Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-10-19
TATE AID TO THE STATE U NIvEKsI-
TX.
Addresses by senator morrill, and Judge
Powers.-The Duty of the state to Its
Agricultural College.

POwers.-Dhe Duty OF the state to Its
Agricultural College.
Reported for the FREE PRESS,
MONTPELIER, Oct 10, 1SSS.
The audience which gathered in the
representatives hall this evening to hear
Senator Morrill, on the subject of the rela-
lions of the States to the colleges char
tered under the congressional act of which
he was the father, was a very fine one,
comprising most of the senators and mem
bers, and considerable number Of intelli-
gent citizens of Montpelier and other
towns The high esteem in which Mr..
Morrill, is held and the apparent fact that
his days of public speaking must be near.
~ over, gave added interest to the occa-
sion. The venerable senator showed in
face and voice the effects of the illness
which Frustrated him in the spring and
from which he has not fully recovered
but he spoke with great earnestness,
though with something less than his old
volume of voice, and held the close atten-
ton of his audience for more than an
hour.
MIR. MoRR1LL's ADDRESS.
He prefaced his address by explaining
| that he was in Vermont at this time
because his physicians had imperatively
ordered him away from Washington :;
that he was conscious that his strength
| was now something less than equal to tfe
occasion ; and that his presence was due
| to his very earnest desire to render service
| to the state University and Agricultural
| College, an institution which he consid
cred very greau honor to the State. Pro-
ceeding he said 1t may be remembered
| that the first proposition made by me in
| 1858 for land grant colleges was vetoed by
| President Buchanan, and 1t was not until
| al I hot I
able to secure the consent of all branches
of the government to such a measure.
| We were then in the first stages of the
great war of the rebellion, with daily re-
sounding battles, and the college and land
scrip issued at this unhappy moment
when Union men wanted guns and not
| land, was offered for less than half its
value. The national bounty TO the several
| States was then sadly curtailed. Since
| that time have attempted, and, as far rs
the action of the Senate is concerned, not
wholly unsuccessfully, to bring forward a
measure that would reinforce the land
grant colleges with supplementary ma
tonal fund. | have not yet gwen up all
| hope of ultimate success, although my
further public service is rapidly nearing
| the end. But, if such a fund shall eventu
ally be given, it is not likely to be soon Sc
cured, and can become available only at
considerably later date. Under the college
land grant of 1862 ~ institutions have
been organized, and they are nearly
all doing excellent educational work.
They have 5000 students and nearly 500
professors. In every State scientific
knowledge is being difrused and the
| science of agriculture is especially receiv-
| ing profounder attention and is more re-
spected and honored The bounty of the
national government formed nucleus in
| the several States around which build
| lngs, libraries, museums and other educa
rara ny tod fn ha
| senbled from funds derived from other
and independent societies. 1t was eX-
| pected that State and individual assist
ance to lhe extent OF these wants would
serve to maintain the bounty of the ma
| tional government intact and that suf-
fcient local considerations and State in
terest in behalf of the colleges would be
enlisted to secure their prosperity and
proper management
Mr.. Morrill, proceeded to show by statis-
tics how this expectation had been fulfilled.
Nearly every State has added largely to
! the congressional fund.by State appropria-
tons, and many Of them making an
annual appropriation for the support of
| their agricultural colleges larger than the
| income from the land grant fund. In
| New England Maine has made State APP
| preparations to her college amounting to
| S2412lS, and it has received in other bene-
| factions 300 000. New Hampshire has
made State appropriations amounting to
! S54, 600 and has received SG3,1OO in bene-
| factions. The beuetaCtiOus OF the Massa-
chuselts Institute of Technology amount
to S545, 500. Massachusetts, appropriated
! SAL. 30 To increase the land fund of her
| Agricultural College and 5000 for
buildings, and regularly appropriates for
! its annual support 10000 The IeVolu-
ton our country has 50 recently expert
| enced in the WOndrous facility aud cheap
ness Of the transportation and diS:ribu-
ton of all commodities has almost ami
hilated the old advantages of local mar
kets, ana Dakota and Texas, as well rs
distant nations have become nelghbors to
New England. Agriculture and manu-
features must now compete with the
highest skill aud the cheapest natural
productions, as well AS with the best intel
!ectual resources of the whole world.
About one-fourth part of the world 5
population may ne claimed rs machine
using counties, and the remainder
as hand labor countries, producing
little and consuming little. Machines
increase the demand for and the wages
of labor, especially of skilled and instruct
ed labor aud while the increase of capital
within the past two or three decades has
very naturally diminished its income, the
wages Of labor on the contrary have been
largely Increased The people of the
United States, it is supposed have 250, 0OC
useful inventions protected 10y patent law,
no inferior evidence of native brain pow
cI HCCOluluS W Jut CcIlSuS VI 1901 JucIc
were in the United States S5,67l surgeons
and physicians, "a ,69S clergymen and o.
1877 lawyers, or III all PA SOC. 1t thus ap-
pears that less than half million of our
people have been. or will for some time be
likely to be, successfully pursuing what
have been the so-called learned profess
sions, for whose instruction our older col
leges were originally intended.
Mr.. Morrill, went on to show the practi
cal benefits to the people, accruing from
the extended range OF instruction III the
practical branches, given in the colleges
established under the COMPRESSION
al act. He eXpounded the terms and
conditions of that law, and show
ed that its benefit was not intended
to be confined to agriculture. The aim o
: the act WAS not to provide the instruction
in practical farming which any good farm
J. er can give; but to give to the farmers
: sons the higher education they seek in or
. der to qualify them for whatever calling
y, they select.
y think 1t will be conceded that among
: the States Of the Union there is not out
j whose people surpass Vermonters in thu
Z love of their native State-a love not in