242 



ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



of the theme for this afternoon, however, and, moreover, it has frequently 

 been set forth at length by far more potent pens. If this address contains 

 aught of history, it will be because of its bearing upon the present and 

 the future. 



The discussion of this subject forty or fifty years ago make it per- 

 fectly clear that the early agitators were concerned in education for 

 agriculture rather than in agriculture or by agriculture. They were 

 concerned in the education of all the industrial classes along lines 

 which would maKe them the most effective "in the several pursuits and 

 occupations of life," because they believed that the welfare of the State 

 depended upon the education of the masses. This is, indeed, the only 

 warrent for the taxation of the people for the personal benefit of the 

 individual. We vote bread and meat only to the physically, mentally, 

 or morally incompetent. We vote a free education in order to give every 

 one a reasonable apportunity to earn his bread and meat, because the 

 welfare of the State demands it. This proposition is too well under- 

 stood to need more than the merest statement. The magnificent series 

 of buildings which we are called upon to dedicate today, the most exten- 

 sive in the world for the purposes for which they are intended, is evi- 

 dence sufficient, if evidence were needed, that this proposition has lost 

 not of its force in the nearly thirty-nine years that have elapsed since 

 the congress of the United States, amid the most terrific civil conflict, 

 passed the epoch making bill which prepared the way for the arts of 

 peace. I wish here to congratulate my alma, mater and all its officers 

 who have promoted this undertaking, upon their splendid achievement 

 and to thank the people of the great Empire State of Illinois who have 

 so generously voted money, not only in their own interests, but in the 

 interest of mankind for all time to come. 



The farmer's need of education is a theme which I delight to dis- 

 cuss. It is the proposition that if man is going to be a farmer he of 

 all men should have a thorough school training. The operations of the 

 banker, the merchant, the manufacturer, the lawyer, the public speaker 

 even, teach them much that they need to know to be successful. They 



