148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



duty to get out of the way whenever it appeared best for the Uni- 

 versity. 



There was nothing in which people theorized more than in educa- 

 tion. They got up ideal systems for ideal boys. But the boys do 

 not hang upon our lips. They have ideas and wants of their own, 

 and in our University every one studies what he chooses. But it 

 might be asked, would this institution teach what we want — the 

 arts, etc., — and will it make a science of horticulture, etc., in case we 

 give the pupils the privilege to study what they please ? In answer 

 to this he would say that we want an atmosphere of industries, and 

 of object teaching. His hope of this class of institutions had been 

 not what we could thrust down the throats of students that only 

 which was germane to agriculture, nor snatch away from them the 

 learning they wanted. But he had wanted to give them broad 

 opportunities. 



The ordinary income of the Industrial University would not 

 allow the development of the departments. This state should begin 

 to aid industrial education. Massachusetts had given $90,000 to its 

 Agricultural college. New York $18,000 a year to the Cornell 

 University. Michigan, $198,000 to its Agricultural college, besides 

 its swamp lands, and now raises an annual tax of $15,000 a year 

 for its support. 



Our other State appropriations to our asylums were charities, well 

 and wisely given; but this was an investment that would repay good 

 interest. The seeds thus sown would never cease to grow. We 

 may say to the State that this is a good place for investment. Help 

 these young men who are striving with insufficient means to get an 

 education ; increase, by advancing science, the crops of the State 

 but one bushel more to the acre, and you will be far more than re- 

 paid any sum you may be asked to expend on this institution. 



We had heard it urged here to-night in the essays just read to the 

 Society, that the culture of Flowers had its practical value. He 

 would say the same of culture, and plead that our State Institution 

 in being practical would furnish the broadest culture to all who 



