[Read before the Texas Academy of Science, December 22, 1897.1 
AN ADDRESS TO THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
By Governor L. S. Ross, 
PRESIDENT OE THE AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OE TEXAS. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen: 
The people of Texas have always been noted for a boundless hospital- 
ity, where the guest, is made to feel that he is at home, and to admire 
the easy freedom and graceful dignity of a host who banishes all for- 
mality in the nobleness of his welcome and the simplicity and gener- 
osity of his entertainment. 
We trust that there shall be no exception to the general rule, and in 
making welcome so may representatives of an organization which has to 
do with, the arts and sciences and other allied interests of our State, it 
will be a source of no small pride to me personally if I shall be able to 
contribute in an humble way to the success of your meeting. I am keenly 
alive to the importance of your work, because upon its action depends, 
in a large measure, hot only the extent and degree to which scientific 
knowledge and research shall be fostered and disseminated among the 
people, but also the degree of progress which shall be made in all the 
arts of life — the future development of our untold natural resources, the 
productiveness of our domain, and the position and power of our State. 
Only questions pertaining to the existence, integrity, and honor of our 
commomvealth take higher rank. I believe with Franklin, that the 
world, owes more to great inventors than to all its warriors and states- 
men, and that the prizes of the future will be found upon the highway 
of scientific education. It derogates nothing from the value of your 
aims, but rather heightens their claim to popular regard to admit that 
inventions evolved from the brains of unlettered men laid the founda- 
tions of our material prosperitjq and have been among the most potent 
factors of the nation’s wonderful growth. 
The statesmen of the revolutionary period who formulated the self- 
evident truths upon which is based and framed the Constitution, intend- 
ed to lay down and define the powers and duties of a mighty govern- 
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