1)4 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



I suppose that it matters very little to us whether the 

 great universities of the future are to be in the city or in 

 the country. It is a tremendously important question to 

 us, ho\vever, as to whether our civilization is to be domi- 

 nated bv the city, and whether all the economic forces are 

 to emanate from the city, as distinguished from the country. 

 And Avhen I speak of the city and the country, I use the 

 terms very much as the despatches seemed to use them, — 

 the city meaning the metropolitan cities, the great cities, 

 those of perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions of 

 people ; and the country including not only the farming 

 country, but also the small towns and the small cities. The 

 question is, is all human activity hereafter to centre in the 

 city, the large city, the metropolitan city, or in the small 

 city and the country ? Or is it to emanate from the country 

 as well as the city ? I suppose it is true that the university 

 of the future, like the school of the future, is to come more 

 intimately into contact with the real problems of life. We 

 are to deal less with mere books, proportionately, than we 

 have in the past. I fear in many of our schools we are now 

 ofivino; more attention to books than we are to brains. If 

 the university of the future and the school of the future are 

 to exist for the piu-pose of making more resourceful every 

 life that they touch, by bringing it into contact with the 

 actual problems of living, then I wonder Avhether there is 

 not a place for the university and the school in the country 

 as well as in the city. Are there not country problems as 

 well as city problems, and should not the institutions reach 

 them first-hand, and not indirectly through the city? 



I suppose more than half of all our people will always live 

 outside of the metropolitan centres. These persons must 

 l)e reached in terms of their daily lives, as well as those 

 who live in the dark, graj^ city. There are those who live 

 in the open, free country who have problems to solve, social, 

 economic and moral. The school in the country is more and 

 more to come into contact with the real problems of life. 

 We are to turn out men who are to take up the actual duties 

 of lif(^ from the point of view of educated men. 



The foundation of this whole question is that in(|uiry which 



