[. Annual Address by the President, October 7 , 1898.] 
SCIENCE AND THE STATE. 
Prof. T. U. Taylor, University of Texas. 
In an age ‘so fruitful in development, both in empire and material 
wealth and prosperity, the attention that the State should pay to science 
is a question of gravest import, and should in a large degree he meas- 
ured by the benefits derived from science, both in culture and material 
advancement. Upon the proper decision of this question the rank of 
the commonwealth or nation among the sister sovereignties of the earth 
will depend.. To the thoughtful observers of the trend of events in the 
last century, no statement of facts or arguments in favor of generous 
State support is necessary. Such conclusion follows as the night the 
day, and for him who doubts, a glance at the map of the nations of the 
earth and the order they occupy in importance and influence will con- 
vince the most skeptical that permanent national prosperity, whether 
as to civic or material affairs, is absolutely impossible without a broad 
and underlying interest in and support of scientific training and re- 
search. 
The man who adheres and subscribes to the political faith of the Sage 
of Monticello as to our government, its structure, and the great duty a 
free people owe themselves, may learn a wholesome lesson and have 
cause for a higher admiration when he learns the advanced stand Mr. 
Jefferson took upon this question over one hundred years ago. He will 
learn that it is no new question and no new theory that is being ven- 
tilated. The duty of the people of a republican form of government to 
themselves has been a subject of the highest importance, and it will 
continue to be as long as free institutions exist. It was a subject that 
occupied the best part of Mr. J efferson’s life, and for the exact half cen- 
tury of his pronounced political activity, from the 4th of July, 1776, to 
the 4th of July, 1826, he devoted himself with a philosophic fidelity to 
the upbuilding of his country. After having spent years in the councils 
of his nation as ambassador to France, President for eight years — after 
adding to our public domain an area larger than the present Spain, 
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