SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSNT.



TECHIICAI, EDUCATION OUR GREATEST HEED


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Introduction.

1. Complimentary.-

2. Technical education includes those lines of

learning that are carried beyond the point of the mere

routine of daily work. It depends on the results of

scientific investigation. The leaders in any line of

technical investigation make frequent excursions into

the great realm of the unknown. From a bass point

they traverse the unsurveyed fields to the objective

goal. I may liken scientific investigation, in what-

ever field of labor, to the work of the surveyor who

runs a transit line for the first time over an unknown

territory. The skilful surveyor moves along methodi-

cally, and records his bearing and stations accurately.

The genius knows the country instinctively and lays

his lines along the ideal route. The ordinary fellow

starts somewhere and ends nowhere in particular. He

knows very little of the grounds he has traversed and

can tell less worth knowing to the men who are to fol-

low up his investigations. The genius is above us,

he needs no chart and uses the compass only to verify








his instinctive knowledge of the country. The ordinary

fellow will not profit by the work of' others, and leaves

little that is of service to anybody The skilfal and

original worker, in whatever line, whether in agriculture,

mechanical arts, or in manufactures, is the man the South

needs most of all today. We cannot all be Edisons, and

mere dunces and bluffers are so much dead weight. It is

the middle ground occupied by neither the dunce nor the

genius that the great hope for the future lies. This

field has been draw on so frequently to recruit the army

of investigators in other States that there are almost

none left for the home guard. Dr. Joseph Leconte and

Dr. John Leconte are among the illustrious men of the

past. Among those who are now doing something may be
mentionedB. M. Duggar, of Oornell. Jaole squads of the

recent graduates have left us.
What I have to say today has to do almost entirely

with the technical side of Agriculture. The majority of

our agricultural leaders of today were trained first in

some other line and then went through the time-consuming

process of shifting over to their present vocation. The

day, however, is fast closing when a man can make a fail-

ure of something else and then turn to Agriculture and

make a genuine success of it that. Scientific Agriculture

is becoming so complicated, and the accurate information

with regard to it so extensive, that no one can hope to be








a master in more than a small portion of the wide field.

To make a mark in technical agriculture now requires

that one shall make an early start in life and then devote

all his time ani energy to it. Among the men who have

completed or nearly completed their life work in agricul-

ture may be mentioned Beal, Brwwer, Goessmann, and Voorhees.

ADJUST MiTT TO MEET NEW CONDITIONS

This question is of vital significance to us

and not a mere academic,point. It is a real live condition

that is confronting us, and one that you and I are called

up tp meet as men,--just as the skilled surveyor has to

constantly adjust himself to conditions in new fields. We

have no precedent to follow, and none of us are likely

to class our neighbor as an Edison, whatever may be our

own opinion regarding ourselves. We are face to face

with the fact that we have been appointed by circumstances,

members of the ways and means committee which directs the

prosperity of this great Southland. We must face this

question with open mind and clear insight.

OUR ALTERED CONDITIONS

When the United States was established it was

essentially a pioneer country. As soon as the fathers

had robbed the soils of their readily available fertility,

the sons moved west into the Ohio valley to continue the


The sons of the Ohio farmers


plundering of the soil.






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and their eastern cousins moved westward to continue this

soil robbing process. At the present time we may see

large placards along the Coastal Railway on the Pacifis

with this inscription: "This is the Last West." And,

alas, for us it is the last West. She trend of popula-

tion will now have to be southward, where we have the only

large region of productive lands still unoccupied.

It took the region now known as the United

States three hundred years to develop a population of three

million white people. Though the ratio of increase in

population at that time was as great as it has been in

later years, it took the handful of pioneers who landed on

the Atlantic seaboard, though added to by later immigra-

tion, a long time to make up the population that was con-

tained in the United States at the beginning of the nine-

teenth century. About the same ratio of increase con-

tinued to be maintained, and it took us until a 1860 to

reach a population of thirty millions. We have today

reached the 90 million point. Our population has trebled

in the last fifty years, During the first five years of
this period there was a tremendous loss of human life that

is not likely to recur. In two more decades, or by 1930,

we sa^- lkely to have a population of 150 millions in the

United States.

We have often heard on the lecture platform





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that soil is an inexhaustible element in the nation's

wealth, and we are referred to China, with a population

of 400 souls to the square mile, as an illustration that

soils do not wear out. These general ideas regarding

China were based on various superficial observations.

One of our agricultural explorers, Mr. Frank Meyer, and

other equally as good observers, have penetrated into the

interior of China, looking beneath the superficial, and

.. ettd yin the conditions and country there with the cold,

keen eye of science. In the ba ok country and on the

tableland of China, where a thousand years ago there was

a teeming population (as shown by the ancient monuments

and records), they declare that now a person will go for

a stretch of ten miles without seeing a habitation or

meeting a living person. The uncanny secret which the

Chinese are supposed to possess in keeping their lands

fertile is nothing more than their congregation in the

valleys, upon the lands which have received the erosion

from the denuded farms and hills, from the tablelands and

former forests. We need not, however, go all the way to

China, for we can see the bad effects of the same misapplied

principles on our own cotton farms.
In this same connection I want to quote Mr.

James J. Hill, the railroad magnate, who has sometimes

beae called the Empire Builder. Mr. Hill, so far as I





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know, has never been accused of being a sentimentalist,

though he gave away thoroughbred stock, improved machinery,

fine work animals, and much other property representing

thousands of dollars. He says that to him it was purely

a business proposition. He was investing some of the

present money with a view of recovering it with handsome

interest. And those of us who have in a measure followed

his work know that he had the prevision of a prophet.

The quotation is as follows:
"The value of our annual farm product is now

about eight billion dollars. It might easily be doubled.

When the forests are all cut down and the mines are noth-

ing but empty holes in the ground, the farm lands of the

country will remain capable of renewing their bounty for-

ever. But they must have proper treatment. To provide

this is a matter of self-interest and of national safety,

it is the most imperative present duty of our people. *

The armed fleets of an enemy approaching our harbors would

be no more alarming than the relentless advance of the

day when we shall have neither sufficient food nor the

means to purchase it for our population. The farmers

of the nation must save it in the future, just as they

built its greatness in the past.
"The man who assumes to be the farmer's friend,

or holds his interests dear, will constitute himself a






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missionary of the new dispensation.. It is an act of

patriotic service to the country. It is a contribution

to the welfare of all humanity. It will strengthen the

pillars of the government that must otherwise be endan-

gered by some popular unheaval when the land can no longer

sustain the population that its bosom bears. Here lies

the true secret of our anxious interest is agricultural

methods; because, in the long run, they mean life or

death to future millions who are no strangers or invaders,

but our own children's children, and who will pass judg-

ment upon us according to what we have made of the world

in which their lot is to be cast." End of quotation.

(Exhibit charts showing production and consumption.)


EDUCATION NECESSARY TO A STABLE DEMOCRACY
Our present system of education had its origin

in a monarchial form of government. It, therefore, par-

took much of the form of government under which it was

fostered. In an aristocratic government, it mattered

not how many toiled incessantly, so long as the chosen

few were privileged to follow the bent of their own in-

clinations to the fullest extent. Under such a form of

government, a few extremely talented individuals arose,

@pe0ai&-yalong the lines of study that did not displease

the monarchial rulers. The great mass of humanity, how-

ever, were not considered as worthy of attention. It






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was really considered dangerous for them to obtain the rudi-

ments of an education. In the ideal democracy, however,

everybody has an education. The very foundation of a democra-

cy rests on the assumption that everyone of the electorate

body has at least a reasonable understanding of those ques-

tions of government necessary to the fullest development of

the individuals who make up the democracy.

Our own government is only a limited democracy; and

in some of the "machine-ridden" districts, it is extremely

limited. We are,. in fact, to a large extent, governed by an

office-holding oligarchy, which differs from a monarchy only

in that the electorate may at irregular intervals remove the

reigning oligarchs, and replace tha- by others. These condi-

tions will continue to exist as long as the electorate body

remain incapable of knowing its needs, and expressing them at

the polls. Great holdings of property, to my mind, are not

incompatible with a perfect democracy. Nor are great varia-

tions in intellectual attainments antagonistic to a democracy.

But it is impossible for a pure democracy to exist unsullied

unless the majority of the electorate is capable of under-

standing and voting intelligently on both local and national-l

questions. As long as we have an uneducated electorate, either

one "boss"or another will rule; but as the electorate becomes

more educated, the boss retreats, and finally quits the

field. Our own government has given us a striking illus-

tration of how an almost perfect organization may be per-






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averted to selfish ends. But by the education of the masses,

first one redoubt, and then another, has beea taken from

-the office-holding aristocracy. Formerly, the electorate

was not allowed the right to select the President of the

united States, but now it is practically conceded that we may

say which of two or three men is to be president; although

the Constitution of the United States reserves that right

to an electoral college:, .and we still go through the empty

form of voting for the member of this electoral college.

In many of our States, the United States Senators are voted

for in the primaries, or in the general election, and the

State Legislatures go through the farce of electing the

Senators.


EDUCATION IN TECHNICAL LIIES NEED

The stress of the times is upon us. Our own people

are calling for facts and figures. Never before in the

history of our country has there been such a clamor for

information of a technical nature. The farms are being

harder pressed for service than ever before. In addi-

tion to the natural increase of our own people, the tide

of immigration is setting in southward. The great flood

of surplus population which for a hundred years had found

its outlet toward the West, has at last filled that West,

and now the stream is setting in southward. This calls

for more leaders--not halfvprepared sam boys, but real trained

leaders. Every State in the South is demanding men who






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wbhecan do something right now--not ten years hence,

The education of our young men, unfortunately,

has been away from agriculture. The high school, the aca-

demy, the college, and even our universities, have bent

much, and often nearly all of their energies to making

professional men on the old lines--such as law, medicine

and theology. Altogether too few of our agricultural

students have been trained sufficiently to make leaders

in their particular lines. Many of those vho have been

well trained have found more inviting surroundings in some

northern institution, This is usually the fault of the

home State. A sojourn.for a longer or shorter time under

changed conditions is most healthful and helpful, but

the trouble lies in the fact that the surroundings have

not been condusive to bring ~keim back to us the ablest

of our young men after their ability has been proven, It

is not the purpose of this address to criticise any in-

stitution or any person for the want of congenial surround-

ings or permanency in tenure of office. These matters

are mere incidents along the way, and while detracting and

irritating in themselves, they are neitlhr the cause nor

the results of the metamorphosis through which we are now

passing. It is merely one of the symptoms which indicate

that we are going through the throes of widening our scope

of learning, of increasing our vision. Every large Amer-

ican educational institution has drawn from us ore or more





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'of their leaders. Naturally, our southern institutions

have returned the compliment by reaching out for trained

men. The unfortunate nart of this barter is that we have

been so frequently the losing Party in this exchange.
southern
Florida, as well as other/States, has been a veritable

training field for the more wealthy institutions. As a

general rule, inbreeding in the University and Experiment

Station is not good in principle. The home-trained man

who rises above local narrowness ia the exception. One

has to get away from home to be able to see it in its true

perspective. That is why we are here today. Everyone

of us knows that his work will suffer temporarily, but

everyone of us feels that he must get out of the narrow

valley and get 6nto the top of Lookout Mountain to really

seef the valley; to see the onward march of this great

Southland; to get a comprehensive view of its problems and

the really small part each individual is playing in its

development. let me make my meaning more concrete. There

is not a crop grown but could be made vastly more productive.

A few leaders in every line have shown this to be true.

Taking corn, the largest of our farm crops, as an example.

Florida raised on tLe average 13 bushels of corn to the acre,

yet the maximum yield for this year was 105 bushels per

acre. Last year Florida raised an average of 12.6 bushels

per acre, with a maximum yield of 115 bushels -er acre.

Georgia raised this year an average of 14,3 bushels per acre,

with a maximum yield of bushels per acre. South






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Carolina raised an average of 18.5 bushels per acre, vdth

a maximum yield of bushels per acre. South Carolina

has challenged the world for more than a decade in her

maximum yield of corn. Here and now we need our expert

surveyor who can traverse every foot of ground between the

13 bushels per acre and the 105 bushels per acre. We

need the man, yes, a whole army of men, to lead all of us

over the whole route. We are common, every-day men and
turn or
need an arrow or a blaze at every/corner. We must labor

patiently along from seed selection, through planting, ferti-

lizing, cultivating, to the harvesting of the crop. This

crop needs experts who have had the foundation of their

education laid in scientific studies. Such men will be

able to point out the causes for the failure, on the one

hard, and the reasons for success on the other. We are

in greatest need of men who can get above the rule of

Sthumb methods and reason out the causes from the effects.

Men who can dissociate themselves from the ordinary

routine of daily life and see the problem as a whole. In

other words, real leaders. They must also have the time

to digest their thought for clear expression.






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CONCLUS ION


1. We have reached the point as a nation where we

oonsame all the bread stuffs we produce, and in this decade

we must begin to answer the question as to whether we

will be an independent or a dependent nation; dependent

upon others for food stuffs. Our great Southland must

play a major part in this development if we would be true

to ourselves.

2, The first great step lies through the education

of the masses.

3. To educate the masses properly we must have a

greatly enlarged number of expert agriculturists.

4. Every one in an executive position in the South

knows that it is almost impossible to fill even passably

well the positions open. Poorly trained and poorly adapted

men are largely responsible for the slow progress we are

making, Our colleges and universities are largely re-

sponsible for this condition.

(Personal experience.)

5. To remedy this, our colleges and universities

should lay greater stress on post-graduate work. This

can be accomplished by---

A, Every Experiment Station having from four to

ten laboratory or field assistants chosen from among grad-

uates/


B. E







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B. Every full professor having one or more post-

graduate students working under him.

From among these post-graduate students will develop

men who are capable and willing to fill some of the places

at least that are now begging to find occupants. Och

posit s should y only enough enable t occ t to

make a ood living and ot enough to ke i commerce a ly

attractive.