The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-21
TEACH FEARS WAR IN EUROPE MAY AFFECT TECHS ATTENDANCE
Unless Farmers Are Aided to Hold Cotton Sons May Be Unable to Go to
 College

w That the war in Europe will undoubted- N affect the enrolment at Auburn unless settled very quickly, because of the fact that the reaping of the southern cotton harvest is of prime importance to that institution was the statement made here yesterday by Dr. Charles :. Thach, presi- dent of the Alabama Polytechnic institute. He said that the boys who go to Auburn come in a great measure from the farm and that the presence of those boys go to make up the majority of the college enyollment.
 Tt follows, therefore, said pr. Thach at the Tutwiler yesterday. that if the cotton crop is not handled properly and with the end in view If compensating She farmers adequately that our enroll ment will be below the average. I am of the hope that the cotton proposition will be so adjusted as to recompense the agricultural interests of this state It oc- CUTS to me that anything less than an adequate protection for. tho farmers will be very greatly to the deriment of this state.
 There can be no question in the mind of those who are familiar with the fact that SS per cent of our wealth comes from the farms, but what a proper financ- ing of the farming interest is of greater and more vital interests than any one feature of this horrible situation. l fully realize this and am constrained to believe that there will be arranged some measure of protection for those persons upon whom we depend for the greatest measure of our prosperity. The steel mills, furnaces and plants are all right in their place, but when it comes to show down the men vno make this state are not those who manage steel plants and furnaces and department stores and other civic proposi- tions, but the men who are blowing in the hottest of June suns. It Is these men who send their sons to Auburn to receive the education along agricultural lines that are going to enrich our state.
 Tt is these men who go to make up the wealth of Alabama. l have been in Birmingham attending the Farmers union, of which I am a devoted member. From them l have learned that the crop M this state for the year was to have been the greatest that the south and the state has ever known. This war in Flu rope, However, has certainly compromised that S1tudtlon our government anu th' men in Wall street that are in touch with the financial pulse nave undertaakeil to remedy the situation, and l believe that they will be successful in their work. In the meantime the interests of the whole state are jeopardized if the farmers of Alabama are not adequateiy protected.
 That situation affects Auburn and all that affects that institution is naturally dear to my heart. We have worked there for years to create a school which will do it's duty to Alabama, and I believe that we have in a measure succeeded. It will be an irreparable loss if this European conflict is permitted to interfere with that success to which we are enttled.'
 pr. Thach said that the enrolment at Auburn this year will be the greatest Ain the history of the college if the wal As hastily settled, or the farmers protect ed. He would not say that he would lose many students unless the war was set tied, but it was plain to see that he was in a measure pessimistic about the gen. eral situation.
 He was a luncheon guest of his brother Robert Thach, yesterday and conferred al length with officers of the Farmers union pr. Thach left later for Auburn.