The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-07-04
THE A. AND M. COLLEGE.

of the history of the institution wrote
in full. and not in misinterpreted ex
tracts. will put Colonel Polk in a better
light than you have done, without de
tracing from anybody else or attribut
ING 10 ANYBODY parts of the work he
aid not do. You are mistaken if you
s1npose it detracts from the fame of
one TO mention other co-workers in the
came connection; it adds to his fame,
because it indicates no bias in favor of
anv. Those who remember what I have
done, botk for Colonel Polk and the
A. and NJ. College, would be very slow
to believe I would do any injustice to
either. The truth is the best justice to
both. The correction l make is in
the interest of the truth of history,
because if I had allowed to pass any
statement in the public print tending
to confuse or mislead, those misinform
ed might have come to a false conclu-
sion on account of my silence. As I
am in the best situa ion to know and
speak of my own knowledge, what l
SAY will be accepted as final and con
elusive as between me and those who
had less advantages for knowing. The
universally received Interpretation of
the history I wrote, among the hun
dreds who oftheir own knowledge are
ready to testify of its truth as I inter
pref it is: Cd that the Watauga Club
began the movement for industrial edu
49, --IsoI .oo,IAoI - A. ozAoI1SoL
ment of the A. and M College; q that
they guided the movement and shaped
the legislation from start to finish, and
that they were as much the leaders In
securing thelast Act as the first; g. that
they accepted gratefully the services
of friends, and among them Colonel
Polk, who enabled them to influence
people they had not reached; "a that
after Colonel Polk entered the fight lin
1856 he was by far the most outspoken
advocate of taking the Landscrip Fund,
81, 5OQper year, and it was not general
ly believed hat the fgtht for this fund
would succeed; % that the certainty of
the Hatch Fund, $15, OF per annum, the
increased public interest and the gen
erosity of Mr.. Pullen and others, led to
suggestions among it's friends for the
enlargement of the institution, and
calling it by higher sounding names
acknowledgements of course; Co. teach
ing mechanics and agriculture was as
much the object of the Act of 1885,
when the institution was started, as of
the Act of 1887 (amendatory of the first
act), when the provisions for the insti-
tuition were completed, and the first act
was made the lever by which the last
act was passed; CO that for many
months next after the agitation began
the Watauga Club published the only
literature that had ever been published
in this State on industrial education,
giving the history in 1~884-85-'86 of in
dustrial schools, of A. and M. Colleges
the progress of industrial education in
schools and colleges in this country and
in Europe. Nobody in 1887 could have
thought that the idea of an A. and M.
College as distinguished from an In
dUstriGI School was anything new after
that agitation, except a man totally
= 1Q0OIaQB OIL bA0 "UOl0 SuOJSCU. Al
though Colonel Polk took no part in
the discussion for nearly two years
after the agitation began, I certainly
could not allow him to be accused OF
being so ignorant of the subject in 1887,
or at any other time as to suppose that
he was demanding a different sort OF
industrial education from the Vantage
Club. or that there was any difference
sbetween the mechanics and agriculture
taught in an institution called an In.
dustrial School and the mechanics and
agriculture taught in an institution
called an A. and M. College.
The fight for the principle was toe
serious to allow quibbling about the
I'm under which it should be EN-.
bodied The statement that the move
ment fell through is utterly untrue.
The E~dgecomble resolution was men
toned in the history was disposed of in
a way you forgot to publish. I was
only trying to write the history of the
institution we had started, not of ideas
or vague notions which bore no fruit,
Nobody w pretended there was any
connection between that resolution and
our institution, for we had never heard
of it. You failed to show, too, that
Colonel Polk was connected with the
resolution. Chapel Hill was put down
as. an Agricultural College, and as such
drew h LsaGscFip FGhd, and for