The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-03-29

1ect for which he is pecularlyfitted
He has lived in this country from
the time that OK carts were il
vogue until the present day, wheI
people ride in automobiles, and hi
has watched the country attain {
remarkable growth.
Mr.. Cray said that the resources
OF the country should be advertised
extensively but this had been
shamefully neglected. Even des
erts received more publicity thar
this beautiful part of the state.
THE trouble with the people OF
this part of the state is that they
have relied Oh the resources to adj
vertise themselves, while they should
have done it themselves instead
Gentlemen Of the press, this is an
opportunity to make known far and
wide the resources of this country
for it is through the press that ii
is to be accomplished. -
II notice with regret sometimes,
the space given in local papers to
letters from some far-off country
which praises that country to the
very skies, letters whose authors
state that they have found the Gar
den of Eden, while the country
right around us is very much bet.
ter. 1t leads people to leave this
part of the state when they should
be coming in.
Now when l approach a subject
before an audience of men who are
moulders of public opinion and who
should be leaders of public opinion
] should do so with some delicacy.'
Spoke on Education.
Judge Cray took for his main topic
the faultiness Of too much education
at public expense. He said that he
had yet 10 cast his vote against
appropriations of money for educa-
ton at the public expense, for it
has been a Godsend to the country,
but education at public expense
should be confined to the graded
and high school and the smaller In
situations Of learning.
The high school at present is
merely a stepping stone to the uni
versity. Those who seek to learn
a special trade or profession should
nav for their tuition and should not
be educated at public expense. These
large universities turn out scien-
lists, artists, professional men, ca
pable of earning from $4,000 to $lO,-
coo a year.
Are we not going too far and
practicing an injustice to those who
cannot send their children to these
larger places of learning? We are
building up veritable oligarchy.
Last wear the state university and
state fair associations asked for and
almost demanded an appropriation
sufficient TO build up the entire city
Of Mankato.
This means a great Capitalization
of education, il means a depopula-
ton of the rural regions the young
men will be absorbed in the large
cities, and will result in detriment
TO the large cities themselves. for
they depend in a measure upon the
farms for their foodstuffs. Have we
reached the top and are we gong
down? According to the census re-
ports we have. If we have what are
the reasons?
Revolution Is Taking Place.
"a revolution is slowly taking place
at the state university. Iowa is more
evenly balanced than Minnesota, for
we have two great cities almost as
one, and we have one of the largest
educational institutions in the, coun-
try. one of these while in Iowa,
they have no exceedingly large cities
as educational centers. This is one
reason why land is selling so mucn
higher there than here although not
as productive.
"Why not, instead of having one
great agricultural college, have
dozen or a hundred small ones that
are more far-reaching and that will
cater more 20 the farmer. ] believe
that this can be done. We can con-
meet the agricultural college with the
high schools and by so doing keep
the boys at home.
ut is hard to educate old men, and
they are prone to decline to listen to
these suggestions. The farmer would
rather take a lesson from his boy
than he would from an expert, and
so We should cater to the boy and
by proper training. Through the
means of the federated Commercial
clubs or development associations,
we should be able to change the
present conditions to more ideal
ones"
Mr.. Cray said that the good that
can be accomplished by commercial
organizations had been we'll touched
upon by Mr.. Soaring, and therefore,
he would not dwell on that point.
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Captain c. c. Whitney of the
acknowledgements, outlined the ar
rangements made for the excursion