Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-05-12

from one unskilled generation to the next
with no training and no guidance up tn
steep ascent to higher plane of more con
genial toll and to a better intellectual AM
social life. They feel that much of the ex
lstlng intellectual superiority with which
they have TO compete is not entirely natural
but largely artificial, or only the usual anC
inev vltable advantage bestowed by school:
and colleges, which, as they believe. ough
to embrace broader field to which they
might furnish much larger proportion o
recruits by which they could make theiI
leisure hours too precious to be spect in
idle dissipation. Some opportunity for i'm
provement, for that training which the
wisest of men are eager to obtain and find
indispensable must be conceded and tender
ed to this vast human force. which, if not
wisely directed, may be mischievously di-
rected, or, if not directed by those to whom
1t belongs 1T will be directed by demagogues
to whom 1t ought not to belong and whose
trade ought not to be encouraged The
eyer-active toilers, pursuing their vocations
with an absenteesm of the heart, are visibly
restless under what seems to them the un-
escapable servitude of their whole class.
Each one harbors Shakespeare's mistaken
conviction:
Thence comes it that my name receives brand,
Anu Utmost thence my nature is suOdued
10 what II works in, like the dyers hand.
No one here feels that poverty is dis
| grace. but the disgrace arises when there is
no effort by industry and education to
escape from 1t. Our Government, the United
States, provoking 50 much attention as it
does IN the history Of the world by its unex-
ampled growth. can afford neither coward
Ice nor Incidence, and should awake to its
grave responsibilities by being foremost to
respond to educational demands 50 earnest,
so reasonable. and 50 easily satisfied
ECONOMY.
Upon the broadest principles of the pur-
/ est and most far-reaching economy, the
| friends Of the present bill base its highest
claims to public favor, and it cannot be
| put down by hue and cry raised to crush
measures OF far different character, with
which 1t has neither kinship nor affinity
1t may not improperly be claimed that
this measure really plants the seeds of
| future harvest of revenue and will in the
end not only augment the productions of
| industry and increase the wealth Of the
| country but that it will thereby add con-
slderably to the receipts of the Treasury,
which always rise or fall with the general
prosperity and beyond all this. 50 far as
broader education rapidly tends to multi
| ply the number of letter-wrlters or pro-
notes the interchange of ideas and courte-
sizes, as well as of commodities, il may be
| expected TO contribute something toward
| lifting up even the Post Office Department
nearer.to self-supporting condition. The
| frst year OF common schools in Great
Britain increased the postal revenue over
S3.000,0 900. 1t is then by no means fanci-
iul dreaming to claim this school and col
lege bill incidentally as a revenue measure,
and that its passage will ultimately actual
! ly increase the revenues of the country.
In every great enterprise it Is true we
must consider what We are to lose as well as
what We are to gain. By the proposed
measure OF further aid to national colleges
and very substantial contribution to com
mon schools, We shall gradually part with
our title TO the ownership of limited
| quantity of land-small in comparison with
/ the bulk Of our possessions-irom which
the policy Of acquiring ordinary revenue
| long ago practically ceased. Broad acres
we stlll!ofer free to all who ask for homes
But Tor revenue purposes the public lands
can now furnish no regular basis. and their
value ought to be held as tar too precious
| to be bartered for merely money equiya-
Tents that must be swallowed up at once in
ordinary expenditures.
On the other side, the gain here proposed
TO be slowly derived from any sales Of these
lands will be perpetual educational fund,
retained IN the custody Of the nation and
kept, like the heat OF the summer sun, for
ever undlminished. while barely the interest
thereon will be annually expended by each
state Tor the culture and enlightenment ct
all their coming generations
BY this fund we first promote primary
education by aiding State systems of com
mon schools, and then We are to have insti-
tutl0ns of learning-at least one eollege-in
every state, planted on foundations not
very magnificent. 1t is true, but Is broad
and firm as the foundations Of the Govern
ment itself, by which a more complete edu-
cation IN every portion Of the MON Will be
brought within the reach OF larger numbers
! too poor to seek ii in any modern Athens
or k0me-and to whom 1t will give that
" crown and sceptre which thorough edu-
cation always gives, but give. alas to too
lew. Surely, what We are to gain, as in
dicated even by!this tame and stinted recital,
i far more precious, far more considerable,
than what We are 10 lose In fact, II Is an
error TO assume that we are to lose anything
when We rescue and preserve for ages that
| which might otherwise in some earlier or
later Hood of congressional grants disap-
pear altogether, leaving no enduring trace
behind except the record of suniry petty
schemes with the g hungry edge ' of local
/ appetite for such schemes sharpened rather
than satisfied
But even the relatively insignificant por-
ton Of the public domain which can now
under any circumstances be appropriated
tor the purposes here indicated will in many
ways contribute to the strength and glory
of our country VI will be the disposal of
the surplus part of the national farm-of q
few back lots-ior the permanent improve
ment OF the remainder, and for increasing
the skill and all the forces of those charged
with its future ownership and productive
development.
WHAT THE NATIONAL COLLEGES HAVE poSE.
But the pertinent inquiry may be made.
what have the colleges, started under the
act OF 1852, done that gives room to hope
for their success or that entities them TO
further favor? 1t may be too early to seek
a full answer to this question. but there is
no reason why 1t should be evaded. 10 call
them failure would be. - as the presi-
dent of Dartmouth College lately said to me.
- as absurd as to call the day. failure when
we had seen but half an hour Of it," Ii Is
unwise to despise small beginnings, for they
often fOrerun great things. 1t will at once
be noted that nearly one-third Of these
colleges have not yet had time to
get into working order, but by the
latest reports which have examined TWEEN
ty-eight of them, while vet in the cradle of
their existence, had 3 ,si2 students with 356
instructors. being an average of 1877 students
and l2.7 instructors respectively. Compare
this with the 323 older institutions, the
growth of a century. which in 1873 had no
more than 25,0l0 students and 3, los IN
structOrs, or only an average of II students
and 9 6 instructors respectively. Surely these
facts, so early developed as budding eyi-
dences of honor and usefulness, will put to
fight any doubts as to the amount of work
being done or as to the share of public con-
sideration they are receiving, and the ma
tional colleges may now fearlessly challenge
the support of the most cautious legislators
Upheld by the industrial classes as well a
by nearly all of the scientific men of the
country, as they are and will be, their sue
cess cannot be doubtful and let me ask ,fol
what other Is, 200, 900 acres of public land
has the Government so much to show?
These colleges are often called " dqricui
turdl, colleges" perhaps because here for the
first time agriculture obtained equal favor
or even any attention, or because severa
States have given that name to their insti
tutions as an honorable distinction, or pos
siby the term may be sometimes derisively
applied, as though it were an absurdity tC
expect any growth of science and learning
from an agricultural college but while il
is trle that all sciences related to agricul
ture are to be included and must be and art
taught in these national institutions, though
not to so great an extent as it is to be hoped
they yet will be. there is nothing excluded
! touching any other Industrial, mechanical
or even classical interests. the charter il
broad, covering no sham, no inferior work
and if it had been made narrower, these col
. leges would not only have been less usefu
but even more exposed TO narrow and jeal
Gus criticism. and certainly would not hav'
escaped the sneers of those who hout thu
name of agricultural colleges as damaging
, epithet or as brand of reproach. Igno
rantly they have possibly bestowed watch
word of talismanic power which may botl
, plague and shame the inventors. The club
,, of jealousy and passion do not always re
main in the hands of those who first hrlns