20 



into every common school in the land. Wc are makinjr a sentiment that will put 

 ajiriciiltural science into the hi<rh schools, and articulate the common schools, through 

 the high schools, with the agricultural colleges, and also with the schools of science 

 and the lil)eral arts. We are making a sentiment that is helping the new education. 



Do we know what is the new education? What is this wonderful change which 

 ha.s come over us as to what education is for? Kducation is, in the minds of many 

 leaders, no longer for the ])urpose of jiroducing simply enjoyment, even though it he 

 of the higher intellectual sort. It is no longer to l)ring aliout a kind of philosophic 

 leisure. It is now for use. It is to help young ])eople to do things that need to he 

 done. If it is Jiot for use, it is useless. And almo-t all over the country, from Doc- 

 tor Kliot of Harvard to Doctor Jordan on the other coast, the leaders are asking 

 for the educati(»n that will re[)roduce itself in the power to do something that needs 

 to he done; not oidy the power hut the disposition — the desire and the ])ower to do 

 useful things. I think that in our own university a few days ago, when President 

 James was inaugurated, we heard the keynote of the new education. I have here a 

 copy of a few words that he si)oke, and I am going to use those words in every 

 county of Illinois this winter. I will read them here. I say they are the keynote 

 of the new e<lucation, the education for which the farmers' institutes stand. He 

 says: 



"In a word, the State university which most fully performs its function for the 

 American people will stand simply, plainly, nneqnivocably, and uncompromisingly 

 for training for vocation; not training for leisure, nor training for scholarship, except 

 as training for scholarship is a necessary incidental to all proper training for vocation, 

 or may he a vocation in itself." 



This is the doctrine of the new education, and the farmers' institutes are helping 

 forward this movement, and they stand ready to help for this reason, that nearly 

 half of the people in this country devote themselves to producing things from the 

 soil. And because we stand in a position to help that one-half of the people we are 

 in a position to help forward what I call, as I think properly, the new education, 

 education for useful activity. 



And now, in conclusion, I beg to assure the honorable Secretary that we thank 

 him for his words of welcome and his unmeasured helpfulness in our work. 



Prof. E. R. Lloyd, of ^lississippi, read the annual address of the president of the 

 association, J. C. Hardy, as follows: 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



L.\DIES AND (tKXTLEMEN OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OP FaRMERS' INSTITUTE 



Workers: In behalf of the associatif)n I desire to express to the delegates from Loui- 

 siana our dee[) regrets at not l)eing able to meet at this time in their beautiful capi- 

 tal city of l>aton Rouge. Personally it has been a great disai>iiointment, and in order 

 that the anticiiiated ])leasure may not be lost forever, I do now put in nomination 

 Baton Rouge for our next place of meeting and hope that at the proper time a motion 

 to this effect may be unanimously adopted. 



I desire to discuss for a short while, upon this occasion, "Feileral sui>]>ort for farm- 

 ers' institute work." 



It seems to me that the time has come when the real value and importance of this 

 movement should be 1>rought to the attention of our national lawmakers, whose 

 beneficence and generosity have done so much for our agricultural colleges and 

 ex])eriment stations and through them for the agriculture of the entire nation. The 

 executive committee of this association, realizing the necessity of a closer organiza- 

 tion within itself, have recommended the appointment of some i)ermanent commit- 

 tees to do continuous work along certain lines from year to year, and I can not too 

 strongly urge the adoption of this recommendation, but, in my judgment, it is inli- 

 nitely more im])ortant that the work as a whole should be jmt upon a broader and 

 more i)ermanent foun<lation by being unified, nationalized, and sujiported by Federal 

 appro]iriation. If agricultural and in<lustrial education is a national <iuestion and 

 deserves the support of national ajijiropriations, Ixiwinuch more so are the problems 

 and (lucstions with which this association is dealing? if it is of national importance 

 that the hidden and dormant forces of nature should In- discovered and l)rought to 

 light, of how much more importance to the nation is it that these forces and laws 

 thus discovered should be applied and utilized, not only for the betterment of the 

 individual, for the upbuilding of the State, but for the strengthening and enriching 

 of the nation? 



No one can reail the able reports of Secretary Wilson, our leader in agricultural 

 thought and action, w.thout being impressed with the importance of agriculture from 



