SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1331 



when the conditions were thus ripe for 

 unified efforts to develop the higher in- 

 tellectual, ethical and esthetic interests of 

 the community. I think you will agree 

 with me that no step toward this higher 

 evolution could be more fundamental than 

 the beginning of a concerted endeavor to 

 search out rigorously, to test and to make 

 known the basal truths that conditioned the 

 lives of the "Wisconsin people : our habitat, 

 the native life of the land, our material in- 

 heritances, our climatic and other physical 

 surroundings, our social and moral condi- 

 tions, our political institutions, as well as 

 the arts and the literatures that made it 

 possible to use these most effectually. I do 

 not think that the partiality of the occasion 

 leads us beyond the realities, when we re- 

 gard the founding of the academy as at 

 least the most representative step in this 

 new development. It was of course by no 

 means the only step, nor was it the pioneer 

 step in the transition from primitive con- 

 ditions to the more mature civilization to 

 which the state has since attained; for, in 

 addition to the effective work of the schools 

 and the churches, which had taken on 

 broader aspects and become more efficient 

 as the passing of primitive conditions per- 

 mitted, the State Historical Society, the 

 State Agricultural Society, the State Teach- 

 ers' Association, and other organizations 

 had already taken up their special tasks 

 and had become effective agencies of prog- 

 ress; but, none the less, the founding of 

 the academy was the most representative 

 event in the turn to the new order of 

 things, for, better than any other single 

 event, it typified the coming of a higher 

 order of endeavor, in that its distinctive 

 feature was cooperative research for the 

 common good, and this, I thini you will 

 agree, is the most basal and truest index of 

 real progress. 



The movement furthermore was a com- 

 prehensive one, and altruistic ; it was unre- 

 lated to special interests. It was entered 

 upon spontaneously in full realization of 

 the sacrificial labors that would be neces- 

 sary to make the enterprise a real success. 

 And so, in its high purpose and in its sac- 

 rificial spirit, this coming together, fifty 

 years ago, of good men from all parts of 

 the state to found an academy whose chief 

 purpose was to facilitate a concerted search 

 for truth for the common good, stands forth 

 as an altogether signal event in the intel- 

 lectual development of our people. 



THE PIONEER PREPAEATOET STAGE 



But before we pass on to review with 

 gratitude and appreciation the work of the 

 founders of the academy, let us pay a pass- 

 ing word of respect to the pioneers who 

 paved the way for the later era. Let us 

 also not altogether pass in silence the native 

 conditions which became our inheritance 

 and which contributed more than perhaps 

 we realize to what Wisconsin now is and is 

 likely to be. 



To one who saw the primitive wildness of 

 this region as it was vanishing and who 

 played his little part in the early struggle 

 to replace the unbroken sod with cultivated 

 land, it is a pleasure to recall this early 

 epoch and all that it meant to the founders 

 of the state. The primitive wildness had a 

 charm which no one who saw it can easily 

 forget, and the struggle with this wildness, 

 strenuous as it was, had in it such an im- 

 perative call for personal resouxeefulness 

 and such a toughening of physical and 

 mental fiber as one would not wish to have 

 escaped. It brought its hard lessons of 

 self-dependence, of adaptation, of courage 

 and of tenacity. It would be a pleasure to 

 dwell at length upon the primitive aspects 

 of Wisconsin clothed in the charm of its 



