Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1915-11-05

millions outside, with their pathetic
need of the entrance of the word which
giveth light and their myriad problems
which only trained and masterful leader
ship car ever hope to solve. If you will
pardon a personal testimony, | have
often felt that what | have termed the
Vermont motive, the passionate pur-
pose to be true to the magnificent
spirit which built a commonwealth in
the Green Mountain hills and the eager
desire TO bring the vision of worthy life
10 the jewellers in the scattered hamlets
of the Green Mountain valleys-that
this motive has been worth, in the
maintenance of ideals and in the en-
enlargement of patience and grit, in
finitely more than the orders drawn
~semi-annually by the Auditor of Ac-
counts of the State to the Treasurer of
Middleburv College, and l have felt too
a pc culiarly sacred responsibility in the
handling of funds freely granted by a
humble people for the use of their
promising sons and daughters-trust
funds, beside which no gifts of individ-
ual donors, living or dead, can be more
sacred.
A second advantage in favor of the
historic New England method is the in
innate relation it encourages between
the college and the people of the
commonwealth. Men feel an ownership
in what they help to pay for. That
part of their taxes go to the support of
a college gives them much more Of a
sense of possession in it than any share
IN the appointment of it's governing Of
ficers. When a free people of their own
will devote a part of their public means
to the maintenance of an institution of
higher learning, it means not only that
they have a sense of proprietorship in
it which they could not otherwise ac-
uuire, but that their whole life is lifted
to a worthier and loftier plane because
of their cooperation in an unselfish en-
science and of learning.
The reciprocal influence upon the
: coll ege, in keeping its officials in touch
t with those who lead in public affairs,
and in encouraging its instructors to re-
gard themselves as servants of the
2 public and brothers of the humblest in
! the promotion of the public good, is not
2 to be despised. 1t is sometimes urged
t as an objection to State appropriations
4 to Independent colleges that the prac-
2 tice leads college presidents into politics
and tempts them to become lobbyists.
1t is not beyond the range of possibility
Y that a little politics may be a good thing
l for a college president. My own eX-
! perience is that lobbying in a State
! gislature is one of the most delightful
= and educating experiences in which
e person can engage. To stand IN youl
f feet before a legislative committee,
composed of lawyers and merchants anC
S Yankee farmers, strong all of them ir
= common sense and in shrewd bushes!
instinct, and to show them the worth tC
= the State of higher educational oppor
| tunity for its young men ard women
C and to get the response of their idealisn
g and to feel their sympathy in your worl
f of trying to lead youth to their best anC
highest, is to catch a new vision O.
d optimism as to American life and to ado
f nightly to your store of courage as t.
the VOL tn and dignity of your daily
work and the permanance of the Ameri
: can college as an essential element il
e the life of the American nation. Pardon
/, the testimony, but | have never talked
with a representative from even one OF
: the smallest of the two hundred anC
i forty six towns of Vermont who ex
pressed any doubt as to the value Of
: higher education, any question as to the
desirability of an old line Yankee col
e lege continuing and 1ourishing, any
r other desire than that the youth of hi:
d State should have college privilege:
S equal to the best hat can possibly be
= secured for them. / have never had t
argue to s~ubstantiate the worth of my
college. My only task has been t
e balance it's needs with other public
d needs, and in that reconciliation | hav,
been met with a spirit of fairness ant
s indeed of generosity.
A third advantage Of the traditiona
New England method is that it keep
e before the public mind the extremel,
valuable holdings of the New Englan,
y public in their higher educational foun
dations. When the State apportion
:, such share of its income as it ma,
It properly expend upon higher education
among institutions within it's border
which are willing to cooperate to pub
y lie ends, the people of the State COM
to regard all such cooperating institu