North Carolina State University - Agromeck Yearbook (Raleigh, NC)

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THE AGROMECK thousand students, for what comes easy goes easy. In Michigan, at the founding of the University, there were only one or two poorly-equipped colleges, and the found- ing of the University, with a princely endowment, naturally attracted to it all those young men in the state who had hitherto been compelled to go to other states for a higher education. The A. M. was not so fortunate. It was founded in a state where there are scores of other well-equipped colleges and schools. There were thousands of graduates from these colleges who naturally wished their sons to attend the college from which VIEW LOOKING SOUTN they had their diplomas. The revenues are so small that the college cannot he run on the broad basis which was intended. In spite of these difficulties and disadvantages, which have to some extent retarded the progress of the A. M., we have good reasons to believe the College has a great future before it. These reasons are : T. The A. M. is free. It is under no obligation, as are denominational colleges, to maintain and observe creeds and confessions. It stands for morality and right, and high living, but not, of course, for sectarianism. z. The second ground for hope of a great future for the A. M. is the nature and 2 2

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a THE AGROMECK show of what material the A. M. boy is made, and the spirit such a college fosters. The loss of this building was a heavy blow to the College, but out of great evils sometimes arises great good. A larger dormitory was needed for the rapidly increasing number of students, and this need the new Watauga supplies. The new structure contains sixty rooms, well lighted, well ventilated and well heated, the dangerous kitchen being removed to other quarters where there will he no danger of the catas- trophe being repeated. The other new building is Pullen Memorial, named in honor of the benefactor, It S. Pullen. This building will add materially to the comfort and well-being of the students, since it fills the long-felt want of a large auditorium, a commodious dining room, and a spacious library and reading room. ' This increase in the number of buildings has been made necessary by the unex- ampled increase in the number of students. In ' 889 there were fifty students; today five hundred stalwart young men strut about the College grounds in the grey in which their fathers fought and died. Instead of a few boys loitering in the evening on the campus, the ground now trembles beneath the measured tread of a battalion of six companies. At the last State fair the boys in gray drilled so well that they re- ceived a continuous ovation along the whole route, and many were the compliments received by our able faculty on their bearing and deportment. The object is now, as it has always been in the past, to conduct an institution in which young men of character, energy and ambition may fit themselves for useful and honorable work in any line of industry in which training and skill are requisite to success. It is intended to train farmers, mechanics, engineers, architects, draughts- men, machinists, electricians, miners, metallurgists, chemists, dyers, mill workers, manufacturers, stock raisers, fruit growers, truckers and dairy men, by giving them not only a liberal but also a special education, with such manual and mental training as will qualify them for their future work. It offers practical and technical education in agriculture, horticulture, animal in- dustry, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, mining engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, dyeing, textile industry and architecture. It also offers practical training in carpentry, wood turning, blacksmithing, machinery work, mill work, boiler tend- ing and road building: Although the leading purpose of the College is thus to furnish technical and practical instruction, yet other subjects essential to a liberal education are not omitted. How can we judge of the future except by the past? With a glorious past we must and shall expect a glorious future. We can say what Webster said of Massa- chusetts, the past, indeed, is secure. Not only can we say that the past is secure, but also reasonably say that:the future is also secure. Our institution has had a short but honorable past, marked from the beginning by a steady and promising growth, but we cannot expect and do not wish a phenomenal growth such as that achieved by the University of Michigan, which in a few decades after its establishment had three 21 •

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THE AGROMECK extent of work el is now doing fur he slate. North Carolina is becoming a great manu- facturing state. Already it has more cotton mills than any other state in the Union. We must have men to run our cotton mills, our factories and our other industries, and the A. M. is furnishing these men. It gives a boy a practical and technical education, enabling him to become a great master of industry if he has the ambition. What kind of boys are receiving this education ? Not the rich men ' s sons who wish to enter some honorable profession, but mainly poor boys, among the best, the boys in the state, for the expenses are reduced to the smallest possible minimum, and VIEW PROM ATHLETIC FIELD it is in reach of all Since we will be a manufacturing state, it is these boys on whom the future of the state depends. The pettifogging lawyer cannot run a cotton mill; the doctor cannot harness the great water power of this state; the politician cannot design railroads, bridges, saw mills, etc. The men for this work have been furnished by other states, but it now remains for the A. M. graduate to take these places. The college is so bound. up with the best life of the state that we must grow with its growth and strengthen with its strength. The new knowledge taught at the A. M. is so important and practical, 23