University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

Page 14 text:

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY I. C. Fuzfrall. There come times in the history of every nation when the existing order of things is seriously questioned. This condition almost always arises in great financial and industrial depressions such as the world has been passing through for more than four years past. Much less than a hundred years ago public education as we know it hardly existed in the south. The general opinion was that education was for gentlemen and the children of gentlemen, and that -class was expected to provide its own schools. One of the most remarkable things in the history of our nation is the rapidity with which the public school idea became intrenched in the minds and hearts of the people. At first limited to the elementary grades, it was then extended to the high schools and to institutions of higher education and professional and technical schools. A few years ago most of us thought that the aim which the people had set for themselves, namely, to put elementary, secondary and higher education within the reach of all citizens capable of profiting by such education, and in institutions sup- ported at public expense, would be attained and held. ln the last few years, however, the onslaughts that have been made upon public schools of all kinds have drastically decreased their revenues, have crippled practically every public school in the land, and have actually made it impossible for many of the young people of the country to secure any schooling whatever at public expense. If this condition continues, it is the great masses of the people who will suffer. Their lack of education will, in the next generation, inevitably react unfavorably on the welfare of the nation. Keen observers in foreign lands are of the opinion that the high level of education that exists in the United States at the present time is the one thing that has held the ship of state on an even keel and has prevented revolutionary disturbances such as have taken place in many other countries. ..2--

Page 13 text:

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Page 15 text:

THE GOVERNCJR OF THE STHTE I. M. Futrell. The University of this State is becoming more and more useful beyond training the young Women and men of this state and elsewhere. lt is enteringmore into the economic and business life of the state. More and more, it is attempting to solve difficult questions which concern us. The field of its efforts in this direction should gradually expand. The present depression, the greatest in all history, has caused a general dis- cussion more earnestly than ever before of economic questions. The rapid increase in development by invention, machinery and processes have so displaced men and women in useful employment that serious dislocations and maladjustments have resulted. To take up this slack, it is said that the hours of labor must be reduced. The plan is to reduce labor to four hours per day. Will that be best for man? To those who make use of spare hours in useful study, improvement will come. What about those who Will not so employ their spare time? ls it, or is it not, best for mankind generally to be employed as much as eight hours per day with proper vacations? Our Universities are best prepared to make careful research and study of these questions, and to assist in the solution of many vexing problems which the develop- ments of this age have brought. May the usefulness of the University of Arkansas gradually expand as the days go by, and be equal to fully perform its duties towards the Welfare of the country! T ' -3-