The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1889-04-11
GEN. s. D. LEES PAPERS.
AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANI-
GAL COLLEGES.
Answers - sone or tho Objections
Urged Against the Collie .e-rhe Ual-
versity and A. and NJ. Cannot
Come In Competition.
ARTICLE vi.


lege.
G. 1t is claimed the graduates don't
20 on tho farm. Although such Col
leges are intended to bias students in
favor of agriculture, still it was not
intended as an iron-clad rule. The law
says, ito promote the liberal and prac.
tical education Of the industrial classes
in the several pursuits and professions
of l'fe." II only farmer boys are de-
prived Of the privilege of selecting life
pursuit, We might not have had fifteen
out of twenty-one Of our Presidents,
who were the sons of farmers, working
small farms. or farmers. The law in.
tended equal latitude of choice. 1t is
fact of statistics, that only one and one
half per cent, of the graduates of
literary colleges 60 to the farm. There
are sevcnty-live living graduates of this
College; of this numLcr. ten are farm
ing, e.even more are farming and also
engaged in other pursuits, three are
&iict HtC uosiotautS az
Agricultural ENpcr ment Stations one
is dairyman, six are professors or
teachers of agricuture-making forty
six per cent of graduates engaged in
farming or teaching agriculture. Others
are engineers, eleven are teachers.
balance physicians, lawyers, merchants.
ministers. etc. We should bear in mind.
also, that farming is greatly depressed.
and this showing is in face of statistics.
showing that the half of the population
not farming. in the last twenty years,
have made over five hundred rcr cent
more money than those engaged in
agriculture. 1t will take time educa-
ton and patience to restore 10 the
farmers equal advantages, which they
have lost by their indifference to educa-
ton, while the other classes have gotten
SO far ahead of them in worldly pros
perity and wealth
7. 1t is claimed that too much money
Is spent in Oktibbeha county. The one
College could not have been located in
seventy-four counties in the Safe.
8. 1t is claimed that the denomina-
tioual Colleges and Normal Colleges
afford cheaper education. Ali these
institutions are most excellent in dong
good educational work. The facts show
they arc not cheaper; besides they are
colleges giving classical and general
education. not education ito benefit
agr culture and the mechanic arts" as
the A. and NJ. Co lego is required to
give by law. The comparison. then, is
not fair one. No private institution
can afford the outfit, apparatus, ETC.,
which the State gives her colleges.
9. 1t is claimed that too much money
is given the colleges, and too little to
the common schools. 1t is an incon-
trovert;ble fact, sustained by ex-
perience and statistics, THAT schools
in which the elementary studies are to
be taught, can exist and accomplish
their work successfully only when Col
leges and Universities exist as educa-
tional standards and as sources of
stimulating, shaping and elevating in
flu nces in all the lower grades of
educational work" The States OF the
Union which have the most perfect
common school systems have the most
and best equ pped Colleges and Uni.
versities; sending out good teachers to
the common schools. Mississippi gives
her Colleges about S95, 900 year, and
the common schools about $1,000, 900.
It is claimed that only few bows can
attend the A. and NJ. College. This is
true also of the University and all Col
leges. The mass Of boys must 60 to
the common schools. Enough, how
ever, can 90 to lead the farmers. At
Oxford, for instance, the law class does
not average twenty young men. Yet
the lawyers lead in the law-maklng. in
dustrlal and social reforms There are
law schools in every State, and the
lawyers are very small per cent of tho
entire population OF the United States.
Yet they are leaders in every movement
of the people. They see the necessity
of a technical school in Mississippi and
everywhere to teach law. They believe
in special training, and they have been
friends Of this College in all its troubles.
The farmers cannot EXPECT to better
their condition till they educate them
selves as other classes. When they do
this they may expect to prosper and
be able to compete with them.
1t is claimed that the farm makes no
money. 1t is a fact that it has used
no part of the alpro ration voted by
the Legisla ure for over four years ex-
cept student labor. The fact that with
less money. the College educates one
third more students than attends the
University. and also pays 5000 an
nual!y to students for their labor.
should be a sufficient answer t0 this OBJ
jection.
might answer As many moro OBJ
jections. There is no getting around
the fact so we'll established by statis-
tics and observation, that the influence
Of the farming classes Is waning in
making laws and in all public affairs.
As their wealth decreases, their in-
huenco also decreases. In nearly al.
countries the status Of the farming
classes has become that Of ignorance.
serfdom and contempt. First comes
"a -