The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-07-19

of the Morrill, act agree exactly with my
own" We could hardly have better
man in the place he fills than Professor
Cooke, under existing conditions, but he
is in even more precarious position
than our senior senator was. The latter
would, no doubt, have run some slight
risk if he had stood by his original de-
sign as regards industrial education;
but there would be no uncertainty in
Professor Cookies case. Professor
Golfers experience is warning enough
for him. No independence on this
subject is allowed in Burlington. Gun
der which king, Bezonian? Speak, or
diel"
THE Maine Farmer has been discus
sing this same question very ably with
its Boston contemporary. The condi-
ton of things in this matter is quite
different, in fact entirely opposite, in
Maine, to that which exists here in
Vermont. We have only one Uni
versity"; but in Maine they have two
d" fresh-water colleges" either one of
which is bigger than our university, and
each a match for the other. Conse-
quently, as neither had or could have
any hope of bagging the plumber, after
Vermont pattern, their united strength
was thrown into the effort to confine
the Maine State College Gas they call
their " Morrill," insttution) strictly to
its original purpose, as designed at the
start. Still, they have not so far de-
parted from the old model, even in
Maine, as to get on without ID. at
the head of tat least until recently;
and consequently the work has Jagged
for want of popularity with the public.
We have nothing against D. DIS; but
we never have been able to discover
their peculiar fitness for the headship
of an industrial school for farmers and
mechanics. 1t is a " time honored GUS
tom" to put them in command of liter
airy colleges and universities; and as
such institutions were all originally ec-
clesiastical in their design, a certain
fitness still remains in the association,
though the world is evidently fast out
growing such medieval survivals.
HERE is the way that the Maine
Farmer defines its position: "The
Name Farmer accepts plain, COM
nonsense Interpretation of the Ian.
guage of the law, and finds the leading
object of these institutions plainly de-
fined to be Ito teach such branches of
learning as are related to agriculture
and mechanic arts what for?-' in
order to promote the liberal and prac-
tical education of the industrial classes,
etc. Other institutions were giving
the general training, and are still doing
it, that our contemporary finds specially
provided for in the words he and we
have quoted, but the special training
for agriculture and mechanic arts was
not anywhere provided for nor any.
where to be reached at institutions then
existing. So that in the later act CIV
ing additional aid to these institutions,
to make sure that it could not be mis-
applied, it was further provided that
the money shall be applied only to IN
struction in agriculture, the mechanic
arts, the English language, and the "a
riOuS branches of mathematical, phySi-
cal, natural and economic science ,oith
special reference to their applications IN
the industries Of lDe,' etc. We claim
this language of the act not only allows
of special education in the line we adj
vocate, but that it requires that this
new line of educational work shall be a
special training in, first, agriculture,
and second, mechanic arts. The
Farmer claims this to be the mission of
these institutions, and it would have
this work thus carried on in accord
with the plain provisions of the law.
1t is easy to call these COL
leges of agriculture and mechanic arts
by their right names, and make them
conform in full to what they were in
tended, unless one has set up an ideal
of his own, like our Boston friend, that
is different from the intent. The idea
of making plainly defined colleges of
agriculture and mechanic arts insti-
buttons of general education,' with
only a little seasoning of agriculture
and mechanics sprinkled on here and
there is unaccountable when just ex-
actly the opposite is plainly laid down
in the act as their field of work, where
the leading object shall be to teach
such branches of learning as are related
to agriculture and the mechanic arts,
without eTcluding other studies,' etc.
That is, to put it in other language, to
give educational training in agriculture
and in mechanics without excluding
ether studies when deemed necessary
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