News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-04-29

justices of the Supreme Court of the Uni
ted States; the general of the army and
his staff; representatives of foreign gov
ernments; senators and representatives
in Congress-all to give silent expression
to genuine grief at the loss of personal
friend. This man is my witness.
The Carnegie report quotes Senator
Morrill, as saying that his motive in in
Producing the Immigrant bills was de-
sire ''to do something for the farmer"
So it was; but not in the narrow sense
of the Carnegie report. Senator Morrill,
took a much broader view, and was equal
y solicitous for the artisan and mechanic.
His purpose was, not to educate the boys
Of our State in agricultural lines alone,
but to give them that liberal education
which would be of larger benefit to them,
and fit them for greater service.
The Foundation further intimates on
page 40 that when the first Morrill, act
was passed Senator Morrill, did not have
any clear idea Of what sort of institu-
ton was to be developed for the benefit
Of the people on the farm" The record
of the congressional debates from 1858 to
1862 does not seem to bear out this state
the sort of service they would render.
i Surely no one who ever exchanged a word
with him on this subject, which was the
one nearest his heart and one of which
he most delighted to speak, will give the
slightest credence to the Foundations
statement. No man ever had clearer
concept of an institution than Senator
Morrill, had of what Immigrant college
ought to be. Indeed, it was given him
to see, a full half century in advance of
the times, that there is no logical stop
/ ping place between a public support OF
elementary education and public sup
port of the highest university education"
+ And I want to be recorded as one be-
! levTng-the Carnegie Foundation to the
contrary notwithstanding-tha Vermont
will never have an ideal nor adequate
system of education, until law is pass
! ed that will enable boy born on white
Rocks Farm" we'll up on the side of
Sterling Mountain, beginning with the
primary schools to pass along up through
grade after grade in grammar and high
schools, and thence on through college to
/ graduate degree-all in institutions
supported at public expense and without
the expenditure of a penny for tuition.
This conception is neither new nor or
isinal. Jefferson conceived and advocated
! it years ago: Senator Morrill, hoped to
! live long enough to see it accomplished
] It is a gratuitous and undeserved insult
to the youth of our State to insinuate
that they do not deserve this. I insist
that the boy from white Rocks Farm
and it is from just such places that We
4 get some of our most virle manhood
should, so far as educational possibilities
= are concerned, stand on level with the
boy whose father pays an income tax.
The chances are that he will deserve and
appreciate his opportunity more than the
latter The mere accident of birth should
not be an educational handicap. Educa-
tion at public cost is not undertaken for
the benefit of the individual, but for the
benefit of the State. If good citizenship
depends upon education in any appreciable
degree, the best is none to good for the
3 Vermont born boy.
! I simply refuse to believe that our cir
cumstances will not allow us to adopt
such system as I have suggested. In
deed, we are altogether too poor and too
proud to do less
1t may have been noticed that I have
spoken of these colleges as Immigrant
/ colleges. This is the name which Sena-
tor Morrill, used in referring to them. He
i occasionally referred to the "so-ealled
Agricultural Colleges" In his address be-
fore the legislative committee in 1890,
during the contest already referred to.
he spoke of what are ordinary called
the Agricultural Colleges And then he
went on to say: 81 may say that the in
dex maker of the Congressional Globe in
1862 gave them that title and it has SEEM
ed to stick ever since; the colleges were
,emphatically Immigrant colleges" So
persistent was he in this view, that in
the title of a bill introduced by him in
1879. he referred to these colleges as ma
tional colleges for the advancement OF
general scientific and Industrial educa-
ton"
II Is idle to say that they were to be
Agricultural Colleges, exclusively. AS we
have already seen they were to promote
, the liberal as well as the practical educa-
ton Of the industrial classes In the sew
. eral pursuits and professions Of life. The
b debates in Congress show that while ag-
/ riculture was most talked Of and may
; have been of first consideration with most
Z Of the members, it was well understood