18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



* 



President Allen then delivered the following Address upon 



The Aims axd Methods of the Maine State College of Agricul- 

 ture and the Mechanic Arts. 



To extend the principles of a liberal education to that large class 

 of our people, who are to engage in industrial pursuits, and who 

 wish to prepare themselves most, fully for the business and labor 

 of life, is the design of the Maine State College. 



Perplexing questions concerning the relations of capital and 

 labor are forced upon the attention of statesmen. The peaceful 

 solution of these problems depends upon the intelligence of the 

 laborers. All thoughtful minds are convinced that the better 

 education of the working class will preserve us from the evils that 

 threaten the prosperity of our country. The antagonism of inter- 

 ests, real or imaginary, when the capitalist alone has an education, 

 and the laborer is to be guided by the superior intelligence of a 

 ruling class, will always tend to foster prejudices and prepare the 

 way for riots and lawlessness. Enough has been said of the value 

 and dignity of the industrial pursuits. Professional men are not 

 unwilling to speak of the manly independence and sterling integ- 

 rity of artizans and tillers of the soil. Politicians talk about the 

 bone and sinew of the country, and think they flatter working 

 men with such appellations ; as though it were praise enough for 

 a man to have strong sinews for others to control, and to be bone 

 and muscle, while others are the brain. As in manufactures, the 

 division of labor is the most skillful mode of employing human 

 agency to multiply the production, so it is rashly concluded 

 that there must be a divorce between the planning mind and the 

 toiling hand, in order to give the highest efficiency to each of 

 these departments. But our Creator never intended that a man 

 should become a mere machine, however productive. Nor is it 

 for the highest good of any class to be relieved from physical toil. 



The highest civilization can only be attained when labor is hon- 

 ored and respected, and when laborers have the opportunity of 

 mental discipline and the acquisition of knowledge. Just as sure 

 as the maxim holds true, that "knowledge is power," so true it is 

 that those who make the most and best use of their heads will be 

 the most influential ; they will stand the highest in the community. 

 No flattery or compliment can evade this great law of nature. 

 Those who bestow the most pains in the cultivation of their minds, 

 will, other things being equal, have the best minds, and those 



