The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-09-04
LIKES new SCHOOL
SCOPE OF THE AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGE, TOLD BY A TEACHER.
A SCHOOL WITH A MISSION
Fills Its Place Admirably When Prop
erly Conducted-Must Keep Close
to the People It Wishes
to Serve.

Prof. r. L. Downing of Philadelphia
a school man who experience extends
through long years of hard work, is a
the Butte. He is EN- route home from d
trip to the Pacific coast and gave ar
interesting talk to reporter this fore
noon. Mr. Downing is connected with
the agricultural college of his native
state, is a man of wide experience. an
author Of some note and likes to talk of
his hobby. He said:
The !d-fashioned college knows its
own mind and method. The backwoods
university that is hardly more than "A
respectable academy is never in doubt
about it's curriculum or the wisdom of
Stuffing its students with Greek. For a
thousand years the main lines of work
OF such schools have been laid out. They
never question the souhdness Of their
p!an. They ask no advice. Why should
they? Have not the great men of the
modern centuries been trained by their
methods and by teachers who never knew
other methods?
But the agricultural college is new
thing under the sun. 1t began its work
with an appropriation. but without
definite plan. There are forty or fifty
agricultural colleges in the United States,
each of them unlike every other one,
every one of them modelled in some de-
gree after the fashion of the classical
college. A considerable number of them
are departments Of state universities,
AS in California, Minnesota and Wis
consin. Others are independent as in
Kansas. Colorado and M:chisan-the lat
ter the mother of most of the independ-
ent institutions, its graduates the con-
trolling spirits in a large share Of the
younger colleges. The agricultural coll
reyes OF Colorado and Kansas are types
OF those modelled after the Michigan pat
term and partaking of it's spirit though
each mas departed in important respects
from the plans of the mother college.
II nave said that the agricultural col
leges started with an appropriation but
Wlthout plan. The saying is too true
II was easy to spend the appropria tons,
out, not easy to discover an appropriate
work for the new colleges although the
act which authorized Their creation seems
plain enough in its provisions and man
dates. 1t declared that the leading OBJ
ject' of these schools was to be Ito teach
such branches of learning as are related
To agriculture and the mechanic arts.
in order to promote the liberal and prac-
teal education of the industrial classes"
1t was not easy to find men WHO could
plan and carry on a scheme of educa
tlon ana training III harmony with the
fdea behind the Merrill act and it is !
proDabie that few intelligent efforts We're
made to find such men. Who was COM
petent to find the first one?
And when it did happen as in Kansas
III 1873. that president was chosen who
had original ideas and organizing power
VINO believed in educating the Industrial
classes along Industrial lines his difficult
ties were made harder to overcome by
his own subordina ties. who were welded
10 the methods and the purposes of the
classical colleges of the time. President
Anderson. shortly after he had reorean-
Hed the Kansas Agricultural college in
harmony With the purpose and provisions
or the Morrill, act. came home from q
Trip through the state in the interest Of
the college to find that his faculty. had
organized rebellion. so determined were
they not to allow the college to EXPERT
ment with the new course of study OUT
"hed ny president. who was not in har-
"'ohy with the old ways A weak man
would nave submitted. But Anderson was |
not weak. he led the faculty together.
rad authorized him to reo,ganze the
Whoie institution, ard pointedly asked
them ii they We're going to work with |
him or a 'nst h m. He had his wav and
did great work for one of the most |
successful of the agricultural co1le.as
THE agricultural colleges have not /
fonnd their fed. but MANY of them are
rndlng it. Most of them have been look |
ing too high: they have been foreetPrl |
or the fact that agriculture deals with |
the ear'h and the earthly. as we'll as
with the sunshine and the rain that |
come from above. They have heen
proud. and at the same time ashamed. |
unconscious of the great fact that the |
nest title to honor is genuine service |
where service is most needed Within |
their own walls they have hindrances, |
mere are professors in agricultural col |
Ieges-and presidents not a few, T fear !
VINO cannot meet farmer as a man: |
pedants they are, who have |
little but contempt for the parents of
their Students Pride goeth before a |
FALL" but humility hrngeth the know,- |
edge that is power-rower to feel and 20 |
see and to do.
An agricultural college ought to be
near the ground, near the people If is
intended to serve. Its mission being to |
the industrial classes" it ought to work
Tor them. Its teachers ought to be |
more than mere teachers: they ought to |
be believers in the classes to whom they
are called to minister. They need not
lack wide outlook. thorough scholarship
and genuine culture ., be in real SYM
PATTY with the worlds workers If |
they have contempt for the farmer and
the mechanic they cannot be genuinely |
successful teachers of the sons of the
farmers and mechanics: they cannot be
enthusiastic instructors in the branches
of learning related to agriculture and |
the mechanic arts" The young man
who discovers that his parents are only
tolerated when they visit him at the
agricultural college will soon learn to be
~ AAt&l 4 M |