December 8, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



783 



is the only road to either a social or a voca- 

 tional uplift? In our anxiety to demon- 

 strate the value of these institutions to the 

 material interests of the nation, have we 

 not over-commercialized the instruction, 

 even the atmosphere, of our vocational 

 schools and colleges? The leaders in engi- 

 neering education are beginning to say so, 

 and is it not true of agriculture ? We may 

 well give heed to the words of a recent 

 writer who thus comments on the educa- 

 tional influence of the ancient guilds: 



The soul of this ideal education of the masses 

 was the training of character. They had no illu- 

 sions that the mere imparting of information 

 would make people better, nor that the knowing of 

 many things would make them more desirable 

 citizens. In none of the higher walks of life does 

 it ever cease to be more the question how much of 

 a man one is, than how much he knows of his 

 special business. 



The cultivation of the sense and under- 

 standing of social and moral obligations is 

 placed second because human relations and 

 the quality of human effort are determina- 

 tive factors in the larger successes and 

 satisfactions of life, whether we consider 

 the individual or the social body. It is 

 sound doctrine to declare that, in the last 

 analysis, the defeats of individuals and of 

 nations are moral defeats. Moreover, we 

 now see very clearly that the critical prob- 

 lems which face agriculture are no less 

 social than vocational. Our greater weak- 

 ness is not in our bread-winning capacity, 

 but in unsound business ethics and in bad 

 social adjustments. 



And then, there is the larger relation of 

 the educated man to national welfare. It 

 has been said that the cure for the ills of 

 democracy is more democracy. If more 

 democracy is coming, and it seems to be, 

 we shall sorely need the steadying influ- 

 ence of wise social leadership. The educa- 

 tion of the masses is superficial. That keen 



observer, Mr. Bryce, has said that "it is 

 sufiScient to enable them to think they know 

 something about the great problems of poli- 

 tics and insufficient to show them how little 

 they know." Bishop Newman declares 

 that "if a practical end must be assigned 

 to a university course I say it is that of 

 training good members of society. It is 

 the art of social life and its end is fitness 

 for the world." Another writer has ob- 

 served that the land-grant colleges are 

 ranked as an economic rather than a social 

 force. If this accusation is just, these in- 

 stitutions should purge themselves of an 

 unsound policy. We do violence to the 

 highest interests of the individual and of 

 society if we fail to cultivate in those over 

 whom the mantle of a baccalaureate degree 

 is thrown a sense and comprehension of 

 their obligations to society. 



It is a distorted training that emphasizes 

 bread-winning capacity at the expense of 

 fitness for social service. Our national 

 welfare is already threatened by the di- 

 vorcement of patriotic citizenship from 

 industrial activity. 



Preparation for vocational activity is 

 placed last, but not because the equipment 

 of the mind with the facts of science and 

 their applications to the art of agriculture 

 is in any sense unimportant. The colleges 

 of agriculture are dealing directly with the 

 subject matter that is related to the farm- 

 er's vocation and they will violate their 

 obligations and limit their usefulness if 

 they do not continue to do so. 



In discussing the vocational and training 

 value of courses of study in agriculture I 

 shall simply be ranging myself on one side 

 of this much debated question when I insist 

 that these courses should present good 

 pedagogical form and should lend them- 

 selves largely to training in the funda- 



