University of Maryland College Park - Terrapin / Reveille Yearbook (College Park, MD)

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a custom. In our rural schools we hope to see at no distant date the elements of agriculture and the me- chanic arts a part of their curriculum, so that our children may begiu to realize that rural life has its compensations. That it does not mean unceasing drudgery. That the opportunities for the training of the human mind in this vocation is as great, if not greater, than in others among men. Rome called her Cincinnatus from the fields to guide her through a critical time in her history. The Cin- cinnatus of the West drew his inspirations from rural scenes, and he sighed for the shades of Mt. Veruon as soon as he could lay aside the burden of his official duties. Men rarely attain a plane higher than the one on which their ideals rest. It is for us to create a higher sentiment of rural life. To show its possibilities from the standpoint of the de- velopment of the moral, aesthetic and social side of life, to de-emphasize the pre-eminent characteristics of American life, that to get rich and that quickly, is the one end of existence, more dollars and less compunctions about the method of acquiring them is the order of the day. The Israelitic worship of the golden calf has not been fi.Ked to any particular cycle or peculiar people in the world ' s history. Lucre gives power and this is the secret of the heedless, headlong rush for the same. It is certainly within the province and I believe the power of the Land Grant Colleges to moderate this feeling. To plant again the flower of pastoral contentment in the minds of many, and thus mature a manhood and womanhood so sorely needed to further Americanize our national life is our function. Tliese are some of our hopes for the future. May they all be realized. 14

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tial. Resting through untold ages while the organ- ism is formed into coal and awaiting the proper conjunction of conditions in order to be again a kinetic power, possibly in the shape of the influ- ences which force the iron horse, with its many thousands of horse-power, across our plains. The realm of knowledge of to-day is too broad for the comprehension of a single individual, for a single institution. President Lowe advises special work for universities. His advice seems wise to me. We have a special function as an Agricultural and Me- chanical College. President Clute, of the Agricul- tural College of Florida, has put the matter in as good shape as can be when he says, Our mi ssion is to train men for practical pursuit of the great pro- ductive industries that grow out of the cultivation of the soils, the manufacture of raw material into articles of use. In this is comprehended the whole of it. It is well for us to grasp the thought, that when we are trained mentally to accomplish in the most economic and intelligent manner the purpose here set forth, we are then educated men. We belong to the professional side of life. The day of the three learned professions has passed. Wherever man is at work with a trained head and a trained hand, there we expect to find results bearing the earmarks of professional work. The signs of the times seems to point to the fulfilment of Carlyle ' s prophecy when he said, Not arms and the man, but tools and the man is now and henceforth to be the future epic of the world. Our hope for the future is then to de- velop upon American soil an agricultural and me- chanical class of such intelligence that their opera- tions in the domain of their special work will be guided by an intelligent appreciation of the fact, that in all the world there is no such thing as a chance result. Underlying every conclusion, every product, every end, unchanging law rests. The in- telligent appreciation of this fact, and a readiness to so adjust our acts thereto, makes the difference be- tween success and failure in every department of human activity. Our Agricultural College and Experiment Station has as their object : To teich man to subordinate himself and all animal and vegetable life around him, to those inexorable laws, moral and physical, the violation of which meets with swift retribution. This is our hope for the future. Surely a responsibility so great, a field so wide, a necessity so pressing, must command the service and best thought of right-thinking men of the world. Traditional methods must give way to more rational lines of procedure. That such was done fifteen or fifty years ago may carry with it the most convincing evidence that it could not now be 13

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Xeyaiivc by H. A. Kaniliaiii.