The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-06-12
lring President of the University of North Carolina.

large growth. Enthusiasm and faith Will
not equip laboratories nor build Univer-
stiles. We need TO know that one hun
dred thousand dollars a year is a very
small income for a 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 mugnir-
cent, 50 that the world may know tina
this IS indeed the eldest child Of tho
state, so that philanthropy may feel sure
Of its gift, so that new departments NAV
be organized, ola departments may be re-
newed, new teachers employed, worthy
teachers better paid, the spirit or hope
and assured growth spread about.
This is the work to he 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
CARNATIONS along the lines suggested last
year anu to be further elaborated to-
night. The enormous ana sentimental
and practical force of this great body
instead Of wasting itself in memories and
boastings and amenities or bewailings
should find itself, and know itself as 4
weapon IN every community, well-kait
to alma mater and clear OF purpose to
hrot Ja,rD o,poc;YTno oIJ ,,,-o 49,.
great, noble state to sustain and
strengthen the Institution that gave them
their Intellectual liberty. Thousands Of
men who do not call it mother. but who
have got the religion Cf public spirit and
State pride Will lend 4 hand. And there
is no despair in the task or in my heart,
dear friends, as to the final results. 1t
is absurd to say that this State will not
do the large, just thing by its ~institu-
lions when It knows just what that thing
is, and our people have a good, old-fash-
toned way Of submitting to being talked
to. The State is too great and sagaciOus
not to do right and the University is too
worthy not to deserve right treatment.
There is needed boldness but kindness of
speech and an end forever to the apollo
getic manner. The State has a right to
build up its University. The man that
says tHIC II ld9 y IL IISuI ID SDtIh-
! ing puny words against a spirit as strong
as ccnf:1on sense, as solemn as the in
stinct CT self-preservation and as resist
less as the winds Of nature. And it has
the wealth TO do it too. A new State
has been born in these twenty-five years.
This is not the State that lay barely con-
valescent from the fever of war, Strug-
Cling to endure, without energy IN law
or order in society, when Graham and
Steele and Cameron and Battle and Saun-
derS and Phillips and Winston and Graves
and Manning and a hundred others pluck
! ed these buildings from grass and weeds,
and with hope and self-denial as their
comrade sought to make a University
with an income Of seventy-fve hundred
dollars a year. North Carolina has be-
come a great industrial community. The
frenzy and fever of accumulation has got
ten into its blood. 1t has learned the
hang of industrial success stolen from
its fathers, while they slept under the
deadening touch Of slavery. From count
less thousands OF looms and spindles and
! whirring saws and clacking machinery
come the shouts and songs Of power and
| success. Wealth has come, and if this
State with its central position and breed
OF strong men, permit States 10 the
North of it and States to the South of it
to develop tleif INSTITUTIONS, Whlie TINS
stragetic possibility with its beauty. with
its heroic past is left to starve in medi-
| ocrity and is not turned into a great act
uality with q splendid present, this neg
lect will be the saddest instance in the
| history of democratic countries. of a fail
ure to use a great, God-giyen oppOrtu-
nifty.
1t has seemed to me to be my duty to
set my hand to work elsewhere in this
Southern land. With what sadness and
regret I have elected to do this thing. |
may not speak, but ! may believe that
every good man sympathizes. ! have
| come to know afreat. Gear friends, that
this is quite the pleasantest spot on earth
to me. Here I first learned the secret
Of love and here | have made acquain-
| lance with grief. Here the scholars life
first showed itself admirable and fair
to my eyes. Here in company OF unself-
ish men and ardent youth | have done
the days work as the days went by: |
! 60 to wide and honorable labor, but all
the fine aspirations of my heart shall at,
all times, stretch their hands hither-
! ward and lift up their eyes TO these hills
for help-in the grim winter, when the
sun blazes against the ranes OF the severe
old buildings: in the soft spring, when
| greenness and blooming fall like magic
| about the campus byways; in the autumn
time when the maple leaves flame red,
like fire, in the eager air. May God put