The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-26
BY WILL T. sHEEHAN.

Alabama Polytechnic Institute. one oI
 state, bears in bold relief. the. letter
 in their own way these two words
 at either end of the building snow o so
 be instructor student. or visitor. the double purpose of the institution on the East Alabama hills. And yet in
 way the lettering on the building Iails
 short of showing to the world, the en-
 tire rounded and symmetrical purpose of the college. Agriculture and me-
 Snahei meahoSs Gonid and fal if sSors of the attain ment Of higher education. While the act which created the system of land
 guaas siatesnSn eeries Senator M Morreii, and per- haps the most useful friend that educa- ton in America had during the nine
 tsenth century provided especaaiaiy aaa me. ae. chaflies, it also provided that the abili- 1, ties of the colleges should not be de- voted to them to the exclusion or s tns every one of the land grant colleges, spread over the United States and so read the law for the Alabama college, when its building was unaertaken III With even the explicit declaration of the law there were more ways than l been operated More than one policy were before the men who undertoek the great commission of running me tech- nical institution. It 1 eSula navS 3v;n peen sil who came a sort of high school manuai training and falling short of the ioI- | tier plane which marks the institution
 o Rnt no such course was taken. no such policy was followed. The college 4 was there to turn out leaders ana ui- I rectors, not mere doers by hand. The | obligation for higher education at 1 Auburn was never forgotten or is I nored. The learning how to do a ' fS.
 with vaiie the mas world when the college gates I were closed behind him. lie was learned to loosen his soul, to broaaen n his vision, to widen ms nor, norlHvn s,arsal in | the intricacies of electrical engineer l ing. that he should have been aequaint- 1 ed with the intricate, but exact science nee | sufficient to compose an education un- der the policy the Alabama teachers t,t 3
 adopted when they set out 10 caFfy t the 7 To have him conceive ideals, to nur- 1 ture and live by these ideals to ims l pregnate his bosom with a nxlty oI
 pnffai4liini ppnfaailing 'G rewards. ward mn to round out a I character that could and would ao, l that would furnish its own inspiration
 with the world fairly and, s.quarelyy 1 through disappointment and through l success-this was the goal the found
 and the keepers ,Se,r oe waY upward | tbrough the quarter of century since l the college came into being:
 l A state Opportunity. ,,. - In the life of nations, in the life or institutions, opportunity. the master Of l human destiny, plays no less lmportahtt ' l part than. in the lie of man. fhins, m tns l man, fhan, institutions or nations op l portunity knocks sooner. or late. it is those who hear. who rise ana 1olloW l that reach great things.
 In. a history Imore fit or proper time for the found- ing of the college than in the dark year s.r of 1872. The occasion and the ins,aen- o,,- ton came together at the fit and prop, CT time The South was prostrate ana
 almost hopeless. Her institutions naa 1 been obliterated. The flower Of her I manhood, the promise of her future had I perished to a half million on a hundred l battle fields. No nation has paid the kprice the South paid for her eonyictions I and for her institutions and when tne I debt had been effectively paid the South lay stricken and despairinS.
 | The life the South had known she
 was never to know again. The II lhs.luuv s,.ts ,, | with those who had builded them; The ! old industrial ideals she had cnerisnnsea | had vanished In the smoke or DatIie. l The old order was gone; a new ordef | had to be constructed. and constructea l blindly without plans or precedent ana l the work was to be laboriously done under the harassing obstacle ot ooInl- | nation by an ignorant and vicious race
 who were but yesterday servants and | the descendants of servants.
 1 Tie future was to be full of work,
 hut what sort of work was to he done7 1 With the passing of slave labor and the | old plantation. system the race oI asri- | culture, the chosen friend of Aiapama | even bore new and unfamiliar aspect. | She was to be known and wooed III
 The learned professions, the law the ministry and medicine had been | overstocked with the brilliant sons or 1 Alabama but such a condition meant | nothing special in the old wealthy days l Commerce and industry had made the | North great, but they had not until af- l fuil worth in-the South. Already the
 Northern man with his snort coa. snd snS | marking a part of her great natural | resources. They were divining the rlch | secrets of the Alabama hills, the hiding ] place of the invaluable treasure troFe
 VI Ii was at a great crisis in Alabama's 1 life that the Alabama Polytechnic m | stitute came into being. A few nights
 ago in a speech urging tho extension or | popular education heard Lieutenant | Governor Cunningham lament the Tact
 that the. trained and educatea toas Sortlset,, i1 minerals, in lumber and in the deveiop- | ment or the natural resources or AZ I,
 bama to the loss and detrImehi oj 'n onportunity had not the necessary eau l csfion. or technical training to reap the | riches that lay at his very door.
 | What Auburn has done to retorm 1 this condition, what contributions t | has made toward supplying this dehG- | iencv may not be estimated here IL | is enough to know that the men Who | thirty-three years ago availed them selves of the iiberality of the Federal government saw far ahead and pullt | their house upon rock. The poilcy | founded then has been serene! unlnter- | rtDted and successful.
 The InstitutiOH's Policy.
 The work the college set out to do, m 1 those early days, when the way was dark and the future uncertain. policy | that endures until today. Is best set l forth in a regent publication. from the 'While distinctly emphasizing me
 sciences and the practical. industrial | side of education, the college has pro" | needed wisely continuously, and, there | Fore. stecessfuily. Practical instruction | ie given fin fourteen thoroughly ap- poiTted laboratories. No school Tn the south has better in several depart ments; the facilities and appliances or i these laboratories (engines: dynamos, | S56 1o0. The laboratory method Of in- | struction prevails in every department | of practIcai work. Yet. while all thiS Ss true the institute has never lost ! sI1ht of the fact that 1t Is colleRc: | fbat ia an establishment for higher ed-
 rcation Ii has not been a mere trade | scbonl. if has not been content to teach onIv the rtlle- -of-thumb method or do- | ing work. It has aimed to give us