24. TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY Report. 
purposes and compelled the statesman to give new consideration 
to the general welfare of all the people. 
The second general consideration in the Morrill Act was that 
education being fundamental in the development and maintenance 
of national strength and prosperity should be universalized so as 
to include all classes of people. Prior to this time public lands 
had been dedicated to the support of common schools, but this act 
was the beginning of a revival in education applied to the indus- 
tries of the country. No one familiar with the progress of modern 
education can fail to see that this act was the beginning of the 
most important feature of the new education. 
The act could never have been passed and certainly could not 
have been justified if it had not brought to the attention of Con- 
gress its economic importance in maintaining and developing the 
resources of the country. It was clearly seen that the fundamental 
industry of agriculture upon which the nation was so dependent 
had already begun to lose ground and that a further continuance 
of the policy of indifference would surely result in an impoverished 
soil with all the attendant evils to both the people and the govern- 
ment. In the debates of Congress the education here provided 
was considered with reference to its relation to the wealth and 
wealth producing power of the country. The logic of the situation 
was that a fertile country permanently assured meant a happy 
and contented people and a strong, stable government. The formal 
statement of the economic importance of industrial education was 
not so complete as it has been made since we have had a genera- 
tion of experience with it, but the essential truth was clearly ap- 
prehended by the leaders associated with Mr. Morrill. These men 
never lost sight of the main issue. The importance to the revenues 
of the nation of education in the mechanic arts was not so clearly 
defined or stated. Men could see its importance as related to the 
arts of war then so prominent in the minds of the people, but did 
not realize its infinitely greater importance in the arts of peace. 
That is now more clearly apprehended. The argument for one 
form is essentially the same as for the other. Industrial education, 
as a guarantee of the perpetuity of the resources of the people 
and therefore of the government, has a permanent place in the 
judgment and policy of the nation. 
A third consideration should be mentioned, namely, the unifying 
effect this movement for industrial education has had upon the 
people north and south. The common school has been a great force 
—_— eo 
