The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-02-04

work that we request for him an open
door to al churches and other bodies
interested in the upbunding and pros
perity of our state"
DIR. EMBREE'S ADDRESS.
The principal address, made by DR..
Embree, was as follows:
If you would propose to build an
other college in Kansas the average
person would say We have colleges
enough, too pany in fact, and with
this the matter would be disposed of so
far as he was concerned
Now the truth is there is not an
other field in the United States SO large
IN extent, In population, in wealth and
intelligence with college facilities so
limited in number and equipment as
this On paper we have enough, too
many but of places in which to get
that kind OF an education which is
properly called collegiate We have just
four in the state.
We have business schools calling
themselves colleges and academies
calling themselves universities but of
real colleges we have four with an ag-
gfegate attendance of less than a thou
sand and the work of these is largely
confined to the several localities in
which they are respectively located. OF
the 4S3 Kansas students in the college
department of the State university
1902, almost one-fourth reside in tho
town of Lawrence and cOnsidera blV
mora than one-half of the remainder
live in the IS counties nearest our east
ern border. OF the 167 colIegians in
RalSer university "a live in Baldwin
ana a ma JOr1ty of the remainder in the
southeastern portion Of the state
"Of the 1876 collegians at Washburn
6S. exactly one-half. reside in Shawnee
county, and of the % at Ottawa more
than one-half claim that town as their
home. TIE college catalogue for the
last year claims a single student from
% counties in the state, 9 counties claim
but11 each, 3 counties but ? each and
so counties Of the state do not have sc
college students all told in the colleges
Of the sta tie.
Ten counties lying Immediately
round about these colleges with an ag-
gregate population of two hundred and
students all told
But let US consider something a little
farther along on this line. From Den
yer 70 Chicago is a long ride over the
most fertile, the most rapidly growing
district in the world. but travel by what
route you please you will not pass the
doors of single we'll rounded. thor
oughly equipped institution doing uni
versity work upon scale of sufficient
therality and dignity to meet the needs
of the people, at least five millions of
whom are in Missouri Oklahoma and
Kansas. AS a consequence of this the
students from this field go elsewhere
OF necessity. One hundred and twenty
five young men from Kansas are in
Yale college today, scores and scores of
them are in the Chicago and Northwest
ern universities, Columbia, Princeton,
Wellesley, the University of Pennsvl-
vania. the Women's college at Baltimore
and number of others and thus it has
been for years that Kansas money and
Kansas talent has gone to eastern in
stitutions and remained there to our dis
advantage
Now if it were proposed to build an
additional college in this great field the
project would find ample apology in its
necessity What Kansas needs now and
must and win have some day is an in
stitution presided over by a man of ma
tional reputation, with men of the
broadest scholarship in its chairs, with
all the departments suited to this in
ventive and progressive age, with a
great denomina ton behind it pledged to
its moral conduct and material support
and put in some railway center access
sible without delay to all parts of the
state And such proposition should
be made and if made I am assured
would be hailed with open purse in all
parts of our commonwealth And it
should be made by the Methodists, not
because Methodism is superior to other
religious faiths, but for this simple and
sensible reason that there are more
Methodists in this region than there are
of any four or five of the sister churches
combined.
Not to make indicate comparisons
but TO get the facts let me say that
there is one Methodist to every four
teen of the states population, one Pres
byterian to every ffty-six. one Baptist
to every sixty-six, and one Congrega~
tionalist to every one hundred and
seven. And I believe that not only
Methodists but all classes of our best
citizens would give hearty and prideful
support to an institution founded upon
the generous lines already indicated.
That d people should raise in one year
a crop of wheat worth twenty times the
cost of its railroads, should take from
the surface Of the grounds in one year
values amounting to two hundred and
sixteen million dollars and have horses
cattle and hogs worth ore hundred and
fifty-fve millions more, not counting
coal nor oil, zinc nor salt; thar a people