1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
479 
Hope Farm Notes 
We have tended to regard education as a 
matter of the head only, and the result is 
that a great many of our people, themselves 
the sons of men who worked with their 
hands, seem to think that they rise in the 
world if they get 'into a position inhere they 
do no hard manual work whatever; where 
thdir hands will grow soft, and their work¬ 
ing clothes will he. kept clean. Such a con¬ 
ception is both false and mischievous. 
I wish you could all have been with mo to 
hear that on the afternoon of May 31. The 
speaker was President Roosevelt. He stood 
there oulverlng with energy, brown and strong 
as a prize fighter, pounding his fist into his 
palm as lie spoke for the man who works 
with his hands. Before him Ihe campus of 
the Michigan Agricultural College gently 
sloped away to the distant college buildings. 
At the right a fringe of trees marked the 
course of the Cedar River. In front, on 
either side, and behind, stood and sat what 
1 believe was the most remarkable audience 
the President ever faced. No other occa¬ 
sion could call out such a gathering. They 
had come to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary 
of the founding of an American agricultural 
college. That crowd was part of the exhibit 
which the college could justly and proudly 
make. 
It is the privilege of a lifetime to look 
over a company of 25,000 eager and orderly 
plain people. A smart wind was blowing, 
and hats were off. That is a supreme test 
for an outdoor gathering, for when the Wind 
is right all the low and slanting foreheads 
will be revealed. That kind of a head is not 
built up at an agricultural college, and so 
with the wind blowing their hair about and 
with eager eyes fixed on the speaker this 
hopeful gathering sat through the sunny af¬ 
ternoon unconsciously helping to make history. 
When that audience rose to sing “America" 
and the great volume of sound rolled down 
the slope, 75 per cent of them were able to 
sing the words without looking at the paper. 
They had learned the song in church and 
Grange and patriotic gathering. When the 
exercises were over it was necessary for the 
President to make ills way through the crowd. 
There was just a simple request that the 
people would rise and listen to the benedic¬ 
tion, and then sit down for two minutes 
while the President passed out. They lis¬ 
tened with bowed head to the blessing which 
surely fell upon them and then not a man 
stirred until the President was safely in his 
auto and away! Imagine the fight and 
tumult of a city crowd under such conditions! 
They would resent such a request, but these 
plain people of the farm by that very action 
justified what the President had said in his 
speech. 
No growth of cities, no growth of wealth 
can make up for a. loss in either the number 
or the character of the fanning population. 
In the United States more than in almost 
any other country we should realize this and 
should prize our country population. In 
every great crisis of the past a peculiar de¬ 
pendence has had to be placed upon the farm¬ 
ing population; and this dependence has 
hitherto been justified. 
This orderly willingness to follow unflinch¬ 
ingly the advice of those In whom they have 
confidence lias been in the past both the 
strength and the weakness of farmers. In 
tile future it will he more and more a source 
of strength with them, for as they learn to 
study out the problems of nature they will 
learn to apply her great and sure patience 
to public matters. 
It was a great privilege to he able to go 
back to the old college for this celebration. 
There were nearly 2,000 of the “old boys” 
on hand. Every man wore a badge with his 
name and the number of his class. It seemed 
to me that Time had dealt gently with most 
of the “boys” and “girls," yet I confess that 
I had to read most of the badges before I 
was sure. Prosperity had sent some of them 
to the meeting fair and round and confident, 
while trouble and sickness had left others 
careworn and thin. But the 2.1 years were 
all wiped out for the day, and we didn't see 
a wrinkle or a white hair or a sign of age. 
I confess that it was, at times, too much 
for me. Somehow I couldn’t say what I 
wanted to—-couldn’t quite give expression to 
the memories that came boiling up out of 
deeply hidden depths. Thank God we all 
knew about it, and realized what there was 
under the poor disguise of joke and foolish 
talk. I understood why so many of the old 
“boys” were to Is- seen walking aimlessly 
about alone. I wandered through some of the 
old class rooms. On the blackboards were 
written some questions for the Freshman 
class. I couldn’t have answered 20 per cent 
of them, and be sure of it, to save my life. 
Truly what 1 studied at college and what my 
record as a student stands for, has repre¬ 
sented in my life work just about what the 
dumbbell or the ax would to the man who 
tried to strengthen his body by healthful 
exercise. Most of the facts that we dug out 
and drilled so faithfully have laid down 
their arms and deserted, but the love and 
the loyalty and the character and spirit 
come back to us stronger than ever. As I 
went about the grounds a hand seemed to be 
pointing at me and written over the old 
familiar places I could read: 
What have you done with your lifef The 
State gave you your education and ufith it 
went an obligation. What gift do you bring 
backf 
Think o?a man at such a call going back 
to dig up the poor talent that he selfishly 
buried in the ground. lie could only come 
to the altar with the poor, petty record of a 
selfishly, cowardly life. Perhaps President 
Roosevelt had him in mind when he said 
that young people 
Should get over the idea that to earn $12 
a week an<t call it “salary” is better than to 
earn $25 a week and call it “wages.” 
It was a glorious thing that some of those 
old “boys” with hard, scarred hands and 
bent backs, struggling with honorable poverty 
and classed by the superficial ns “failures" 
could still bring the noblest gift to the altar. 
They could say “I have not done the things 
I wanted to do, but the tilings I knew 1 
ought to do." Give me the power to make 
the college graduate know just what it 
means to be 50 and I will soon give you the 
ideal Republic. 
President Roosevelt spoke of the signifi¬ 
cance of this great celebration, but It is 
doubtful if he could really understand it. 
That was reserved for those of us who could 
look back 25 years to the days when the 
college was small and struggling. From 
where I sat I could throw a base ball even 
now and hit the path along which I first en¬ 
tered the college ground—with little advan¬ 
tage over a tramp except that we had am¬ 
bition and hope. At that time there were 
but few over 150 students in the entire col¬ 
lege. Now there were-over 1,000 and the grad¬ 
uating class alone numbered 96. Then the col¬ 
lege was often spoken of as a “mossbaek” 
institution by men from the university and 
the denominational colleges. To-day its fifti¬ 
eth birthday had called together what was, 
without question, the largest and most dis¬ 
tinguished gathering of college presidents and 
educators ever seen in this country. The 
great schools of California and Washington 
on the Pacific joined with Maine and Massa¬ 
chusetts, Georgia and Texas and Illinois and 
Iowa, to acknowledge that the new idea of 
education was no longer an experiment but an 
assured success. Many of us know how for 
years the advocates of the old “classical" 
system of education fought the theory that 
head and hand should be trained together. 
They can fight no more, for this celebration 
lias settled' it. I have beard it advanced as a 
last argument that an agricultural education 
is too “material”—that it crowds the spirit¬ 
ual out of the student’s life. I am glad that 
this celebration upset that argument. There 
was no spirit of boasting or idle valnglory- 
ing about it, but all through it ran a vein of 
thanksgiving and responsibility. The real 
spirit of the occasion was caught when that 
great audience sang the old hymn “Mendon 
“Great God of Nations, now to thee 
Our hymn of gratitude we raise 
With humble heart and tending knee 
We offer Thee our songs of praise.” 
From President Roosevelt to the small 
girl who sat beside her mother on the grass, 
all helped to swell the great chorus which 
swept the fear of “materialism” off the cam¬ 
pus. 
But granting that what this college stands 
for lias, during the past, fought and won 
its way, what of the future? It is bewilder¬ 
ing to the “old boys” to think what there 
will ho on this campus 25 years hence. There 
is only one of the original college buildings 
left. That is the old chapel. It has been 
pronounced unsafe and suggestions were made 
that it be torn down. That aroused a storm 
of protest from the alumni so strong that I 
was told the Legislature will appropriate 
money enough to strengthen the building. 
That action as I view it, points a finger to 
show what the future of agricultural educa¬ 
tion has in store. It will be dominated bv 
worthy sentiment and respect for the past, 
and it will inspire and organize men to dom¬ 
inate public matters in the right wav. You 
cannot educate the hand along with the head 
without educating the heart also. At this 
celebration wise men justly lauded the college 
and what it stands for, because crop produc¬ 
tion has l>een vastly Increased and the wealth 
of the country made greater. It was also 
shown that the farm home and the man and 
woman have been made better, but I think 
the speakers failed to recognize what to me 
is the most hopeful thing of all. As men 
have been taught to analyze and apply scien¬ 
tific principles in handling crops or fighting 
insects and disease, they have unconsciously 
grown to apply similar exact reasoning to the 
settlement of public questions. The fruit grow¬ 
er begins to spray and learns to his sorrow that 
Paris-green will not kill the scale, nor will 
lime and sulphur kill the Codling worm, lie 
will learn to suit the remedy to the trouble 
and that wilt slowly show him that no poli¬ 
tician can give him a specific to solve all the 
public evils. As this education spreads and 
is made sensible and practical we are to have 
In this country the highest type of land own¬ 
ers and country dwellers that any nation has 
yet seen. In that lies the truest hope for the 
Republic, for it strengthens the very founda¬ 
tions of society. That Is what, came to me 
that day like n vision—-looking over those 
acres of clear, hopeful faces, like a modern 
army teaching the newer patriotism that it 
is better to live clean, fearless lives in one’s 
own home for country than to fight on the 
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