460 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



The eomniittec a])p()int(:'d 1o consider tlie in'ojiosition of the board 

 rehitive to an advisory council of the alumni, leeoninieuded the adoption 

 of the reconiniendaiion. and also that the incoming; president of the 

 association appoint smli a council, the members of which shall each 

 serve until the next alunuii i-eunion. The report was amended so that 

 the president, secretary and Jason E. Tlammond be the ay>pointing power, 

 and was then adopted. 



The association adjourned sine die. 



ADDKESS BY C. B. COLLIXGWOOD, CLASS OF '85. 



We are a peculiar people, and we have a right to be, for educationally 

 we represent a new race. ^Ve do not meet as graduates of a great uni- 

 versity, or as graduates of any professional school. We meet here today 

 as graduates of the new and wealthy class of educational institutions, 

 called laud grant colleges; one of that class of institutions toward whose 

 support our government has given, millions of acres of land and millions 

 of dollars, and whose avowed purpose is to ]»roni()te the liberal and 

 practical education of the industrial class. 



I often wonder if we, as the first children of this pioneer movement, 

 have reaped the full measure of its benefits or clearly discern its trend. 

 For a thousand years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, an educa- 

 tion was inseparably connected with book learning, the stud}' of languages 

 was the first essential, and the deader the language the better the educa- 

 tion. It was naturally of an unpractical nature. It was also closely con- 

 fined to the rich or to the priest craft. The need of an education for the 

 masses, for the every day citizen, was not dreamed of. But the settle- 

 ment of this country was a great equalizer and a great broadener of the 

 intellect. ^Nlen who had neither families nor education w^ere placed in 

 positions where their natural aptitude for leadership rapidly developed. 

 They became the head and front of great communities, and their children, 

 in turn, became of the first families. So rapidly was this shaking up and 

 leveling down process carried on, so marked an effect did the first words 

 of the Declaration of Independence, ''All men are created equal,'' have 

 upon the people, that the great industrial classes early demanded an 

 education which would give them an equal o])])ortunity with the rich 

 and favored. But it was soon discovered, that while we had here and 

 there a learned blacksmith who could expound in a dozen different lan- 

 guages while he did moderate work at the forge, most men did not make 

 better mechanics because of their knowledge of Greek roots. 



Contemporaneous with the development of this country, real science 

 emerged from the rubbish of alchemy and phlogiston theories. When 

 Lavosier demonstrated thnt matter was indestructible, and was meas- 

 ured by weight, it gave an immense impetus to honest scientific investi- 

 gation. It was beginning to dawn on men that this world was ruled by 

 fixed immutable laws and not l)y chance. Grand old Benjamin Franklin 

 with his marvelous comnnm sense did more, peihaps. than any one to 

 bring the learning of the savants to the understanding of the common 

 l)eople. 



