512 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Here is an organization which has for its special interest the pro- 

 duction of meat; and other organizations meeting in this city have for 

 tlieir particular interest the production of fruit; and there are as many 

 organizations now, almost, as there are distinctive subjects in agri- 

 culture. It remains for us to strengthen our organizations; to draw 

 into their mem.bership those persons who are. interested in the common 

 subject; draw up constructive programs, and then determine to follow 

 the programs out and get the benefits to which we are entitled ; and 

 I expect to refer to some of those benefits. Whatever this organization 

 or any other may stand for, there is one subject in common that they all 

 stand for, and that is the good or the advancement of our agricultural 

 education; and I want to speak to you just a few words about the insti- 

 tuition that stands for the advancement of agricultural education at 

 Ames. And let me emphasize here a very trite saying that this institu- 

 tion belongs to the people of the state. I wish they really could appre- 

 ciate that point as I do. A good many persons seem to think that when 

 recommendations come from that college for appropriations, it is a 

 favor to the faculty that those appropriations should be granted. Quite 

 the contrary is true. That Board of Education and the faculty are in 

 charge of your institution only temporarily and by your grace, and it 

 is their purpose and their duty to carry out your wishes in connection 

 with that institution. If your legislature makes an appropriation of 

 one dollar to that institution, it is for you, the people throughout the 

 state, who are expected to enjoy the benefits of the institution; and if 

 they fail to enjoy them, the institution is not making good and the 

 management ought to be changed. 



The purposes of colleges are not understood as they should be. I 

 was in the good old city of Dublin some months before Mr. Wallace got 

 there, and was riding on one of their Irish jaunting cars; and I said 

 to the man driving the car: "What is there here that is worth seeing?" 

 "Faith," he said, "an' there are two things: Trinity College and 

 McGinnis' Brewery!" I do not know what his idea of that college was, 

 but the people of this state, thanks to congress, for many years have 

 had a land-grant college, and the people of every other state have one 

 such college, and every country in the world that is civilized has a 

 similar institution; and the purpose of that institution is, under our 

 national law especially, to serve in the interest of the industrial classes. 

 1 am glad that I belong to that class. I think those are the classes that 

 are useful, and I look upon the other classes as being parasites upon 

 the industrial classes. I am glad congress saw fit to establish one 

 institution in each state, the "leading purpose of which should be to 

 serve the industrial classes. I don't deny that other institutions are 

 doing it to a greater or less degree, but these institutions' first business 

 is to work along that line. 



I am naturally proud to be connected with the institution at Ames, 

 not because of the buildings or grounds there, nor because of the fact 

 that we are in this great state, but because of the faculty which is 

 working there — the scientific men who are employed from day to day 

 upon these problems that we are engaged in studying; and more par- 



