24 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



centuries. At present ^tools have given way to machinery, and ability to 

 invent new methods of production and to direct large aggregations of 

 labor have come to be of j)rime importance in the maintenance of indus- 

 trial efficiency. Consider this, for a moment, on the side of invention. 

 A hundred years ago inventions were more or less accidental. The 

 thought that nature could be conquered by patient study, and her forces 

 harnessed to the treadmill of industry, thus making possible the emancipa- 

 tion of mankind from excessive toil, was not included within the range 

 of practical thinking. Contrast such a state of mind with the present 

 point of view. Invention is now a profession. The Bell Telephone Com- 

 pany, for example, which, whatever we may say of it as a monopoly, has 

 conferred inestimable benefits upon the community, has upon its payrolls 

 the names of men who are trained in the sciences and the arts, all of whose 

 time is spent in the laboratory with the view of perfecting this means of 

 transmitting thought. This is not an isolated case. Every branch of 

 industry has its experts. No industry can continue to be progressive 

 without its experts, and if we admit that the modern system of industrial 

 organization based upon machinery is of advantage to the world, we 

 cannot evade the conclusion that the higher institutions of learning which 

 train these experts are an essential factor in establishing and maintain- 

 ing our present industrial efficiency. Inventors are as important to the 

 preservation of industrial prosperity as is the physician to the preserva- 

 tion of health, and when each man, whatever his business or occupation, 

 appreciates to what extent his personal success depends upon the main- 

 tenance of general prosperity, he is forced in courtesy and in honesty to 

 acknowledge a debt of obligation to that educational system which 

 includes within its curriculum scientific training for investigation. With- 

 out our schools, not only would further progress be arrested, but we 

 should soon lose the general intelligence necessary to avail ourselves of 

 the technical progress already made. 



The same conclusion would be reached were we to consider the impor- 

 tance of efficient management. Ko man today can work alone. The prin- 

 ciple of division of labor is of universal application. This is only another 

 way of calling attention to the importance of organization; and it goes 

 without saying that if a thousand men are to work together they must 

 work under the direction of a single head, and that their efficiency as a 

 working body depends upon the manner in which their labor is directed. 

 But ability to manage a great industry comes not by birth; it is the 

 result either of experience or of technical training. If learned in the 

 school of experience it is the x^^iblic that foots the bill because it is the 

 public that finally must bear the burden of mistakes and failure. It is far 

 cheaper for the public to provide schools for the training of men into 

 whose hands may be placed the management of great industries. Is it 

 not then evident that in business as well as in the professions, the demand 

 for training is primarily a public demand, and that the body of the people, 

 whether looked at from the point of view of organized Avorkers seeking 

 direction or from the point of view of the consuming public, have the most 

 direct and imperative interest in maintenace of those institutions which 

 give the needed special training? Such considerations as these suggest 

 what I believe to be the true relation between higher education and the 

 people. 



Were further illustration of this sort necessary I might refer to the 



