Texas A and M University - Aggieland Yearbook (College Station, TX)

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T. O. Walton President Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas Page 26

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ADMINISTRATION Page 25

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President’s Message jLfARLY next fall the A. . M. College will reach its fiftieth mile post, and the end of the -W— present session will complete fifty years of consecutive work. Looking back over this half century of the history of the College every friend of education should be gratified with the results attained. From an initial enrollment of one hundred men, the attendance last year reached the high mark of more than twenty-five hundred in the regular session, with an additional twenty-five hundred in the summer session, and with a total for the main institution and the branch institutions of more than five thousand students enrolled during the regular scholastic year. The development of the physical plant, though not adequate to meet the needs, has been sufficient to make possible constructive work. Two branch institutions have been established that are serving the sections of the state in which they are located, as Junior Colleges, while the Industrial Institution at Prairie View for the training of negroes has enjoyed a like satis¬ factory growth and development. There has been established an Agricultural Experiment Station System that has rendered valuable and constructive service to the agricultural and livestock interests of the state through research projects that have been carried to a successful conclusion. Rural home life has greatly profited by the discoveries of the scientists attached to the System. An Engineering Experiment Station has been created that is conducting investigations in this field, and while it has not been properly supported, the discoveries of the scientists have been of value to industry. As the program is enlarged and the station receives greater financial support it will be able to do much more for industry. The Extension Division for extending agricultural and home economics information to the rural people is not only the largest but one of the most efficient organizations of its kind in the Nation. The county and home demonstration agents are carrying the latest and the most constructive information on agricultural and home practices to the people on the farms and through demonstration they are helping them to apply this information to the solution of their problems. During the fifty years of existence of the A. M. College of Texas approximately thirty thousand have enrolled and taken training at the institution. These men have made great contributions to the material, moral and spiritual upbuilding of our great commonwealth. As a result of the contributions of these men our state is immensely more wealthy today than she would have been without these contributions. While the progress has not been as great as most of us would have liked, at the same time the authorities of the institution have, notwithstanding their handicaps, particularly from lack of financial support, builded an institution that is rendering an efficient service to its con¬ stituents. Furthermore, through these fifty years there has grown up a spirit—the spirit of a great educational institution that has gripped the hearts of the men who have been trained here and has attracted to the College and its program men and women from every walk of life. One of the tests of the quality of an educational institution is the position held by men who have secured their training in that institution. In this respect every son of the A. M. College has much to be proud of because wherever they are found, whether it be in their native state, in another state of the Union, or in a foreign land, they fill positions of honor and trust and hold high the principles of right, honesty and honor. We come to the half century mark with fifty years of glorious history behind us and with a bright outlook ahead. Yet the institution will need the cooperation and support of all that great body of men and women who believe in the type of education sponsored by the A. M. College. It is a stable structure but the future depends upon the efforts of those of our citizens, and more especially our ex-students, who realize the value of technical training as a means of fitting men for useful and constructive service. With the cooperation of this body of citizens we may look forv ard to the coming years with confidence and with the certainty of seeing the further development at College Station of an institution that will make larger and larger con¬ tributions to the welfare of our state each succeeding year; an institution whose influence for good will be felt by more of the citizens and of whose accomplishments each man who has a part in the making shall always be proud. Page 27