376 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



can ear. Independence and self-dependence are taught from the kinder- 

 garten to the uniA-ersitT. Because our citizenship is free and the suffrage 

 universal we hear talk about every man being an "uncrowned king." 

 Political parties seek support on the declaration that they care nothing 

 for the view of any other nation. Yet we are each but a single fiber of a 

 single strand, of a single thread, of a broad fabric which has been 

 centuries in the weaving and which has been slowly put together under 

 the rules of economic law. Remember how much all the people and all 

 the things about you mean to you. Eecall the family circle, the neigh- 

 borhood set, the social structure, the church organi7yation, the fraternal 

 order, the city, state^ and national institutions, and see how helpless 

 you would be if the}- were taken out of your life. After all, success is 

 measured by the number of the friendships, the depth of the sympa- 

 thies, and the extent of the training we get through our contact with 

 the people and the institutions about us. 



We are not, and in the nature of things we cannot be, a law unto 

 ourselves. There are obligations between friends, acquaintances, citi- 

 zens, which are personal and mutual. We are all subject to the common 

 customs, traditions and understandings of the race. One who does not 

 know this and act upon it is a social and a public burden. J'he organiza- 

 tions, establishments and institutions of the civil state spring from the 

 people. The people never ordained them to give us a living, but to afford 

 the opportunities and facilities for self-culture, and to give us security 

 in the right to work peacefully and enjoy the fruits of our labor without 

 interference. He who tries to change the natural order of things and 

 get his living out of the common organizations and institutions which 

 the people have established for their common good, he who withholds 

 from them the full measure of his enthusiastic support, becomes a pitiable 

 dependent, a poor, if not a bad citizen, and indeed a discredited man. 



Think of the details. Every man who builds a house, paves a street, 

 lays a sewer, mows a lawn, starts a factory, stands up for a better 

 school, supports a church, cheers for a party, fights for the integrity 

 of the suffrage, and sustains the civil power, contributes to the 

 common good, and more surely than in any other way to his own 

 permanent advancement. The man who neglects to do these thins's 

 when he can and ought, shrinks into insignificance. Selfishness de- 

 feats itself. Have an individuality of your own, and as you pass out 

 of the College commence a work and a manner of life which in time 

 will put the world under obligations to you. Do not spend too much time 

 seeking devices to save labor; do not lay plans to get something for 

 nothing; do not deceive yourselves into thinking that there may be a road 

 to prosperity and eminence which is not paved with anxiety and filled 

 with intelligent and honest toil; do not sponge on fraternal orders; do not 

 think you are better than other people when you are only narrow; never 

 advertise your business on the fair face of your flag. 



Most of you have determined the kind of employment to which you 

 propose to devote your lives. But many of whom this is true will 

 change their plans in order to accomplish their purposes. Some of you 

 will find in time that you have made a mistake in the kind of work 

 you have taken up. Such need not feel chagrined. They may find satis- 

 faction in the fact that the number of persons who have changed from 

 one vocation to another, and then made conspicuous success, is exceed- 



