advantages is service - service in something, somewhere; anything, anywhere.

The great mass of human happiness will always arise out of doing well the common things of life, and the happiness of the individual will lie in that creative genius which does to-day the same thing it did yesterday, but does it better. All else is spice and seasoning to life, and as we cannot live on cakes and spices, so the enduring things will always be the useful things. There will be no educated aristocracy, for education will have a higher purpose than to give one man an advantage over another.

Every man's life is a comedy, a tragedy, or a symphony, according as he is educated. It was a great thing when the common man first lifted up his head, looked about him and said, "I, too, will be educated." It is our business to see to it that that high resolve shall not destroy the race, but shall still further bless it.

THE FUNCTION AND EFFICIENCY OF THE

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 1
1

WHITMAN H. JORDAN

It would be an indication of ingratitude and inappreciation if I failed to acknowledge at this time the great honor of being elected to preside over your deliberations, an honor commensurate with the distinguished history and eminent usefulness of this association. Because it has been my good fortune to attend these meetings from their very beginning, in addressing you on this occasion I cannot be accused of speaking without knowledge and understanding if at first I refer in the spirit of congratulation to the benefits of this organization,, both for those of us who have participated in its deliberations and for the institutions which it represents.

Not the least important outcome of these assemblages are the personal relations that have been established. The hand clasp that has spanned a continent has not only made possible the formation of friendships that have greatly enriched our lives, but thereby has come a sympathetic touch of laborers in the same field so essential to unity of purpose and understanding. We would all feel impoverished, personally and officially, if there were withdrawn from the sum of our life experiences the beneficent results of the intercourse that these meetings have afforded.

Because we are friends as well as coworkers, we keenly feel the absence from our midst of those who have passed out of life's activities. Two of the best beloved of our long-time associates have entered into their final rest during the year

1 From Science, Dec. 8, 1911. Reprinted by permission of the author and the publishers,

that has passed. For many years these gatherings were favored by the gentle and refined presence of Matthew H. Buckham, who through a long life of activity as an educator exhibited the qualities of a scholar and a gentleman. May many rise up with a similar type of mind and character to mold the intellect and purposes of coming generations! We shall not forget the kindly spirit, the manly attributes, the singleness of purpose and the efficient service of Edward B. Voorhees, whose life and activities were on a plane so high that they presented an inspiring example of useful living. The number remaining of those who aided in founding and building these new educational agencies and who are still in active service is small, and these pioneers in an undeveloped field can but feel that they are transferring to "other men and other minds" the abundant fruit of their labors.

Again, this association has been an active and most influential agency in augmenting the resources of the institutions from which you come, and in developing and unifying their administrative and pedagogical methods. Through your accredited representatives an influence, national in scope, has been focused upon legislation. The enlarged financial support of the colleges and stations by the federal government could hardly have been secured without your united effort, directed along an authorized channel. You must also recognize very clearly that your annual discussions have been helpful, even essential, to the wise solution of administrative and educational problems. Probably no other influence has been more potent in hastening and shaping the far-reaching readjustment that has been effected during the past few decades in the aims and methods of education, even in our secondary schools, than has the example and propaganda of the institutions arising from the first Morrill act, an influence to which your deliberations have served to give form and purpose.

But the main reason for extending congratulations to you at this time is the status and beneficent results of the activities

here represented. It would be easy to show the marvelous growth of the equipment and work of the land-grant colleges and agricultural experiment stations by the use of statistics that are almost startling in their proportions. I shall not resort to this method, however, for you know the facts, and besides, the prominent display of such large figures savors of showy parade or of vainglorious pride. It is enough to say that as a whole these wards of the nation and states are liberally equipped as to buildings, apparatus and funds, with a disposition on the part of the state governments to provide for increasing demands in these directions; students are not lacking, practice both in agriculture and engineering is giving respectful attention to your utterances; all this indeed because after nearly five decades of strenuous and almost heartbreaking struggle, whatever have been your mistakes, you have demonstrated your right to exist and thereby have won public confidence. The colleges and stations for whose upbuilding you have labored hard and loyally are now public utilities of great importance. They are an intelligent and directive force in the conservation of our resources, both social and material. In brief, these institutions have come to be a national asset of great and permanent value.

But now that the hardships and discouragements incident to the establishment of the new and the untried are past and public confidence is won, now that you are reasonably well equipped and have the plastic minds of thousands of young men and women with which to work your will, the time has come to ask this question: Are these agencies, established and maintained by public funds, doing work of a kind and in a manner, under the conditions which have developed, that is calculated to most fully promote public welfare? No one will deny the assertion, I am sure, that the colleges were brought into existence, not for the purpose of providing a fraction of one per cent of our young men and women with a college education as an individual favor, but to be construc

tive and conserving factors in building and maintaining a strong nation. "The community has come to be convinced that education is the most competent means for the preservation and enrichment of itself." With this end in view, is their work wisely planned and directed?

A consideration of this comprehensive question requires that we bring to mind the directions along which the colleges and stations exert their influence in the exercise of their proper functions. These directions are mainly three:

1. The public relations of educational agencies.

2. The enlargement of the body of knowledge.

3. The development of the vocational and social efficiency of the individual.

It is my purpose to direct your attention chiefly to questions involved in the college training of young men and women and the development of knowledge, but I ask your indulgence while I briefly refer to the first phase of influence which I have mentioned:

As to the influence of the land-grant legislation and its results upon the public or governmental relations of educational agencies, there can be no doubt that one of the consequences of this legislation is a strong movement toward the injection of federal aid, and the federal control necessarily, accompanying the expenditure of federal money, into secondary education that so far has been exclusively supported and controlled by the states. The concrete expression of this movement is the introduction into congress of bills providing for the annual expenditure of vast sums of federal money in aid of normal schools and high schools in the various states. The policy proposed, if made effective, would have farreaching results and for this reason it should be considered by this body in the spirit of wise statesmanship with reference to ultimate results rather than on the basis of any immediate financial advantage that might accrue to states or institutions.