citizen, either to himself or to the community, for the common man with an opportunity is a common man no longer. If we would know what a community of common people can do when it addresses itself seriously and en masse to a single purpose, consider the success of that little German village in breeding canaries, marvel upon the achievements in the Passion Play at Oberammergau, or even the singing of the Messiah in that little Swedish village of Kansas, as described in a recent Outlook.

Remembering what the common man may do, with proper ideals and advantages, there is no higher duty now resting upon all of us, and especially upon educators, than to unite education and activity by the closest possible bonds, to prevent on the one hand the acquirement of knowledge to no purpose, and on the other the development of operative skill with little knowledge of the true relations of things; to see to it that no individual shall be compelled to choose between an education without a vocation, and a vocation without an education. This supreme responsibility rests heavily upon every American community just now, and in our enthusiasm for education that is useful it is well if we temper our enthusiasm with judgment and keep always in mind the fundamentals on which all real education must rest. If this be true, it is imperative that the high school as an educational institution should take hold of and care for all the essential activities of its community; and if the clay working or some other interest develop into a separate organi⚫zation with a separate plant, that it still be under the control of the high school, as the different colleges of a university are under one control, and their policies and aims, though different, are yet harmonized into a common purpose of training for actual, not apparent, efficiency.

this is

To teach all subjects to all men in the same school the great educational, social, and economic opportunity of America, where both collegiate and secondary education are

in the hands of the general public and not of any sect, class, or faction. If we throw away this natural advantage, bought with blood and treasure, or if we neglect to make the most of it, we are guilty before the nation and the race of a breach of trust second only to the sin of treason.

If we follow precedent blindly and transport that alien institution, the European trade school, and transplant it into the free soil of America simply because it is temporarily easier than to complete the system we have so splendidly begun, then shall we commit an educational blunder that is inexcusable, and we shall richly deserve the anathemas that will be ours from generations yet unborn when they come to see the handicap we have laid upon them and the natural advantages we have sacrificed.

I would have it so that the occupation of an American citizen may not be known by his dress, his manner, his speech, or his prejudices. If we can realize this ideal, it will be to our perpetual advantage, for it will insure not only our economic independence but our social comfort, our racial progress, and our national safety. If all this is to come about, we have some thinking to do now, for, as I have remarked elsewhere, more depends on what we do now, than can depend upon what we or others think and say and try to do twentyfive or fifty years from now.

When the materials for American educational history are all gathered, and when time enough has elapsed for its various elements to assume their true proportions and perspective, it will be found that the most significant fact in the educational movement of our day and time was the agitation that led up to the establishment of the state university.

In a very large sense the founding of that unique institution of learning introduced two new and distinctive elements into our philosophy of education, both of which bid fair to be permanent, and to control even to the extent of revolutionizing our educational ideals.

The first of these fundamental doctrines was this that no single class of men and no single class of subjects should dominate the educational policies of this people; and the second was that in the last analysis higher education is a public and not a personal matter.

The state universities were established primarily to teach the branches of knowledge especially related to the industries of life; but their field has broadened in the doing, and their success has shown not only that learning may be useful without losing its educative value, but that all branches of learning are both useful and educative, and thereby worthy of being taught to somebody; that in the interest of the public it is the business of a school as of a university to teach more things than any single man may desire to know, and that it is the business of our institutions of learning to reflect in their laboratories and in their classrooms the life and essential activities of our civilization, at least in all its major aspects.

The other new idea introduced through the state university is that education is first of all a public rather than a personal matter. Colleges had long been maintained for the convenience of those who desired and were able to pay for an education, and those who took these courses did so with a view to bettering their condition personally. While the campaign for industrial education savored largely of personal needs and class equality in educational opportunity, yet in its working out we have discovered the deeper principle; viz. that the public is not well served until we educate freely for all useful activities, to the end that these activities shall be in the hands of educated men, under whom only will they develop and by which development only will our civilization as a whole prosper and progress. The ultimate purpose of a great system of education is and must be the development of human activities, both industrial and non-industrial, and our great demand upon the individuals that have enjoyed its

advantages is service - service in something, somewhere; anything, anywhere.

The great mass of human happiness will always arise out of doing well the common things of life, and the happiness of the individual will lie in that creative genius which does to-day the same thing it did yesterday, but does it better. All else is spice and seasoning to life, and as we cannot live on cakes and spices, so the enduring things will always be the useful things. There will be no educated aristocracy, for education will have a higher purpose than to give one man an advantage over another.

Every man's life is a comedy, a tragedy, or a symphony, according as he is educated. It was a great thing when the common man first lifted up his head, looked about him and said, "I, too, will be educated." It is our business to see to it that that high resolve shall not destroy the race, but shall still further bless it.

THE FUNCTION AND EFFICIENCY OF THE

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 1

WHITMAN H. JORDAN

1

It would be an indication of ingratitude and inappreciation if I failed to acknowledge at this time the great honor of being elected to preside over your deliberations, an honor commensurate with the distinguished history and eminent usefulness of this association. Because it has been my good fortune to attend these meetings from their very beginning, in addressing you on this occasion I cannot be accused of speaking without knowledge and understanding if at first I refer in the spirit of congratulation to the benefits of this organization, both for those of us who have participated in its deliberations and for the institutions which it represents. Not the least important outcome of these assemblages are the personal relations that have been established. The hand clasp that has spanned a continent has not only made possible the formation of friendships that have greatly enriched our lives, but thereby has come a sympathetic touch of laborers in the same field so essential to unity of purpose and understanding. We would all feel impoverished, personally and officially, if there were withdrawn from the sum of our life experiences the beneficent results of the intercourse that these meetings have afforded.

Because we are friends as well as coworkers, we keenly feel the absence from our midst of those who have passed out of life's activities. Two of the best beloved of our long-time associates have entered into their final rest during the year

1 From Science, Dec. 8, 1911. Reprinted by permission of the author and the publishers.