The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-11
WATERS AT HEAD.
Continued from Page oneo

time to congratulate all our people,
including this capable board of re-
gents, upon the acquisition of one so
competent for the work you are to
undertake Those for whom l am pre-
sumed to speak believe this the morn
ing of new departure and an era of
progress here not before approached.
Inc states proudest boast has ever
been the high order of her citizenship,
and her next claim to pre-eminence is
based on her husbandry. No COM
monWealth ever made more rapid ad-
vancement in like period, and we
are prone, with pride that is proper,
to speak of ours as a great state; yet
1t is but a babe in arms compared
with the giant posterity is to know.
with such an environment there is
small excuse for not having here the
foremost agricultural college in the
world; not merely in the minor mat
ter of large attendance, but in real eff
nc1ency and worth. The promotion of
better husbandry in such field, i'm
planting manful and womanly char
acter in the rising generation, and i'm
proving that farm and home life
wherein our countrys hope and safe
ty must ever have their firm founda-
lions, should be a congeniaI and suf-
hcient task for the most ambitious.
Importance of Agriculture.
kansas is well equipped with many
efficient schools for teaching all other
essential branches. but here only is one
set apart and especially designated as
'agrlcultura1;' the one where the word
Agriculture, like good Ben AdheTn' S
rame, should lead all the rest. Here,
IN the organization of training force
its foremost man and dominating mind
should not only know agriculture, with
its closely related industries, but in a
broad way BE- their aggressive cham
pion. Such subdivisions as agronomy.
soil fertility. the science of animal
breeding and feeding, veterinary sci
ence, dairying horticulture and forestry
botany, entomology, bacteriology, phys
les, farm architecture, chemistry, do
nestle science and hygiene, all strong
ly developed, belong here, in their ap
propriate relations each with proper
value, Tut their prominence need not bar
or obscure other useful branches, in
Guiding especially. plain English-its
reading spelling and composition; mat
tiers OF everyday use In which all too
many graduates are distressingly, not
to any disgracefully deficient.
Students seeking education along
lines not closely related to farm prac-
tice are amply provided for elsewhere;
If they would study medicine. theology,
law, pedagogy, advanced mathematics
or literature. music or the mandolin,
their place is not here. while those of
an agricultural and concentrating bent
belong and can be trained here as is
nowhere else intended or pretended.
THE Institution needs and its sup
porterS believe it is to have in its new
president leader who knows, and who
sympathizes with their aspirations; who
speaks the language of agriculture.
and speaking comprehends. Not an ag
riculture that means simply the study
of pumpkins and pigs, of blowing and
planting, but the underlying and gov
erning principles; an education away
from the slovenly, haphazard, wasteful
methods of today; training that leads
to more than mere subsistence through
rapus of the soil
Your rating andarecord here will rest
upon what you do for this institution
and not what you may do in exploiting
the defects of others, In the right con-
duct of this school your hands and head
and heart will be entirely full, and wis
dom will dictate that obstrusion into
the affairs of other. Kansas schools
their policies curricula or appropria-
tions-or acting on the theory that this
is a competitor or rival of some other,
requiring your interference can work
only injury to all.
Acquaintance with such schools in
general, and with this one from it's be-
ginning, justifies the claim that no man
ever entered upon a trust akin to this
of yours with larger opportunities, more
inviting possibilities unmeaSured and
immeasurable, and richer promise than
thickly strew the path of your new
duty.
These certainly furnish mount and
opportunity for great achievement No
man ever came to the service. of a more
responsive, appreciative people; a peo-
pie more generously inclined toward
employees who give value received, and
no other people more accurately gauge,
weigh, measure and value him who
serves. 1t is for these and from these
that 1 bring you greetings"