The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-06-12

ILLINOIS, ana a me1nDer or the class OF 90
Our free education is not free. 1t
is made possible to the many by pub
lie expenditures, and to the individual
by parental sacrifice and labor; and
next to the debt We owe our parents
for education is our obligation to the
state, in the anticipated payment of
which rests the only justification of
public support for such institutions
as this.
The trained intellect, the clear
thought, the honest mind, and the
force Of character and power of know
ledge were never of greater service
than our future needs will demand, for
no country ever faced a greater con-
fict than now confronts America-in
which the great agricultural states
must constitute the battle field; and if
we win the battle We set a new stand
ard for the race.
If l were asked to summarize the
history of our race in a single SEN
tence, / should quote the words
Westward the course of empire takes
it's way" and add the phrase: leav-
ing poverty and ruin behind.
Poverty is at once helpless and soon
ignorant, for an impoverished people
oonnNt offprI a6nptIofn cnhnnlC or
schooling. That South Dakota is the
most prosperous state of the most
prosperous nation may be true today,
and even with little OF no credit to
the present generation; but can you
make permanent prosperity possible
for your children? That is the prob
lem the Aryan race has eve solved.
Let me ask, lot where was but
where is the great Babylonian Empire?
Was there a land which Flowed with
milk and honey which now supports
only marauding bands of Arabs and
villages Of beggars?
And where is the great Roman EN-
pire wherein Augustus Caesar ruled
from the Euphrates river to the Eng
lish Channel, when Christ was born in
Bethlehem of Judea, and the angels
sang, Peace on earth, good will to-
ward men," Was there one a high
civilization in the Mediterranean coun-
tries which gave to the world a Ra-
phael, a Michael Angelo, a Cicero, and
a ST. Paul? And when the westward
course of empire reached the western
shores of Europe, was this high civil
ization followed by a thousand years of
dark ages? Yes, and dark ages still
exist for four hundred millions of our
own Aryan ace in India and Russia;
although the discovery of a New World
has brought new supplies of food, new
life and light, and some measure OF
renewed prosperity and temporary re-
lief to the population of western
Europe.
But even there the pinch of poverty
Is again being felt, and already in this
new country the most common sub
ject of public concern is the high cost
Of plain Lying.
Westward the course of empire
takes it's way" and the original >thir-
teen states of America can no longer
produce sufficient food to support their
own people. Millions of acres Of once
fertile farm lands now lie agricultural
ly abandoned from New England to
New Orleans; and the North Central
States from Ohio to Dakota have be-
come no longer the granary of the
world, but merely of America.
But farther west the course of en-
pire cannot 60. Right here the great
westward flow Of civilization must turn
back upon itself, and from our depleted
or depicting soils can we support an
ever increasing population? This Is
the problem of America and of Da-
kota. How shall it be solved? Is the
question you must answer; and for
this purpose the state has trained
your intellect, enlarged your know
ledge, increased your power of mind
and force of character.
Ten percent of the people must do
the thinking for the masses. You
are part Of this ten percent. Eye are
the salt of the earth" Does history
repeat itself? And will you permit Da-
kota to repeat the agricultural history
of the Atlantic states?
1t was in 1850 that Liebig wrote the
following words:
"The deplorable effects of the spoila-
ton system of farming are nowhere
more strikingly evident than in Amer
lea, where the early colonists in Can
ada, in the state of New York.. in
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, etc.,
found tracts of land, which for many
years, by simply blowing and sowing
yield a succession of abudanant wheat