54 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



produced seven and one-half times its proper ratio of criminals. 

 This has been shown to be substantially the fact time and 

 again in the study of statistics over wide areas — that even that 

 small degree of education which is indicated by the power 

 to read and write has its distinctly moral effect upon those who 

 receive it. 



The same point which I wish to illustrate with respect to 

 efficiency was discovered in 1837 by Horace Mann, then secre- 

 tary of the State Board of Education of Massachusetts. He 

 examined the pay-rolls of the factory workers in the manufac- 

 turing districts of Massachusetts, especially the mills at Lowell 

 and Lawrence. He discovered, by making the test suggested 

 by the ability on the part of the worker to write the name to the 

 pay-roll instead of being compelled by total ilHteracy to make a 

 mark, that those who were able through slight education to 

 write their names received one-third more pay than did that 

 contingent of those persons who were obliged to place their 

 mark upon the pay-roll instead of writing their names. In the 

 ability to write one's name there was evidence of a one-third 

 increase in competency. 



But here stands an institution that is dedicated to the making 

 of education distinctly moral and efficient, in that it tends to 

 develop that capability which comes from the power to do things 

 well. This is distinctively a moral force, since it develops self- 

 respect in the individual and brings out the spirit of noblesse 

 oblige upon his part. But beyond this, the tendency of this 

 institution is to make people distinctly intelligent and capable 

 of doing certain work efficiently because of the investigations 

 which they have made in classrooms, laboratories, and fields 

 belonging to this institution. Many times over does this insti- 

 tution return to the state the amount expended for it in the 

 increased morality and efficiency of the citizenship of this 

 commonwealth, and because of this it deserves the constant sup- 

 port and good-will of the people of this state. 



