ANNUAL ADDRESS. XXXIX. 



lavish expenditure towards this end is amply justified, quite 

 as much so as for roads and bridges. 



THE LIMITS OF PRUDENT EXPENDITURE. 



It would be a very interesting question for discussion as 

 to what the limit of efficient expenditure for national 

 education really is. How much in fact would it definitely 

 pay a people to invest yearly in the training of all its 

 members, and what are the conditions that set an economic 

 limit to this expenditure ? Without attempting to solve 

 such a problem this evening, it is perfectly safe to say that 

 much more can be economically expended than has yet 

 been the case by even the most lavish nation. I would 

 ask in all seriousness what would be the result if a country 

 like England, specifically decided to invest £100,000,000 

 during the next ten years in the scientific and industrial 

 training of her people ? It may be replied that such a 

 project is chimerical, and not worth discussing, but the 

 essential reasonableness of the proposal is more apparent 

 when compared with the spending of £250,000,000 in three 

 years on a war, which however necessary, produced little 

 direct commercial return, and could only be justified, as I 

 believe it was justified, on other grounds. But is the case 

 different with education ? Is it not providing a people with 

 ammunition much more effective than powder and shot 

 both for attack and defence in the modern strife of nations? 



THE MORRIL LAND GRANT ACT. 



The United States, alone, in its legislature seems to 

 have conceived a scheme, if not precisely along the lines 

 suggested at least with equal enterprise and large hearted 

 courage. Few people would appear to be aware that in 

 1862 by the passing of the Morrill Land Act the United 

 States Legislature made a colossal effort towards putting 

 the industrial training of the nation on a permanent and 

 liberal footing. They dedicated an area of over five hundred 



