SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 97 



Collegiate training has come to be regarded quite as essential for suc- 

 cessful industrial work as for the professional callings. Cases of success- 

 fully self-educated men, in the common acceptance of the term, are becom- 

 ing more rare each year. In a broader sense, the young man who by his 

 own industry and efforts earns money to obtain a college education is 

 self-educated in the best manner. Professor Crane of Northwestern Univer- 

 sity estimates from carefully compiled records, covering over 10,000 cases, 

 that the boy with a common school eduaction has but one chance in 9,000 

 of achieving eminent success in his chosen calling; with a high school 

 education, he has one chance in 404, while the boy with a college educa- 

 tion has one chance in 42. It appears then that a college education 

 increases a boy's chances of success, according to these records, over 200 

 per cent. 



The need of higher training for industrial work was uppermost in the 

 mind of the far-sighted statesman, Senator Morrill, the author of the bill 

 creating the land grant colleges. He pleaded for the education of the 

 artisan, the farmer and the mechanic, and the land grant colleges came 

 into existence primarily for that purpose. 



For many years these colleges made slow progress. Their methods 

 were crude, and their equipment meager and inadequate. 



Agricultural and industrial education, to be of the greatest service, 

 must be made practical as well as technical. The cultural value of educa- 

 tion is undiminished; but the economic value is greater. We educate pri- 

 marily because it pays. Industrial efficiency has become the watchword 

 of technical training for the farm and the shop. 



State colleges are appreciated, patronized and supported in proportion 

 as they are serviceable to the interests which they represent. * So well 

 have the colleges met this standard of late that they have been over- 

 whelmed with the local demands and students are coming from foreign 

 countries. The college takes up the work where the high school leaves off. 

 The foundation is laid well in the sciences, in mathematics, history and 

 the languages. The sciences are studied with I'eference to their application 

 to practical problems. The inherent reasons, the principles, the why, are 

 sought and emphasized in training students for agriculture. 



Whatever may have been the condition in the past, it can no longer be 

 said that the agricultural colleges are not training boys for the farm. 

 The majority of all the boys taking courses in agricultural colleges are 

 today returning to the farm, and fully 90 per cent are taking up agricul- 

 tural work in some form. Each year we have among our agricultural 

 graduates at Ames some of the strongest young men who return to their 

 home farms in preference to considering a salaried position at any com- 

 pensation. These men are fortunately situated. Others prefer to accept 

 salaried positions for a time until they can acquire farm property. 



The salaried positions in agricultural work are constantly widening, 

 and presenting better opportunities. On every hand there is a recognition 

 of the value of higher technical and practical training for agriculture. 

 Not every college trained man will be successful in agriculture or in any 

 other field; but other things being equal, the college trained man has 

 tremendous advantage. 

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