222 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



quate for any marked impression upon the largest of all the 

 industries. 



It was reserved for the men of Michigan to be the first to 

 conceive in wisdom and establish in strength an institution 

 qualified in form and method to meet successfully the purpose of 

 the founders and to serve triumphantly as the pioneer of a new 

 reasonableness in education and of a great enlightenment in in- 

 dustry. Undeterred by the inertia of conservatism in the school 

 and on the farm; imyielding to the clamors of radical experi- 

 menters in education and in industry; it has held fast consist- 

 ently to the sane equilibrium of redecraft and handcraft in 

 technical training and demonstrated its merits by its survival. 

 To this victorious pioneer — remembering those who founded in 

 wisdom and in faith, and those who guided in loyalty and zeal — 

 to those who crown today, in prosperity abounding and confi- 

 dence unshakable, this glad half-century of continuous, con- 

 sistent, and successful endeavor, Michigan's fellow-patriots of 

 the sister states of the South offer their congratulations in un- 

 stinted admiration. 



To our admiration we add our gratitude. Though elder 

 members of the family of states, we sisters of the South — through 

 force of circumstance over which the present generation, at 

 least, had no control — came into our own as full possessors of 

 some features of the spirit of the age somewhat later in life than 

 the young and lusty commonwealths to whose creation we had 

 contributed. When, therefore, the belated time arrived when 

 wisdom and necessity required a re-formation of our educational 

 and industrial systems along other than the accustomed lines, 

 we were fortunate that the experience gained in Michigan and 

 the successful career of this institution pointed the way to im- 

 mediate and wisest direction of certain of our efforts. The 

 Michigan Agricultural College furnished us an admirable exam- 

 ple by which to fashion our newly established institutions for 

 industrial education, and in many instances, furnished us the 



