The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-06-10

will There can be no limit set to the
ideals of a State University. 1t must be
the source of power to all below it, or
fail miserably, and everything may be
taught in it necessary to citizenship,
livelihood and character in the goth CEN
tury. After Isolation, war, submersion
we are entering into membership into the
modern world. Immense combinations of
endeavor and capacity face the isolated
individual. Not only is there needed the
directive brain and the cunning hand,
the factory and the blast furnace, but
the man who has the right public spirit
and the force to make himself felt; the
thinking man who sees that civic unity
and community effort must replace the
raw individualism and the dsunion and
rage of section, party, and sect. This is
The social engine to create that benign
force. Three great needs appear in or
der to bring about this result:
l. An appropriation of fifty thousand
dollars a year as an investment in man
hood and directive capacity.
3 A scientific, business like organiza-
ton of the alumni demanding what is
right and getting it, and opening their
own purses for the good of alma mater.
g. A broader and more effective scheme
of administration.
The University has grown amazing.s
since 1875 as these gentlemen can see.
In the last nine years the numbers have
increased one hundred and fifty per cent
while it's income has increased only
twenty-five per cent. It's standards have
been maintained and advanced. l have
nj in
it is at it's high water mark in numbers,
equipment and income, but l have a
truer and finer satisfaction in declaring
that this is due largely to those whU
went before me and to the labors
OF those who have worked with me, to
the high mindedncss, the faith and sa-
gacity of Kemp p. Battle, to the energy
and resourcefulness and power of Geo. T.
Winston, to the loyalty and cooperation
of the faculty and trustees through all
the years. This splendid achievement
has been made through grinding econo-
my, ceaseless toll vigilant. quick-eyed
appreciation of popular needs. There has
been no Olympian nonsense here. The
University has kept it's eyes on the peo-
pie. 1t has let no grass grow between
the public schools and it's doors, and if
for it, 1t has gone out into the high
ways and hedges and beaten in the
throng. 1t has taken great risks. 1t has
denied itself decencies, comforts and alb
solute necessities. 1t has poured it's
small income into daily instruction. 1t
has helped thousands to come here
through loans and scholarships. 1t has
set the pace in the Southern States for
hi
All that unselfishness aud economy. all
that devotion and saving, and turning of
old clothes can do has been done The
great need is not to scrimp and save
but to get something to spend wisely for
large growth. Enthusiasm and faith will
not equip laboratories nor build Univer-
stiles. We need to know that one hun
dred thousand dollars year is a very
small income for modern University.
In the East and Northwest, institutions
are not taken seriously unless they have
that much force behind them. The
South has caught the idea We need
money so that we may rise sharply from
out the plains, ample and even magnif1-
cent, so that the world may know that
this is indeed the eldest child of the
State, SO that philanthropy may feel sure
of it's gift, so that new departments may
be organized, old departments may be re-
newed, new teachers employed, worthy
teachers better paid. the spirit of hope
and assured growth spread about.
This is the work to be done by the
alumni and friends of the University
guided and inspired by the administra-
ton. To that end the executive should
be freed from small details and given
some time to think, to speak authorita-
lively on educational questions, to move
helpfully among the people, to mould
larger policies, to represent fully Uni
versity culture at home and abroad. And
to that end the alumni should band them
selves together in tight and strong or
ganizations along the lines suggested last
year and to be further elaborated to-
night. The enormous and sentimental