256 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



1 believe it is about time that we Pennsylvanians took hold and 

 boosted Pennsylvauia. About the only thing we have been hearing 

 about Pennsylvania is the graft of the State Capitol, and I am sick 

 and tired of it. I have heard time and time again when visitors would 

 come into that Capitol, the very first thing they would say to the 

 guides who so efficiently serve them, "This is the building on which 

 there was so much graft." They never see the beauty of the building 

 at all. I say it is about time we took some pride in that magnificient 

 Capitol, the best ia the United States. I say it is about time we 

 begin to boost Pennsylvania, in other ways, that we be boosters, not 

 knockers in Pennsylvania, and I believe it is a part of my business be- 

 cause of the work I am in, and your business because of the work you 

 are in, to help on this movement of boosting Pennsylvania. It will 

 take a period of years to get the people of the State generally to 

 boosting everything in the State. You may think it is an easy 

 matter, but isn't it time we quit knocking each other? Isn't 

 it time we started in to boost each other? It is not characteristic 

 of Pennsylvauia as of those Western states, particularly the Pa- 

 cific Coast states, for everybody to take hold and boost everything 

 in the state. You talk to anybody that lives in California, and 

 in five minutes you will be convinced that the thing you ought to 

 do is sell out and go to California. We have a good bit more rea- 

 son for talking that way about Pennsylvania than they have about 

 California, because if the truth were known about all sections of 

 California, you might not want to go out there and live. There 

 are some nice spots in California, but the state, as a whole, does 

 not compare to Pennsylvania, and it is about time we did some- 

 thing. Pennsjdvania has decided, as have New York and Massa- 

 chusetts, Indiana and the State of Michigan, and the great State 

 of Minnesota, which has thousands of dollars to put into education 

 of this kind, that the most efficient form of secondary agricultural 

 education is agricultural education of the high school type, that 

 type which is typified by the high school department of agriculture 

 or the agricultural high school in the agricultural community. It 

 makes less of a showing, it takes longer to prove itself, but it is 

 nearer to the people and it must stand the test. 



One illustration: A boy carries on a home process, he carries 

 on that on his own home farm. His father sees every day what 

 that boy does, sees the methods that boy employs, learns what the 

 supervisor of agriculture tells that boy when he comes to talk with 

 him about that project. If there is any value in that project what- 

 ever from an educational or productive agricultural standpoint, 

 that boy's father gets it also. If there is no value in it, that 

 boy's father soon sees it and the whole business no longer receives 

 that man's support. If that boy went to a county or congressional 

 district agricultural school, he could carry on his work on that 

 school farm and nobody would know what it was. It isn't under 

 such close scrutiny, it doesn't have to stand the test. But let me 

 re-iterate that tlie chief function of the public school, or agricul- 

 tural high scliool in this development, is to give the boy or girl 

 that comes into that school, the type of education, that he or 

 she ought to have in the improvement of agricultural conditions. 

 Some of it will come as a result of the instructions given in this 



