FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 21 



HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE PEOPLE. 



H. C. ADAMS. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. 



No one can regret more than myself the enforced absence of Dr. Angell, 

 President of our University, to whom this paper on the '^Higher Educa- 

 tion and the People" was assigned in the program as originally drawn. 

 It is evident this topic should receive consideration in order to round 

 out the educational feature of our program, which explains why I have 

 consented, at the last moment, to say a few words respecting it. The 

 topic is of peculiar significance when discussed before a Michigan audi- 

 ence. This State stands committed to the policy of public education 

 and gives to the phrase a broad and comprehensive meaning, including not 

 only what is technical and general, but the idea of popular education as 

 well, for it is no misuse of language to include the farmers' institutes as 

 at present organized and conducted within the educational system of the 

 State. It is an interesting fact that at this, the joint meeting _of the 

 farmers' institutes and the Michigan Political Science Association, every 

 phase of this subject receives either direct or indirect consideration. 



In discussing the relation of higher education to the people I shall 

 undertake no extended definition of higher education. It is a term which 

 changes its meaning from time to time in order to meet the changing needs 

 of the community. As used in the present discussion, it includes both the 

 general and technical instruction offered by colleges and the research 

 carried on by instructors in these institutions. This last point seems to 

 me of great importance, for under existing ideas relative to education, an 

 institution of higher learning must be a center for investigation as well 

 as a place for instruction. The extension of knowledge is as truly a 

 function of universities as is the imparting of that knowledge. The true 

 teacher must be an investigator. 



Thus defined the relation of higher education to the people may be 

 considered from three points of view. These are as follows : 



First, The point of view of those who seek an education ; 



Second, The point of view of those who make use of the services of 

 experts and professional men trained at the college or university ; 



Third, The point of view of the political, social and industrial condi- 

 tions which are in large measure the product of higher institutions of 

 learning. 



So far as the individual student is concerned, very little can be said 

 upon the topic in hand. Were the question of education entirely, or even 

 primarily, a personal question, there would be no answer to the argument 

 that he who is benefited by the instruction ought to pay for it. But this 

 assumption does not present the matter in 'its true light. Our society 

 is a complex affair. Each class depends for its prosperity upon the pros- 

 perity of other classes. The life of each individual is bound up with the 

 life of all. Such being the case the advantage of an education to the 

 individual cannot present the point of view from which the question of the 

 relation of the higher education to the people can be reasonably discussed. 



