similar colleges in larger num- 
 bers than have the graduates of any other college. Hence, by 
 this exceptional opportunity they are able to bring back to their 
 Alma Mater their expeiiences and observations upon nearly 
 every college and experiment station in this country and in some 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 183 
 
 foreign countries, I feel sure she will be specially ghd of their 
 contributions. Equally sure am I that she is particularly proud 
 of those of her children who have gone out to sister institutions, 
 making their work an influence felt, and making a good name 
 for themselves and for their Alma Mater. 
 
 We realize that these colleges and experiment stations are 
 engaged in similar work, the main purpose of which is to make 
 worthy citizens of our grand republic, citizens who shall appre- 
 ciate the need of good health and such a physical development 
 as will enable them to stand the strenuous Ufe entailed by in- 
 creasing competition. Who knows the value of a broad and 
 thorough mental equipment as gi^'ing them a larger liberty in 
 the choice of a pursuit, crownine: aU with such a moral fiber as 
 will bring a ready "Yes" to the right, and such an emphatic 
 "no" to the wrong as will ever ward off the tempter ? 
 
IRecrolog^ 
 
 HERBERT WINDSOR MUMFORD, 1891 
 
 It is something more than a duty, this custom of remembering 
 those whose race is run or whose Hfe has prematurely gone out. 
 Every loyal alumnus of our College feels that in setting aside a 
 few minutes on the program we are giving but scant recognition 
 to those who were once active among us. We are happy in our 
 renewal of old associations and yet there is scarcely one of us 
 who does not feel that something or someone is lacking to make 
 our joy complete. To some who have, because of special ties 
 of friendship or relationship, been especially bereaved, we, as 
 alumni and brothers, extend our most cordial sympathy, and 
 trust that this part of our program will recall sweet memories 
 of those we loved. 
 
 [Following this Professor Mumford spoke briefly of the life 
 and work of each of the alumni who had died during the pre- 
 ceding four years. The list of those of whose death he had 
 learned, together with the date, with the class to which each 
 belonged, and with the place and date of death, as far as learned, 
 is given below.] 
 
 L. V. Beebe, of the class of 1861, died at Utica, New York, 
 August II, 1904. 
 
 Sylvester M. Millard, of the class of 1864, died at Lake 
 Geneva, Wisconsin, December i, 1905. 
 
 Charles Henry Watson, of the class of 1866, died at Mil- 
 waukee, Wisconsin, April 14, 1907. 
 
 George Finney Beasley, of the class of 1868, died in 
 Detroit, November 2, 1904. 
 
 William Asa Rowe, of the class of 1873, died in Vevay 
 Township, Ingham County, Michigan, November i, 1905. 
 
 184 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 185 
 
 William C. Harper, of the class of 1873, died at Grand 
 Rapids, Michigan, October 8, 1906. 
 
 Dr. Lovias F. Ingersoll, of the class of 1874, died at Grand 
 Junction, Colorado, in December, 1906. 
 
 DusTiN C. Oakes, of the class of 1874, died at Grand Haven, 
 Michigan, September 26, 1903. 
 
 Dr. Corydon Pirnie Cronk, of the class of 1879, died at 
 Cape Henry, Maryland, December 13, 1903. 
 
 Alva Sherwood, of the class of 1881, died at Detroit, Mich., 
 September 27, 1905. 
 
 Dr. Willard H. Coffron, of the class of 1882, died at 
 Grindstone City, Michigan, April 7, 1904. 
 
 J. M. Hollingsworth, of the class of 1882, died at Whittier, 
 Cahfornia, May 18, 1907. 
 
 Perry G. Towar, of the class of 1885, died at Garden City, 
 Kansas, October 8, 1906. 
 
 C. P. Locke, of the class of 1891, died at Ionia, Michigan, 
 December 27, 1904. 
 
 Victor H. Lowe, of the class of 1891, died at Fort Collins, 
 Colorado, August 27, 1903. 
 
 Leander Burnett, of the class of 1892, died at Avalon, 
 Pennsylvania, December 26, 1906. 
 
 E. N. Thayer, of the class of 1893, died at Livingston, 
 Montana, May 6, 1906. 
 
 Noel M. Morse, of the class of 1896, died in New Haven 
 Township, Gratiot County, Michigan, October 4, 1904. 
 
 Miss Clare Dean, of the class of 1902, died at Mt. Pleasant, 
 Michigan, February 3, 1906. 
 
 Harry Hammond Crosby, of the class of 1906, died at Three 
 Oaks, Michigan, October 16, 1906. 
 
MEMORIAL DAY EXERCISES 
 THURSDAY AFTERNOON 
 
MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS 
 
 WASHINGTON GARDNER 
 
 It seems eminently fitting that in the somewhat elaborate 
 program of exercises commemorative of the founding of this 
 institution of learning, whereby its history, its spirit, its aims and 
 accomplishments are sought to be more fully set forth, a place 
 should be given in honor of the heroes who went from its halls 
 to the service of their country. In the earher, as in its later 
 years, the atmosphere of the College seems to have been sur- 
 charged with the spirit of patriotism. The first class was gradu- 
 ated in the year the war for the preservation of the Union began, 
 and of that class every member save one entered the federal 
 army. One-third of its members were killed in battle or died 
 of disease while in the service. In Civil War times the attend- 
 ance, as compared with the present, was small, yet the records 
 show that from the then student body there was in the Union 
 army a total enrolment of sixty-eight. As an evidence of the 
 high character and intelhgence of these sixty-eight young volun- 
 teers, thirty-one became commissioned officers. In proof that 
 the culture of the scholar and the valor of the hero are not in- 
 compatible, it is only necessary to state that of these student 
 warriors more than 13 per cent, were killed or mortally wounded 
 in battle, that others died of disease, and still others were 
 wounded, maimed of body, or broken in health, many of whom 
 have long since gone to premature graves. 
 
 In the late war between Spain and the United States, Michi- 
 gan's quota of infantry was five regiments, and in these the 
 names of forty-three officers and enlisted men are found in the 
 student enrolment of the Agricultural CoUege. Having in mind 
 this splendid record of patriotic service, may we not with pro- 
 
 189 
 
I90 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 priety, on this national memorial day, consider some of the 
 issues involved and some of the questions settled by the great 
 war which asked and received such devotion and sacrifice not 
 only from the students of this institution but everywhere from 
 the patriotic young men of our country ? 
 
 While there were important secondary influences that served 
 well the purposes of the agitators on both sides, the basal diffi- 
 culty was a question of construction of the fundamental law 
 about which there was an honest difference of opinion. 
 
 Under the Constitution as interpreted by the founders of the 
 government and for a generation after them, there seems to have 
 been no question as to the right of a state to withdraw from the 
 Union. At that time the foremost men in the country seemed 
 to regard the system of government under the Constitution as 
 "an experiment entered upon by the states and from which each 
 and every state had the right peaceably to withdraw, a right 
 which was very likely to be exercised." In her act of ratification, 
 the delegates of Virginia in the name of that commonwealth 
 declared that the powers granted under the Constitution being 
 derived from the people may be resumed by them whenever the 
 same shall be perverted to their injury. Madison held that "as 
 the Constitution of the United States was formed by the sanction 
 of the states given by each in its sovereign capacity it followed 
 of necessity that in the last resort there could be no tribunal 
 above their authority to decide whether the contract made by 
 them be violated." Mr. WiUiam Rawle, the eminent Pennsyl- 
 vania jurist, in his commentaries said, "The states may wholly 
 withdraw from the Union, but while they continue, they must 
 retain the character of representative republics. The secession 
 of a state from the Union depends on the will of the people of 
 such state." 
 
 There can be no doubt that, in the beginning, the union 
 of the states was looked upon as a mere confederacy, an agree- 
 ment, a compact, a bargain, an experiment, and that member- 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION IQI 
 
 ship therein was regarded as subject to the wish or will of each 
 to exercise its sovereign right to remain in or to go out from, as 
 it saw fit. Witnesses are not wanting, individual or collective, 
 to prove that this doctrine, so perilous to natural unity and na- 
 tional permanency, permeated all sections and needed only what 
 might be regarded as a sufficient grievance to make its operation 
 manifest. The disastrous commercial results following the 
 placing of an embargo upon American shipping by President 
 Jefferson led to open threats by some leading Massachusetts 
 men with a strong popular following, to dissolve the Union. 
 The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, now, and for a long 
 time, regarded by men of all parties in all sections of the coun- 
 try as one of the master-strokes in American diplomacy and one 
 of the crowning acts of American statesmanship, was deeply 
 resented and bitterly opposed by many of the most eminent and 
 patriotic of our countrymen. One of these was a soldier of 
 excellent record in the War of the Revolution, a cabinet officer 
 in the administration of Washington, and later in that of John 
 Adams, and still later a distinguished senator in the Congress 
 of United States who, in speaking of the preponderating influence 
 the Louisiana Territory would give the South and West, said, 
 "I will not despair. I will rather anticipate a new confederacy. 
 There will be a separation. Our children at the farthest will 
 see it." Another distinguished son of the North was the first 
 to declare and advocate on the floor of the American Congress 
 the doctrine of secession. Just fifty years before Fort Sumter was 
 fired upon, when the bill for admission of Louisiana as a state 
 was under discussion, Mr. Josiah Quincy, then a leading mem- 
 ber of Congress and afterward for many years president of 
 Harvard College, in defending the proposition that the Con- 
 stitution had not conferred upon Congress the power to admit 
 new states except such as should be formed from territory be- 
 longing to the Union in 1787, said, "I am compelled to declare 
 it as my deliberate opinion that if this bill passes^ the bonds of 
 
192 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 this Union are virtually dissolved, that the states which compose 
 it are free from their moral obligations, and as it wiU be the 
 right of all so it will be the duty of some to prepare definitely 
 for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must." 
 
 When the nation was in the midst of its second war with 
 Great Britain and while the issue was still in doubt the Hartford 
 convention, largely representing the New England states, was 
 convened to discuss not the right — that seemed to be taken for 
 granted — ^but the expediency of secession. With closed and 
 sentineled doors they sought, among other things, to determine 
 the advisability of forming a new confederacy with the Hudson 
 River as its western boundary. 
 
 The proposition to admit the territory of Missouri as a state 
 into the Union without slavery evoked the most violent and 
 foreboding discussion, not only in Congress but by the press and 
 people throughout the country. In that discussion it was held 
 by the South that to prohibit slavery in Missouri was a dangerous 
 and despotic measure and one that would infringe upon the 
 sovereignty of the states. Her indignant protests against the 
 exclusion of slavery from the proposed new state were attended 
 by serious threats to dissolve the Union. It was during this 
 discussion, more than forty years before the outbreak of the 
 Civil War, that a southern member of Congress uttered the 
 portentous prophecy that in the agitation of the slavery question a 
 fire was being kindled which could only be extinguished by blood. 
 
 Because of what was claimed to be an unconstitutional and 
 oppressive protective tariff, advantageous to the manufacturing 
 states of the North and East and disadvantageous to the agri- 
 cultural interests of the South and West, several states in the 
 cotton-growing belt of the Union threatened to nullify the laws 
 of the federal government, while South Carolina went so far as 
 to declare the "tariff acts null, void, and no law, nor binding 
 upon that state, its officers, or citizens." She seriously purposed 
 to withdraw from the Union, and within her borders prepared 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 193 
 
 to resist by force the administration of the national laws. Com- 
 munities in the North repeatedly, violently, and even boastfully, 
 opposed the local enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 
 and in turn were justly chargeable with practical nullification of 
 federal statutes. The fires of sectional hate fed on that which 
 was designed to extinguish them. 
 
 The culmination of events, in i860, brought the country to 
 the verge of a crisis that seriously threatened the very existence 
 of the Union. The South, unified by an appeal to endangered 
 property interests in chattel slaves, estimated at more than two 
 thousand millions of dollars, and the apparition of the hideous 
 ghost of a servile insurrection, invoked the doctrine of state 
 sovereignty and the asserted constitutional right of withdrawal 
 from the Union as its way of escape from what it believed to be 
 impending calamities. It claimed that "any state whenever 
 this shall be its sovereign will and pleasure may secede from the 
 Union in accordance with the Constitution and without any 
 violation of the constitutional rights of the other members of the 
 Confederacy; that as each became parties to the Union by votes 
 of its own people assembled in convention, so any one of them 
 may still retire from the Union in a similar manner, by the vote 
 of such convention." 
 
 In opposition to this contention so long and so stoutly main- 
 tained, Mr. Lincoln, when he came to the presidency, held, that 
 "in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the 
 union of these states is perpetual;" that "perpetuity is implied 
 if not expressed in the fundamental law of all national govern- 
 ments; that no government ever had a provision in its organic 
 law for its own termination." The logical conclusion drawn 
 from these syllogistically stated propositions was that no state 
 can lawfully go out of the Union if by so doing it imperils the 
 existence or the integrity of the general government. Upon 
 these two points of contention the issue between the sections 
 was made up and fairly joined. 
 
194 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 There was, however, another exceedingly important question 
 involved in the controversy. That was whether if a state should 
 secede the constitutional right inhered in the general govern- 
 ment to compel by force such state to remain in the Union against 
 its will. Upon this point men of the highest intelligence and of 
 unquestioned patriotism and loyalty to the government differed 
 in opinion. Many in the North beHeved with President 
 Buchanan who, while disclaiming the right of a state to secede, 
 declared it as his deUberate opinion that no power has been 
 delegated to Congress or to any other department of the federal 
 government to coerce a state into submission which is attempting 
 to withdraw or actually has withdrawn from the confederacy. 
 Congress, he said, might preserve the Union by conciliation, 
 but the sword was not placed in its hands to preserve it by force. 
 These views, expressed by the official head of the nation in a 
 message to Congress so late as December, i860, undoubtedly 
 served for the time being to divide the North and to unify and 
 strengthen the South in the already largely preponderating 
 opinion entertained in that section against the constitutional 
 right of coercion. 
 
 In the secession of certain of the southern states and their 
 organization into a confederacy; in the seizure of United States 
 property, as forts, arsenals, custom houses, mints, and post- 
 offices, and their appropriation by the individual states or the 
 confederacy of states, and finally in the premeditated and care- 
 fully planned assault on Fort Sumter, men saw that the time 
 for argument, for conciliation, and for compromise had passed 
 and the time for battle had come. The shots that echoed across 
 the waters of Charleston harbor in the gray dawn of that April 
 morning in 1861 awoke the nation from the repose of peace to 
 the realization of war. In that momentous hour one supreme 
 question challenged every loyal American, "The federal Union, 
 shaU it be preserved ?" Upon the issue involved in that question 
 Lincoln made his appeal to the country and in response to that 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 195 
 
 appeal an aggregate of more than twenty-two hundred thousand 
 men came forth, representing the incarnated spirit of the nation's 
 purpose to preserve and transmit unimpaired that which the 
 fathers had bequeathed. 
 
 Important questions, some of which had been in dispute 
 since the founding of the government and which neither minis- 
 ters, nor publicists, nor statesmen, nor jurists, nor cabinets, nor 
 presidents could peacefully and permanently settle, were now 
 submitted to the arbitrament of arms. It is not necessary at 
 this time and in this place to detail the story of the mighty con- 
 flict, nor to institute a comparison between the sections. It is 
 enough for both the North and the South to know that the issues 
 that so long disturbed the tranquillity and menaced the peace 
 and permanency of the republic were unalterably settled by the 
 war of 1861-65. By that war once and for all time it was deter- 
 mined that the federal Constitution is the supreme law of the 
 land; that the first allegiance of every citizen of the republic is 
 to the national rather than to a state government ; that nullifica- 
 tion as an assumed reserved right of the states is eliminated as 
 a factor from the problem of American poHtics ; that within the 
 limits of the Constitution the federal Supreme Court shall be 
 ever3rwhere recognized as the ultimate authority in the con- 
 struction of law, and that the law as so construed must be obeyed 
 by all alike until changed by constitutional and not revolutionary 
 methods; that in the relations existing between the national and 
 the several state governments, the latter are integral but sub- 
 ordinate parts of which the former is the one supreme and in- 
 dissoluble whole ; that if any state attempts to, or actually does, 
 withdraw from the Union, the constitutional authority not only 
 inheres in but the duty is enjoined upon the general government 
 to compel such state, by force if necessary, to remain in and to 
 resume its rightful and normal relations. That war determined 
 that, wherever the flag of our country floats in undisputed author- 
 ity, there slavery or involuntary servitude except for the punish- 
 
196 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 ment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted 
 shall be forever prohibited. When the war closed it was settled 
 that the government of the United States of America was not a 
 mere confederacy but "an indestructible union of indestructible 
 states." 
 
 In view of these universally recognized and conceded results, 
 the heroic dead, whose patriotic sacrifice we this day commemo- 
 rate, did not die in vain, and the living, maimed and broken in 
 health, who still abide among us, have not suffered without 
 recompense. Every sincere lover of his country can but rejoice 
 in the fact that the feelings of sectional hate, engendered by 
 many years of embittered controversy culminating in the fierce 
 strife of civil war, have passed from the hearts and no longer 
 find expression upon the lips of men, and that where war and 
 malice once held sway peace and good-will are enthroned. 
 
CAMPUS ILLUMINATION 
 RECEPTION 
 
 PROMENADE CONCERT 
 THURSDAY EVENING 
 
THE ILLUMINATION 
 
 The evening of Thursday was given over to the student body. 
 Under the magic of innumerable electric lamps which outlined 
 all the principal buildings and which, half hidden by Japanese 
 lanterns, stretched hither and far along Faculty Row and many 
 other walks, the campus became a veritable fairyland. 
 
 AU the young men of the student body, in white capes and 
 leggins, and carrying flaming torches, gathered in front of Wells 
 Hall, and after an intricate march about the campus, seated 
 themselves on the grass in front of the Women's Building, so 
 as to form the letters M. A. C. Here the young women of the 
 College, coming from the building, after an involved fancy march 
 called the "Oak Chain," formed the letters M. A. C. Then 
 joined by the men, they indulged for an hour in roUicking college 
 songs. The music finished, all of the student body, together 
 with 10,000 visitors, crossed the campus to Wells Hall. In 
 front of this building tar barrels and other inflammable material 
 had been piled to the height of thirty feet, and after a great 
 circle had been formed the bonfire was kindled. Under its 
 brilliant light the students marched about in a circle, singing 
 songs and enjoying themselves as only college students out for 
 a lark are capable of doing. 
 
 THE RECEPTION 
 
 At nine o'clock a reception to the delegates, alumni, and 
 friends of the College was given in the College Armory. In the 
 receiving line were President and Mrs. Snyder, Governor and 
 Mrs. Warner, President Monroe of the State Board of Agri- 
 culture, and Mrs. Monroe, and President Angell of Michigan 
 State University. 
 
 199 
 
200 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Until well toward midnight the old Armory was happy with 
 the hearty greetings of friends who had not met perhaps for 
 years, and was brilliant with electric lights, with beautiful gowns, 
 with smihng faces, and with the cordial good cheer of the entire 
 company. 
 
 THE PROMENADE CONCERT 
 
 During the same hour a promenade concert was in progress 
 in the Assembly Tent, given by the Bach Orchestra of Milwaukee. 
 The great tent was crowded throughout the rendition of the very 
 enjoyable program given below : 
 
 PROMENADE CONCERT PROGRAM 
 
 1. Grand March from Tannhauser . . . Wagner 
 
 2. Overture, Jubilee ..... Chr. Bach 
 
 3. Selection from Ernani ..... Verdi 
 
 4. Solo for Cornet 
 
 5. Concert Waltz, "Bel uns z' Haus' 
 
 6. Overture to Maritana . 
 
 7. Largo .... 
 
 Strauss 
 Wallace 
 Handel 
 Tobani 
 Till 
 Chr. Bach 
 
 8. Philharmonic Echoes . 
 
 9. Serenade for Flute and Horn , 
 10. Agricultural College March 
 
 Between the musical numbers portraits of groups of stu- 
 dents taken years ago, and portraits of famous alumni and of 
 well-known faculty members, together with reproductions of the 
 college buildings of the past and present, were thrown on a 
 great screen, and were especially enjoyed by the alumni who 
 were present. 
 
JUBILEE EXERCISES 
 FRIDAY MORNING 
 
THREE THINGS LAST CENTURY 
 
 SECRETARY JAMES WILSON 
 
 It has been said that the United States did three unique 
 things in the last century. It built at Washington the Capitol, 
 the Washington Monument, and the Congressional Library, 
 each the finest of its kind in the world. A much grander work 
 was the laying of the foundation of agricultural education and 
 research to prepare the farmer for his life-work, establish agri- 
 cultural hterature, and Kft the tiller of the soil to a higher level of 
 efficiency as a producer and a citizen. No country on earth has 
 such a comprehensive system to bring about these results. The 
 total number of land-grant colleges is 65, and 63 of these give 
 courses in agriculture which are attended by 10,000 students. 
 These colleges are also largely engaged in giving instruction in 
 agriculture to adult farmers in the farmers' institutes which are 
 annually attended by over one million farmers. These institu- 
 tions have permanent funds and equipment amounting to 
 $84,000,000 and an annual revenue of $14,500,000, to which the 
 federal government contributes $3,000,000 and the state govern- 
 ments $7,500,000. 
 
 The work is telling in many ways. Young people go to these 
 institutions who would not go to any other. There is a great 
 demand at home and abroad for young people educated along 
 these lines. The brightest farm boys and girls are being edu- 
 cated for the farm. It is the most dehghtful and comprehensive 
 study of material things to which the mind can be applied. 
 
 FEDERAL AND STATE WORK 
 
 There has been steady progress during the half-century that 
 marks the work of the Michigan Agricultural College. Con- 
 
 303 
 
204 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 gress has endowed educational and research institutions in the 
 states and territories. The federal government has co-operated 
 with the states, and operated where the work was interstate. 
 The movement to educate the producer has reached the problem 
 of primary and secondary education, so that the young farmer 
 may be turned toward the study of the elements of the sciences 
 that are to have his future attention. These combined efforts 
 will result in making household words of what is now taught in 
 college. Discussions of climates, soils, movements of moisture, 
 plants and their improvement, animals and their antecedents, 
 trees and their value, sanitation and its application, will all be- 
 come familiar to the educated farmer's family. 
 
 NEED OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES 
 
 Suppose each of the gentlemen invited here to rejoice with 
 the Michigan Agricultural College in its day of triumph was 
 asked to tell you why we need agricultural colleges, basing his 
 reasons on his observations while on the way here. I would say : 
 The water level is too near the surface in a large percentage of 
 our best soils ; tile is not being laid deep enough — most plants 
 send their roots down four or five feet seeking nutrition — the 
 rootlets stop when they reach stagnant water, and only that 
 depth of soil is at work for the farmer that lies above the water 
 level. I see drains being laid eighteen to thirty inches deep 
 that should go down to forty-eight inches at least, for reasons 
 that every student in the graduating class can give, but which 
 are evidently not known to farmers generally. As the science 
 of soils becomes better understood, much of the draining of 
 today and of the past will be done over again. 
 
 PASTURES 
 
 I have observed on my way here that decided improvement 
 can be made in the pasture, which makes our most valuable 
 crop and is our best recuperating agent. A majority of farmers 
 have only one grass growing, suitable to the soil and climate. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 205 
 
 Grasses are at their best at different seasons, then they rest for 
 a time. They should supplement each other throughout the 
 seasons. Many pastures have no legumes growing with the 
 grasses, while all that are at home in the soil or climate should be 
 under tribute. The office of the legume is well known to every- 
 body here. The agricultural colleges should do demonstration 
 work along such lines as pasturing and draining in all the states. 
 Perhaps it should be done through other state agencies, in co- 
 operation with the college faculties. We must not be content 
 with research work that hits nothing, that is not applied to some- 
 thing, that helps no farmer or handler of crops. Leave all that 
 to abstract science. We must make good and find pots of gold at 
 the ends of all our rainbows. 
 
 PERCENTAGE OF FARMERS 
 
 Including the population of our island possessions, half of 
 the people under our flag are producers from the soil. This 
 half owe it to the other to prepare themselves for discharging the 
 duties of citizenship with the highest intelligence. They are 
 financially able to educate, as 72 per cent, of our exports — or 
 nine hundred milHons of dollars — is the price of farm products 
 sold abroad annually, after supplying the home requirements. 
 They have leisure and more facilities for reading and reflection 
 than the other half of the people. Rural free delivery of mails, 
 the telephone, the daily and farm papers, magazines, and other 
 sources of information combine to form powerful adjuncts in 
 the education of the farmer and his family. They are not 
 organized as a class, and are not Ukely to be, but they are the 
 nation's jury when questions of public policy are to be settled. 
 
 FINE MACHINERY 
 
 The returns from intelHgent farming are becoming more 
 satisfactory as the principles that govern production are better 
 understood, affording better homes and home conveniences. 
 Our farmers are experts in managing fine machinery, and the 
 
2o6 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 crops grown by one man's efforts are astonishing. Commerce, 
 manufacturing, mining, and carrjdng call help from the farm, 
 and raise the price of labor. Production is hardly keeping step 
 with growth of population, which results in higher prices for 
 crops. Few of the immigrants coming to our country could do 
 the work required on the farm. They fit into other industries 
 more readily. Our agricultural colleges have broadened the 
 minds and strengthened the arms of our farmers, and increased 
 their efficiency. They have helped them into a class by them- 
 selves among farmers and have dignified their calling. 
 
 FARMERS IN REQUEST 
 
 The farmer is in request when the army and navy are to be 
 recruited, when the city is to be reinforced, when the professions 
 need quiet nerves and capacity for study and strain, when capital 
 and labor take their dispute to the polls, when a public man is to 
 be weighed, and when the nation settles public questions at the 
 ballot box. As a people we are quite successful in governing in 
 the country, the village, the town, and in the state outside of the 
 large cities. The cities perplex, the country assures. The 
 better education of country folk will gradually bring into counsel 
 a safe element. The future of the republic depends upon the 
 intelligence and moral rectitude of the citizen. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMALS 
 
 The development of domestic animals of all kinds for various 
 uses on different soils in varying chmates has hardly been begun 
 in this country. We take the results of foreign breeders that 
 dealt with conditions quite dissimilar from most that we find in 
 this country. We must suit the animal to the pasture to reach 
 the best results, and pastures vary. Each state or group of 
 states will eventually learn by experience what animal will be 
 most profitable. No other country on earth has as much capital 
 invested in animals as we have. We look after their health and 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 207 
 
 the excellence of their products, but we have done little to im- 
 prove them. 
 
 RURAL EDUCATION 
 
 Do not understand me that I would limit the education of 
 rural families to material affairs — to the getting of "bread and 
 butter," as some thoughtless men in prominent places term 
 agricultural education. Man's responsibility to God and to his 
 fellow-man is now being impressed upon young and old, in 
 country and village and town, by the grandest organization of 
 churches and Sabbath schools known to any people, where man's 
 nobler nature is being stimulated and developed with infinite 
 pains and at such expense as we are never likely to see devoted 
 to material things. Highly enlightened society, as we have it, 
 requires liberal incomes. Good farming is the basis of bank 
 accounts in our country. Fill the pupil's stomach before you 
 teach altruism, and see that the teacher has had beefsteak for 
 breakfast. One of the most praiseworthy lines of work being 
 done at our agricultural colleges is the training of young women 
 in what pertains to themselves and others, including domestic 
 economy, sanitation, nutrition, ventilation, and correct living, 
 resulting in the American girl, unique, unequaled, perfect. 
 
FOR MICHIGAN AND ITS UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRESIDENT JAMES BURRILL ANGELL 
 
 It is with pleasure that I come to bring the cordial salutations 
 of the University of Michigan to the Agricultural College on this 
 glad day. The relations between the two institutions have 
 always been most friendly. The University has furnished two 
 able presidents to the College, President Fiske, and Presi- 
 dent WiUits, whose administrations form important chap- 
 ters in your history. Not to speak of those younger teachers 
 who have been trained in our halls, we remember as you 
 do with pride the long and conspicuous services of our gradu- 
 ates, Dr. Kedzie and Dr. Beal. It would perhaps be difficult to 
 name a teacher in any institution whose services have been 
 more useful to Michigan than those of Dr. Kedzie; and Dr. 
 Beal, we are happy to say, is still spared to continue his long and 
 creditable career. Not a few of your graduates have to our great 
 satisfaction come to us and won distinction in specialties which 
 it was not your province to furnish. 
 
 As you well know, in the early 50's the University authorities 
 were desirous that the College should become a member of the 
 University household. But the coy maiden declined our suit, 
 and so we have each led a life of single blessedness. We at the 
 University have often been incHned to think that it would have 
 been better for both of us if we had joined our fortunes at that 
 time. But we are compelled to remember that it is unprofitable 
 for rejected suitors to complain, especially when the coy maiden 
 has prospered so well by herself in her own household. 
 
 Like all educational state institutions in the younger states 
 this College has had her days of juvenile troubles — what I often 
 compare to the mumps and measles and whooping cough in 
 
 208 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 209 
 
 children — but she has come well out of them all. Some forty 
 years ago it fell to my lot to conduct the organization of the 
 Agricultural College in Vermont in connection with the univer- 
 sity. I found as our friends have sometimes found here that the 
 most serious task was to convince the very class for whom these 
 colleges are founded, namely, the farmers, that the institution 
 had anything of value to offer to their children. The methods 
 of farming were so intrenched by tradition and immemorial 
 usage that any proposition to improve them by college training 
 was hopelessly condemned as mere "book learning." 
 
 I think the chief agencies in winning favor for this and for all 
 similar colleges have been farmers' institutes and the experiment 
 stations. By the papers and discussions in the institutes it has 
 been made clear to the most conservative farmer that he has 
 something to learn from others, and by the researches at the 
 stations it has been demonstrated that experiments conducted 
 according to the most approved scientific methods can reveal 
 how to make the raising of crops or the culture of fruit or the 
 breeding of animals more profitable. 
 
 It has now become clear that even as no other industry is so 
 important to us as the agricultural, so there is no industry to 
 which science is able to make more valuable contributions. 
 Furthermore, in studying this vexed problem, how to keep the 
 bright boys on the farms, it has become apparent that one of 
 the wisest things is to show them that, rightly understood, the 
 most effective conduct of the farm furnishes an opportunity for 
 the exercise of the highest inteUigence, enhghtened and inspired 
 by the best type of theoretical and practical scientific training. 
 
 This college has been fortunate in commanding the services 
 of teachers of a high order of merit, several of whom are known 
 wherever agricultural education is appreciated. Indeed, some 
 of them have been so conspicuous that they have been drafted 
 into the service of other institutions that pay higher salaries than 
 Michigan allows herself to offer. Moreover, a good number of 
 
2IO MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 the graduates of this College have been gladly seized by other 
 leading colleges for important positions in their faculties. I 
 sometimes think that the institutions of higher education in 
 Michigan are called to furnish more than their quota of brightest 
 young men to colleges and universities in other states. But 
 after all that is a useful function of these institutions, and we 
 ought perhaps to feel proud that these graduates are so much in 
 demand as teachers in all parts of our country. 
 
 Speaking for the University of Michigan I desire to congratu- 
 late this College most heartily that on its fiftieth birthday it finds 
 itself guided by so competent a faculty with so efficient a presi- 
 dent at the head; that it sees so many graduates by their lives 
 and their influence reflecting honor upon the College and upon 
 the state, and that its halls are filled by so large and so earnest a 
 company of ingenuous young men and young women who are 
 here training themselves for worthy and useful careers. As 
 the demands upon the institution are increasing with the rapid 
 growth of our population and with the more intelligent pursuit 
 of agriculture, may the means not be wanting to it to make its 
 future even more beneficent than has been this first half -century 
 of its useful life. 
 
ADDRESS FOR THE EAST 
 
 RUFUS WHITTAKER STIMSON 
 
 GREETING 
 
 He who on this occasion would honor Michigan Agricultural 
 College would but honor himself, so high a position of dignity and 
 usefulness has this institution attained among not only the sister- 
 hood of the land-grant colleges, but also among all other educa- 
 tional institutions. The East gladly and proudly joins all 
 quarters of our country in bringing greetings and congratulations 
 on this happy occasion. 
 
 THE EAST 
 
 The so-called French market in the foreign quarter of New 
 Orleans is a unique and most attractive spot. It consists of 
 roofed but open-sided pavilions. In it may be purchased 
 almost everything imaginable from cut glass and cut flowers, 
 laces and embroidery, to meats and fish, fruit and vegetables. 
 About six months ago I arose at daybreak to visit this market, 
 and came at one corner of it upon a young Creole who was 
 tying up what he called vegetable bouquets. One knows a 
 young onion when one sees it, and a young turnip. There were 
 vegetables in those "bouquets," however, with which I was 
 quite unfamiliar. After answering my inquiries, the young man 
 finally turned on me with the question: 
 
 " Not to be too inquisitive, where do you come from ? " 
 
 "Down east — New England," I answered. 
 
 "Oh," he exclaimed, "you don't hve in the United States!" 
 
 "Yes," I said, "I do." 
 
 "Ah," he queried, "the United States governs your island ?" 
 
 In speaking for the East I need hardly say to the people 
 here assembled that I speak for a land and people comprised 
 
212 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 within the United States, nor produce any argument to prove 
 that the East has contributed a fair quota to the statesmanship 
 of our country as well as to the classes of the governed. 
 
 THE OLD HOME 
 
 To many a man in the West, the East has for long been the 
 old home — so many in the West have themselves migrated from 
 the East, so many are the sons or daughters of eastern parents 
 now settled in the newer country. When the institution I have 
 the honor of serving issued the first booklet of its summer school 
 for teachers, copies found their way here. It was most interest- 
 ing to observe the instant response of western editors. Re- 
 quests immediately began to be received for the use of halftones 
 or for the purchase of photographs for printing, so suggestive 
 of the old home to dwellers on the prairies were the illustrations 
 of the booklet. Recently we came West to the great University 
 of Illinois in our search for a man for the headship of an 
 important department. The man we chose was attracted by the 
 great company of distinguished scholars and scientific men in 
 New England whose ranks he was invited to join. Our pros- 
 perity stirred him, for New England still has money to lend. 
 He was also impressed by our thrifty farms, with their fertile, 
 if sometimes stony, fields so closely adjacent to our magnificent 
 markets. But what attracted him most of all, and what finally 
 determined him to accept our offer, was the desire that his 
 boys should have an opportunity for growing up among the 
 brooks and the woods and the hills of New England. To move 
 East would be to draw near the old home of both his wife and 
 himself. Not unhke the tumult in the bosom of the foreigner, 
 when he thinks of the " old country," are the feelings of affection 
 in the breast of the westerner when he thinks of the old home 
 in the East. 
 
 THE EAST AND EDUCATION 
 
 But it is not of the East in government, nor of the East as 
 the old home, that I desire principally to speak. The chief 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 213 
 
 suggestions prompted by this occasion concern the place of the 
 East in education. 
 
 If you were to visit the oldest college in our country, Harvard 
 University, entering the main gate leading to University Hall 
 you would find on your left old Harvard Hall, the tongue of 
 whose belfry has called generation after generation of young 
 men to lectures and to prayers. On your right you would find 
 old Massachusetts Hall. The Old South Church, across the 
 Charles in Boston, has been called the birthplace of American 
 liberty. Faneuil Hall, Boston, has been called the cradle of liberty. 
 In a very important sense old Massachusetts Hall might well 
 be called the schoolhouse of liberty, so many succeeding classes 
 of yoimg men have been schooled within its walls in the history 
 and principles of American freedom. Recently a niche has 
 been built into the front of this old colonial building. When 
 the class of 1883 was deciding who might most appropri- 
 ately occupy that spot, they chose a man who has been called 
 by one of our foremost scientific men " perhaps the best poet for 
 the working man," James Russell Lowell. And when the senti- 
 ment to appear on the pedestal beneath the bronze bust was 
 chosen, these were the words cut into the marble: 
 
 I, Freedom, Dwell with 
 
 Knowledge: I AsroE 
 WITH Men by Culture 
 Trained and Fortifeed 
 
 On the outer gate, within a stone's throw of this new monument, 
 one reads the ancient inscription that the primary object in the 
 founding of Harvard College was to protect the children of the 
 colonists from the legacy of "an illiterate ministry. " From the 
 first moment, American freedom has been joined to knowledge ; 
 men of the East have been trained and fortified by the cultivation 
 of their higher and finer powers. 
 
214 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 The half -century marked by our celebration today is one of 
 most extraordinary interest to the student of the history of 
 teaching. While eradication of ignorance and development 
 of personal power have been constant aims, there have been 
 marvelous changes in means and methods. 
 
 Fifty years ago there was one great slogan, ''mental disci- 
 pline. " For 800 years one type of training had dominated the 
 schools. The first college of our fathers was a survival of the 
 Middle Ages, those twilight days one of the idiosyncrasies of 
 which was a mystical reverence for the number seven. There 
 were seven planets, seven metals, seven days in the week, 
 "seven apertures in a man's head," seven cardinal virtues, 
 seven deadly sins, seven sacraments. Growing out of a curious 
 regard for elements of seven, studies had been divided into 
 groups of three and four. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric had 
 constituted the so-called trivium; arithmetic, geometry, astron- 
 omy, and music, had made up the so-called quadrivium. And 
 the education of fifty years ago, not only in colleges, but also in 
 preparatory schools — education claiming for its watchword, 
 "mental discipline" — was very largely of the trivium- quadri- 
 vium type. 
 
 Already, however, there were signs and portents of change. 
 The names of Darwin and Wallace, Huxley and TyndaU, Louis 
 Agassiz and Asa Gray were commanding attention and respect. 
 That is to say, powerful influences for change were at work, 
 even within the schools and colleges themselves. 
 
 Perhaps of keenest interest to us who are met here today, 
 however, are two influences which as the years have passed have 
 exerted tremendous modifying power — both acting on estab- 
 lished education, not from within the schools, but from the 
 outside. 
 
 It is almost exactly fifty years ago that Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 put into print, and challenged the public with, this question: 
 "What knowledge is of most worth?" Answering for himself 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 215 
 
 he said : (i) That knowledge which has to do with self-preser- 
 vation. The litle babe's eyes must be protected from the 
 bright light lest they suflfer harm. His first steps must be guided 
 lest he fall. Berries good for food he must be taught to pick, 
 not berries from bushes which poison. As the years advance 
 every stage of Hfe calls for special care lest the body suflfer injury. 
 All things which have to do directly with self-preservation are 
 of the first importance. (2) That knowledge which has to do 
 indirectly with self-preservation. Here Mr. Spencer referred 
 to training which develops a man's power for earning a livelihood. 
 All occupational knowledge is here included. The body must 
 not only be protected from harm, it also must steadily be sus- 
 tained and promoted in well-being. (3) That knowledge 
 which has to do with parenthood, including all training necessary 
 for the creation and well-being of family life. (4) That knowl- 
 edge which is conducive to social or community welfare. (5) 
 Finally, that knowledge which has to do with the graces and 
 refinements of life, including literature, music — fine art in all 
 forms. 
 
 Mr. Spencer's discussion was of great value owing to the 
 broad scope of his treatment of education. It was unique for 
 the order in which he stated the objects of knowledge and their 
 relative worth. Before art and refinement he put social and 
 community well-being. Before knowledge of history and poli- 
 tics he put knowledge of parental functions and obHgations. 
 Before all these he put that elemental knowledge which has to 
 do with vocational efficiency. What gave his contribution its 
 most searching pedagogic importance was his insistence on the 
 relatively higher educational value of vocational knowledge for 
 the average pupil in the average school, and no less for 
 the average student in the average college. The school men 
 could not escape his psychology nor his logic. The common 
 people received his message gladly. Almost immediately his 
 doctrine crossed to the continent, and there was translated into 
 
2i6 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 French, German, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Danish, and 
 Dutch. Simultaneously it crossed the stormy Atlantic. Few 
 men had have a profounder or farther-reaching influence. 
 
 In short, Mr. Spencer and those who espoused his views, or 
 something like them, once for all protested against the domina- 
 tion of the former ideal in education, that mental discipline was 
 the supreme thing. Knowledge, to be of worth, must not only 
 train the mind; it must also furnish it for the immediate, pressing 
 practical affairs of life. 
 
 Parallel with the scientific and philosophical treatment of 
 education by Mr. Spencer came the movement which led to the 
 establishment of the land-grant colleges. This also originated 
 in round numbers just fifty years ago, and was a movement from 
 outside the schools. It sprang from the soul of that wonderful 
 farmer, blacksmith, village banker, and for many years influen- 
 tial member of Congress, the late Senator Justin S. Morrill of 
 Vermont. Mr. Morrill contended that Congress and the legis- 
 latures of the several states should unite in furnishing a liberal 
 and practical education. We should equip all young men and 
 aU young women for success in life — some for usefulness in the 
 learned professions, others for success in the great basic, eco- 
 nomic industries. The history of the development of these land- 
 grant colleges I need not here trace, so familiar with it are we all, 
 and so profoundly convinced are we of the educational wisdom 
 and foresight of this grandmaster of public affairs. The prac- 
 tical program of Mr. Morrill, like the educational ideas of Mr, 
 Spencer, met with opposition — prevailed in spite of it. The 
 first Morrill bill was, as Dr. Abram Harris reminded us six years 
 ago, vetoed by the gentleman-president, James Buchanan; the 
 Morrill Act of 1862 was approved by the rail-splitter, Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Happily, however, as the years have passed, the new educa- 
 tion and the old have been joining hands. The old college has 
 affected the new, and the new college has modified the old. The 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 217 
 
 training in the new college, Mr. Morrill said, must be liberal and 
 practical. The education in the old college, the best leaders 
 today are successfully maintaining, must be both practical and 
 liberal. Probably no one man has exerted so powerful an in- 
 fluence toward the fusion of the best in the old education and 
 the new, as, during the past quarter-century, has President 
 Charles William Eliot. By his advocacy of the elective system, 
 he has certainly vitalized the education of the old college no less 
 profoundly than the training of the new college has been vital- 
 ized by the ideas of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Morrill. 
 
 Perhaps a personal reminiscence may be pardoned, since it 
 indicates better than almost anything else could do the nature 
 and spirit of our modern instruction. The brother of one of 
 my college mates came to Cambridge on a visit. This brother, 
 as a boy, could never be made to apply himself to books. Once 
 out of the grip of the compulsory-attendance law, he left school 
 and learned the plumber's trade. During this visit, he went 
 with us to a lecture in a course in ethics called "Philosophy 3," 
 presented by Professor George Herbert Palmer. It was not 
 "Philosophy 1," an elementary treatment of the subject; nor 
 yet "Philosophy 2." It was a decidedly advanced course in the 
 midst of which he spent that hour. Knowing the family circum- 
 stances, I was exceedingly curious to learn what would be the 
 effect on such a man's mind of modern Harvard, and at the close 
 of the lecture I asked him how he liked it. His answer was 
 almost startling: 
 
 "That," he said, "is what I call getting right down to 
 brass tacks ! " 
 
 Harvard is typical of the best, in her aims and in her methods. 
 Individual freedom achieved by cultivation, education getting 
 right down to the brass tacks of living — this is the spirit today of 
 education in the East. There is the fullest warrant for the 
 assertion that the best college education of our time is not so 
 much preparation for life, as it is a cross-section of life. 
 
2i8 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL 
 
 A few days ago at the annual luncheon of the Mount Holyoke 
 Alumnae Association of New York City, President Wooley 
 said: "We are in danger of filling up the blessed margins 
 of quiet." She referred to the over-strenuous activities of 
 the modern college girl, especially in college dramatics and 
 fraternities. 
 
 Kindred dangers are common to all our colleges, but the 
 gravest, I believe, is the danger that our new college life may with- 
 hold from the world the best thing which the old college con- 
 tributed to it. What that something was will be suflficiently 
 connoted by the simple mention of the title, ''gentlemen of the 
 old school." Such citizens the old college created. 
 
 We are too often told today that all avenues into positions of 
 prominence and usefulness bear on their gates one or the other 
 of two legends, "Push" or "Pull." None of the merely Philis- 
 tine elements of society can here be discussed. One very real 
 peril, however lurks in the path of our new education, and this, 
 in conclusion, we must for a moment consider. I refer to the 
 large amount of time demanded by laboratory and practice work 
 in our highly technical courses, and the relatively limited amount 
 of time given to that training and cultivation which frees the 
 mind. 
 
 We are in danger that our strength may become our weakness. 
 The educated man today, the man who would be freed by his 
 college cultivation from the trammels of ignorance and incom- 
 petence, must be scrupulous to reserve for communion between 
 his own soul and the best spirits of the world certain blessed 
 margins of quiet. And we who are responsible for outlining 
 courses of study should see to it that our institutions, east and 
 west, north and south, turn out, not merely good farmers, good 
 housekeepers, good mechanics, good engineers — good special- 
 ists in whatever department, whether of labor, superintendence, 
 instruction, or research — but, at the same time, turn out grad- 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 219 
 
 uates who in our new day shall have a quality in their owa living 
 and in their influence on society kindred to that of the gentlemen 
 of the old school, the splendid college men of a ha If -century 
 ago. 
 
FOR THE SOUTH 
 
 PRESIDENT HENRY CLAY WHITE 
 
 No portion of this great republic offers sincerer congratula- 
 tions on this notable occasion than that for which I have the 
 honor and the privilege to speak. That particular region which 
 we call "the South" has abundant cause to recognize this cele- 
 bration as commemorating a most important event in the history 
 of this happiest and wealthiest of the nations of the earth. The 
 people of the South in times past contributed their full share of 
 patriotic energy to the establishment of the civic freedom which 
 is the foundation of our national happiness, and, today, in 
 larger relative proportions than elsewhere within our borders, 
 they are devoting their intelligent endeavors to the winning of 
 the great agricultural products which, at last, are the foundations 
 of our national wealth. In this, the occupation of the large 
 majority of our people, we, no less than our fellow-laborers 
 elsewhere, have come to know that intellectual power and tech- 
 nical skill are now necessary factors in its efficient and economic 
 conduct. It is interesting, but not remarkable, that agriculture, 
 the earliest of the industrial arts, should be the latest to which 
 systematized intellectual effort should be applied. All other 
 arts are, essentially, creative, agriculture alone is, or may be, 
 simply directive. Before the smelter, the manufacturer, the 
 builder, or the engineer proceeds about his work he must have 
 intelligent appreciation of many natural laws which determine 
 the effectiveness of his finished product. But plants will grow 
 and cattle breed with promise of sufficient fruits to satisfy man's 
 needs, with need for little else than mere mechanical tending 
 at his hands. Necessity, and not choice, has, therefore, deter- 
 mined the industrial fields in which man's intelligence has, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 221 
 
 heretofore, been chiefly sharpened in the progress of his mate- 
 rial civiHzation. Moreover, an understanding of the laws of 
 nature must be embodied in the canon of the sciences before 
 effective appHcation of them may be made in the industrial arts. 
 The processes of vegetable and animal production are largely 
 biological, and biology is the youngest of the sciences. But, 
 delayed as has necessarily been the really scientific practice of 
 agriculture, its day has come at last, inciting to the highest order 
 of intellectual endeavor and holding promise of marvelous fruits. 
 Science, in appropriate form, now stands ready to serve the pur- 
 poses of the husbandman and has demonstrated the ability so to 
 do in abounding measure. 
 
 The congratulations offered for the South today spring alike 
 from admiration and from gratitude. The records of the years 
 immediately preceding the founding of this institution show 
 that many earnest and patriotic men, in many of the states, 
 touched with the spirit of scientific inquiry then practically new- 
 born, and dimly conscious of the need for scientific training in 
 education for and fruitful employment in the industry of agri- 
 culture, had striven blindly, in many diverse endeavors to relate 
 properly the education of the children and the avocation of the 
 people to the scientific spirit of the times. For the most part 
 these endeavors were faulty in conception; in most they were 
 inconsequent and vain. Provisions for teaching and applying 
 the body of natural science then known for the improvement of 
 agricultural practice had not, indeed, infrequently been made. 
 In my own state, for instance — and I say it to her honor — three 
 years before the founding of this College, a considerable dona- 
 tion (the largest, I believe, then of record) had been made by a 
 private citizen toward the establishment of a chair of agricultural 
 chemistry in the university of the state. Similar and sporadic 
 endeavors — in what was, at least, a right direction — to quicken 
 the art of the husbandman by an understanding of the nature 
 with which he dealt were, however, far too few and inade- 
 
222 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 quate for any marked impression upon the largest of all the 
 industries. 
 
 It was reserved for the men of Michigan to be the first to 
 conceive in wisdom and estabhsh in strength an institution 
 qualified in form and method to meet successfully the purpose of 
 the founders and to serve triumphantly as the pioneer of a new 
 reasonableness in education and of a great enlightenment in in- 
 dustry. Undeterred by the inertia of conservatism in the school 
 and on the farm; imyielding to the clamors of radical experi- 
 menters in education and in industry; it has held fast consist- 
 ently to the sane equihbrium of redecraft and handcraft in 
 technical training and demonstrated its merits by its survival. 
 To this victorious pioneer — remembering those who founded in 
 wisdom and in faith, and those who guided in loyalty and zeal — 
 to those who crown today, in prosperity abounding and confi- 
 dence unshakable, this glad half-century of continuous, con- 
 sistent, and successful endeavor, Michigan's fellow-patriots of 
 the sister states of the South offer their congratulations in un- 
 stinted admiration. 
 
 To our admiration we add our gratitude. Though elder 
 members of the family of states, we sisters of the South — through 
 force of circumstance over which the present generation, at 
 least, had no control — came into our own as full possessors of 
 some features of the spirit of the age somewhat later in hf e than 
 the young and lusty commonwealths to whose creation we had 
 contributed. When, therefore, the belated time arrived when 
 wisdom and necessity required a re-formation of our educational 
 and industrial systems along other than the accustomed lines, 
 we were fortunate that the experience gained in Michigan and 
 the successful career of this institution pointed the way to im- 
 mediate and wisest direction of certain of our efforts. The 
 Michigan Agricultural College furnished us an admirable exam- 
 ple by which to fashion our newly established institutions for 
 industrial education, and in many instances, furnished us the 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 223 
 
 efficient teachers with which to man them in the experimental 
 days. The statesmanship of Michigan met our commendation 
 in yet another way, most agreeable to our traditional conser- 
 vatism and our hereditary beliefs. It was here demonstrated 
 that the new education and the newly inspired industry were 
 designed to supplement, not to replace the old, for here in Michi- 
 gan, along with the marvelous growth of this great technical 
 college, went the equally marvelous growth of that great univer- 
 sity dedicated more particularly to pure science and the liberal 
 arts. The quickening of industry through education did not 
 diminish but increased and contributed to the appreciation and 
 the valuation of the humanities and culture. It has been here 
 demonstrated that, whether under one roof or locally apart, these 
 twin forces of liberal and technical education may work in har- 
 mony to the great and single end, the betterment of humanity. 
 For what has here been done throughout these fifty years, and 
 for what the doing of it has been to us, it is my great privilege to 
 offer for the South today this inadequate expression of our 
 admiration and our gratitude. 
 
FOR THE WEST 
 
 PRESIDENT BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER 
 
 California sends greeting to Michigan. The orange makes 
 obeisance to the yellow-tasseled corn. The valleys that mediate 
 between the Sierras and the great ocean reach forth their hands 
 to the prairies that hold the balance between the Lakes and the 
 waters that seek the GuK. The College of Agriculture at Berke- 
 ley salutes its elder brother who, as pioneer, opened for it the 
 first paths and cut the brush. We learned both from your 
 gropings and your findings, and we thank you for both. We 
 know with you what it means to labor on the frontier, and we 
 share with you the blessed western experience of trying and 
 risking in a virgin field, whereby to irritate and teach the self- 
 satisfied composure of the East. 
 
 The life of the nation has been continually freshened and its 
 progress largely determined by the reaction upon it of men's 
 experience on the frontier. This has mostly meant trouble, 
 but trouble is the sine qua non of growth, and without pain there 
 is no birth. After the thirteen Atlantic Coast states had become 
 tolerably used to each other, and had settled down into fair 
 composure, the occupation of the next row of states to the west 
 produced Jackson, the new democracy, and various troubles and 
 fusses. The admission of California in 1850 undid the Missouri 
 Compromise which for thirty years had formed the basis of a 
 truce between North and South. The settlement of Kansas and 
 Nebraska in the 50's brought on the Nebraska Bill, which made 
 the Civil War inevitable. The advance of agriculture into Kan- 
 sas and Nebraska gave a succession of dry years in the early 
 90's their power to rend and wreck the old party of Jefferson. 
 And now the extension of the frontier into the Pacific has made 
 
 224 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 225 
 
 the question of labor unions in politics joined with that of orien- 
 tal labor a rich promise and foreboding of trouble for the days 
 to come. It is the reaching fingers that get the bums, but it is 
 the folded arms that compose to sleep. 
 
 In 1857 Michigan was in things cultural still the frontier, and 
 the establishment here of agricultural education handed back 
 a firebrand into the complacent usage of the East. To speak 
 of torches tied to foxes' tails and sent into the standing grain of 
 the Philistines is only an agricultural figure of speech, and in- 
 competent to express the trouble and germs of trouble thereby 
 infused into the entire circulatory system of all American educa- 
 tion. The agricultural colleges and the state universities which 
 in many states have included the colleges and have been infected 
 with their spirit are a distinctive product of the West, and have 
 embodied a fresh and vitally new idea of education and what it is 
 all about. Centuries of separation from the life-need that begat 
 it had made the mechanism of education largely a formal in- 
 strument of discipline. The significance of the agricultural 
 college for the whole trend of American education was its naive 
 effrontery in frankly seeing for life-training a new connection with 
 real life-use, and this significance exceeds, in service to the 
 nation, even the weight of the benefits wrought for the tilling 
 and the tiller of the soil. 
 
 Within the fifty years that have followed upon the beginning 
 of your Michigan experiment, and under the quickening influence 
 of your venture and others that succeeded it, the whole nation 
 of teachers has been assuming a new conception of the whole 
 meaning of their task. It is coming to them, not through a 
 priori reasoning, for of that they did enough before, but through 
 observance and practice of your frontier venture. They now 
 seem to be learning that education inheres not in what you put 
 into a man, or what you hang onto a man, nor yet in sterilizing 
 him, or shaving him down to a standard shape; but in giving 
 him, such as he is, and such as his life-activities may be, the 
 
226 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 opportunity, in and through those activities, of living his h'fe 
 fully and effectively and abundantly. Such education proceeds 
 upon the recognition that no hypertrophy of mind or body is as 
 good as plain health, that plain health is the best medicine for 
 all disease, and that the normal exercise of plain life is the straight 
 path to plain health. Such education will therefore address 
 itself perforce to the real doings and exercises of real life, and its 
 definition will be : The guided practice of life, to the end that 
 men may live. 
 
 If now, in terms of the higher learning, all this should prove 
 to mean that applied science is after all the true science, what 
 does it matter ? For the deeds and worth of men, the social test 
 is and always will be the final test, and the uses and needs of 
 man in society will in the long run form the safest guide to the 
 truth we should seek, and for that matter presumably to the 
 truth we can hope to find. 
 
 So much from the side of the individual, but more from the 
 side of the community; for all this means that education, which 
 once made teaching, preaching, healing, and litigating the 
 sacred four, is now laying its hand upon one after another of the 
 activities of daily human life to dignify and uplift them, to relate 
 them to reason and truth, and rescue them from sordid slavery 
 to superstition, ignorance, and the rule of thumb, to the end 
 that we shall call nothing, which involves a human use, common 
 or unclean. 
 
 Small matter indeed, this school for farmer boys at Lansing 
 in 1857; a weird undertaking, though, and audacious, not pre- 
 scribed in the books, unapproved of the elders ; but behold, the 
 stone which the builders rejected, it has become the head of the 
 comer ! 
 
FOR THE MIDDLE WEST' 
 
 PRESIDENT EDMUND JANES JAMES 
 
 Members and friends of the Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 In looking over the marvelous advance in agricultural educa- 
 tion during the last fifty years you can utter the proud boast 
 which Vergil put into the mouth of the great Aeneas: "Of all 
 this I have been a great part." 
 
 And this is an era not of progress in agricultural education 
 alone, but in all other departments as well. For he who fancies 
 that this great movement for agricultural and industrial educa- 
 tion has affected only colleges of agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts has greatly underestimated its real influence. It has touched 
 and shaped, at more points than one, the training and equipment 
 of even our oldest and best- known centers of learning. Even 
 such strongholds of ancient tradition as Harvard and Yale are 
 in many respects greatly different from what they would have 
 been had it not been for the over-increasing strength of this 
 tendency. It is in a large sense a part of a world-movement, 
 bound up with the inevitable advance of the democratic spirit 
 and increasing acceptance of democratic ideals. 
 
 Higher education for the farmer and the mechanic, if it ever 
 becomes general, will mean a new era, not simply in education, 
 not simply in agriculture and the mechanic arts, but in the world 
 of politics and civihzation. Despotism, tyranny, one-man 
 power, absolutism, cannot long continue in a country in which 
 the average man is in touch with the processes and ideals of 
 higher education. The progress of democracy was bound to 
 bring with it the demand for an ever-rising standard, not simply 
 
 ^ Read in the enforced absence of President James by Dean Eugene Daven- 
 port. 
 
 227 
 
228 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 of technical, but of general education as well, for the farmer and 
 mechanic, and the general spread of these ideals of higher educa- 
 tion will inevitably advance the cause of democracy. 
 
 It is difficult, of course, to formulate a satisfactory philosophy 
 of history. It never has been done, perhaps it can never be done 
 until history is closed, when it would have but little interest for 
 anybody. But certainly this great movement toward democracy 
 which is characteristic of all countries, the enormous increase 
 in wealth, the destruction of time and space involved in the gen- 
 eral application of steam and electricity, the ever-widening scope 
 of popular education, all these things have worked together, 
 each upon the other, each supplementing and strengthening the 
 other, to bring about that marvelous revolution which has made 
 possible this development of agricultural and mechanical educa- 
 tion on the one hand and which has itself been enormously 
 furthered by this very education. 
 
 The demand for special, professional education, the training 
 of the farmer and the mechanic, is one which few people trained 
 in the old education ever comprehended or were ever able to esti- 
 mate at its true value. It has not been very long, of course, in 
 this country since there was little faith in the value of special 
 education on anybody's part. It was the habit, even in the sphere 
 of the so-called learned professions, to insist that the best way 
 for a man to learn his business was to go into practical life as 
 soon as possible, or at any rate get into touch with practical life 
 as closely as possible from the very beginning. The ideal of 
 the physician was to have the boy get into the doctor's office as 
 soon as possible and clean his horses and wash his bottles as the 
 only reasonable road to learning therapy or preparing oneself 
 for the practice of medicine. Entrance into a lawyer's office 
 and the copying of legal documents and sweeping out of the 
 office and building fires in the winter time was recognized as the 
 practical method of preparing for admission to the bar. For 
 neither of these professions was college education considered any 
 
SEMICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 229 
 
 real necessity, and even in the case of a clergyman who was ex- 
 pected in some denominationb to be an educated man, it was 
 not felt that any study of divinity was necessary beyond the 
 possible acquisition of an elementary knowledge of the New 
 Testament in Greek. How much less could the public be ex- 
 pected to insist upon a higher standard of special education for 
 other classes. It is almost inconceivable to us so see how slow 
 was the progress even in such a department as that of engineering 
 education; remarkable to see how long it took before the general 
 public was converted to the view that if a boy was looking for- 
 ward to the practice of the engineering profession there were 
 certain schools the completion of whose curriculum was a valu- 
 able element in the preparation for this work. Even such a 
 distinguished and enlightened educator as President Eliot has 
 yielded to this idea of professional and special education in vari- 
 ous lines only with great reluctance and only as he has been 
 compelled by the actual drift of circumstances. Twenty-five 
 years ago I heard him say in a public address in regard to the 
 preparation of teachers that the theory of Harvard College was 
 that if a man had the requisite knowledge that was all that was 
 necessary. He might then acquire the actual experience as a 
 teacher and he would succeed or fail according to his natural 
 bent ; that there was nothing further than assistance in acquiring 
 the knowledge which the university could do for the candidate 
 for the teaching profession. 
 
 We do not realize until we stop to think about it, how com- 
 pletely that idea has passed away and how today the public is 
 ready to accept the idea that school training is good as an ele- 
 ment in the preparation for almost any calling which you can 
 name. We see every day some new kind of school springing 
 into existence which is intended to satisfy this demand for spe- 
 cific and special preparation. 
 
 Now this great movement for agricultural education, which 
 found an expression in the organization of this institution and 
 
230 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 which found a larger and wider expression a short time later in 
 the passage of the famous Morrill act, profited by this changed 
 attitude of the public on the one hand, and it stimulated and 
 quickened the acceptance of this general principle on the other. 
 Now development of agricultural education has, it seems to me, 
 in certain directions, outrun and is today in advance of the 
 development of education in other lines, and this movement 
 for agriculture and the mechanic arts has benefited all our higher 
 education in several distinct and definite ways. 
 
 In the first place, this grant from the federal government, 
 seconded as it was by subsequent grants, strengthened enor- 
 mously the schools which had been started in the field of agri- 
 culture and provided for the establishment of an entirely new 
 set of schools in states where without this assistance a generation 
 or even two or three might have passed away before anything 
 had been done. 
 
 Some of our American states were not, financially speaking, 
 able to establish these schools upon the requisite scale. The 
 federal grant distributed as I believe wisely, on the basis not of 
 population, but of the political unit, gave an impulse to the prin- 
 ciple of state education, which has borne fruit in every direction. 
 We see it perhaps in the most striking way in the institution 
 which I represent here today, and where, upon the basis of this 
 original land grant as a direct and immediate outcome of this 
 thrusting, if you please, of federal contribution upon the state 
 of Illinois, has been developed what wiU ultimately be one of the 
 greatest centers of scientific investigation and practical training 
 which the world has ever seen. I do not believe that the state 
 of IlUnois would have entered upon this work for another gener- 
 ation and perhaps not for two if it had not been for his grant on 
 the part of the federal government. The University of the 
 state of Maine represents a similar development to that of Illi- 
 nois, only on a somewhat smaller scale and stretched through 
 a somewhat longer period. I am sure that in the University of 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 231 
 
 Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota, though neither insti- 
 tution dated its origin from this grant, the era of active develop- 
 ment and of vital activity dates from the utihzation of this federal 
 grant. Now this federal grant for the improvement of educa- 
 tion in agriculture and the mechanic arts was followed up some 
 years later by a remarkable grant for the establishment and 
 development of agricultural experiment stations. Although 
 these institutions have in some cases been established separately 
 from the agricultural college, yet I cannot help feeling that 
 their influence has been one of the most specific and peculiar and 
 remarkable forces at work in the development of this whole 
 branch of education, and I do not know that I can do anything 
 better to set forth my idea, even at the risk of being a little per- 
 sonal, than to show how this idea has worked as a ferment in the 
 institution which I represent more particularly. I take great 
 pleasure in emphasizing this fact more especially because we 
 happen to have had at a critical time at the head of our College 
 of Agriculture a man who is an alumnus and a former member 
 of the faculty of this institution, a man whom we delight to honor, 
 a man for whose production, if you please, we are under great 
 obligations to you, Dean Eugene Davenport. 
 
 The establishment of the agricultural experiment station was 
 the most distinct recognition on the part of the government that 
 if you are going to establish higher professional education in any 
 line, it must be upon thoroughgoing scientific investigation as 
 the fundamental substructure, so that every man engaged in the 
 work of teaching in the College of Agriculture is also engaged 
 in the work of investigation, and the man who is not doing some- 
 thing to quicken his subject, to add to the knowledge we have of 
 it; who is not himself striving to improve, to increase our knowl- 
 edge of the subject or improve the application of it, is likely to 
 be an arid and unfruitful teacher. Now, I think it is not too 
 much to say that in no branch of professional education today 
 in this country anywhere is there such complete and full recog- 
 
232 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 nition of this principle of the absolute necessity of original in- 
 vestigation to the highest type of professional education as in 
 the field of agricultural training and agricultural education. 
 Is not this a great achievement for the farmer ? Has he not in 
 this respect set an example to every other profession in this 
 desire to develop the great interests, social, economic, and poHti- 
 cal, intrusted to his care in our social organization ? So far as I 
 know there has been no such development in the field of engineer- 
 ing experimentation and engineering investigation and research, 
 although that forms the other side of the work of this great group 
 of institutions. The federal government has not yet made an 
 appropriation for the engineering experiment station as it has 
 for the agricultural experiment station. It has not yet made an 
 appropriation for the medical laboratory, which is the medical 
 experiment station, or for the chemical laboratory, or for the 
 legal seminary, which would represent the center of scientific 
 investigation and research corresponding to the agricultural 
 experiment station. Friends, this is a great achievement for 
 the farmer. He has laid the education of this country under a 
 lasting debt of obHgation. This principle which applies to 
 agriculture applies to engineering exactly, applies to medicine, 
 applies to law, applies to education, and yet the farmer has been 
 the only one to grasp the idea and to imbed it so sohdly in the 
 fundamental structure of agricultural education that there is no 
 danger that we shall ever depart from it. 
 
 The reflex influence of this upon the other departments has 
 already been striking and is destined to be more striking in the 
 future. The legislature of Illinois at its last session appro- 
 priated the sum of $50,000 per annum for a graduate school. 
 I think the most telling argument used in the support of this 
 project before the legislature was the simple one that this repre- 
 sented to a certain extent in other lines what the agricultural 
 experiment station represented in the field of agricultural educa- 
 tion and research. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBIL^TION 233 
 
 Another way in which this great movement has influenced 
 education in a beneficial way is to be found not simply in the 
 underlying thought which I have already described, which seems 
 to me fundamental and vital, but in the liberality with which the 
 farmer has taken up this work. We are spending in the state 
 of IHinois today more upon the education of the farmer, using 
 that term in a large sense including the agricultural experiment 
 station, than upon the education of any other class. We have 
 found it easier to get money, and we pay higher average salaries 
 to the men in our College of Agriculture, of the same grade of 
 training and experience, than we do the men of any of the other 
 colleges, because the farmer has determined not simply to lay as 
 scientific and broad a foundation as I have described it, but he 
 is determined to have competent men to give this instruction, 
 and he recognizes that competent men cannot be had unless 
 adequate salaries be paid. Furthermore, he recognizes that 
 even the competent man in this modern world of education and 
 research cannot do the best work unless he has adequate equip- 
 ment. So our agricultural department is today the best-equipped 
 department in the University of Illinois. 
 
 The immediate and direct effect of all this is very marked in 
 the wilhngness of the legislature to improve and enlarge the 
 other departments of the university. I think it would have been 
 a long time before the people of Illinois, under existing conditions, 
 would have made reasonable appropriations for a law school, 
 for example, if they had not already made them for the farmers' 
 school. I am sure that we never should have obtained the 
 magnificent outfit for our engineering college, if it had not been 
 that the farmers' college had been adequately cared for on the 
 same liberal scale. There is not a single department of our 
 institution which has not benefited, in my opinion, indirectly, 
 nay, directly, by this marvelous movement toward higher educa- 
 tion and this youngest of all fields — a movement directed along 
 the soundest and^^most^helpful lines, a movement organized in a 
 
234 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 certain way on a higher plane than education up to this time 
 has been organized on a large scale in the country as a whole in 
 any other department. 
 
 You will see why as a university president, interested in this 
 department of agricultural education only in proportion to its 
 importance as a part of the general scheme of education, I real- 
 ized the significance and the value of the great movement of 
 which this institution is such an able exponent. We at Illinois 
 are under special obligations to you of the Michigan Agricultural 
 College. Eugene Davenport, the great dean of our College of 
 Agriculture, Herbert Mumford, the organizer of our department 
 of animal husbandry, F. R. Crane of our farm mechanics depart- 
 ment, and Professor Goodenough of our mechanical engineering 
 department — all these and more do we owe to you, and we are 
 pleased to acknowledge the debt. 
 
 I congratulate you upon your great past. I congratulate you 
 upon your claim to having been the first in the field, upon your 
 just claim that you were not only first but that you have made 
 good, that you have maintained a position of leadership and 
 that you propose to maintain it for the future. I congratulate 
 you on the outlook of the future, and I only wish that the next 
 fifty years of your life will bear out to the fullest extent the prom- 
 ise of the fifty that are past. 
 
COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES 
 FRIDAY AFTERNOON 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 237 
 
 COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES 
 
 After selections by the orchestra the audience of about 
 2o,oco people joined in singing: 
 
 MENDON 
 
 Great God of Nations now to Thee 
 Our h)rmn of gratitude we raise; 
 
 With humble heart and bending knee 
 We oflFer Thee oiu- song of praise. 
 
 Thy name we bless, Almighty God, 
 
 For all the kindness Thou hast shown 
 
 To this fair land the pilgrims trod — 
 This land we fondly call our own. 
 
 Here freedom spreads her banner wide, 
 And casts her soft and hallowed ray; 
 
 Here Thou our fathers' steps didst guide 
 In safety through their dangerous way. 
 
 We praise Thee that the gospel's light 
 
 Through all ovu* land its radiance sheds, 
 
 Dispels the shades of error's night. 
 
 And heavenly blessings round us spreads. 
 
 Great God, preserve us in Thy fear; 
 
 In danger still our Guardian be; 
 O spread Thy truth's bright precepts here; 
 
 Let all the people worship Thee. 
 
238 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 The invocation was delivered by Rev. Elisha Moore Lake, 
 pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lansing, after which the 
 President of the United States spoke as follows: 
 
THE MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this College is an 
 event of national significance, for Michigan was the first state 
 in the Union to found this, the first agricultural coUege in Amer- 
 ica. The nation is to be congratulated on the fact that the Con- 
 gress at Washington has repeatedly enacted laws designed to aid 
 the several states in establishing and maintaining agricultural 
 and mechanical colleges. I greet all such colleges, through 
 their representatives who have gathered here today, and bid 
 them Godspeed in their work. I no less heartily invoke success 
 for the mechanical and agricultural schools; and I wish to say 
 that I have heard particularly good reports of the Minnesota 
 Agricultural High School for the way in which it sends its grad- 
 uates back to the farms to work as practical farmers. 
 
 OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND WHAT IT LACKS 
 
 As a people there is nothing in which we take a juster pride 
 than our educational system. It is our boast that every boy or 
 girl has the chance to get a school training; and we feel it is a 
 prime national duty to furnish this training free, because only 
 thereby can we secure the proper type of citizenship in the aver- 
 age American. Our public schools and our colleges have done 
 their work well, and there is no class of our citizens deserving of 
 heartier praise than the men and women who teach in them. 
 
 Nevertheless, for at least a generation we have been waking 
 to the knowledge that there must be additional education be- 
 yond that provided in the public school as it is managed today. 
 Our school system has hitherto been well-nigh wholly lacking 
 on the side of industrial training, of the training which fits a man 
 
 239 
 
240 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 for the shop and the farm. This is a most serious lack, for no 
 one can look at the peoples of mankind as they stand at present 
 without realizing that industrial training is one of the most 
 potent factors in national development. We of the United States 
 must develop a system under which each individual citizen shall 
 be trained so as to be effective individually as an economic unit 
 and fit to be organized with his fellows, so that he and they can 
 work in efficient fashion together. This question is vital to our 
 future progress, and public attention should be focused upon it. 
 Surely it is eminently in accord with the principles of our demo- 
 cratic life that we should furnish the highest average industrial 
 training for the ordinary skilled workman. But it is a curious 
 thing that in industrial training we have tended to devote our 
 energies to producing high-grade men at the top rather than in 
 the ranks. Our engineering schools, for instance, compare 
 favorably with the best in Europe, whereas we have done almost 
 nothing to equip the private soldiers of the industrial army — the 
 mechanic, the metal-worker, the carpenter. Indeed, too often 
 our schools train away from the shop and the forge; and this 
 fact, together with the abandonment of the old apprentice system, 
 has resulted in such an absence of facilities for providing trained 
 journeymen that in many of our trades almost all the recruits 
 among the workmen are foreigners. Surely this means that 
 there must be some systematic method provided for training 
 young men in the trades, and that this must be co-ordinated 
 with the public-school system. No industrial school can turn 
 out a finished journeyman; but it can furnish the material out 
 of which a finished journeyman can be made, just as an engineer- 
 ing school furnishes the training which enables its graduates 
 speedily to become engineers. 
 
 We hear a great deal of the need of protecting our working- 
 men from competition with pauper labor. I have very Httle 
 fear of the competition of pauper labor. The nations with 
 pauper labor are not the formidable industrial competitors of 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 241 
 
 this country. What the American workingman has to fear is 
 the competition of the highly skilled workingman of the countries 
 of greatest industrial efficiency. By the tariff and by our immi- 
 gration laws we can always protect oiurselves against the com- 
 petition of pauper labor here at home ; but when we contend for 
 the markets of the world we can get no protection, and we shall 
 then find that our most formidable competitors are the nations 
 in which there is the most highly developed business ability, 
 the most highly developed industrial skill; and these are the 
 qualities which we must ourselves develop. 
 
 DIGNITY AND IMPORTANCE OF LABOR 
 
 We have been fond as a nation of speaking of the dignity of 
 labor, meaning thereby manual labor. Personally I don't think 
 that we begin to understand what a high place manual labor 
 should take ; and it never can take this high place unless it offers 
 scope for the best type of man. We have tended to regard edu- 
 cation as a matter of the head only, and the result is that a great 
 many of our people, themselves the sons of men who worked with 
 their hands, seem to think that they rise in the world if they get 
 into a position where they do no hard manual work whatever ; 
 where their hands will grow soft, and their working-clothes will 
 be kept clean. Such a conception is both false and mischievous. 
 There are, of course, kinds of labor where the work must be 
 purely mental, and there are other kinds of labor where, under 
 existing conditions, very little demand indeed is made upon the 
 mind, though I am glad to say that I think the proportion of 
 men engaged in this kind of work is diminishing. But in any 
 healthy community, in any community with the great solid 
 qualities which alone make a really great nation, the bulk of the 
 people should do work which makes demands upon both the 
 body and the mind. Progress cannot permanently consist in the 
 abandonment of physical labor, but in the development of physi- 
 cal labor so that it shall represent more and more the work of the 
 
242 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 trained mind in the trained body. To provide such training, to 
 encourage in every vi?ay the production of the men whom it alone 
 can produce, is to show that as a nation we have a true conception 
 of the dignity and importance of labor. The calling of the 
 skilled tiller of the soil, the calling of the skilled mechanic, should 
 alike be recognized as professions, just as emphatically as the 
 callings of lawyer, of doctor, or banker, merchant, or clerk. 
 The printer, the electrical worker, the house painter, the foundry 
 man, should be trained just as carefully as the stenographer or 
 the drug clerk. They should be trained alike in head and in 
 hand. They should get over the idea that to earn twelve dollars 
 a week and call it "salary" is better than to earn twenty-five 
 dollars a week and call it "wages." The young man who has 
 the courage and the ability to refuse to enter the crowded field 
 of the so-called professions and to take to constructive industry 
 is almost sure of an ample reward in earnings, in health, in 
 opportunity to marry early, and to establish a home with reason- 
 able freedom from worry. We need the training, the manual 
 dexterity, and industrial intelligence which can best be given 
 in a good agricultural, or building, or textile, or watchmaking, 
 or engraving, or mechanical school. It should be one of our 
 prime objects to put the mechanic, the wage-worker who works 
 with his hands, and who ought to work in a constantly larger 
 degree with his head, on a higher plane of efficiency and reward, 
 so as to increase his effectiveness in the economic world, and 
 therefore the dignity, the remuneration, and the power of his 
 position in the social world. To train boys and girls in merely 
 literary accomplishments to the total exclusion of industrial, 
 manual, and technical training tends to unfit them for industrial 
 work; and in real life most work is industrial. 
 
 The problem of furnishing well-trained craftsmen, or rather 
 journeymen fitted in the end to become such, is not simple — few 
 problems are simple in the actual process of their solution — and 
 much care and forethought and practical common-sense will be 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 243 
 
 needed, in order to work it out in a fairly satisfactory manner. 
 It should appeal to all our citizens. I am glad that societies have 
 already been formed to promote industrial education, and that 
 their membership includes manufacturers and leaders of labor 
 unions, educators and publicists, men of all conditions who are 
 interested in education and in industry. It is such co-operation 
 that offers most hope for a satisfactory solution of the question 
 as to what is the best form of industrial school, as to the means 
 by which it may be articulated with the public-school system, 
 and as to the way to secure for the boys trained therein the 
 opportunity to acquire in the industries the practical skill which 
 alone can make them finished journeymen. 
 
 THE FARMER IN RELATION TO THE WELFARE OF THE WHOLE 
 
 COUNTRY 
 
 There is but one person whose welfare is as vital to the wel- 
 fare of the whole country as is that of the wage-worker who does 
 manual labor, and that is the tiller of the soil — the farmer. If 
 there is one lesson taught by history, it is that the permanent 
 greatness of any state must ultimately depend more upon the 
 character of its country population than upon anything else. 
 No growth of cities, no growth of wealth, can make up for a loss 
 in either the number or the character of the farming population. 
 In the United States more than in almost any other country we 
 should realize this and should prize our country population. 
 When this nation began its independent existence it was as a 
 nation of farmers. The towns were small and were for the most 
 part mere seacoast trading and fishing ports. The chief indus- 
 try of the country was agriculture, and the ordinary citizen was 
 in some way connected with it. In every great crisis of the past 
 a peculiar dependence has had to be placed upon the farming 
 population; and this dependence has hitherto been justified. 
 But it cannot be justified in the future if agriculture is permitted 
 to sink in the scale as compared with other employments. We 
 
244 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 cannot afford to lose that pre-eminently typical American, the 
 farmer who owns his own farm. 
 
 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FACTORS AFFECTING RURAL POPULATIONS 
 
 Yet it would be idle to deny that in the last half -century there 
 has been in the eastern half of our country a falling off in the rela- 
 tive condition of the tillers of the soil, although signs are multiply- 
 ing that the nation has waked up to the danger and is preparing to 
 grapple effectively with it. East of the Mississippi and north 
 of the Ohio and the Potomac there has been on the whole an 
 actual shrinkage in the number of the farming population since 
 the Civil War. In the states of this section there has been a 
 growth of population — in some an enormous growth — but 
 the growth has taken place in the cities, and especially in the 
 larger cities. This has been due to certain economic factors, 
 such as the extension of railroads, the development of machinery, 
 and the openings for industrial success afforded by the unprece- 
 dented growth of cities. The increased facility of communi- 
 cation has resulted in the withdrawal from rural communities of 
 most of the small, widely distributed manufacturing and com- 
 mercial operations of former times, and the substitution therefor 
 of the centralized commercial and manufacturing industries of 
 the cities. 
 
 The chief offset to the various tendencies which have told 
 against the farm has hitherto come in the rise of the physical 
 sciences and their application to agricultural practices or to the 
 rendering of country conditions more easy and pleasant. But 
 these countervailing forces are as yet in their infancy. As com- 
 pared with a few decades ago, the social or community life of 
 country people in the East compares less well than it formerly 
 did with that of the dwellers in cities. Many country communi- 
 ties have lost their social coherence, their sense of community 
 interest. In such communities the country church, for instance, 
 has gone backward, both as a social and a religious factor. Now, 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 245 
 
 we cannot insist too strongly upon the fact that it is quite as 
 unfortunate to have any social as any economic falling off. It 
 would be a calamity to have our farms occupied by a lower type 
 of people than the hard-working, self-respecting, independent, 
 and essentially manly men and womanly women who have hither- 
 to constituted the most typically American, and on the whole the 
 most valuable element in our entire nation. Ambitious native- 
 born young men and women who now tend away from the farm 
 must be brought back to it, and therefore they must have social 
 as well as economic opportunities. Everything should be done 
 to encourage the growth in the open farming country of such 
 institutional and social movements as will meet the demand of 
 the best type of farmers. There should be libraries, assembly 
 halls, social organizations of all kinds. The school building and 
 the teacher in the school building should, throughout the country 
 districts, be of the very highest type, able to fit the boys and 
 girls not merely to live but thoroughly to enjoy and to make 
 the most of the country. The country church must be revived. 
 All kinds of agencies, from rural free delivery to the bicycle and 
 the telephone, should be utilized to the utmost; good roads 
 should be favored; everything should be done to make it easier 
 for the farmer to lead the most active and effective intellectual, 
 political, and economic life. 
 
 There are regions of large extent where all this, or most of this, 
 has already been reaHzed; and while this is perhaps especially 
 true of great tracts of farming coimtry west of the Mississippi, 
 with some of which I have a fairly intimate personal knowledge, 
 it is no less true of other great tracts of country east of the Missis- 
 sippi. In these regions the church and the school flourish as 
 never before ; there is a more successful and more varied farming 
 industry; the social advantages and opportunities are greater 
 than ever before ; life is fuller, happier, more useful; and though 
 the work is more effective than ever, and in a way quite as hard, 
 it is carried on so as to give more scope for well-used leisure. 
 
246 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 My plea is that we shall all try to make more nearly universal 
 the conditions that now obtain in the most favored localities. 
 
 PROGRESS rN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE 
 
 Nothing in the way of scientific work can ever take the place 
 of business management on a farm. We ought all of us to teach 
 ourselves as much as possible; but we can also all of us learn 
 from others ; and the farmer can best learn how to manage his farm 
 even better than he now does by practice, under intelligent super- 
 vision on his own soil in such a way as to increase his income. 
 This is the kind of teaching which has been carried on in Texas, 
 Louisiana, and Arkansas by Doctor Knapp, of the national 
 Department of Agriculture. But much has been accomphshed by 
 the growth of what is broadly designated as agricultural science. 
 This has been developed with remarkable rapidity during the 
 last quarter of a century, and the benefit to agriculture has been 
 great. As was inevitable, there was much error and much 
 repetition of work in the early application of money to the needs 
 of agricultural colleges and experiment stations aUke by the 
 nation and the several states. Much has been accomphshed; 
 but much more can be accomplished in the future. The prime 
 need must always be for real research, resulting in scientific 
 conclusions of proved soundness. Both the farmer and the 
 legislature must beware of invariably demanding immediate 
 returns from investments in research efforts. It is probably 
 one of our faults as a nation that we are too impatient to wait a 
 sufficient length of time to accompHsh the best results; and in 
 agriculture effective research often, although not always, involves 
 slow and long-continued effort if the results are to be trust- 
 worthy. While appUed science in agriculture as elsewhere must 
 be judged largely from the standpoint of its actual return in 
 dollars, yet the farmers no more than anyone else can afford to 
 ignore the large results that can be enjoyed because of broader 
 knowledge. The farmer must prepare for using the knowledge 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 247 
 
 that can be obtained through agricultural colleges by insisting 
 upon a constantly more practical curriculum in the schools in 
 which his children are taught. He must not lose his independ- 
 ence, his initiative, his rugged self-sufficiency; and yet he must 
 learn to work in the heartiest co-operation with his fellows. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 
 AGRICULTURE 
 
 The corner stones of our unexampled prosperity are, on the 
 one hand, the production of raw material, and its manufacture 
 and distribution on the other. These two great groups of sub- 
 jects are represented in the national government principally by 
 the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Com- 
 merce and Labor. The production of raw material from the 
 surface of the earth is the sphere in which the Department of 
 Agriculture has hitherto achieved such notable results. Of all 
 the executive departments there is no other, not even the Post- 
 Office, which comes into more direct and beneficent contact 
 with the daily life of the people than the Department of Agri- 
 culture, and none whose yield of practical benefits is greater in 
 proportion to the public money expended. 
 
 But great as its services have been in the past, the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture has a still larger field of usefulness ahead. 
 It has been dealing with growing crops. It must hereafter deal 
 also with living men. Hitherto agricultural research, instruc- 
 tion, and agitation have been directed almost exclusively toward 
 the production of wealth from the soil. It is time to adopt in 
 addition a new point of view. Hereafter another great task 
 before the national Department of Agriculture and the similar 
 agencies of the various states must be to foster agriculture for 
 its social results, or, in other words, to assist in bringing about 
 the best kind of life on the farm for the sake of producing the 
 best kind of men. The government must recognize the far- 
 reaching importance of the study and treatment of the problems 
 
248 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 of farm life, alike from the social and the economic standpoints; 
 and the federal and state departments of agriculture should 
 co-operate at every point. 
 
 The farm grows the raw material for the food and clothing of 
 all our citizens; it supports directly almost half of them; and 
 nearly half the children of the United States are born and brought 
 up on farms. How can the life of the farm family be made less 
 solitary, fuller of opportunity, freer from drudgery, more com- 
 fortable, happier, and more attractive ? Such a result is most 
 earnestly to be desired. How can life on the farm be kept on the 
 highest level, and where it is not already on that level, be so 
 improved, dignified, and brightened as to awaken and keep alive 
 the pride and loyalty of the farmer's boys and girls, of the farm- 
 er's wife, and of the farmer himself ? How can a compelling 
 desire to live on the farm be aroused in the children that are bom 
 on the farm ? All these questions are of vital importance, not 
 only to the farmer, but to the whole nation; and the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture must do its share in answering them. 
 
 The drift toward the city is largely determined by the superior 
 social opportunities to be enjoyed there, by the greater vividness 
 and movement of city life. Considered from the point of view 
 of natural efficiency, the problem of the farm is as much a prob- 
 lem of attractiveness as it is a problem of prosperity. It has 
 ceased to be merely a problem of growing wheat and corn and 
 cattle. The problem of production has not ceased to be funda- 
 mental, but it is no longer final; just as learning to read and 
 write and cipher are fundamental, but are no longer the final 
 ends of education. We hope ultimately to double the average 
 yield of wheat and corn per acre ; it will be a great achievement ; 
 but it is even more important to double the desirability, comfort, 
 and standing of the farmer's life. 
 
 We must consider, then, not merely how to produce, but also 
 how production affects the producer. In the past we have given 
 but scant attention to the social side of farm life. We should 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 249 
 
 study much more closely than has yet been done the social organi- 
 zation of the country, and inquire whether its institutions are 
 now really as useful to the farmer as they should be, or whether 
 they should not be given a new direction and a new impulse, 
 for no farmer's life should lie merely within the boundary of his 
 farm. This study must be of the East and the West, the North 
 and the South; for the needs vary from place to place. 
 
 First in importance, of course, comes the effort to secure the 
 mastery of production. Great strides toward this end have 
 already been taken over the larger part of the United States; 
 much remains to be done, but much has been done; and the 
 debt of the nation to the various agencies of agricultural im- 
 provement for so great an advance is not to be overstated. But 
 we cannot halt here. The benefits of high social organization 
 include such advantages as ease of communication, better 
 educational facilities, increased comfort of living, and those 
 opportunities for social and intellectual life and intercourse, 
 of special value to the young people and to the women, which 
 are as yet chiefly to be had in centers of population. All this 
 must be brought within the reach of the farmers who live on the 
 farms, of the men whose labor feeds and clothes the towns and 
 cities. 
 
 BENEFITS RESULTING FROM CO-OPERATION 
 
 Farmers must learn the vital need of co-operation with one 
 another. Next to this comes co-operation with the government 
 and the government can best give its aid through associations of 
 farmers rather than through the individual farmer; for there is 
 no greater agricultural problem than that of delivering to the 
 farmer the large body of agricultural knowledge which has been 
 accumulated by the national and state governments and by the 
 agricultural colleges and schools. Nowhere has the govern- 
 ment worked to better advantage than in the South, where the 
 work done by the Department of Agriculture in connection with 
 the cotton growers of the southwestern states has been phenom- 
 
250 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 enal in its value. The farmers in the region affected by the 
 boll weevil, in the course of the efforts to fight it, have succeeded 
 in developing a most scientific husbandry, so that in many 
 places the boll weevil became a blessing in disguise. Not only did 
 the industry of farming become of very much greater economic 
 value in its direct results, but it became immensely more interest- 
 ing to thousands of families. The meetings at which the new 
 subjects of interest were discussed grew to have a distinct social 
 value, while with the farmers were joined the merchants and 
 bankers of the neighborhood. It is needless to say that every 
 such successful effort to organize the farmer gives a great stim- 
 ulus to the admirable educational work which is being done in 
 the southern states, as elsewhere, to prepare young people for an 
 agricultural life. It is greatly to be wished that the communities 
 whence these students are drawn and to which they either return 
 or should return, could be co-operatively organized; that is, 
 that associations of farmers could be organized, primarily for 
 business purposes, but also with social ends in view. This 
 would mean that the returned students from the institutions 
 of technical learning would find their environment prepared 
 to profit to the utmost by the improvements in technical meth- 
 ods which they had learned. 
 
 The people of our farming regions must be able to combine 
 among themselves as the most efficient means of protecting 
 their industry from the highly organized interests which now 
 surround them on every side. A vast field is open for work by 
 co-operative associations of farmers in dealing with the relation 
 of the farm to transportation and to the distribution and manu- 
 facture of raw materials. It is only through such combination 
 that American farmers can develop to the fuU their economic 
 and social power. Combination of this kind has, in Denmark, 
 for instance, resulted in bringing the people back to the land, 
 and has enabled the Danish peasant to compete in extraordinary 
 fashion, not only at home but in foreign countries, with all rivals. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 251 
 
 KIND OF EDUCATION NEEDED 
 
 Agricultural colleges and farmers' institutes have done much 
 in instruction and inspiration; they have stood for the nobility 
 of labor and the necessity of keeping the muscles and the brain 
 in training for industry. They have developed technical depart- 
 ments of high practical value. They seek to provide for the 
 people on the farms an equipment so broad and thorough as to 
 fit them for the highest requirements of our citizenship ; so that 
 they can establish and maintain country homes of the best type 
 and create and sustain a country civilization more than equal to 
 that of the city. The men they train must be able to meet the 
 strongest business competition, at home or abroad, and they can 
 do this only if they are trained, not alone in the various lines of 
 husbandry, but in successful economic management. These 
 colleges, like the state experiment stations, should carefully 
 study and make knov^n the needs of each section, and should try 
 to provide remedies for what is wrong. 
 
 The education to be obtained in these colleges should create 
 as intimate relationship as is possible between the theory of 
 learning and the facts of actual life. Educational establish- 
 ments should produce highly trained scholars, of course ; but in 
 a country like ours, where the educational establishments are so 
 numerous, it is folly to think that their main purpose is to pro- 
 duce these highly trained scholars. Without in the least dis- 
 paraging scholarship and learning — on the contrary, while giving 
 hearty and ungrudging admiration and support to the compara- 
 tively few whose primary work should be creative scholarship — 
 it must be remembered that the ordinary graduate of our colleges 
 should be and must be, primarily, a man and not a scholar. 
 Education should not confine itself to books. It must train 
 executive power and try to create that right public opinion which 
 is the most potent factor in the proper solution of all political 
 and social questions. Book-learning is very important, but it 
 is by no means everything; and we shall never get the right idea 
 
252 MICfflGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 of education until we definitely understand that a man may be 
 well trained in book-learning and yet, in the proper sense of the 
 word and for all practical purposes, be utterly uneducated; 
 while a man of comparatively little book-learning may, never- 
 theless, in essentials have a good education. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF CONDITIONS AFFECTING COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 It is true that agriculture in the United States has reached a 
 very high level of prosperity ; but we cannot afford to disregard 
 the signs which teach us that there are influences operating 
 against the establishment or retention of our country life upon 
 a really sound basis. The overextensive and wasteful cultiva- 
 tion of pioneer days must stop and give place to a more econom- 
 ical system. Not only the physical but the ethical needs of the 
 people of the country districts must be considered. In our 
 country life there must be social and intellectual advantages as 
 well as a fair standard of physical comfort. There must be in 
 the country, as in the town, a multiplication of movements for 
 intellectual advancement and social betterment. We must try 
 to raise the average of farm Hfe, and we must also try to develop 
 it so that it shall offer exceptional chances for the exceptional 
 man. 
 
 Of course the essential things after all are those which concern 
 all of us as men and women, no matter whether we Uve in the 
 town or the country, and no matter what our occupations may 
 be. The root problems are much the same for all of us, widely 
 though they may differ in outward manifestation. The most 
 important conditions that tell for happiness within the home are 
 the same for the town and the country; and the relations between 
 employer and employee are not always satisfactory on the farm 
 any more than in the factory. All over the country there is a 
 constant complaint of paucity of farm labor. Without attempting 
 to go into all the features of this question I would Uke to point out 
 that you can never get the right kind, the best kind, of labor if 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 253 
 
 you offer employment only for a few months, ioi no man worth 
 anything will permanently accept a system which leaves him 
 in idleness for half the year. 
 
 A WORD REGARDING THE FARMER'S FAMILY 
 
 And most important of all, I want to say a special word on 
 behalf of the one who is too often the very hardest worked laborer 
 on the farm — the farmer's wife. Reform, like charity, while it 
 should not end at home, should certainly begin there; and the 
 man, whether he lives on a farm or in a town, who is anxious to see 
 better social and economic conditions prevail through the coun- 
 try at large, should be exceedingly careful that they prevail first 
 as regards his own womankind. I emphatically believe that 
 for the great majority of women the really indispensable industry 
 in which they should engage is the industry of the home. There 
 are exceptions of course ; but exactly as the first duty of the nor- 
 mal man is the duty of being the home maker, so the first duty 
 of the normal woman is to be the home keeper; and exactly as no 
 other learning is as important for the average man as the learning 
 which will teach him how to make his livelihood, so no other 
 learning is as important for the average woman as the learning 
 which will make her a good housewife and mother. But this 
 does not mean that she should be an overworked drudge. I 
 have hearty sympathy with the movement to better the condition 
 of the average tiller of the soil, of the average wage worker, and I 
 have an even heartier sympathy and applause for the movement 
 which is to better the condition of their respective wives. There 
 is plenty that is hard and rough and disagreeable in the necessary 
 work of actual life; and under the best circumstances, and no 
 matter how tender and considerate the husband, the wife will 
 have at least her full share of work and worry and anxiety; 
 but if the man is worth his salt he will try to take as much as 
 possible of the burden off the shoulders of his helpmate. There 
 is nothing Utopian in the movement ; all that is necessary is to 
 
254 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 strive toward raising the average, both of men and women, to 
 the level on which the highest type of family now stands, among 
 American farmers, among American skilled mechanics, among 
 American citizens generally ; for in all the world there is no 
 better and healthier home life, no finer factory of individual 
 character, nothing more representative of what is best and most 
 characteristic in American life than that which exists in the higher 
 type of American family; and this higher type of family is to be 
 found everywhere among us, and is the property of no special 
 group of citizens. 
 
 The best crop is the crop of children ; the best products of the 
 farm are the men and women raised thereon; and the most in- 
 structive and practical treatises on farming, necessary though 
 they be, are no more necessary than the books, which teach us our 
 duty to our neighbor, and above all to the neighbor who is of our 
 own household. You young men and women of the agricultural 
 and industrial colleges and schools — and, for that matter, you 
 who go to any college or school — must have some time for light 
 reading ; and there is some light reading quite as useful as heavy 
 reading, provided, of course, that you do not read in a spirit 
 of mere vacuity. Aside from the great classics, and thinking 
 only of the many healthy and stimulating books of the day, it 
 is easy to pick out many which can really serve as tracts, because 
 they possess what many avowed tracts and treatises do not, the 
 prime quaHty of being interesting. You will learn the root 
 principles of self-help and helpfulness toward others from Mrs. 
 Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, just as much as from any formal 
 treatise on charity; you will learn as much sound social and 
 industrial doctrine from Octave Thanet's stories of farmers and 
 wageworkers as from avowed sociological and economic studies; 
 and I cordially recommend the first chapter of Aunt Jane of 
 Kentucky for use as a tract in all famihes where the men folks 
 tend to selfish or thoughtless or overbearing disregard of the 
 rights of their womankind. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 255 
 
 Do not misunderstand me. I have not the sHghtest sym- 
 pathy with those hysterical and fooHsh creatures who wish women 
 to attain to easy Hves by shirking their duties. I have as hearty 
 a contempt for the woman who shirks her duty of bearing and 
 rearing the children, of doing her full housewife's work, as I 
 have for the man who is an idler, who shirks his duty of earning 
 a living for himself and for his children, or who is selfish or 
 brutal toward his wife and children. I believe in the happiness 
 that comes from the performance of duty, not from the avoidance 
 of duty. But I believe also in trying, each of us, as strength is 
 given us, to bear one another's burdens; and this especially 
 in our own homes. No outside training, no co-operation, no 
 government aid or direction can take the place of a strong and 
 upright character ; of goodness of heart combined with clearness 
 of head, and that strength and toughness of fiber necessary to 
 wring success from a rough work-a-day world. Nothing out- 
 side of home can take the place of home. The school is an 
 invaluable adjunct to the home, but it is a wretched substitute 
 for it. The family relation is the most fundamental, the most 
 important of all relations. No leader in church or state, in 
 science or art or industry, however great his achievement, takes 
 the place of the mothers, "who are the first of sovereigns and the 
 most divine of priests." 
 
CONFERRING OF DEGREES 
 
 Following President Roosevelt's address, Professor Warren 
 Babcock formally announced the completion of their college 
 work by the following persons, ninety-six in number : 
 
 Allen, W. B., e 
 Andrews, Helen, w 
 Angell, Anna, w 
 Angell, I. D., e 
 Ashley, Helen, w 
 Bailey, Eva, v) 
 Baker, J. L., a 
 Beckwith, H. R., a 
 Benham, Rachel, w 
 Boulard, E. N., a 
 Brass, L. C, e 
 Brown, G. A., a 
 Brown, H. L., a 
 Burley, G. A., e 
 Button, J. C, a 
 Cade, C. M., e 
 Campbell, B. G., e 
 Canfield, R. S., e 
 Carpenter, A. J., e 
 Clise, B. B., a 
 Craig, Myrtle, w 
 DeLange, W. W., e 
 Delzell, Ruth E., w 
 Borland, L. R.,/ 
 Doty, S. W., a 
 Dudley, G. C, e 
 Ellis, D. H., a 
 Ellis, George H., e 
 Fowler, E. C, a 
 Gasser, W. W., e 
 Glazier, H. I., e 
 Goetz, C. H.,/ 
 
 CLASS OF 1907 
 Goldsmith, D. R., e 
 Goldsmith, P. V., a 
 Gould, F. A., e 
 Granger, C. M.,/ 
 Gregg, O. I., a 
 Grover, E. L., o 
 Hart, W. L., o 
 Hayden, L. N., e 
 Hayes, G. B., e 
 Heinrich, G. A., e 
 Hitchcock, L. B., e 
 Hitchcock, W. W., e 
 Hudson, R. S., a 
 Johnson, M. F., e 
 Johnson, W. E., e 
 Kinney, Inez M., w 
 Elramer, H. T., e 
 Kratz, O. A., e 
 Elrause, E. J., a 
 Krentel, Calla, w 
 Lilly, S. B., e 
 Liverance, W. B., a 
 McHatton, T. H., a 
 McNaughton, C. P., a 
 Martin, L. Belle, w 
 Miller, Violet, w 
 Minard, R. F., e 
 Moomaw, D., e 
 Myers, J. L., e 
 Palacio, A. G., a 
 Parsons, I. E., a 
 
 Pennell, R. L., a 
 Perry, N. C, a 
 Piper, W. E., e 
 Pokorny, Ida, Mrs., w 
 Post, O. C, e 
 Pratt, A. C, e 
 Rinkle, L. G., a 
 Robinson, E. P., a, 
 Roby, Edith, w 
 Rounds, Florence, w 
 Rowe, C. L., e 
 Seller, R., e 
 Shuttleworth, P. H., a 
 Smith, G. W., a 
 Smith, L. E., e 
 Stewart, B. C, e 
 Stone, H. G., a 
 Taylor, E. H., e 
 Thatcher, F. E. N., e 
 Towne, E. A., e 
 Towner, A. A., o 
 Van Alstine, E., <j 
 Van Halteran, A. S., e 
 Verran, G., e 
 Waite, R. H., a 
 Warden, W., a 
 Weeks, H. B., a 
 White, O. K., a 
 Wilcox, J. C, a 
 Willson, E. A., a 
 Wilson, A. W., e 
 Wright, L. H., e 
 
 Peck, C. B., e 
 
 The class, seated immediately below the speaker's platform, 
 
 256 
 
SEMI CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 257 
 
 arose, formed in line, and passed across the platform, receiving 
 the diplomas from the hand of President Roosevelt. 
 
 Of those graduating, thirty-six completed the work in agri- 
 culture, three in forestry, forty-three in engineering, and four- 
 teen in home economics. 
 
 After the presentation of diplomas to the graduating class 
 by President Roosevelt, the honory degree of Doctor of Science 
 (D.Sc.) was conferred by President Jonathan Le Moyne Snyder 
 upon each of the following gentlemen : 
 
 William Arnon Henry, President of the Agricultural College of Wisconsin. 
 Charles Fay Wheeler, of the United States Department of Agriculture. 
 Henry Clay White, President of the Agricultural College of Georgia. 
 Charles Franklin Curtiss, Dean of the Agricultural Department and 
 
 Director of the Experiment Station of the State College of Iowa. 
 Thomas Forsyth Hunt, Dean of the Agricultural Department and 
 
 Director of the Experiment Station of Pennsylvania State College. 
 William Warner Tracy, of the United States Department of Agriculture. 
 GiFFOKD Pinchot, Chief Forester of the Department of Agriculture of 
 the United States. 
 
 The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) was con- 
 ferred upon each of the following gentlemen : 
 
 James Burrill Angell, President of the University of Michigan. 
 
 Eugene Davenport, Dean of the Agricultural College and Director of 
 the Experiment Station of the University of Illinois. 
 
 Winthrop Ellsworth Stone, President of the Purdue University. 
 
 Herbert Winslow Collingwood, Editor of the "Rural New Yorker." 
 
 Mortimer Elwyn Cooley, of the Engineering Department of the Univer- 
 sity of Michigan. 
 
 Whitman Howard Jordan, Director of the Experiment Station at Geneva, 
 N. Y. 
 
 Enoch Albert Bryan, President of the Agricultural College of the State 
 of Washington. 
 
 Rolla Clinton Carpenter, of the Engineering Department of Cornell 
 University. 
 
 James Wilson, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 As each of the gentlemen to receive an honorary degree was 
 announced by Professor Babcock, he was escorted to the front 
 
258 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 of the platform by Dr. Thomas C. Blaisdell, acting as College 
 Herald, and was presented to President Snyder, who, in con- 
 ferring the degrees, spoke as follows : 
 
 William Arnon Henry: 
 
 It falls to the lot of few men to render to the people of their state such 
 valuable service as you have rendered to the citizens of Wisconsin. Start- 
 ing with very little material equipment, you have, by your untiring energy, 
 built up a great agricultural school and an experiment station of the first 
 rank. As an author and as a contributor to the agricultural press, you 
 have rendered untold service to the stockmen of the world. The oldest 
 agricultural college of this country congratulates you and the people of 
 your state on your great achievements, and, through me, confers upon you 
 the degree of Doctor of Science and presents you v/ith its diploma. 
 
 Charles Fay Wheeler: 
 
 Your training and skill as a systematic botanist entitles you to special 
 recognition by your Alma Mater. On recommendation of the faculty and 
 by the authority of the State Board of Agriculture, to whom you rendered 
 valuable services for many years as a member of this faculty, I confer upon 
 you the degree of Doctor of Science and present you with the diploma of 
 the College. 
 
 Henry Clay White: 
 
 You have, as an investigator and administrator, rendered great service, 
 both to agricultural science and to agricultural education. The land-grant 
 colleges ov/e you a debt of gratitude for yoiu- zeal and successful efforts 
 in their behalf before the national Congress. The state in which you hold 
 a responsible position as the president of its agricultural college, and in 
 which you wield a wide influence, has surpassed all other states in the estab- 
 lishment of agricultural secondary schools. As a scientist and as a man 
 of great ability in public affairs, this College confers upon you the degree 
 of Doctor of Science, and presents you with its diploma. 
 
 Charles Franklin Curtiss: 
 
 This College confers upon you the degree of Doctor of Science in recog- 
 nition, not only of your ability as a scientist and administrator, as is evi- 
 denced in the rapid development of the Agricultural Department and 
 Experiment Station over which you preside, but also in recognition of the 
 great service which you have rendered to the interests of live-stock husbandry 
 in the Middle West. I also present you v/ith its diploma. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 259 
 
 Thomas Forsyth Hunt: 
 
 In your chosen field you early carried forward experiments which have 
 resulted in great good to the farmers of the country. Your textbook on 
 the teaching of agronomy placed for the first time the knowledge of this 
 subject in pedagogical form. You have been a very successful teacher of 
 young men. Your work as an investigator, as an author, and as a teacher 
 prompts this College to confer upon you, through me, the degree of Doctor 
 of Science. 
 William Warner Tracy: 
 
 Loyal son of this College, you have gained by your persistent efforts 
 through many years a high rank in that field of science which you have 
 made your life work. By your discoveries you have broadened the field 
 of human knowledge. For these reasons your Alma Mater takes great 
 pleasure in conferring upon you the degree of Doctor of Science, and in 
 presenting you with its diploma. 
 Gifford Pinchot: 
 
 A graduate of Yale University, a student of forestry for years in the 
 great universities of the Old World, and for the past nine years chief forester 
 of the Department of Agriculture, Washington: In recognition of your 
 ability as a student of great forestry problems, of your bold initiative, and 
 of your courageous and sane methods of administration, we confer upon 
 you the degree of Doctor of Science, and present you with the appropriate 
 diploma of the College. 
 
 James Bur rill Angell: 
 
 This College confers upon you an honorary degree, not with the expecta- 
 tion that it will add to the many similar honors which you have received 
 from the great universities of the country, but that we may express to you 
 our appreciation and sincere gratitude for the work you have done for the 
 people of the state and for the kindly feeling and most helpful spirit that 
 you have always shov/n toward this institution. This College honors itself 
 in conferring upon you, the first citizen of Michigan, as well as its greatest 
 educator, the degree of Doctor of Laws, and in presenting you v/ith its 
 diploma. 
 
 Eugene Davenport: 
 
 In you this College desires to honor today one of its sons who has shown 
 rare ability as an organizer and administrator. You have developed with 
 wonderful rapidity a great agricultural school v/hich, in years to come, 
 must render valuable service to scientific and practical agriculture. I take 
 pleasure, on the nomination of the faculty and in behalf of the Board of 
 
26o MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Control, in conferring upon you the degree of Doctor of Lav/s, and in 
 presenting to you the diploma of the College. 
 Winthrop Ellsworth Stone: 
 
 In recognition of the great service you have rendered to science as an 
 investigator and to technical education as president of one of the leading 
 land-grant colleges of this country, this institution confers upon you the 
 degree of Doctor of Laws, and presents to you its diploma. 
 Herbert Winslow Collingwood: 
 
 As you have for many years rendered most valuable service to agri- 
 culture as editor of one of its leading jovu^nals, I have the pleasure of con- 
 ferring upon you, in behalf of your Alma Mater, the degree of Doctor of 
 Laws, and of presenting you with its diploma. 
 Mortimer Elwyn Cooley: 
 
 In recognition of your services as an expert in determining railway 
 values, of your executive ability in developing the great engineering depart- 
 ment of our university, and of your reputation as an engineer, on the recom- 
 mendation of our faculty, by the authority of the Board of Control, I confer 
 upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, and present you with the diploma 
 of the College. 
 Whitman Howard Jordan: 
 
 You have, by your work as an investigator, added much to the store 
 of agricultural knov/ledge; v/hile as an administrator you have developed, 
 by your rare ability, the great experiment station of the Empire State, which 
 stands today without a peer. The College confers upon you the degree 
 of Doctor of Laws, and presents to you its diploma. 
 Enoch Albert Bryan: 
 
 Upon you, conspicuous for moral courage, a scholar, a teacher of power, 
 a builder of a great agricultural college in the far Northwest, on recommen- 
 dation of the faculty and by the authority of the State Board of Agriculture, 
 I confer the degree of Doctor of Laws, and present to you the diploma of 
 the College. 
 Rolla Clinton Carpenter: 
 
 After graduating from this institution, you rendered it valuable service 
 for many years as a member of its faculty. You have since served in a 
 broader field as a member of the faculty of a renowned university. Your 
 engineering skill and your ability as a designer of great construction render 
 you worthy of special recognition. Your Alma Mater has great pleasure 
 in conferring upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, and in presenting you 
 with the diploma of the College. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 261 
 
 James Wilson: 
 
 You have been a mighty force in the agricultural world during the past 
 ten years. The great department over which you so ably preside has made 
 wondrous strides. You have assembled a large body of scientists who are 
 rapidly extending the boundaries of human knowledge and making it more 
 easy each day for the farmer to work in harmony with nature's laws. You 
 have done more than any other man to popularize agriculture. This 
 College has great pleasure in conferring upon you the degree of Doctor 
 of Laws, and in presenting you with its diploma. 
 
 With the overture from Cyrano, rendered by the Bach 
 Orchestra, the official program of the Semi-Centennial Celebra- 
 tion came to a close. 
 
 In the evening each of the literary societies of the College 
 held a banquet and reunion, at which many of the alumni re- 
 newed and reviewed old acquaintances and pleasures, thus 
 closing and consecrating the Semi-Centennial Celebration at 
 the altar of friendship. 
 
CONGRATULATORY ADDRESSES 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 DELEGATES FROM OTHER INSTITUTIONS 
 AND LEARNED SOCIETIES 
 
0ft n<di i<!t;iit,; int>th t'"pft'^tVnt ;ii!0 jfnoiIhT i»f 
 Htg'fllit-hignnA^fU' ulfura lfeVllf'ijt'.l^rtYHnM: 
 
 J lie <!ii';ifi' c( ru:-Uv:\ tilt' )^ rfi^ii'Lttt. :ini"« Hic_ 
 jyaniltiM-'f^'Ci'riii'ininii'iTA'ihj Iiiii'>it tlti^ir 
 'i^ ri'riliitl l• l'n^^r:I ^ ul: tHl'llt^ en llu- ii'injilifii'ii of 
 )ltc tii-i'.riTnlftvntuntof lln-i-xii'-t.ita-oFlliL'iniiliuv.irv 
 AijmlfunilYi'IK-iiir a In- I'liif.-I .vnfifia a<IK-,ujif^ 
 ngriculhii'c- in !lu'ilitiKi> j-taK:^ , il Ir.i.-* I'liii a_ 
 l^^;^^^•r il l Htc K- Jchiiig I'f AuririiUiiiv Mni'uicj;prri- 
 itimj[jin^jni'j^fiii;iru'ii ■. ;iHi"> \h- L'UCi\:'-M -t- in nil 
 Jhc^c tu'li** If.U'i' l'ii-it lU'K-uH'rHiir.ilh' I'-.irii'D ex- 
 
 pcri tti caii ' in pi'i^MaiHiii :\^ njiplici"* Jo :tariculhu.iv 
 
 It/.hc lu-iil of iin'-)iiti:i!'L- t'.-llm- K' ;ilTl:lftT i-tTi'rh 
 Aiu> tlu-Viiailhj .'t"llu'il"olU-.u- li:n^- iiulij.'^a'' Ir.tcll; 
 
 iTi- u'llO:-c illlluc l Ut- il l H lL tm illilldOl lIUIl fiT llOUDH- 
 
 cr ini^Hhiticii!^ h.-i !> lu'cii potent iiiit' u'itV^ p rf.ti'. 
 
 ■f ornill "tIniiTri-itir trii->k ibnt t ttc t' utuiv of fhc 
 ^icliig-.iii ArtiiciiHur.ililVlliat'u'ill rcnlirc Hic hopt-;; 
 nil t* n-^pir-itioii:' A i l :■ lL'lllll'' ^^ rr,nn ^ that it? iiil :! i.-urc 
 of sut'iVrt? u'ill continue to increase. 
 
 ''jicretarnoflltefHiiulUi 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHIC FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF THE GREETINGS 
 FROM CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 265 
 
 A 
 
 EE 
 I 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS 
 
 The American Institute of Electrical Engineers extends 
 congratulations to the Michigan Agricultural College on the 
 completion of her fifty years of splendid service through high 
 achievements in science and the mechanic arts and also through 
 the many distinguished sons she has furnished to disseminate 
 her fruitful teachings throughout the land. 
 
 Engineers' Building, New York, N. Y. 
 May 31, 1907 
 
266 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PAUL M. CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 To the President and Board of Control of the Michigan Agri- 
 cultural College: 
 
 The President of the American Society of Mechanical 
 Engineers has appointed us as honorary vice-presidents to 
 represent the society on the occasion of this the fiftieth anniver- 
 sary of your institution. 
 
 On behalf of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 
 we have the distinguished honor to present to the president and 
 Board of Control of the Michigan Agricultural College the 
 congratulations of the society on this occasion which marks an 
 era of prosperity in the great industries fostered by your institu- 
 tion under the wise and beneficent provisions of federal and 
 state legislation. 
 
 The society recognizes the Michigan Agricultural College as 
 the pioneer in a field of education which constitutes the very 
 bulwark of our nation's prosperity, and cherishes the hope that 
 the same wise administration of the affairs of your institution 
 may continue in the future to be an example to be emulated by 
 your sister institutions as it has been in the past. 
 
 The society extends its greetings and acknowledgments to 
 those who, as directors, teachers, investigators, and alumni, 
 have brought to your institution the great distinction which it 
 enjoys, and which is now being commemorated. 
 
 The society is glad of the opportunity to join with you on so 
 great a festal occasion and to take part with others in extending 
 felicitations. 
 
 American Society of Mechanical Engineers 
 Frank E. Kirby 
 Mortimer E. Cooley 
 Alex. Dow 
 
 Honorary vice-presidents 
 
 29 West Thirty-ninth Street, New York 
 May 31, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 267 
 
 CLARK UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT E. G. LANCASTER 
 
 To the President and Board of Control 0} Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 
 Dear Sirs : President E. G. Lancaster of Olivet College, who 
 is an alumnus of Clark University, has been appointed to repre- 
 sent Clark University at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anni- 
 versary of Michigan Agricultural College, this note constituting 
 his credentials. 
 
 He bears you the most cordial greetings and hearty felicitation 
 of Clark University on this auspicious occasion. 
 
 With all good wishes for an ever-brightening future, I am, 
 
 G. Stanley Hall 
 President of Clark University 
 Worcester, Massachusetts 
 May 23, 1907 
 
268 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 CLEMSON AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
 FROM PRESIDENT P, H. NELL 
 
 It gives me pleasure to have our institution represented on 
 this most auspicious occasion, and as president of Clemson 
 College I desire to extend to the Michigan Agricultural College 
 my hearty congratulations for the splendid history of the past 
 made by the Michigan College and to express the hope that 
 there is a bright future before the institution. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 269 
 
 COLORADO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AND EXPERIMENT 
 
 STATION 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DIRECTOR L. G. CARPENTER 
 
 The Colorado Agricultural College and Experiment Station, 
 peculiarly a child of the Michigan Agricultural College, extends 
 its cordial greetings at the Semi-Centennial Anniversary. 
 
270 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE L. A. CLINTON 
 
 To Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 Recognizing Michigan Agricultural College as the pioneer 
 in agricultural education, at a time when such education was 
 not popular or even understood; recognizing it as the institution 
 after which many other similar colleges have been modeled, 
 and recognizing that it has served as a training-school for presi- 
 dents and professors of such other colleges: We, the faculty 
 of The Connecticut Agricultural College, extend most hearty 
 greetings to this justly honored institution upon the fiftieth 
 anniversary of its founding — full of confidence that in the years 
 to come it will continue to be as successful as in the past, and 
 will always stand for what is best and truest in agricultural 
 education. 
 
 L. A. Clinton 
 
 A. G. GULLEY 
 
 E. O. Smith 
 Faculty Committee on Congratula- 
 tions to Michigan Agricultural 
 College 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 271 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DEAN L. H. BAILEY 
 
 To the State Board of Agriculture oj the State of Michigan, and 
 the President and Faculty of the Michigan Agricultural 
 College, Greeting: 
 
 The Board of Trustees, the president, and the faculty of 
 Cornell University tender their cordial congratulations on the 
 completion of the first half-century of the existence of the Michi- 
 gan Agricultural College. The oldest existing college of agri- 
 culture in the United States, it has been a leader in the teaching 
 of agriculture and in experiment and investigation; and its 
 successes in all these fields have been noteworthy. Its varied 
 experiments in pedagogy as appHed to agriculture have been 
 of inestimable value to all later effort. And the faculty of the 
 College have included teachers whose influence in the training 
 of men for younger institutions has been potent and widespread. 
 
 Cornell University trusts that the future of the Michigan 
 Agricultural College will realize the hopes and aspirations of its 
 founders, and that its measure of success will continue to increase. 
 
 J. G. ScHURMAN, President 
 
 [seal] Wm. a. HAMMOND' 
 
 Secretary of the Faculty 
 Ithaca, N. Y. 
 May, 1907 
 
272 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICUI.TURAL COLLEGE 
 
 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 
 
 The Geological Society of America presents heartiest good 
 wishes and felicitations. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 273 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 
 
 Dr. Richard Harlan of the George Washington University 
 brings from that university to the Michigan Agricultural College, 
 upon the completion of a half-century of notable service to the 
 nation, hearty felicitations and earnest wishes for great pros- 
 perity in the future. 
 
274 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DR. THEODORE LYMAN 
 
 Harvard University to the Michigan State Agricultural College, 
 Greeting: 
 
 The president and fellows of Harvard College send their 
 hearty congratulations to the State Board of Agriculture of 
 Michigan and to the president and faculty of the State Agri- 
 cultural College on the Fiftieth Anniversary of its foundation. 
 Anticipating by several years the establishment of the land- 
 grant colleges, the Michigan Agricultural College performed the 
 high service of a pioneer in both the literal and the figurative 
 sense of the word. The steady development of the institution, 
 when once the early days of hardship and experiment were over, 
 and the attainment of its present prosperity and usefulness 
 ofiFer a striking example of foresight and intelligent public spirit. 
 May the Michigan Agricultural College continue to prosper 
 through continued usefulness not only to the state but also to 
 the agricultural and mechanical sciences throughout the world. 
 
 The President and Fellows of Harvard College, by 
 
 [seal] Jerome D. Greene, Secretary 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 275 
 
 HILLSDALE COLLEGE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT JOSEPH W. MAUCK 
 
 Hillsdale College, the oldest daughter m education of the 
 church in Michigan, greets and congratulates the Michigan 
 Agricultural College, one of the oldest and fairest daughters 
 of the state, and offers a joyous and prayerful Godspeed, with 
 the sentiment: A complete separation of the organic church 
 from the state, but a more intimate union of vital reUgion with 
 the work of both state and church. 
 
276 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 INDIANA UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT BRYAN 
 
 Lux et Veritas, "light and truth." Let them be guides to 
 thee as to me. The greetings of an octogenarian of the Old 
 Northwest to a semicentenarian. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 277 
 
 KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT E. R. NICHOLS 
 
 The Kansas State Agricultural College sends greetings and 
 congratulations to Michigan Agricultural College on her golden 
 anniversary. We wish to acknowledge our appreciation and 
 indebtedness to our mother institution, for so we regard her, 
 who has been our model and who has furnished us so many 
 illustrious men. 
 
278 MICfflGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 KENTUCKY EXPERIMENT STATION 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DR. M. A. SCOVELL 
 
 The Kentucky Experiment Station sends greetings and 
 felicitations to the Michigan Agricultural College on its fiftieth 
 anniversary and congratulates it on its fifty years of fruitful 
 work and wishes it even a brighter and a still more fruitful 
 future, and ever-increasing success. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 279 
 
 LAKE ERIE COLLEGE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE MISS INGA M. K. ALLISON 
 
 The trustees, the president, the faculty, and the students of 
 Lake Erie College extend to the Agricultural College of Michigan 
 their heartiest congratulations upon this the Semi-Centennial 
 Celebration, and upon fifty years of honorable and useful service 
 to the state and nation. 
 
28o MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT KENYON L. BUTTEREIELD 
 
 Massachusetts, through its agricultural college, sends con- 
 gratulations to the Michigan Agricultural College on the occasion 
 of its fiftieth anniversary, and recalls with pride the fact that the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its famous imiversity. 
 Harvard, were respectively the native state and the Alma Mater 
 of that great and far-seeing man, Joseph R. Williams, the first 
 president of the Michigan Agricultural College. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 281 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 
 
 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, through its 
 delegate, Professor George W. Patterson, congratulates the 
 Michigan Agricultural College on this most happy anniversary. 
 
282 MICfflGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 ML\MI UNIVERSITY 
 
 PIUESENTED BY DELEGATE BENJAMIN MARSHALL DAVIS 
 
 Greetings and congratulations to Michigan Agricultural 
 College from Miami University. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 283 
 
 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
 
 Professor James B. Pollock presents the congratulations of 
 the Michigan Academy of Science. 
 
284 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT A. W. HARRIS 
 
 Northwestern University to the President and Board oj Control 
 of the Michigan Agricultural College, Greetings and Con- 
 gratulations: 
 
 Your institution was a pioneer and has continued to be a 
 leader in a branch of educational work, the far-reaching value 
 of which each year is recognized more fully. The American 
 people are an agricultural people and they cherish ideals of 
 popular education. It is therefore doubly needful in this country 
 that agriculture and education should go hand in hand. That 
 institution, then, which, Uke your own, is training men and 
 women to develop the resources of nature at first hand is doing 
 a service of inestimable benefit both to the nation as a whole and 
 to the cause of education. 
 
 Northwestern University upon the occasion of your Fiftieth 
 Anniversary expresses its high appreciation of what your college 
 has already accomplished and wishes for it a career of even 
 greater prosperity and usefulness. 
 
 Abram Winegardner Harris 
 
 President of the University 
 
 [Seal] Frank P. Crandonj 
 
 Secretary of the Board of Trustees 
 EvANSTON, III. 
 May 14, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 285 
 
 OBERLIN COLLEGE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DEAN CHARLES E. ST. JOHN 
 
 Oberlin College begs to extend her congratulations to Michi- 
 gan Agricultural College on the completion of fifty years of 
 valuable service. 
 
286 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 OLIVET COLLEGE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT E. G. LANCASTER 
 
 To the President and Board of Trustees of Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 Olivet College sincerely congratulates the Michigan Agri- 
 cultural College on her magnificent work for the state of Michi- 
 gan during the past half-century, and extends to her most 
 cordial greetings and best wishes on this the happy occasion of 
 her fiftieth anniversary. 
 
 E. G. Lancaster, President 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 287 
 
 POMONA COLLEGE 
 
 Pomona College, Claremont, California, through her delegate, 
 Dr. Albert J. Cook, extends hearty greetings to the Michigan 
 Agricultural College, and congratulates her on the long and 
 admirable service which she has rendered to education, and 
 especially to agriculture. Her ideals have always been high, 
 and she has always rung true to the cause which the Morrill bill 
 sought to promote. We send cordial feUcitations, because of 
 the able men which she has sent forth — men who have done 
 royal service to agriculture and to agricultural education. We 
 extend our most hearty good wishes, that the future may be 
 still more bright and prosperous. 
 
 May 31, 1907 
 
288 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 PURDUE UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT WINTHROP ELLSWORTH STONE 
 
 Purdue University extends to its sister and neighbor, the 
 Michigan Agricultural College, its hearty congratulations upon 
 the completion of a half-century of notable achievement in 
 education, and expresses the sincere hope that her influence 
 and usefulness may never be diminished. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 289 
 
 RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND 
 MECHANIC ARTS 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT HOWARD EDWARDS 
 
 To the Trustees, Faculty, and Students 0} Michigan Agricul- 
 tural College: 
 
 There are certain times in the life of an institution, as in that 
 of a person, when the well-directed labors of years receive their 
 meed of congratulation. And so the faculty of the Rhode Island 
 College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is glad to send its 
 greetings to the Michigan Agricultural CoUege on the occasion 
 of its Semi-Centennial Anniversary. 
 
 It should indeed be a year of jubilee for the College, which 
 has been a pioneer in introducing and developing a new form 
 of education to meet the varied needs of a growing and diversi- 
 fied people. Without precedents to guide it, imcertain of its 
 relation to other state institutions, amid many perplexities and 
 discouragements, it succeeded in solving the problems of how 
 to co-ordinate the training of brain and hand and dignify in- 
 dustrial education. All similar institutions are thus its debtors, 
 and may well unite in paying tribute to fifty years of faithful 
 service. That the past work is but an earnest of even greater 
 future success is the sincere wish of a sister college. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 [Seal] Harriet L. Merrow 
 
 Secretary of the Faculty 
 May 24, 1907 
 
290 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURAL 
 
 SCIENCE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT HENRY PRENTISS ARMSBY 
 
 The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science extends 
 to the president, trustees, and faculty of the Michigan Agri- 
 cultural College its congratulations upon the completion of 
 fifty years of notable service to the cause of agricultural educa- 
 tion. 
 
 It recalls with pride the fact that one of its founders, and its 
 first president, Dr. W. J. Beal, was and still is a professor in the 
 Michigan Agricultural College, and that many of its most 
 distinguished members have been graduates of that institution 
 and members of its faculty. 
 
 That the achievements of the half -century just closed may be 
 but the prelude to more magnificent deeds in the half-century to 
 come is the confident hope of this society. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 291 
 
 STATE COLLEGE OF WASHINGTON 
 
 The New Northwest sends greetings to the child of the Old 
 Northwest. The State College of Washington presents its 
 congratulations and fehcitations to the Michigan Agricultural 
 College on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its estab- 
 lishment. The distinguished service to the commonwealth and 
 to humanity rendered by the College during the past fifty years 
 will forever continue to be an inspiration to men and to states. 
 
 May the oak tree, emblematic of long life, strength, beauty, 
 and usefulness henceforth be inscribed on your coat of arms. 
 
 For the Board of Regents and Faculty. 
 
 E. A. Bryan, President 
 
292 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 TEXAS AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE 
 
 Professor J. W. Carson bears to the Michigan Agricultural 
 College the congratulations of the Texas Agricultural and 
 Mechanical College, with the best wishes of its board of directors 
 and faculty. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 293 
 
 TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE 
 
 Tuskc'gee Normal, Agricultural, and Industrial Institute, 
 by its delegate, Professor Charles Walters Green, in charge of 
 practical agriculture, felicitates Michigan Agricultural College 
 on the completion of its half -century of work for the world. 
 
294 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler of the University of California 
 presents a congratulatory letter from Professor E. W. Hilgard 
 representing the College of Agriculture at Berkeley.^ 
 
 I See page 224. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 295 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE HENRY CLAY WHITE 
 
 The first established State University in America ofifers its 
 fraternal and cordial felicitations to the Michigan Agricultural 
 College, the first established agricultural college in America, 
 upon the completion of a half-century of conspicuous and 
 eminent science in kindred endeavors for the moulding of worthy 
 American citizens and the maintenance of worthy American 
 ideals. 
 
296 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 UNIVERSITY OF HALLE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DR. K. STERSTBRUCK, WHO SPOKE, FIRST IN 
 ENGLISH AND THEN IN GERMAN, AS FOLLOWS: 
 
 His Magnificence and the Senate of the University of Halle, 
 in which the agricultural science holds an eminent place and to 
 which Julius Kuhn has devoted all his life and blessed work, 
 has charged me to give Michigan Agricultural College his con- 
 gratulations and those of the university on this festival day. 
 
 Michigan Agricultural College applied itself to experimental 
 science at a time when on this ground even in Europe the very 
 first timid attempts were made in a rather limited way, and by 
 this means it has become as important and typical for the 
 development of agricultural teaching as Halle for Germany. 
 
 Its first president, Hon. Jos. R. Williams, maintained in his 
 opening address that all disciplines being connected with 
 agricultural science in any way or having any importance to it, 
 ought to be cultivated. 
 
 Michigan Agricultural College can boast of having had a 
 great number of learned men well known in the world of science. 
 In all the branches of agricultural and natural science, especially 
 in attacking stock murrains, noxiousnesses in the vegetable 
 kingdom, as to dairy, entomology, bacteriology, cultivation of 
 corn, and horticulture the teachers of Michigan Agricultural 
 College have been particularly successful from the beginning up 
 to our date. By establishing substations, the CoUege has done 
 an elaborate work in transferring scientific results into practice, 
 and has highly contributed to the splendid agriculture of Michi- 
 gan State. 
 
 The University of Halle, the representative of which I have 
 the honor to be, wishes that the Michigan Agricultural College 
 may continue in this brilliant manner developing the agricul- 
 tural science. 
 
 It gives me pleasure to present to you this tabula congratu- 
 latonia^ and my best wishes. 
 
 I See p. 298. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 297 
 
 [After handing the tabula congratulatonia to the President, Dr. Stein- 
 briick continued :] 
 
 Und nun lassen Sie mich in deutscher Sprache meine auf- 
 richtigsten Wiinsche hinzufiigen, dass die innigen Beziehungen, 
 welche zwischen beiden grossen so eng verwandten und be- 
 freundeten Nationen, Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten, 
 sowohl in wirtschaftlicher als auch besonders in wissenschaft- 
 licher Hinsicht, in befreundender Wechselwirkung bestehen, 
 immer inniger warden mochten. Die Wissenschaft kennt 
 keine nationalen Grenzen. Dieselben Aufgaben beschaftigen 
 hunderte der besten Kopfe und Denker diesseits und jenseits 
 des Oceans. Ihre Losung kommt gleichmassig alien Kultur- 
 volkern zu gute. In hohem Mass ist das bei der Landwirtschaft- 
 wissenschaft der Fall. Die Landwirtschaft ist ja von besonderer 
 Bedeutung fur die beiden Lander, da sie in beiden einen hervor- 
 ragenden Platz in der gesammten Volkswirtschaft einnimmt. 
 Auch heute noch hat das Wort Friedrich des Grossen Geltung : 
 
 Die Landwirtschaft ist die erste aller Kiinste. Ohne sie gabe es 
 keine Kaufleute, Dichter und Philosophen. Nur das ist wahrer ReichtUM, 
 was die Erde hervorbringt. ^ 
 
 I And now let me add in the German language my most sincere wishes 
 that there may be ever-increasing stability in those intimate and friendly rela- 
 tions which bind together with reciprocal benefit to science and agriculture, the 
 two great nations so closely allied by social inheritance, Germany and the 
 United States. Science knows no national boundaries. The same problems 
 employ the best minds on both sides of the ocean. The solution of these prob- 
 lems is of equal benefit to all civilized peoples. To a very high degree is this 
 true of agriculture, a science of especial importance to our two coimtries, since 
 it occupies a prominent place in our respective systems of political economy. 
 Today the words of Frederick the Great have as much truth as when he spoke 
 them: 
 
 "The tilling of the soil is the foremost in all arts. Without it there would 
 be no merchants, poets, and philosophers. That alone which the earth brings 
 forth is true wealth." 
 
298 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 TABULA CONGRATULATONIA 
 
 QVOD BONVM FELIX FAVSTVMQVE SIT 
 
 CELEBERRIMO COLLEGIO AGRICVLTVRAE STVDIIS 
 
 DES'lINATO CIVITATIS MICHIGAN TRANSMARINAE 
 
 QVOTQVOT IN CIVITATIBVS FOEDERATIS AMERICAE SEPTENTRIONALIS EX- 
 
 STANT HVIVS GENERIS COLLEGIORVM OMNIVM ANTIQVISSIMO 
 
 OMNIVMQVE EXEMPLO 
 
 CVI COLLEGIO PER DECEM LVSTRORVM SERIEM QVI PRAEFVERVNT VIRI 
 
 APVD OMNES CVLTIORES NATIONES CLARO 
 NOMINE NOTABILES FIDELITER ET STRENVE ID TENVERVNT QVOD EORVM 
 
 PRIMVS VIR HONORATISSIMVS JOSEPHVS 
 R. WILLIAMS IN AVSPICANDIS COLLEGII INITIIS PROCLAMAVERAT OMNES 
 
 DISCIPLINAS SCIENTIASQVE QVAE AD 
 
 STVDIA REI AGRARIAE PROMOVENDA ALIQUO MODO FACERENT HAC QVASI 
 
 DOMESTICA SEDE CONDENDAS SOLLERTIQVE 
 
 INDVSTRIA VELVTI IN VNVM CORPVS CONSOCIANDAS ESSE 
 
 QVO IN COLLEGIO ET A STVDIORVM PRAESIDIBVS ET ABIIS QVI EORVM 
 
 INSTITVTIONE FRVEBANTVR QVID AD 
 
 AVGENDOS AGRORVM PROVENTVS DEFENDENDAQVE PERICVLA 
 
 AGRICOLAE LABOREM INFESTANTIA COMMODE 
 
 ADHIBERI POSSET MEDITANDO EXPERIVNDOQVE QVAERI NVLLO TEMPORE 
 
 DESITVM EST MVLTAQVE DE OPPRIMENDIS 
 PECVDVM PESTILENTIIS DE ARCENDIS EXTINGVENDISQVE ANIMALIBVS 
 
 MINVTIS PLANTARVM EVERSORIBVS DE RE 
 LACTARIA ET FRVMENTARIA PROSPERIVS EXERCENDIS INNVMERISQVE ALUS 
 
 QVAESTIONIBVS FELICISSIME ATQVE 
 SALVBERRIME EXPLORATA SVNT QVORVM COGNITIO STATIONIBVS PER 
 
 TOTAM REGIONEM APTISSIME DISPOSITIS LATE 
 PROPAGATA EFFECIT VT QVICQVID IN LABORATORIO REPERTVM ERAT 
 
 CELERRIME IPSI AGRICOLAE ET PECVARIO 
 PRODESSET MAGNVMQVE INDE INCREMENTVM CAPERET TOTIUS CIVITATIS 
 
 RES RVSTICA 
 
 SCHOLAE VT SCIENTIAE ITA IPSI REI AGRARIAE VSVI CVM OMNI LAVDE 
 
 VBERRIMOQVE FRVCTV INSERVIENTI 
 
 SACRA SEMISAECVLARIA 
 
 DIE XIII MENSIS MAII ANNI MDCCCCVII 
 
 SOLLEMNITER PER AGENDA 
 
 EX ANIMI SENTENTIA GRATVLANTVR 
 
 PRO EIVS SALVTE ET FELICITATE PIA VOTA NVNCVPANT 
 
 FIDEM VOLVNTATEMQVE SVAM TESTANTVR 
 
 VNIVERSITATIS FRIDERICIANAE HALENSIS CVM VITEBERGENSI 
 
 CONSOCIATAE RECTOR ET SENATVS 
 
 CAROLUS ROBERT' 
 
 (SIGILLVM) 
 
 I For translation see next page. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 299 
 
 TRANSLATION OF TABULA CONGRATULATONLV 
 
 Prosperity, happiness, and good auspices to the most celebrated agri- 
 cultural college of the trans-oceanic state of Michigan, in the United States of 
 North America, the oldest among the institutions of its kind and serving as a 
 model to all of them. 
 
 In this college men, whose glorious names are known among all civilized 
 nations, have for ten series of semidecades most faithfully and strenuously 
 sustained the idea expressed by the greatest (first) among them, a man of highest 
 distinctions, Joseph R. Williams, at the inauguration of the institution: namely, 
 that all systems of knowledge and aU sciences, to any degree participating in the 
 promotion of the science of agriculture, in this very way lead to the preservation 
 of the home and to the unity of all skilled industries into a single body. 
 
 The teachers and students of this institution at no time ceased to investi- 
 gate, by way of reasoning and experimentation, problems connected with the 
 increased production of the fields and with the combating of the dangers mena- 
 cing the work of the tiller of the soil. And many problems dealing with the defy- 
 ing of pests upon cattle, with the checking and the extermination of minute 
 animal forms obnoxious to plants, with the management of the dairy and the 
 fertility of the soil, and numberless others have been solved in a most successful 
 and glorious way. 
 
 The results of these investigations are broadly disseminated by the experi- 
 ment stations, which are in a most able manner distributed aU over the country, 
 so that the discoveries made in the laboratories soon become the possession of 
 the tillers of the soil and the breeders of cattle; and thus the agricultural interests 
 of the entire country receive a powerful impetus. 
 
 To the school which in such a glorious way and so fruitfully serves the in- 
 terests of science and practical agriculture we send our heartiest congratulation 
 upon this thirteenth day of May of the year MDCCCCVII (1907) destined 
 for the celebration of the sacred semi-centennial festivals; we proudly pray 
 (offer vows) for the welfare and happiness of the institution and testify our 
 friendship and our best wishes. 
 
 The Rector and Senate 
 
 of the Friedrich Halle-Wittenberg University 
 
 Carolus Robert 
 
300 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MAINE 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT GEO. E. FELLOWS 
 
 The trustees, president, and faculty of the University of 
 Maine present heartiest congratulations to Michigan Agricul- 
 tural College upon fifty years of magnificent work. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 301 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PROFESSOR JACOB REIGHARD 
 
 The University of Michigan begs to extend her congratulations 
 to the Michigan Agricultural College on the completion of 
 fifty years of valuable service, and hopes that the two institutions 
 may ever continue to co-operate in ministering to the prosperity 
 of the state which has so generously nourished them both. 
 
 James B. Angell, President 
 [seal] 
 
 Ann Arbor 
 May 25, 1907 
 
302 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DEAN CHARLES EDWIN BESSEY 
 
 The regents, chancellor, faculty, and students of the Univer- 
 sity of Nebraska send greetings from the Great Plains, and 
 congratulate the people of Michigan upon the great prosperity 
 of their State Agricultural College on this its fiftieth anniversary. 
 
 May 31, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 303 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER 
 
 The University of Rochester, through its delegate, Pro- 
 fessor Francis W. Kelsey, presents felicitations, most cordial 
 congratulations, and heartiest good wishes. 
 
304 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE PRESIDENT MATTHEW HENRY BUCKHAM 
 
 The University of Vermont extends hearty congratulations 
 to the Michigan Agricultural College on the occasion of the 
 celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of its founding, and 
 joins with its alumni and friends in wishing for it a future of 
 great prosperity and growth. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 305 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 
 
 PRESENTED BY DELEGATE DEAN W. A. HENRY 
 
 To the President, the Governing Board, and the Faculty of the 
 Michigan State Agricultural College: 
 The University of Wisconsin extends congratulations to its 
 sister institution on the completion of a half -century of service to 
 the state, and to the cause of agricultural education. Not only 
 in time of estabUshment, but in molding the agricultural 
 thought of the nation, the Michigan State Agricultural College 
 has been the pioneer. May the high ideals which have domi- 
 nated the College in the past lead on to still greater achievement 
 in the future. 
 
 Charles R. Van Hise, President 
 [seal] 
 
 May 28, 1907 
 

 
 t^' exlunis congrdtuiations t o iU s'lsicr "tnstiiuiion 
 Y*ij' on {^(t^corny>(A'wnofa^^atfccp\uvuofscro\cc h 
 \h<i'S\a[<i. , aiib [o toe cause^"*]* aavicutha-a( cc)- 
 iicuiic^ix . J.>ol onlu in tnT)d of ct-lablt^l-jnvnt; 
 kil in moulbina ll)c a^riculturaf tpoiuililo} K)enu- 
 lion, \i)ii. ^itcliiount ^laicStDitnruUuroltftillpgc 1) JS birun 
 tpc pionc«2r. ilX<^M ^h<i bi»lb i<J«i<ii5 U"'nicn haiv Nomi- 
 nal <!.^ H)c OolTcJC in Hv past I'li-ai onto stilf orcuter 
 ocbit^ui^n^kJiil intr)ir future. 
 
 iHai2, i'n-'cnb rf^fitli.lSOi" 
 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHIC FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF THE GREETINGS 
 FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 
 
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES 
 
 RECEIVED BY THE COMMITTEE 
 
 FROM OTHER INSTITUTIONS AND LEARNED 
 SOCIETIES 
 
SEMI-CENTENNL\L CELEBRATION 309 
 
 ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY 
 
 Dear Sir : The Senatus Academicus of this university desires 
 to return its cordial thanks to the President and Board of Control 
 of Michigan Agricultural College for the courteous invitation 
 to be represented at the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary 
 of the institution. Unfortunately it has not been found pos- 
 sible to name a delegate to be present on the occasion, as the pro- 
 fessors are now fully occupied with the Summer Session work. 
 
 The Senatus sends its hearty congratulations to your presi- 
 dent and board on the auspicious anniversary which is about 
 to be celebrated, together with its cordial good wishes for the 
 future prosperity of the college. 
 
 I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 Donaldson Rose Thom, Secretary 
 
 Aberdeen 
 May I, 1907 
 
3IO MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE 
 
 My dear Sir: I regret very sincerely to say that our Com- 
 mencement coincides exactly with your Semi-Centennial Cele- 
 bration, and that it will, therefore, be impossible to have a 
 delegate from our institution in attendance. Your institution, 
 I beUeve, is the oldest agricultural college on the land grant in 
 the United States. Our institution is the oldest separate land- 
 grant college in the South, having been established in 1872. 
 We send you cordial greetings and we wish you long continuation 
 of the career of prosperity and usefulness that has marked your 
 institution. 
 
 I am very sincerely yours, 
 
 Chas. C. Thach, President 
 
 Attbtjrn, Ala. 
 May 15, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 311 
 
 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS 
 
 To the President and Board of Control, Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 
 Gentlemen: This society is in receipt of your courteous 
 request that it be represented at the celebration of the Fiftieth 
 Anniversary of your institution, May 28 to 31, 1907. 
 
 I am instructed by the Board of Direction of this society to 
 thank you for this invitation, which the society would be glad to 
 avail itself of, it if were not so difficult to find a representative 
 who would be able to be present on the occasion. 
 
 I am directed by the board to express the congratulations of 
 this society on the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of your institu- 
 tion, and a cordial hope for its continued success. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 Chas. Warren Hunt, Secretary 
 New York City 
 March 6, 1907 
 
312 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY 
 
 To the President and Board of Control, Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 
 Sirs: I am directed to acknowledge with thanks the receipt 
 of your invitation requesting that the Calcutta University may 
 be represented at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary 
 of the Michigan Agricultural College from May 28 to 31, 1907, 
 and to state in reply that the Hon'ble the Vice-Chancellor 
 and Syndicate regret that they are not in a position to avail 
 themselves of the invitation. 
 
 I have the honor to be, Sirs, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 G. Thibaut, Registrar 
 Senate House 
 April 27, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 313 
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 To the President of Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 Dear Sir: I write to express our great regret that it seems 
 impossible for us to make arrangements for a delegate from 
 Columbia University at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Michigan 
 Agricultural College. The date falls at a time when our officers 
 of instruction are under unusual pressure incident to the closing 
 of the academic year. We wish to present to the College 
 through you our heartiest congratulations upon the anniversary 
 and our warm wishes for the continued success of the institution. 
 I have the honor to be, Sir, 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 F. P. Keppel, Secretary 
 New Yokk City 
 March 6, 1907 
 
314 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 DELAWARE COLLEGE 
 
 To the President and Board of Control, Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 
 At their last meeting our faculty directed me to express their 
 regret at their probable inability to have our college represented 
 at the celebration of your Fiftieth Anniversary. They further 
 directed me to express their appreciation of your kind invitation 
 and their thanks for the same. 
 
 Wishing you a very satisfactory occasion, I am, with regards, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Frederic H. Robinson, Secretary 
 
 Newark, Delaware 
 March 29, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 315 
 
 DEPAUW UNIVERSITY 
 
 My dear Sir : I have your invitation to the Commencement 
 and anniversary exercises to be held at Michigan Agricultural 
 College. On behalf of the faculty and trustees permit me to 
 thank you for the kind courtesy of the invitation and to express 
 our warmest good wishes and congratulations. I only wish it 
 were possible for some of us to be there. But our own Com- 
 mencement and Seventieth Anniversary wiU be held at the same 
 time. 
 
 And I remain, yours ever, 
 
 Edwin H. Hughes, President 
 
 Greencastle, Ind. 
 May 20, 1907 
 
3i6 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 FRANKLIN INSTITUTE 
 
 To the Trustees and Faculty of The Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 Gentlemen: I have pleasure in transmitting herewith an 
 extract from the minutes of the stated meeting of The Franklin 
 Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, for the Promotion of the 
 Mechanic Arts, held Wednesday, May 15, 1907. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 Wm. H. Wahl, Secretary 
 
 [Extract from the Franklin Institute Minutes.] 
 The president thereupon presented an invitation from the Michigan 
 Agricultural College, asking the participation of the Franklin Institute in 
 the commemorative exercises of the Fiftieth Anniversary of that institution. 
 The secretary was directed to prepare and transmit a suitable acknowledg- 
 ment of the invitation and to express the felicitations and best wishes of the 
 Franklin Institute. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 May 21, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 317 
 
 HUNGARY DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 [cablegram] 
 Michigan Agricultural College^ Lansings Michigan: 
 
 Most sincere congratulations, wishing the future prosperity 
 of the College. 
 
 Darangi I. Royal 
 
 Hungarian Minister of Agriculture 
 
 Budapest 
 
3i8 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
 Dear Sir: I regret very much that I have not been able to 
 find anyone who can serve as delegate of this university at your 
 coming celebration. The time is most unfortunate for us, as 
 we shall then be engaged in our final examinations, and the 
 presence of every member of the staff is necessary. I intended 
 to see whether I could not find someone elsewhere who could 
 properly represent us, but for one reason and another I have 
 not been successful in this, and it is now too late. 
 
 Be assured of the hearty good-will of the Johns Hopkins 
 University toward the Michigan Agricultural College, and 
 accept our hearty congratulations upon the completion of your 
 first half-century. Under other conditions we should unques- 
 tionably have taken great pleasure in sending a representative 
 to express more fully and more satisfactorily our high regard. 
 
 I am, yours very respectfully, 
 
 Ira Remsen, President 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 May 13, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 319 
 
 KAISERLICH DEUTSCHES KONSULAT 
 
 To the President of Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 Dear Sir: I am directed by the Imperial Foreign Office to 
 transmit to you and through you to the Board of Control of 
 Michigan Agricultural College the best thanks of His Excellency 
 the Royal Prussian Minister of Agriculture at Berlin for the 
 kind invitation you tendered the Department of Agriculture, 
 and his regrets that the plans heretofore laid out for the period 
 in question did not permit the sending of a special representative 
 of His Excellency to participate in the celebration of the Fiftieth 
 Anniversary of your institution. 
 
 I hear with interest that you had the kindness to invite Mr. 
 Nicola Kaumanns attached as agricultural attach^ to the United 
 States to the consulate at Chicago. Through him I will hear 
 about the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Michigan 
 Agricultural College. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very respectfully, 
 
 W. Wever 
 
 Imperial German Consul-General 
 Chicago 
 May 22, 1907 
 
320 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 KONIGLICHE UNIVERSITAT 
 
 An den Herrn Prdsidenten des Michigan- Agricultural-College: 
 Namens imserer Universitat spreche ich den verbindlichsten 
 Dank aus f iir die freundliche Einladung zu der Jubelfeier Ihrer 
 Anstalt. Zu unserem Bedauem sind wir nicht in der Lage, 
 einen Vertreter zu entsenden, weil die Feier in unser Semester 
 faUt. 
 
 Hochachtungsvoll und ergebenst, 
 
 Der Rektor 
 
 V. Sybel^ 
 Marburg 
 den 9. Marz 1907 
 
 I TBtE ROYAL TTNIVERSITY 
 To tlie President of the Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 In the name of the University, I most respectfully tender thanks for the 
 kind invitation to the jubilee celebration of your College. To our great regret, 
 we are not in a position to send a delegate, since the celebration comes in the midst 
 of our semester. 
 
 Most respectfully yours 
 The Rector 
 
 VON Sybel 
 Marburg 
 March 9, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 321 
 
 LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY 
 
 Dear Sir: It was President Jordan's hope that some one of 
 our professors going East might be able to combine a visit to 
 Lansing with his other engagements and serve as our delegate 
 to the Semi-Centennial Celebration of your College, the univer- 
 sity having no provision by which the expenses of a delegate 
 could be paid. Dr. Jordan has himself gone to Australia. I 
 regret that it has not been possible for us to name a delegate 
 under the circumstances. In this event it was President 
 Jordan's wish that I should express to the Agricultural College 
 of Michigan the good-will of Stanford University and her hearty 
 congratulations on the completion of a half-century of splendid 
 work in the cause of education. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 G. A. Clark, Secretary 
 Stanford University, Cal. 
 May 15, 1907 
 
322 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 K. LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAT 
 
 An das Michigan AgrikuUural College: 
 
 Sie waren so freundlich unsere Universitat zur Feier des 
 50-jahrigen Bestehens Ihres College einzuladen. Da die Feier 
 mitten in das Semester fallt, so ist es uns nicht moglich einen 
 Vertreter hinzu abzuordnen. Wir unterlassen aber nicht, auf 
 schriftlichem Wege Ihnen misere herzlichsten Wiinsche zum 
 Ausdrucke zu bringen. 
 
 Der akademische Senat' 
 
 MtJNCHEN 
 
 am 12. Marz 1907 
 
 IKING LUDWIG-MAXIMTLIAN'S XJNIVERSITY 
 
 To the Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 You had the kindness to invite our university to participate in the cele- 
 bration of the 50th Anniversary of your College. As the celebration occurs 
 in the midst of our semester, we find it impossible for us to send a representative. 
 However, we do not fail to express by means of writing our heartiest wishes for 
 the welfare of your institution. 
 
 The Academic Senate 
 
 Munich March 12, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 323 
 
 McGILL UNIVERSITY 
 
 Dear Sir : I have been requested by the University of Cam- 
 bridge to act as its representative at the Semi- Centennial Cele- 
 bration of the Michigan Agricultural College and had fully 
 intended to be present. My work, however, owing to the 
 destruction of our buildings by fire, has been much increased, so 
 that I fear I shall thus be unable to convey personally a message 
 from the university which I have the honor to represent. 
 
 As the letter from the vice-chancellor will have made known 
 to you, the University of Cambridge desires to present its con- 
 gratulations and earnest wishes for the continued prosperity of 
 your institution, which is now celebrating the conclusion of so 
 long a period of usefulness. 
 
 The importance of the scientific study of agriculture is 
 being constantly more widely recognized. The University of 
 Cambridge has not been slow to take up this matter, and a 
 Department of Agriculture has been in existence there for some 
 years. The work of this department and the importance of 
 the subject have been referred to by His Majesty King Edward 
 in the following words, which I may be allowed to quote: 
 
 I am very glad to know of the educational work in connection with the 
 great industry of agriculture which you have undertaken. In common 
 with most branches of industry, agriculture has in modern times come to 
 depend for its success and extension upon the unremitting application to it 
 of the results of scientific investigation. No greater service can be rendered 
 to this ancient industry than to furnish it with the means of research and 
 instruction, which are essential in order that labor may be directed in 
 profitable channels. 
 
 With my personal congratulations, and again regretting my 
 inabihty to be present, I remain, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry T. Bovey 
 
 Montreal 
 May 20, 1907 
 
324 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 My dear Sir: I have your invitation to attend the Fiftieth 
 Anniversary of the Michigan Agricultural College, to be held 
 May 28 to 31, 1907, at Lansing, Mich. 
 
 I regret exceedingly that the celebration, taking place on the 
 dates it does, precludes my giving myself the pleasure of attend- 
 ing either in person or by representative, as at this season we are 
 in the midst of our final examinations, and this year, in addition 
 to the final examination work, we will encamp with our Cadet 
 Battalion at Jamestown about or near this time, and many of our 
 staff will be with us for this encampment. 
 
 I regret exceedingly these conditions, as it would be a great 
 gratification to me to meet with you, and rejoice with you in the 
 successes you have achieved in the past and the brilliant promises 
 for your institution for the future. 
 
 With much respect and esteem, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 R. W. Silvester, President 
 
 College Park, Md. 
 February 23, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 325 
 
 MICHIGAN PIONEER AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Dear Sir: We take pleasure in offering you our heartiest 
 congratulations on the interesting program outlined for your 
 Semi- Centennial, and on the wisdom shown in planning for 
 such an important and historical occasion. The M. A. C. has 
 proven a kindergarten for the colleges of the United States, and 
 if her pupils come home with the titles and honor the Alma 
 Mater has enabled them to win, it should make you all very 
 proud and happy. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Henry R. Pattengill, Secretary 
 
 Lansing 
 May 14, 1907 
 
326 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 
 
 My dear Sir: I extremely regret to say that May is a month 
 when my colleagues and I are all necessarily so absorbed in 
 duties connected with the closing of the academic year that it 
 will not be possible for our faculty to be represented at your 
 Semi- Centennial Celebration. I am sure that I am speaking 
 the feelings of my colleagues in extending Princeton's warmest 
 congratulations to Michigan Agricultural College, as well as her 
 best wishes for its continued prosperity and advance. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 WooDROw Wilson, President 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 May 13, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 327 
 
 RHODESIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your invita- 
 tion to be present at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary 
 of the institution of your College, for which I beg you to accept 
 my best thanks. 
 
 It would have indeed been a great pleasure to us to have been 
 represented at this celebration, but I regret that circumstances 
 do not permit us to send a representative. 
 
 I have the honor to be, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 Wefe O. Honey 
 
 Secretary for Agriculture 
 Salisbury 
 April 26, 1907 
 
328 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 Dear Sir : I am desired by the president and Council of the 
 Royal Society to express their best thanks for the invitation 
 with which they have been honoured by the president and Board 
 of Control of Michigan Agricultural College to be represented 
 at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the institution. They regret to be 
 unable to accept the invitation, but they send their good wishes 
 for the complete success of the celebration and for the continued 
 prosperity of the College. 
 
 I beg leave to remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 Francis Darwin, Foreign Secretary 
 BtmLiNGTON House, London W. 
 March i8, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 329 
 
 TRANSVAAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 The President and Board 0} Control, Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 
 Gentlemen: On behalf of this department, I beg to offer 
 to you our most sincere thanks for the honour you have done the 
 department in inviting it to unite with you in the celebration of 
 the Fiftieth Anniversary of the College. 
 
 Unfortunately, it is a far cry from the Transvaal to Michigan, 
 and owing to the distance, and to the fact that the leading mem- 
 bers of our staff are so fully engaged at the present time, it is 
 impossible for us to accept the invitation, much as we should 
 like to do so. 
 
 Will you therefore kindly accept our apologies for non- 
 attendance ? 
 
 Your College is famed throughout the world, both for its 
 pioneer work in the cause of agricultural education and re- 
 search, and for the perfection to which it has attained. It has 
 been a source of inspiration and guidance to similar institutions 
 in many countries, and the influence which it has exercised upon 
 agriculture is widespread and profound. 
 
 Most heartily do we congratulate you upon the occasion 
 which you are celebrating, and may the future of your College 
 be as useful and distinguished as its past. 
 
 I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 Pretoria 
 April 6, 1907 
 
 M. WURIT 
 
 Director of Agriculture 
 
330 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM 
 
 To the President and Board of Control of Michigan Agricultural 
 College, Lansing, Michigan: 
 
 Gentlemen: On behalf of the Senate of the University of 
 Amsterdam I beg to tender you our best thanks for your kind 
 invitation extended to our university to be represented at the 
 celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the institution. Much 
 to my regret I have to inform you that not one of the members of 
 the Senate is in a position to avail himself of your invitation, and 
 to convey to you our fraternal greetings and our best wishes on 
 this auspicious occasion. We sincerely hope that the past half- 
 century may prove to be the earnest of a glorious future, and 
 that Michigan Agricultural College may continue to be a power- 
 ful factor in the development of agriculture in the United States 
 of America. 
 
 With the cordial greetings of the University of Amsterdam 
 to your College, I have the honour to be, yours faithfully, 
 
 J. ROTGANS 
 
 Rector Magnificus of the University of Amsterdam 
 
 Amsterdam 
 April 27, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 331 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 
 
 The president and Board of Regents of the University of 
 
 Arizona regret that distance and the particular date will prevent 
 
 their representation at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary 
 
 of Michigan Agricultural College. They beg leave to offer their 
 
 most cordial f ehcitations upon the completion of this period of 
 
 honorable and effective service. 
 
 Tucson, Arizona 
 March 9, 1907 
 
332 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF BOMBAY 
 
 To the President and Board of Control, Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 
 Gentlemen : I am directed by the Syndicate to convey their 
 thanks to you for your invitation to this university to be repre- 
 sented at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Michigan 
 Agricultural College and to express regret that it is impossible 
 to send a representative. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 Bombay 
 April 25, 1907 
 
 Fardunji M. Dastur 
 
 University Registrar 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 333 
 
 UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES 
 
 A Monsieur le President et d, Messieurs les Membres de la com- 
 mission administrative du Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 Messieurs: J'ai I'honneur de vous accuser reception de 
 rinvitation que vous avez bien voulu nous adresser de nous 
 faire representer aux f^tes de la celebration du cinquantieme 
 anniversaire de votre college. Nous vous en sommes tres 
 reconnaissants, mais la date de cette celebration tombant dans 
 la p^riode de nos cours, il est impossible que I'un de nos pro- 
 fesseurs s'absente k cette ^poque. Nous devons nous borner 
 ^ former des voeux pour la duree et la prosperite de votre institu- 
 tion. 
 
 Veuillez agr^er, Messieurs, I'assurance de nos sentiments les 
 
 plus distingues. 
 
 Le secretaire de I'universite 
 
 A. Lavachery^ 
 
 Bruxelles 
 le 2 Mars 1907 
 
 iTJNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS 
 
 To the President and the Members 0} the Administration Committee of the Mich- 
 igan Agricultural College: 
 
 Gentlemen : I have the honor of acknowledging the receipt of the invita- 
 tion to have our institution represented at the Semi-Centennial Celebration of 
 your College. We appreciate this honor very highly, but since the date of this 
 celebration comes while our school is still in session it is impossible for any 
 of our professors to leave at that time. We must content ourselves with extend- 
 ing our best wishes for the continued prosperity of your institution. 
 Be assured of our most friendly regard and esteem, 
 
 The Secretary of the University 
 A. Lavachery 
 Brussels 
 March 2, 1907 
 
334 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 
 
 Sir: I have the honor and pleasure to inform you that, in 
 response to your request that the University of Cambridge may 
 be represented on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the 
 Michigan Agricultural College, Dr. Henry Taylor Bovey, 
 LL.D., D.C.L., M.Inst.C.E., F.R.S., Honorary Fellow of 
 Queen's College, Cambridge, Dean of the Faculty of Science 
 of the McGill University, has been appointed by the University 
 of Cambridge as its representative and has consented to act. 
 
 I have requested Dr. Bovey to convey the hearty congratula- 
 tions of the university to yourself and the Board of Control on 
 the very interesting occasion of the Jubilee of the institution 
 and to express to you the earnest wish of the university that your 
 College may continue in all prosperity to perform the excellent 
 work for which it is justly famed. 
 
 I am. Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 E. S. Roberts, Vice-Chancellor 
 
 GONVILLE AND CaiUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND 
 April 15, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 335 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 
 
 Dear Sir: I beg to extend on behalf of the University of 
 Chicago cordial congratulations to the Michigan Agricultural 
 College on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the institu- 
 tion. The work of our agricultural colleges is among the most 
 important undertaken by the educational agencies of this coun- 
 try. While our own interests lie along other lines, at the same 
 time we are deeply concerned in all that affects the educational 
 welfare of our people. 
 
 Trusting that the College will continue to prosper and to 
 expand its beneficent work, I am, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Harry Pratt Judson 
 
 May 25, 1907 
 
TfZ'^ MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CHRISTIANIA 
 
 [cablegram] 
 Agricultural College^ Lansing, Mich.: 
 Greeting and Congratulations. 
 
 University of Christiania 
 
 Kristiania 
 May 28, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 337 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 
 
 The president and the faculties of the University of Cincinnati 
 regret very much to find that it will not be possible to send a 
 representative to the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Michi- 
 gan Agricultural College, as the commencement of the university 
 occurs at the same time. They wish again to send sincere 
 felicitations and to express hearty good wishes for the future 
 welfare of the College. 
 
 May 24, 1907 
 
338 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO 
 
 Dear Sir: The University of Colorado acknowledges the 
 formal invitation to be present at the Semi- Centennial Cele- 
 bration of the Michigan Agricultural College. We regret that 
 the distance and the demands of approaching Commencement 
 week will prevent our sending a delegate on that occasion. The 
 regents and the faculties extend cordial greeting and congratula- 
 tions on the growth and importance of the Michigan Agricultural 
 College. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 James H. Baker, President 
 Boulder, Colo. 
 May 15, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 339 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW 
 
 To the President of Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 Sir: The University of Glasgow was gratified at receiving an 
 invitation to send a representative to the celebration in the end 
 of the present month of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Michigan 
 Agricultural College. The date falls in the middle of our sum- 
 mer session, and hence our professor of botany, who is of course 
 the most interested among us in your work, was unable to cross 
 the Atlantic. The university has the power of granting a 
 degree in agriculture through the co-operation of the West of 
 Scotland Agriculture College, and had the professor of agri- 
 culture in that institution been in a position to undertake the 
 duty the university would gladly have sent him as a representa- 
 tive. The Senate must therefore content themselves with send- 
 ing a cordial message of congratulation on the attainment of 
 your Jubilee and an expression of their warmest wishes for your 
 continued prosperity. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 
 
 William Stewart 
 
 Clerk 0} Senate 
 Glasgow 
 May 8, 1907 
 
340 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 
 
 President J. L. Snyder, Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 My dear President Snyder : I regret to say that it is not 
 likely that the University of Kansas will be able to send a repre- 
 sentative to the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Michi- 
 gan Agricultural College. I wish, therefore, on behalf of the 
 regents and faculties of this university to express to you our 
 hearty congratulations upon the event and our hope for a long 
 continuance of your distinguished work. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Frank Strong 
 
 Chancellor and President of the Board 0} Regents 
 
 Lawrence, Kan. 
 March 26, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 341 
 
 UNIVERSITAT LEIPZIG 
 
 An the Committee on Semi-Centennial Celebration 0} the Michi- 
 gan Agricultural College: 
 
 Fiir die an die Universitat Leipzig ergangene freundliche 
 Einladung zur Teilnahme an der 50-jahrigen Stiftungsfeier des 
 Michigan Agricultural College spreche ich dem geehrten Com- 
 mittee on Semi-Centennial Celebration verbindlichsten Dank 
 aus. 
 
 Bei der Kiirze des Sommer-Semesters wird es aber fiir keinen 
 der Professoren hier zu ermoglichen seui, als Delegierter zu der 
 Festfeier personlich zu erscheinen. Es verfehlt jedoch der 
 unterzeichnete Rector nicht, Namens der Universitat Leipzig 
 dem geehrten Michigan Agricultural College zur Jubelfeier die 
 herzlichsten Gliickwiinsche hierdurch auszusprechen. Moge 
 es bei dem grossen Ruf e, dessen es sich nicht nur in praktischen, 
 sondern auch in landwirtschaftlich wissenschaftHchen Kreisen 
 zu erfreuen hat, in aller Zukunft bliihen und gedeihen. 
 
 Der Rector der Universitat Leipzig 
 Dr. Curschmann' 
 
 Leipzig 
 
 am 12. Marz 1907 
 
 I THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPZIG 
 
 To the Committee on Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Michigan Agricultural 
 
 College: 
 
 For the invitation to the University of Leipzig to participate in the celebra- 
 tion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Michigan Agricultural College I wish to 
 express to the honored Committee on Semi-Centennial Celebration our most 
 hearty thanks. 
 
 On account of the short duration of the summer semester it will be impos- 
 sible for any of the professors to be present in person as delegates on this occasion. 
 However, the undersigned Rector takes pleasure in extending herewith in the 
 name of the University of Leipzig the most cordial congratulations to the honored 
 Michigan Agricultural College on its Jubilee. May it continue to thrive and 
 flourish, forever maintaining the glorious reputation it has enjoyed and is 
 justly enjoying among practical, as well as scientific agriculturists. 
 
 The Rector of the University of Leipzig 
 
 Dr. Curschmann 
 Leipzig, March 12, 1907 
 
342 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE 
 
 The President^ Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 Sir: I have the honour on behalf of the University of Mel- 
 bourne to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of the invitation 
 to be represented at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary 
 of the Michigan Agricultural College. 
 
 I am directed by the Council to convey to you its congratula- 
 tions on the occasion of the Jubilee of the College and to express 
 its regret that it is unable to appoint a representative to be 
 present at the celebration. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 W. E. Cornwall, Registrar 
 
 May 3, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 343 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA 
 
 President of the Board of Control, Michigan Agricultural College: 
 Dear Sir: I write on behalf of the State University of North 
 Dakota to express our regret that it will be impracticable for the 
 university to be represented by a delegate on the occasion of the 
 Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the Michigan State 
 Agricultural College. Previous engagements make it impos- 
 sible for me to be present on that occasion. I am instructed by 
 the faculty, however, to send most cordial greetings and con- 
 gratulations upon the very honorable record of the Michigan 
 State Agricultural College during the past half-century. Its 
 contribution to the wealth and well-being of the state of Michigan 
 as well as to the great cause of agricultural improvement through- 
 out the country is incalculable. It is our hope that the brilliant 
 achievements of the last half-century are but the harbinger of a 
 still more brilliant career to be achieved in the next half -century. 
 With renewed greetings and congratulations, I have the 
 honor to remain, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Webster Merrifield, President 
 
 University, N. D. 
 April 6, 1907 
 
344 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE PARIS 
 
 Monsieur le President: 
 
 J'ai communique au Conseil de I'Universite de Paris I'invita- 
 tion que vous avez bien voulu adresser a I'Universite de se faire 
 representer aux fetes du 5oeme anniversaire de la fondation du 
 College d'Agriculture de Michigan, qui auront lieu les 28, 29 
 et 30 mai prochain. 
 
 J'ai le regret de vous informer qu'a cette 6poque de I'ann^e 
 oil s'achevent les cours, et oil s'ouvre la p^riode des examens, il 
 ne sera pas possible k I'Universite de r^pondre "k votre voeu. 
 
 Mais en son nom comme au mien, j'ai I'honneur de vous 
 adresser, avec nos remerciements pour votre invitation, I'expres- 
 sion de nos voeux les plus empresses pour la prosperity du Col- 
 lege d'Agriculture de Michigan. 
 
 Veuillez agreer. Monsieur le President, I'assurance de ma 
 haute consideration. 
 
 Le Vice-Recteur 
 President du Conseil de V Universite de Paris' 
 Paris 
 le 17 avril 1907 
 
 iTHE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS 
 
 Mr. President: 
 
 I have communicated to the Council of the University of Paris your kind 
 invitation addressed to the university to participate in the celebration of the 
 Fiftieth Anniversary of the Michigan College of Agriculture taking place on the 
 28th, 29th, and 30th days of next May. 
 
 I regret to inform you that at this time of the year, when the regular work 
 of the university has just been completed and the examinations are about to 
 commence, it would be impossible for us to respond to your desire. 
 
 But in the name of the university, as well as my own, I have the honor to 
 render you our thanks for your invitation and to express our most earnest wishes 
 for the welfare of the Michigan College of Agriculture. 
 
 Mr. President, accept the assurance of my highest regards. 
 
 Vice-Rector 
 
 President of the council 0} the University of Paris 
 Paris, April 17, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 345 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO 
 
 [cablegram] 
 Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich.: 
 Cordial Congratulations. 
 
 University Tokio 
 
 TOKIO 
 
 May 28, 1907 
 
346 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT 
 
 To the President and Board of Control of Michigan Agricultural 
 College: 
 The Senate of the University of Utrecht have the honor to 
 acknowledge with thanks the invitation of the president and 
 Board of Control of Michigan Agricultural College, to be repre- 
 sented at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the 
 institution on May 28 to 31, 1907. They regret not having an 
 opportunity to appoint delegates who might orally give expres- 
 sion to their admiration for your illustrious College, and request 
 that the cordial congratulations of the University of Utrecht be 
 graciously accepted from this address. 
 
 The Secretary of the Senate 
 W. H. Julius 
 
 Utrecht 
 March 15, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 347 
 
 UNIVERSITAT WIEN 
 
 An das Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 Das Michigan Agricultural College hat der k. k. Universitat 
 Wien eine Einladung zu der in der Zeit vom 28. bis 31. Mai 1907 
 stattfindenden 50-Jahrfeier ubermittelt. 
 
 Ich beehre mich, namens der Wiener Universitat hierf iir den 
 warmsten Dank auszusprechen und meinem Bedauern dariiber 
 Ausdruck zu geben, dass die Entsendung eines Vertreters gerade 
 um diese Zeit nicht moglich ist, weil der Unterrichtsbetrieb an 
 der Universitat und die dort stattfindenden Priifungen eine 
 langere Entfernung von Mitgliedern des Lehrkorpers imtunlich 
 erscheinen lassen. 
 
 Es sei mir gestattet, dem loblichen Michigan Agricultural 
 College auf diesem Wege die Gliickwunsche der k. k. Universitat 
 Wien zu iibermitteln. 
 
 Der Rektor der k. k. Universitat^ 
 
 Wien 
 am 24. April 1907 
 
 ^UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA 
 To the Michigan Agricultural College: 
 
 The Michigan Agricultural College extended its invitation to the K. K. 
 University of Vienna to participate in the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary 
 of the institution, taking place between the 28th and 31st days of May, 1907. 
 
 I have the honor to express in the name of the University of Vienna our 
 heartiest thanks for your kindness and, at the same time, regret to say that we 
 find it impossible for us to send a representative at that time, for the regtilar 
 work of the University as well as the examinations taking place there at the time 
 mentioned, do not permit the prolonged absence of any member of the faculty. 
 
 Permit me to extend to the worthy Michigan Agricultural College the 
 congratulations of the K. K. University of Vienna. 
 
 Rector of the K. K. UNrvERsrry 
 
 Vienna, .\pril 24, 1907 
 
348 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 WESTERN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 The Chancellor and Faculty of the Western University of 
 Pennsylvania gratefully acknowledge receipt of the invitation of 
 the President and the Board of Control of Michigan Agricul- 
 tural College to be represented at the celebration of the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the institution, May 28-31, 1907, and very greatly 
 regret that the near approach of Commencement will prevent 
 representation on that occasion. They wish, however, to con- 
 gratulate the Michigan Agricultural College upon attaining to 
 the mature age of fifty years, and to wish the College a continua- 
 tion of its great prosperity and splendid usefulness during the 
 next half -century. This expression is the more earnest because 
 Pittsburgh has given to the College its present able executive 
 and more recently the head of its English Department. 
 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 March 12, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 349 
 
 In addition to the greetings printed in full, felicitations were 
 received from the following institutions: 
 
 Adelphi College, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa. 
 
 Antioch College, Yellow Springs, O. 
 
 Bates College, Lewiston, Maine 
 
 Beaver College and Musical Institute, Beaver, Pa. 
 
 Beloit College, Beloit, Wis. 
 
 Boston University, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 
 
 Carleton College, Northfield, Minn. 
 
 Carthage College, Carthage, III. 
 
 Central Wesleyan College, Warrenton, Mo. 
 
 Cheshire Swine Breeder's Association, Freeville, N. Y. 
 
 Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y. 
 
 Denison University, Granville, Ohio 
 
 Department of Agriculture, Victoria, Melbourne 
 
 Detroit College, Detroit, Mich. 
 
 Eureka College, Eureka, 111. 
 
 Georgia School of Technology, Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio 
 
 Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, 111. 
 
 Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 
 
 Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Ind. 
 
 Occidental College, Los Angeles, California 
 
 Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania College for Women, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
 Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 Roanoke College, Salem, Va. 
 
 Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Ind. 
 
 RoTHAMSTED EXPERIMENTAL STATION, Harpendcu, England 
 
 Smith College, Northampton, Mass. 
 
 Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 Thomas S. Clarkson Memorial School of Technology, Potsdam, 
 
 N. Y. 
 Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland 
 University of Illinois, Urbana, 111. 
 University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 
 
350 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N. M. 
 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. 
 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 
 University of Sydney, Australia 
 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
 Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. 
 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 
 Wheaton College, Wheaton, 111. 
 The Woman's College, Baltimore, Md. 
 Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass. 
 Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 
 
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES 
 
 RECEIVED BY THE COMMITTEE 
 
 FROM INDIVIDUALS 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 353 
 
 FROM SARAH M. ABBOT 
 
 Widow of Theophilus C. Abbot, Professor in this College, 1858-92, and 
 President, 1862-84 
 
 President Snyder: 
 
 Dear Sir: It is with exceeding regret that I must decline the 
 invitation to be present at the Fiftieth Anniversary of Michigan 
 Agricultural College. Nothing could give me greater pleasure 
 than to meet once more the old students and other friends who 
 will be there, but the infirmities of old age do not permit me to 
 take the long journey. 
 
 With best wishes for the continued prosperity of the College 
 in which I shall ever be interested, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Sarah M. Abbot 
 
 San Gabriel 
 May 17, 1907 
 
354 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 FROM ROBERT GIBBONS 
 
 For many years Editor of the Michigan Farmer 
 
 President J, L. Snyder, Michigan Agricultural College, Mich.: 
 
 Dear Mr. President: Pardon my neglect to acknowledge 
 the receipt of your very artistic invitation to attend the Semi- 
 centennial of Michigan Agricultural College. I can assure 
 you the compliment is highly appreciated, and I only waited to 
 see whether or not I could possibly be present before replying. 
 It is with great regret I find I will not be able to attend. Thurs- 
 day is Memorial Day, and I could not put off meeting with the 
 old comrades yet able to answer roll-call, but maybe for the last 
 time. They are dropping fast, now, and the few left in Detroit 
 Post 384. regard the loss of a familiar face as a calamity. 
 
 But I am getting too reminiscent — a sign probably that Dr. 
 Osier should be on my track and cut me off as a cumberer of the 
 earth. 
 
 But, Mr. President, let me say that the Michigan Agricultural 
 College is the Plymouth Rock of American agriculture, and as 
 inspiring in its history as that famous rock has been in the history 
 of free government. Its pioneers had as arduous a task before 
 them as the Pilgrim Fathers, and did their duty as they saw it, 
 as faithfully as the Puritans. Long after we have passed into 
 oblivion the agricultural colleges of the United States will be 
 the beacon lights along the stream of progress which will warn 
 voyagers from the rocks of ignorance and prejudice, and guide 
 them into the harbors of success and advancement. Every 
 patriot who prizes the well-being of his country should contribute 
 by voice and work for their fuller development to meet the 
 enlarged and onerous duties they will be compelled to assume. 
 
 This is not written in eulogy, but as a statement of facts that 
 will force themselves upon the minds of all who have studied 
 their history. I have had opportunities during the past forty 
 years to know the men who have managed M. A. C.'s affairs 
 and taught its students, and have seen the results of their teach- 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 355 
 
 ings exemplified on the farms of the state. It is an inspiring 
 record, and one that will be more greatly honored a century 
 hence than the present generation can realize. 
 
 Let us all hope, Mr. President, that future generations will 
 be as faithfully served by the faculty and managers of agricul- 
 tural colleges all over the land as the present ones, and there will 
 be no fear that the agriculturaHst will not develop with his 
 opportunities, and become more of a factor in the industrial 
 progress of the Union than he is now. 
 
 Sincerely beUeviug that I have not overstated, or even ap- 
 proached the magnitude of the services rendered by the farmers' 
 colleges in the Union, I need not repeat that I regard them as 
 worthy of all praise as the best examples of the true dignity of 
 labor that is honestly performed and as exemphfying its great 
 value m building up the character of American Citizens. 
 
 All honor, therefore, to the M. A. C, the Plymouth Rock of 
 American agriculture, whose teachings developed pioneers able 
 to make plain the great truths of Nature and their relation to the 
 highest development of modern agriculture. To yourself, Mr. 
 President, and your able assistants and advisers, I feel it only 
 justice that I, who know what has been accomplished, should 
 bear testimony to their unselfish and patriotic services in advanc- 
 ing and developing the agriculture of the state. 
 
 This is not for the public, but to make clear to yourself and 
 every member of the faculty how much I appreciate their 
 services. ^ 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 RoBT. Gibbons 
 
 Detroit, Mich. 
 May 28, 1907 
 
 I Permission was later given for the publication of this letter. — Editor. 
 
356 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 FROM DOCTOR EDWARD EVERETT HALE 
 
 My dear Sir: I am one of the few people who remember 
 with interest the estabhshment of the Agricultural College. 
 I have followed its honorable history with pride and pleasure. 
 I am honored and gratified by your invitation. But I am sorry to 
 say that I have already made appointments for that week which 
 compel me to decline attempting the service which you propose. 
 
 I told Senator Burrows that I hoped I could arrange to come. 
 But this proves to be impossible. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 Edw. E. Hale 
 
 1748 N Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 
 February 12, 1907 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 357 
 
 A GREETING TO THE MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL 
 COLLEGE 
 
 FROM DOCTOR E. W. HILGARD 
 
 Professor of Agriculture in the University of California and Director of the 
 Experiment Station 
 
 Greatly regretting my inability to be personally present at the 
 Semi-Centennial Celebration of the founding of the oldest 
 agricultural college in the United States, I have requested 
 President Wheeler to convey to the Michigan College my greet- 
 ings and congratulations upon this auspicious occasion, which 
 representatives of all colleges in the country have come together 
 to celebrate. I hail it as one of the manifestations of growing 
 interest in the commemoration of anniversaries of victories 
 unconnected with the marshaling of armies or with civil strife. 
 
 I know I am but one among the hundreds engaged in pro- 
 moting the progress of the fundamental industry, which is now 
 emerging from the eclipse of ages into recognition as a profession 
 worthy of the highest efforts of the best intellects. I am, how- 
 ever, led to ask a hearing at this time, as one of the relatively few 
 survivors of the first general meeting of agricultural college men, 
 held in Chicago in August, 1869, when the Michigan College 
 was already twelve years old. The call to that early conven- 
 tion was for the discussion of the proper organization of, and 
 subjects and methods of instruction in, the new institutions, 
 regarding which there was a wide divergence of opinion. If I 
 remember rightly, several of the charter members of the Michi- 
 gan College, whose names are on the program of this meeting, 
 were also present ; and among the eastern delegates was Daniel 
 C. Oilman, then librarian of Yale College. It was remarked by 
 those attending that the Michigan College alone had placed on 
 the program several strictly technical papers, the first of these 
 being one by Professor Manly Miles, on "Pig Feeding." On 
 my arising to a point of order, claiming that the object of the 
 meeting was to discuss the education of men and not animals, 
 
358 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 the objection was not sustained by the chairman, in view of the 
 prominence of the speaker, and the seniority of the Michigan 
 College. It clearly developed during the later discussions that 
 Michigan College considered that she had already solved the 
 problem, and that what has since borne the designation of the 
 "Michigan Plan," viz., a large proportion of student labor, "to 
 keep up the habit and not wean the pupils from the farm," was 
 the only admissible method of agricultural education. The 
 predominance of opinion at the adjournment of the convention 
 seemed to favor that plan, although many vigorous protests 
 against the use of so much of the students' time for mere mechan- 
 ical exercise were voiced. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to dwell elaborately, before this audi- 
 ence, upon the change of views and practice which experience 
 has brought about in the Michigan College itself, and upon the 
 gradual evolution of the "Wisconsin Plan," according to which 
 it is distinctly recognized that the colleges organized under the 
 Morrill Act cannot educate the bulk of the farmers' sons to be 
 farmers, any more than the universities can directly educate the 
 bulk of the rest of the population to their several pursuits. It is 
 now recognized that in agricultural education as in every other, 
 there must be a gradation of schools and of instruction, from 
 the primary through graded grammar and high schools ; so that 
 it shall be the special function of the colleges to train, in the 
 main, agricultural experts and teachers, the lack of whom at this 
 time offers the most serious obstacle to the effective organiza- 
 tion of instruction in agriculture in the lower schools, where alone 
 the bulk of the population can be trained in an)^hing. It is the 
 attempt, made at first, to perform the physically impossible task 
 of satisfactorily combining elementary and collegiate training 
 within the colleges themselves, that has long made of them a 
 bone of contention. For they were popularly charged with 
 " educating the boys away from the farm," while in reality they 
 were merely fulfilling their prescribed duty of giving instruction 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 359 
 
 in "the sciences bearing on agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts." 
 
 I have held and defended these views for nearly forty years, 
 mostly against heavy popular odds, but I do not fail to recognize 
 and fully appreciate the inestimable services which the Michigan 
 College has rendered to the cause of agricultural education. 
 First in the field, and with few available precedents to act upon, 
 amid intensely practical surroundings, she took what appeared 
 to be the most obvious and direct course toward the desired end, 
 thus giving an object-lesson of the greatest importance to all the 
 younger states and colleges. Therefore, in my view, the achieve- 
 ments of the Michigan Agricultural College during the second 
 half-century upon which she is now entering, can hardly be 
 more widely useful than have been those of the first, the end of 
 which brings her well-deserved congratulations from all parts 
 of the United States. 
 
 EUG. W. HiLGARD 
 
360 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 FROM BYRON D. HALSTED 
 
 Of the Class of 187 1. Instructor, 1873-74, Professor of Botany and 
 Horticulture, Rutgers College, 1889- 
 
 [telegram] 
 
 New Brunswick, N. J., May 29, 1907 
 President Jonathan L. Snyder: 
 
 My love to my Mother, whose paeans are sung 
 The queen of all others, and fifty years young. 
 
 Byron D. Halsted 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 361 
 
 FROM PRICE J. WILSON 
 
 Tiffin, Ohio, May 22, 1907 
 
 President 0} Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich.: 
 
 My dear President Snyder: I certainly do most highly 
 appreciate your kind invitation of May 18 to attend the Semi- 
 centennial Exercises of your great institution. My uncle, 
 P. J. Price, Mr. H. A. Woodworth's father-in-law, my brother, 
 and myself walked out from Lansing that day,^ for conveyances 
 were of primitive style and not plenty in those days. We all 
 enjoyed the exercises. The address of the president of the 
 College was full of hope and you are enjoying its fruition in 
 these days. I rejoice in the success that has come to Michigan 
 Agricultural College. 
 
 I hope the days of next week will be deUghtful and full of 
 rational enjoyment. I hope to accept your invitation to be 
 present and I do sincerely thank you for this kindness. 
 
 Very truly yours 
 
 Price J. Wilson 
 
 1 May 13, 1857, on which day Michigan Agricultural College was formally 
 dedicated. 
 
DELEGATES AND DISTINGUISHED GUESTS 
 
LIST OF DELEGATES AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED 
 
 GUESTS 
 
 *The star shows that a duly accredited delegate is vmable to be present. 
 
 FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 
 
 University of Cambridge 
 
 Dean Henry T. Bovey, F.R.S., LL.D., D.C.L * 
 
 University of Edinburg 
 
 Professor Robert Wallace 
 
 Friedrichs-Universitat 
 
 Carl Steinbriick, Ph.D. 
 
 University of Naples 
 Pietro Cardiello 
 
 McGill University 
 
 Principal James W. Robertson, LL.D., C.M.G.* 
 
 University of Toronto 
 
 President G. C. Creelman, B.S.A., M.S. 
 
 University of Upsala, Sweden 
 Carl G. Dahl 
 
 Ontario Agricultural College 
 
 President G. C. Creelman, B.S.A., M.S. 
 
 AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 
 
 Adrian College 
 
 Rev. John W, Gray, M.A., D.D. 
 
 Albion College 
 
 President Samuel Dickie, LL.D. 
 
 Alma College 
 
 President August F. Bruske, D.D. 
 
 Amherst College 
 
 Superintendent S. O. Hartwell 
 365 
 
366 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Baldwin University 
 
 President George Blake Rogers, A.M., B.D., Ph.D., D.D. 
 
 Blackburn College 
 
 Victor M. Gore, A.B. 
 
 Bucknell University 
 
 President John Howard Harris, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 CentraHState Normal School 
 
 Professor William Bellis, B.S., B.Pd. 
 
 Clark" University 
 
 Ellsworth G. Lancaster, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 Clemson Agricultural College 
 Professor J. N. Harper 
 Professor W. M. Riggs, M.E. 
 
 Colorado State Agricultural College 
 Professor C. P. Gillette, M.S. 
 
 Colorado School of Mines 
 
 President Victor Clifton Anderson, A.B., Sc.D. 
 
 Connecticut Agricultural College 
 
 President Rufus Whittaker Stimson, A.M., B.D. 
 
 Cornell University 
 
 Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey, M.S. 
 
 Professor R. C. Carpenter, LL.D. 
 
 Professor Thomas Forsyth Hunt, M.Sc, D.Sc. 
 
 Professor L. B. Judson, B.S. 
 
 Professor Raymond Allen Pearson, M.S. 
 
 Professor John Craig, M.S. 
 
 Professor M. V. Slingerland, Ph.D. 
 
 Detroit College 
 
 President R. D. Slevin, S.J.* 
 
 EarUiam College 
 
 Fred R. Hathaway, M.A. 
 
 Georgia State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 
 President Henry Clay White, Ph.D., D.C.L., LL.D. 
 
 George Washington University 
 
 Rev. Richard D. Harlan, D.D., LL.D. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 367 
 
 Hamilton College 
 
 Rev. Willard K. Spencer, A.M., D.D. 
 
 Hampton Institute 
 
 Director E. A. Bishop, B.S. 
 
 Harvard University- 
 Professor Theodore Lyman, Ph.D. 
 
 Hillsdale College 
 
 President Joseph William Mauck, A.M., LL.D. 
 
 Hope CoUege 
 
 President Gerrit J. Kollen, A.M., LL.D. 
 
 Indiana University 
 
 E. A. Bryan, A.M., LL.D. 
 Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 
 
 President A. B. Storms, A.M., D.D., LL.D.* 
 
 Dean C. F. Curtiss, M.S.A. 
 
 Professor L. H. Pammel, Ph.D. 
 
 P. G. Holden, B.Pd., M.S. 
 
 Kalamazoo College 
 
 President A. Gaylord Slocum, A.M., LL.D. 
 
 Kansas State Agricultural College 
 
 President E. R. Nichols, B.D., B.S., A.M. 
 Regent A. M. Story 
 
 Kentucky State College 
 
 President James Kennedy Patterson, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 Lake Erie College 
 
 Professor Inza McK. Allison, B.E. 
 
 Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical 
 College 
 
 Dr. Wm. H. Dalrymple, M.R.C.V.S. 
 
 Massachusetts Agricultural College 
 
 President Kenyon L. Butterfield, B.S., A.M. 
 
 Wm. H. Bowker, B.S. 
 
 Professor George E. Stone, Ph.D. 
 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
 
 Professor Geo. W. Patterson, B.S., M.A., Ph.D. 
 
368 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Miami University 
 
 Professor Benjamin Marshall Davis, M.S., Ph.D. 
 
 Michigan College of Mines 
 
 President F. W. McNair, B.S. 
 Michigan State Normal College 
 
 President L. H. Jones, A. M. 
 
 Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College 
 President John C. Hardy, A.M., LL.D. 
 
 Missouri School of Mines 
 
 Professor P. J. Wilkins, B.S. 
 
 Mount Holyoke College 
 
 Mrs. Leartus Connor, B.S. 
 
 National Farm School 
 
 Director John Hosea Washburn, A.M., Ph.D. 
 
 New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 
 President W. D. Gibbs, M.S. 
 Professor E. Dwight Sanderson, B.S., B.S.A. 
 
 North Dakota Agricultural College 
 Professor C. B. Waldron, B.S. 
 
 Northern State Normal School 
 
 Principal James H. B. Kaye, A.M. 
 Northwestern University 
 
 President Abram Winegardner Harris, Sc.D., LL.D. 
 Oberlin College 
 
 Dean Charles E. St. John, B.S., Ph.D. 
 Ohio State University 
 
 Dean Homer C. Price, M.S.A. 
 
 Professor William R. Lazenby, M.Agr. 
 Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College 
 
 Director William L. English, B.S. 
 
 Professor W. R. Wright, B.S. 
 Olivet College 
 
 President Ellsworth G. Lancaster, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 Oregon Agricultural College 
 
 President W. J. Kerr, D.Sc. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 369 
 
 Pennsylvania State College 
 
 Vice-President Judson P. Welch, Ph.D. 
 Professor H. E. Van Norman, B.S. 
 
 Pomona College 
 
 Professor Albert John Cook, D.Sc. 
 
 Purdue University- 
 President Winthrop Ellsworth Stone, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D. 
 Professor W. C. Latta, M.S. 
 Professor J. Troop, M.S. 
 C. G. Woodbury, B.S. 
 
 Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 
 President Howard Edwards, LL.D. 
 
 Rutgers College 
 
 President W. H. S. Demarest, A.M., D.D. 
 Professor Edward B. Voorhees, A.M., D.Sc. 
 Professor J. G. Lipman, A.M., Ph.D. 
 
 South Dakota College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 
 President Robert L. Slagle, A.M., Ph.D. 
 Director James W. Wilson, M.S.A. 
 
 State College of Washington 
 
 President Enoch A. Bryan, A.M., LL.D. 
 
 Swarthmore College 
 
 Ralph Stone, B.A., LL.B. 
 
 Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College 
 Professor Charles H. Alvord, B.S. 
 
 Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute 
 Charles W. Greene 
 
 Union College 
 
 Hon. Charles DeWitt Lawton, C.E., A.M. 
 
 University of California 
 
 President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 Hon. A. W. Foster 
 
 University of Georgia 
 
 President Henry Clay White, Ph.D., D.C.L., LL.D. 
 
370 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 University of Illinois 
 
 President Edmund Janes James, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D.* 
 Dean Eugene Davenport, M.S., M.Agr., LL.D. 
 Superintendent Fred H. Rankin 
 Professor H. W. Mumford, B.S. 
 
 University of Maine 
 
 President George Emory Fellows, Ph.D., L.H.D., LL.D . 
 Dean Wm. D. Hurd, B.S. 
 Professor M. J. Dorsey, B.S. 
 
 University of Michigan 
 
 President James Burrill Angell, A.M., LL.D. 
 Professor Jacob Reighard, Ph.B. 
 Professor Mortimer Elwyn Cooley, M.E., LL.D. 
 Professor J. B. Pollock, Sc.D. 
 
 University of Minnesota 
 
 Professor Harry Snyder, B.S. 
 Professor Samuel B. Green, B.S. 
 Professor C. P. Bull, B.Agr. 
 
 University of Missouri 
 
 Professor F. B. Mumford, B.S. 
 Dean H. J. Waters, B.S.A. 
 P. J. Wilkins, B.S. 
 
 University of Nebraska 
 
 Dean Charles E. Bessey, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 Director Albert Eugene Davisson, A.B. 
 Professor H. R. Smith, B.S. 
 
 University of Nevada 
 
 Professor Henry Thurtell, B.S. 
 
 University of Oklahoma 
 
 President David R. Boyd, A.M., Ph.D. 
 
 University of Rochester 
 
 Professor Francis W. Kelsey, A.M. 
 
 University of Tennessee 
 
 Professor Brown Ayres, Ph.D., LL.D.* 
 Director H. A. Morgan 
 Professor Charles E. Ferris, B.S. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 371 
 
 University of Vermont 
 
 President Matthew Henry Buckham, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 University of Wisconsin 
 
 President Charles R. Van Hise, M.S., Ph.D.* 
 Regent W. D. Hoard 
 Dean William Arnon Henry, D.Sc. 
 Professor Harry Luman Russell, M.S., Ph.D. 
 
 University of Wyoming 
 
 President Frederick M. Tisdel, Ph.D. 
 
 Virginia Agricultural College and Experiment Station 
 Dean Andrew M. Soule, B.S.A.* 
 
 Washington and Lee University 
 
 President George H. Denny, M.A., Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 Western College for Women 
 
 Professor Mary F. Leach, Ph.D. 
 
 Western State Normal School 
 
 Principal Dwight B. Waldo, Ph.B., A.M. 
 
 Wheaton College 
 
 President Charles A. Blanchard, A.M., D.D. 
 
 Williams College 
 
 Leartus Connor, M.A., M.D. 
 
 Tufts College 
 
 President Frederick W. Hamilton, A.M., D.D., LL.D.* 
 
 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
 
 Arizona Experiment Station 
 
 Director Robert Humphry Forbes, M.S. 
 
 Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director L. G. Carpenter, M.S. 
 
 Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director Edward H. Jenkins, Ph.D. 
 
 Cuban Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director J. T. Crawley 
 Nelson S. Mayo, B.S., M.D.C. 
 
372 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Delaware College Experiment Station 
 \ y. Director H. Hayward, M.S.Agr. 
 
 Florida Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director P. H. Rolfs, M.S. 
 
 Illinois University Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director Eugene Davenport, M.Agr., LL.D. 
 
 Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director Arthur Goss, M.S. 
 
 Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station 
 
 Director C. F. Curtiss, B.S.A., M.S.A. 
 
 Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station 
 
 Director Charles William Burkett, M.Sc. 
 
 Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director M. A. Scovell, Ph.D. 
 Professor H. Gar man 
 
 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director Chas. D. Woods, Sc.D. 
 
 Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Professor C. P. Close, M.S. 
 
 Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director Wm. P. Brooks, Ph.D. 
 Dr. George Edward Stone, Ph.D. 
 
 Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director W. L. Hutchinson, M.S. 
 
 Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director H. J. Waters, B.S. 
 
 Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director E. A. Burnett, B.S. 
 Superintendent W. P. Snyder, M.S. 
 
 New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Jacob G. Lipman Ph.D. 
 
 New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell 
 Director Liberty Hyde Bailey, M.S. 
 Professor R. A. Pearson, M.S. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 373 
 
 New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva 
 Director Whitman H. Jordan, M.S., D.Sc, LL.D. 
 F. C. Stewart, M.Sc. 
 P. J. Parrott, A.M. 
 F. H. Hall, B.S. 
 
 North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Henry Luke Bolley, M.S. 
 
 Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 
 
 Director Charles Embree Thome, M.A. 
 Hon. T. C. Laylin, B.S. 
 O. D. Selby, B.S. 
 John Cartwright, B.S. 
 W. J. Green, B.S. 
 
 Oklahoma Experiment Station 
 Director W. L. English, B.S. 
 
 Pennsylvania Experiment Station 
 
 Director Henry Prentiss Armsby, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director H. J. Wheeler, M.A., Ph.D. 
 
 South Carolina Experiment Station 
 
 Director Joseph Nelson Harper, M.Agr. 
 
 South Dakota Experiment Station 
 
 Director James Wilbur Wilson, M.S. 
 
 Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director Louis Adelbert Clinton, M.S. 
 
 Texas Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Acting Director J. W. Carson, B.S. 
 
 Utah Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director Elmer Darwin Ball, M.S. 
 P. A. Yoder, Ph.D. 
 
 Vermont Experiment Station 
 
 Director Joseph L. Hills, D.Sc. 
 
 West Virgina Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director James H. Stewart, A.M. 
 
374 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station 
 Director William Arnon Henry, D.Sc. 
 Professor Harry Luman Russell, M.S., Ph.D. 
 
 Wyoming Experiment Station 
 
 Director B. C. Buffum, M.S. 
 
 AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
 
 President James Bvirrill Angell, A.M., LL.D. 
 American Antiquarian Society 
 
 President James Burrill Angell, A.M., LL.D. 
 
 American Chemical Society 
 
 Professor Frank S. Kedzie, M.S. 
 
 American Institute of Electrical Engineers 
 Professor Morgan Brooks, Ph.B., M.E. 
 
 American Philosophical Society 
 
 Director William Powell Wilson, D.Sc. 
 American Society of Mechanical Engineers 
 
 Professor Paul M. Chamberlain, M.S. 
 
 Professor M. E. Cooley, LL.D. 
 
 Mr. Alex. Dow 
 
 Mr. F. E. Kirby 
 Geological Society of America 
 
 Frank Leverett, B.Sc. 
 Michigan Academy of Science 
 
 Professor James B. Pollock, M.S., Sc.D. 
 Michigan Engineering Society 
 
 President Frank Hodgman, M.S. 
 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society 
 
 President Clarence M. Burton, S.B., LL.B. 
 National Academy of Sciences 
 
 Director Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Ph.D., ScD., LL.D. 
 
 National Educational Association 
 
 Henry R. Pattengill, B.S. 
 Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers 
 
 Frank E. Kirby 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 375 
 
 GENERAL AND TECHNICAL SOCIETIES 
 
 American Cheviot Sheep Society 
 Secretary F. E. Dawley 
 
 American Oxford Down Record Association 
 L. N. Olmsted 
 
 American Rambouillet Sheep Breeders' Association 
 R. M. Wood 
 
 American Shetland Pony Club 
 William R. Goodwin, M.S. 
 
 American Shropshire Sheep Registry Association 
 T. A. Bixby 
 
 American Tamworth Swine Record 
 Secretary E. N. Ball, B.S. 
 
 A)n:shire Breeders' Association 
 Hon. Henry R. Niles, M.D. 
 
 Holstein-Friesian Association of America 
 President R. C. Reed 
 
 Massachusetts State Forestry Department 
 State Forester F. W. Rane 
 
 Michigan Dairymen's Association 
 S. J. Wilson 
 
 Michigan Forestry Commission 
 
 President Charles W. Garfield, M.S. 
 
 Michigan Merino Sheep Breeders' Association 
 Secretary E. N. Ball, M.S. 
 
 Michigan State Agricultural Society 
 Secretary I. H. Butterfield 
 
 Michigan State Grange 
 
 Hon. George B. Horton 
 
 Michigan State Live Stock Sanitary Commission 
 H. H. Hinds 
 C. A. Tyler 
 John McKay 
 
376 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 Polled Durham Breeders' Association 
 S. E. Whitman 
 
 Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science 
 Henry Prentiss Armsby, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 State Association of Farmers' Clubs of Michigan 
 President L. Whitney Watkins, B.S. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL JOURNALISM 
 
 American Agriculturist 
 
 M. G. Kains, B.S., M.S. 
 Chicago Live Stock World 
 
 A. C. Halliwell 
 Farm and Fireside ' 
 
 John C. Barnett 
 Farm and Home 
 
 Glenn C. Sevey, B.S.* 
 
 Farmers' Advocate 
 
 W. D. Albright 
 
 The Gleaner 
 
 James Slocum 
 
 E. L. Keasey 
 
 The Kansas Farmer 
 
 I. D. Graham, A.M. 
 
 The Michigan Farmer 
 I. R. Waterbury 
 
 The National Stockman and Farmer 
 
 F. D. Wells, A.B. 
 T. D. Harman 
 
 The Ohio Farmer 
 
 A. J. Anderson, B.S. 
 
 Orange Judd Farmer 
 
 Clarence A. Shamel, M.S. 
 
 Park's Floral Magazine 
 Geo. W. Park, B.Sc. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 377 
 
 Rural New Yorker 
 
 Herbert Winslow Collingwood, LL.D. 
 Sugar Beet Culturist 
 
 S. O. Burgdorf 
 
 OTHER DISTINGUISHED GUESTS 
 
 Representing the Federal Government 
 President Theodore Roosevelt 
 Secretary William Loeb, Jr. 
 Assistant Secretary Maurice C. Latta 
 Surgeon General P. M. Rixey 
 Senator Julius C. Barrows 
 Senator William Alden Smith 
 Congressman Edwin Denby 
 Congressman Washington Gardner 
 Congressman George Alvin Loud 
 Congressman Samuel W. Smith 
 Congressman Charles Elroy Townsend 
 Conunissioner of Education Elmer Ellsworth Brown 
 
 From the Department of Agriculture 
 Secretary James Wilson, LL.D. 
 Assistant Secretary William M. Hays, M.Agr. 
 Forester Gifford Pinchot, Sc.D. 
 
 A. C. True, Ph.D., Sc.D., Director of OflSce of Experiment Stations 
 E. W. Allen, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Office of Experiment 
 
 Stations 
 Charles Fay Wheeler, M.S., D.Sc. 
 William Warner Tracy, M.S., D.Sc. 
 John Hamilton, B.S., M.S.A., Director of Farmers' Institutes 
 
 Representing the State of Michigan 
 Governor Fred Maltby Warner and Staff 
 The State Officials 
 The Justices of the Supreme Court 
 The Members of the Senate 
 The Members of the House of Representatives 
 
 Herr N. Kaumanns, Landwirthschaftlicher Sachverstandiger fiir die 
 
 United States of America. 
 Lewis Griffin Gorton, M.S., President of Michigan State Agricultural 
 
 College, 1893-95. 
 
Sitr iX4 i^tiij, 
 
/ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DD027qH7b3b