Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-31
ROOSEVELT TALKS
At LANSING, MICH,
Makes a Speech at Anniversary
of a College.
SOME EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
President Also Discusses the Dignity
Of Labor at Length.
FARMERS NEED COOPERATION
Business Management On a Farm
Warmly Lauded for It's Bene-
fit to the Nation.

LANSING. Mich. May 31.-Presidcnt
Roosevelt. whose address this afternoon on
the campus of the Michigan Agricultural
College will be the climax of the semi
centennial of the founding of that famous
institution. arrived in Lansing at 10 o'clock
this morning over the Lake Shore in his
special car. He made number of short
addresses during the morning from his car
platform at small towns. Special excur-
sion trains had been bringing in thousands
of people since daylight and when the
Presidents train arrived the number of
strangers in the city was estimated at
5OCt0.
Twelve companies of the Michigan Ma
tional Guard had been brought into the city
to escort and guard the President, together
with a troop of cavalry from South Haven.
Mich, and two divisions of the Michigan
Naval Reserve. The Presidents train ar
rived at the Lake Shore depot, which is To-
Gated on the river front fifty feet below the
level of Michigan avenue.
Militia in Line.
Eight companies of militia and the cav
airy were In line on Michigan avenue to
keep back the thousands of people who
crowded around 4or a glimpse of the chief
executive as he climbed the stairway to the
street, escorted by Gov. Fred Warner and
United States Senators ]. c. Burrows and
William Alden Smith. y battery of the
Michigan National Guard Numbered sa-
lutte of twenty-one guns from it's position
on the Michigan avenue bridge when the
President entered his carriage. His speech
to the large crowd that assembled to hear
him was as follows:
The fiftieth anniversary of the founding
of this college is an event of national sig
nificance, for Michigan was the first state
In the Union to found this the first agri-
cultural college in America. The nation is
TO be congratulated on the fact that the
Congress at Washington has repeatedly
enacted laws designed to aid the several
states in establishing and maintaining agri-
cultural and mechanical colleges. / greet
all such colleges. through their representa-
tives who have gathered here today and
bid them Godspeed in their work | no less
heartily invoke success for the mechanical
and agricultural schools; and | wish TO say
that have heard particularly good reports
OF the Minnesota Agricultural High School
for the way in which it sends its graduates
back TO the farms to work as practical
farmers.
AS people there is nothing in which we
take juster pride than our educational
system. II is our boast that every boy or
girl has the chance TO get a school train
Ing; and we feel it is prime national duty
TO furnish this training free, because only
he fypa of
citizenship in the average American Our
public schools and colleges have done
our citizens deserving of heartIer praise
than the men and women who teach in
them.
Need of Additional Education.
Nevertheless, for at least a generation
we have been waking to the knowledge
that there must be additional education be-
yond that provided in the public school as
1t is managed today. Our school system
has hitherto been welI-nigh wholly lacking
on the side of industrial training. of the
training which fits u man for the shop and
the farm. This Is a most serious lack. for
one can look at the peoples OF mankind
they stand az present without realizing
that industrial training is one of the most
potent factors in national development
We of the United States must develop a
system under which each individual citizen
shall be trained so as TO be effective indi-
a q he
organized with his fellows so that he and
they can work in efficient fashion together
This question is vital to our future prog
ress, and public attention should be
focused upon IL. Surely ii is enlinently in
accord with the principles of our demo-
cratic life that we should furnish the high
est average industrial training for the
ordinary skilled workman. But il is a
curious thing that in industrial training
we have tended TO devote our energies TO
producing high-grade men at the top
rather than in the ranks. our engineering
schools. for instance, compare favorably
with the best in Europe whereas we have
done almost nothing to equip the private
mechanic. the metal worker, the car
penter. Indeed, too often our schools train
away from the shop and the forge; and
this fact. together with the abandonment
Of the old apprentice system, has resulted
IN such absence of facilities for provid
ing trained Journeymen that in many OF
our trades almost all the recruits among
the workmen are foreigners. Surely this
means that there must be some systematic
method provided for training young men
in the trades. and that this must be CO.
ordinated with the public school system.
No industrial school can turn out finished
journeyman: but IT can furnish the ma
terial out OF which a finished journeyman
can be made, just as an engineering school
furnishes the training which enables its
graduates speedily to become engineers
Pauper Labor.
We hear a great deal of the need OF pro-
tecting our workingmen from competition
with pauper labor. 1 have very little fear
OF the competition of pauper labor. The
nations with pauper labor are not the for
mdable industrial competitors of this
country. What the American workingman
has TO fear is the competition of the highly
skilled wOrkmgman of the countries OF
greatest Industrial efficiency. BY the tarln
and by Immigration laws we can al
ways protect ourselves against the COM
petition of pauper labor here at home;
but when we contend for the markets of
the world get no protection, and
we shall then find that our most formi-