University of Wyoming - WYO Yearbook (Laramie, WY)

Page 13 text:

H 0- gmniug— An (Ipppnrtunttu T sometimes seems to me, mdeed I thmk it always seems to me that m the great purpose underlymg history, the State of Wyoming and perhaps the other Rocky Mountain states were saved for a great mission. This, it seems to me, particularly applies to the State of Wyoming. If there is an underlying purpose at all in history, and I believe there is, here is one place where it is written so plainly that anyone may read. It has occurred to all of us how great has been the change in the method of living in the last quarter of a century and if this knowledge does anything for us it makes us sure how entirely different will be the methods of living at the end of the next quarter of a century. Contemplating the inventions of recent years one is ready to believe any prophecy for coming years. For instance, along ag- ricultural lines our fathers in the states of the Mississippi valley and East thought they farmed but they didn ' t. They simply went out into the fields, scratched the ground, sowed some seed, and waited for Nature to do the rest. Sometimes Nature did it. Sometimes she didn ' t. That is to say, the uniform kindness of Nature, so often prated about, is a thing pretty hard to prove. Nature is about as often the enemy of man as she is his friend, and for many many years in the great fertile valleys of this country, to say nothing of the fertile valleys of other continents passed over in the great westward march of the race, men worked and hoped Nature would be kind. If our fathers a hundred or two hundred years ago had been set to farm the waterless plains of Wyoming they would simply have perished. They had neither gifts nor grit to do this work. The generation that farms now, not only here but in the lands passed over, is not going to be content with simply hoping that Nature will be kind. This generation proposes to make Nature be kind. Tomorrow we shall not farm with lees. We shall farm with brains. For cen- turies and centuries men plodded on through the great fertile valleys and by and by they came to the shores of the great westward sea and could plod no more. And then it suddenly came to men not to submit but to conquer. Here upon these great plains of Wyoming is to be worked out the problems of a conquering, not a submitting race. The same thing is true in the matter of mineral resources. If there ever was a man who exemplified the old saying that I don ' t know where I ' m going but I ' m on my way it was the old time prospector. The prospector of days gone by simply hunted, where, when and what he knew not. He hunted and hoped he would find something somewhere, sometime. As a consequence the rock covered wealth of Wyoming has never been found. The man who finds the wealth of Wyoming will not only know he is on the road but he will know just where he is going. Tomorrow some man will invent, per- haps, some contrivance v-fhereby men will look into the very depths of the earth, who knows. Yesterday if one had said that a man would invent an implement whereby men would look into the human body people would have called him crazy. Today my statement may be called crazy. Tomorrow it will be a fact. There is almost no limit upon the scientific achievement of the men of today. Not in the val- leys where gold simply came in small quantities by accident, but in the great rock covered hills v ill be the place where brains will dis- cover wealth. This little article is a word of encouragement to Wyoming boys and girls. In this University today and tomorrow will be boys and girls who will solve these problems. There is not any sacrifice too great, there is not any equipment too complete for the boy or girl who is going to do this work. The deprivation of today in staying in college long enough to get ready will be the victory of the v orld tomorrow. Chas. O. Merica.

Page 12 text:

•:-0 = o Ion. Chaki.es Oi.ivk.k Mk.rica. A. II.. M. A.. LL. D.. Prc-sidcnt of tlic Uiii ersilv of Wvomino ' . vO = 0 () =:»•:• i- T? m - ' Mm P. Koii;i. ' :. T Al ERICA ' h v Hum.:::. 0 = o-:-

Page 14 text:

0 =3 0- ®hr Inarit nf SruBtrrs, OFFICERS. Otto Gramm President Timothy F. Burke, LL. B Vice President Arthur C. Jones Treasurer Frank Sumner Burrage, B. A Secretary Otto Gramm EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Gibson Clark V. J. TiDBALL MEMBERS. TERM appointed expires 1902 Hon. Arthur C. Jones.. 1911 1903.. ...Mrs. Elizabeth Arnold Stone, B. A 191 1 1908..... ....Hon. Henry A. Coffeen, M. A 1911 1895 Hon. Timothy F. Burke, LL. B .....1913 1903 Hon. A. J. Mokler 1913 1907 Hon. J. F. Crawford 1913 1895. Hon. Otto Gramm 1915 1908 Hon. Gibson Clark 1915 1909 ...Hon. Volney Jean Tidball, B. A., LL. B 1915 Hon. a. D. Cook Ex oificio Pres. Charles O. Merica, LL. D Ex officio 5 •0 = 0 o«c:= o