4H 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



agriculture taught at the State Col- 

 lege will be duly mingled with popu- 

 lism, and whatever benefit that can 

 confer on the community at large 

 will be duly reaped. That some 

 benefit is expected may be inferred 

 from a report made by the board 

 after they had secured a new pro- 

 fessor of political economy, in which 

 they expressed themselves as follows : 

 " It is not a lack of industry or un- 

 favorable methods of farming, or the 

 unfavorableness of the climate which 

 have caused the widespread and ever- 

 increasing poverty among the agri- 

 cultural and laboring classes. The 

 unremitting toil of the farmer, in 

 which sons and daughters take part, 

 even during childhood, has indeed 

 yielded him large quantities of grain, 

 great numbers of cattle, hogs, horses, 

 and other domestic animals. He has 

 produced enough of the useful and 

 necessary things of life that, with 

 fair, equitable exchange, would bring 

 prosperity in place of poverty, com- 

 fort in place of humiliating drudgery, 

 and content and patriotism in place 

 of unrest and dissatisfaction." The 

 trouble, then, is not that the farmer 

 has not plenty of grain and animals, 

 but that he can not exchange them 

 on the terms he would wish for other 

 things. Who are the people that are 

 holding on to the other things, de- 

 manding such prices for them that 

 trade is either impossible or very 

 one-sided ? Is it the cotton manu- 

 facturer, or the boot and shoe manu- 

 facturer, or the cabinetmaker, or the 

 manufacturer of plows and other 

 farm implements ? We do not think 

 any of these would acknowledge the 

 impeachment, for if there is anything 

 they are anxious to do it is to sell, 

 and the prices they ask were never 

 so low as they are to-day. We should 

 like very much to know what rem- 

 edy Professor Will would suggest in 

 the premises. Is it not the fact that 

 what to-day is considered poverty 



would a couple of generations ago 

 have been considered comfort ? Upon 

 another page of the Journal of Soci- 

 ology, in an article by the editor, 

 Prof. Albion W. Small, we read that 

 "the toiling millions can buy with 

 their wages more comforts than they 

 ever could before," but that "the in- 

 dividual laboi'ing man is haunted by 

 the thought that he may any day 

 lose his job." Well, that is where 

 the farmer has an advantage ; he is 

 not in danger of losing his job, and, 

 according to Professor Small, he can 

 get more for his money than he ever 

 could before. He may get less for 

 his grain than formerly; but, on the 

 other hand, he has much less labor 

 both in producing it and in bringing 

 it to market. 



We do not propose, however, to 

 discuss questions of political econo- 

 my in these columns. The question 

 which seems to us full of grave inter- 

 est is, how far the party control of 

 college teaching is destined to pro- 

 ceed. The trouble, of course, is not 

 entirely new. In protectionist states 

 there is but little " liberty of prophe- 

 sying " for free-trade professors ; but 

 the case is more serious where par- 

 ties, in the interest of their own su- 

 premacy, begin to impose the teach- 

 ing of doctrines that touch the deepest 

 foundations of society. All political 

 control, however, in such matters is 

 bad. The only way to have great 

 teachers is to seek out men who have 

 profoundly studied their several sub- 

 jects, and whose disinterestedness in 

 expounding them is beyond question. 

 Such men may commit errors, but 

 they will give inspiration and will 

 so educate the judgment of their pu- 

 pils as to make them incline to sound 

 and reasonable views. He who is 

 teaching by prescription will never 

 teach with conviction. Truth does 

 not need to be prescribed; it pre- 

 scribes itself if it gets the chance. 

 The greatest enemy of truth is organ- 



