University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE to the Presidency of the Rhode Island State CoUege at Kingston in 1904. In 1906 he was unanimously elected, by the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, President of this institution, as successor of Henry Hill Goodell, L. L. D., whose recent lamented death had left us without a head. Three years of service has confirmed the wisdom of our Trustees ' choice. Among the sixty-three land-grant colleges of the United States — the Southern States having duplicates along the color line — ours is the only purely Agricultural College. All the others combine in one institution both agricultural and industrial education. Both of these were provided for under the terms of the Morrill Act of 1862. In Massachusetts alone, the bene- factions of the general government were divided between this ' institution, which was chartered by our General Court in 1863 for the single purpose of affording collegiate instruction in agriculture and kindred subjects, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then already in existence, which offered unrivalled facilities for higher industrial training. Of the income arising from the Massachusetts Land Grant two-thirds is appropriated to the Agricultural College, one-third to the Institute. Subsequent grants of money from Congress have been received, all specifically to maintenance, no part being available for buildings. Under the existing scheme of division this college receives annually about $25,000, while the Experiment Station gets about $30,000 more. The State is making annual liberal gifts of money for the erection of buildings — and maintenance — and support of an adec[uate teaching outfit. The administrative and teaching outfit of the College and Station now numbers about fifty, of whom at least 25 per cent have been added since President Butterfield assumed charge. Our President seems to possess administrative c]ualities of the highest order. He has before him a scheme of education of very broad scope, to the development of which he brings a mind alert and vigorous, disciplined and trained to the highest efficiency. A mass of details crowd upon his attention and demand constant effort and watchfulness. His annual budget for the Legislature rec[uires the m ost careful preparation and presentation, and here he has occupied a field in which he has thus far won the confidence and support of successive legislative bodies. His remarkable earnestness and sincerity and entire frankness in dealing with them, have won for him the entire confidence of the men at the State House.