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33 1914 
 
 
 
 BULLETIN 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OFJTEXAS 
 
 ( 
 
 No. 286 
 
 FOUR TIMES A MONTH 
 
 EXTENSION SERIES 35 
 
 JULYS, 1913 
 
 TEXAS' NEED OF THE SERVICES OF 
 HIGHER EDUCATION 
 
 PRIZE ORATIONS IN THE STATE ORATORICAL 
 
 CONTEST, 1913, HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES 
 
 OF THE HOGG ORGANIZATION 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 
 
 AUSTIN, TEXAS 
 
 Entered as second-class mail matter at the postoffice at Austin, Texas 
 
LA^o, 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This bulletin contains the three prize-winning orations in a 
 State oratorical contest for prizes offered by the Organization for 
 the Enlargement by the State of Texas of its Institutions of 
 Higher Education. The contest was open to all Texas colleges and 
 State normal schools, the awards consisting of a first prize of $100 
 cash, a second prize of $60, and a third prke of $40. To the col- 
 lege whose representative wins first place was also awarded 
 a silver loving cup valued at $50. For the purpose of prelimi- 
 nary contests the State was divided into six districts, each with a 
 district director. The contest was held at the University on 
 the night of April 25, 1913, the six districts being represented by 
 delegates from Abilene Christian College, Baylor University, Blinn 
 Memorial College, Burleson College, Clarendon College, and the 
 University of Texas. Mr. D. C. Hobbs, representing Baylor Uni- 
 versit}^, won first place; Mr. R. L. Skiles, representing the Univer- 
 sity of Texas, second place; and Mr. C. Q. Smith, representing 
 Clarendon College, third place. 
 
 As this bulletin goes to press, it is not known if the Hogg Organ- 
 ization will be able to renew the offer of prizes for a similar con- 
 test. In any event, a State oratorical contest, with similar rules 
 and organization, will hereafter be held, under the auspices of the 
 Intercollegiate Peace Association. Address inquiries to E. D. 
 Shurter, State Chairman, University, Austin. 
 
 M272867 
 
TEXAS' NEED OF THE SERVICES OF HIGHER. EDUCA- 
 TION FOR THE SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT 
 OF "THE MAN WITH THE HOE." 
 
 BY D. C. HOBBS. 
 
 (The following oration was awarded first prize in the Hogg State Ora- 
 torical Contest, held at the University of Texas, April 25, 1913. Mr. 
 Hobbs represented Baylor University.) 
 
 The first man born into the world became a tiller of the soil. 
 From that primitive time until this glorious age the farm has 
 bten the basis of all progress and the bed-rock of every civilization. 
 It has ever been and will ever remain of supreme importance to all 
 mankind. It produces the food that nourishes earth's toiling mil- 
 lions., and forms to-day the foundation of America's national pros- 
 perity and power. The farmer was destined to bear the burdens 
 of the world; and though chance and fate have combined to wreck 
 his fortunes, he has survived the tests of time. From his skill 
 and energy, from his success in reaping bountiful returns from 
 nature, is drawn the life sustaining power, which, circulating 
 through the channels of every other industry, vitalizes them into 
 agencies of happiness and wealth. Upon him depends directly or 
 indirectly every industry, and upon his tanned shoulders of brawn 
 rests the burden of feeding and clothing the world, while at the 
 same time, he is chief customer for products of all industries. 
 Back of all progress, back of every forward movement in the march 
 of man, stands this "Hard-handed son of Labor", earth's most 
 modest but worthy prince. And a careful study of existing con- 
 ditions in Texas proves that nothing will more surely promote the 
 welfare of the commonwealth than an intelligent application of 
 scientific methods in her agriculture. 
 
 To-day serious and vital problems are confronting the Texas 
 farmer. The land which has been yielding the food that has sus- 
 tained his people for three generations is losing its humus and 
 futility; the rapid migration of the boys and girls from nature's 
 garden of wealth to the cities of vice and corruption has left the 
 country without sufficient leadership; and the supremo need and 
 value of scientific education among the farmers is the pressing 
 -qaestion of the hour. The only hope for the prosperity of genera- 
 
6 
 
 tions to come is to revolutionize and make a complete change in 
 the present system of wanton devastation and impoverishment. 
 The farmer should build a great agricultural foundation, to reclaim 
 his depleted farms, by restoring the fertility of the soil ; to find and 
 transform the farmers into closer social relations; and to establish 
 farming on a broader and firmer scientific basis than ever before 
 attained by the skill of human industry. 
 
 The lack of scientific education among the farmers is costing 
 Texas millions of dollars annually. The lands unguarded by the 
 skilled hand of science are rapidly coming to depletion, exhaustion, 
 and devastation. Each passing year adds numerous farms to the 
 thousands of unfertile acres. The careless impoverishment of the 
 soil is due to depletion by erosion, exhaustion by single cropping, 
 and devastation by the great loss of humus. The farmer, ignorant 
 of the economy in controlling the waters of flooding rains, has per- 
 mitted the most productive part of the soil to be carried off into 
 the small streams and rivers. His ignorance of the disastrous 
 effects of single cropping has robbed the soil of its nutritive ele- 
 ments and more especially of phosphorus, the most expensive ele- 
 ment and the one hardest to replace. This destruction of the essen- 
 tial source of nutriment for the plant has greatly increased the 
 price of food products by lessening the supply, and if continued, 
 will lead to poverty. Destroy the virgin soils of anv state, and 
 you strike at the very foundation of its wealth and prosperity. 
 
 How to check the migration of the youth from the country to 
 the city is another grave problem which Texas must solve. One 
 of the most unfortunate phases of modern civilization is the drift 
 away from the farm the drift of country youth to city. The 
 rural districts of Texas, as elsewhere, today are constantly paying 
 a tribute to the city in the sacrifice of their best blood, their best 
 brain, and the finest physical and moral fiber in the world. Chaf- 
 ing under the lack of good schools, good roads, and proper social 
 environments, and being repelled by the hardships, excessive toilrf 
 and meager gains of farm life, the strongest and most promising 
 youth leave the farms to seek better opportunities, to acquire 
 wealth, influence and position in the city. Thousands of those 
 who flock to the crowded cities ultimately pay the price in the loss 
 of health, of honor, and of life. Led on by the resistless force of 
 temptation, they become wrecked in physique and warped in char- 
 acter, contaminated with vice and crime. Texas should provide the 
 
7 
 ~ 
 
 test known methods for the scientific training of the youth in the 
 field of agriculture, not only for the conservation of her greatest 
 natural resources, the soil, but for the conservation of the boys 
 and girls her richest product, 
 
 The Texan is beginning to understand that farming is a science 
 as well as a business, an art as well as a labor. He is awakening 
 to the cold fact, that lands which have had thousands of years 
 in making are destroyed in a single generation, and that he must 
 care for the tremendous issues which are involved in the permanent 
 prosperity of agriculture and the maintaining of a high standard 
 of education among the rural people. Through the operation of 
 agricultural schools and colleges*in the state, the farmer is learn- 
 ing the principles of scientific industrial education, and in them 
 he creates a love and appreciation of country life. Give to the 
 farmer every accessible truth of science to the same degree that the 
 mechanic commands, and there will be found in the rural world men 
 with scientific knowledge producing the finished product, a full 
 harvest. 
 
 One great phase of modern methods of farming, perhaps at pres- 
 ent the greatest in Texas, is the farmers' cooperative demonstra- 
 tion work. By this system the simple and well established princi- 
 ples of agriculture are directly taught on the farms. The people, 
 b} demonstrations, are persuaded to believe that the tilling of the 
 foil through applied scientific knowledge will revolutionize farming 
 into a new industry, and raise the standard of rural life to a posi- 
 tion of comfort and efficiency never before known. The demon- 
 stration work creates in the youth a love of the farm, and instills 
 in his nature a new hope by showing the real value of the soil 
 when properly managed, and the ease with which wealth and dis- 
 tinction are gained in rural life when science and art combine, lie 
 is forced to grant that "Only solvent people are tillers of the 
 soil" and that the unscientific farmer is fettered by bonds more 
 difficult and enduring than those of the "Chattel Slave". 
 
 A significant feature in the development of Texas agriculture 
 is the change in the attitude taken towards the farmer. A genera- 
 tion ago farming was regarded by many of our best people as an 
 undesirable occupation suitable only for those who lacked brains 
 and education to enter a profession, but science has revealed in it 
 possibilities hitherto unknown. The successful farmer of the 
 
future must recognize that farming in a scientific manner is an 
 honorable occupation, for it requires the greatest industry and skill 
 of man. He must know how to deal with the enemies of all farm 
 plants; select seed for future crops; realize the value of liberal 
 fertilization and better tillage; restore the fertility of the soil; 
 make fruitful his untilled acres and produce a bounteful crop 
 with a minimum of labor. The n.iiural productivity of the soil 
 is only half developed and the land simply awaits more careful and 
 intelligent farming to double its yield. When the farmer applies 
 scientific methods in this great work, then and only then will 
 the soil produce its best, and farming be recognized as Texas' great- 
 est industry. 
 
 As the farm is the producing hope of the consuming state, Texas 
 agriculture must make a wonderful development in the future, if 
 it is to nourish starving humanity. Four millions of hungry souls 
 awake every morning to be fed. Year I} 7 , thousands of immigrants 
 flock to Texas ports, settle down in the cities and add to the present 
 high cost of living by consuming without producing. The mil- 
 lions toil, are cold and hungry, Texas moves forward, yet Texas 
 stands still. The same cry that has resounded down the centuries 
 of time, "give us bread", is yet to be heard. What 'then must be 
 done? The age was when "Man furrowed his brow, bended his 
 back and crumbled away before his time, all in an effort to scratch 
 from earth a few grains of wheat with which to keep the spark of 
 life flickering within his starved and shivering body." But the 
 <nge of the hoe has passed. Brain and not brawn will henceforth be 
 the ruling power on the farm, and the ultimate solution of the 
 problem must, if solved, come through the new-born generation of 
 educated farmers. 
 
 Back of all the conscious work that is going on in Texas, back 
 of all visible attainments, there is a great work in progress. It is a 
 building of a mighty agricultural foundation. It is a structure 
 that must stand, and the word of inspiration warns the farmer to 
 be careful how he builds it, to see that he has a foundation that 
 will endure. "It is made clear by every process of losric and by 
 proof of historic fact, that the wealth of a state, the character of 
 its people, the quality and permanence of its institutions, are all 
 dependent upon a sound and sufficient agricultural foundation." 
 Texas' virgin fields must never be given over to ruthless ruin and 
 
9 
 
 destruction. Through science this man "bowed by the weight of 
 centuries" will be enabled to claim his own. 
 
 With dauntless cheeks and unflinching eyes this weary son of the 
 soil, who has fought the battles of peace and borne the burdens of 
 war throughout the ages, now stands with educated hands and 
 trained feet before the golden dawn of a new era. His ever widen- 
 ing vision beholds through proud and happy tears the penciling 
 streaks of early morn that foretell the matchless splendor of the 
 coming day of his untold possibilities. Not armies whose tread 
 shakes the land,, not navies whose guns sweep the sea, not commerce 
 whose whirling 'wheels are heard around the world, but the intelli- 
 gent cultivation of the farm forms"the anchor that will hold stead- 
 fast and secure our civilization through the political and economical 
 storms that will lash to fury the ever fluctuating sea of the future. 
 Nearby this well cultivated farm of to-morrow I see the vine-clad 
 cottage of the farm endowed with all the conveniences of city life. 
 Automobiles and turnpikes, telephones and daily mail delivery, a 
 church and school house on every hill and a free library in every 
 settlement, will link home to home, .community to community, and 
 thus regain for man a "Paradise Lost/' Then the intrepid son? 
 and the charming daughters of the farm, destined as they are to 
 be the motive power of the state's greatness, will no longer look 
 upon farm life as a drudgery, but as the happiest and most 
 independent life of the land. Then and not till then, will 
 proper prestige and power, glory and honor be meted out to this 
 sovereign of the soil, this king without a crown "The man with 
 the Hoe." 
 
10 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH'S NEED OF THE SEEVICES OF 
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE PREPARATION 
 
 OF THE TEACHERS' IN OUR PUBLIC 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 BY R. L. SKILES. 
 
 (The following oration was awarded second honors in the Hogg State 
 Oratorical Contest, held at the University of Texas, April 25, 1913. Mr. 
 Skiles represented the University of Texas.) 
 
 I shall discuss before you this evening the commonwealth's need 
 of the services of higher education in the preparation of the 
 teacher of our public schools. From the very nature of public 
 education it is apparent to all that the public school teacher is the 
 channel through which all educational influences reach the masses 
 of the children of our state. This discussion, though dealing 
 directly with public school teachers and their efficiency, is in its 
 final analysis a plea for the boys and girls who attend the public 
 schools of our state. It is their welfare that is primarily concerned, 
 and as I present the conditions which obtain among the teachers 
 of Texas, the motive back of it all will be to show the results of 
 these conditions upon the children of Texas, and hence upon the 
 commonwealth as a whole. In this discussion I want to get 
 clearly before your minds two things which are of fundamental 
 importance in determining the need for the services of higher 
 education in the preparation of school teachers : First, I want you 
 to know the present intellectual status of the teachers of Texas. 
 Second, I want to show that the fundamental principles underlying 
 the teaching process demands more highly educated teachers than 
 we now have. 
 
 The present intellectual status of the teachers of Texas is, to be 
 sure, a very intangible quantity. No man could presume to say 
 definitely just what the status is. The State Department of 
 Education, however, has recently compiled certain statistics which 
 may be taken as criteria of that status. I have gone over the sta- 
 tistics carefully with the statistics clerk of the Department of Edu- 
 cation, and we have divided them into two main groups : First, 
 those dealing with the teachers in "the rural schools; and second, 
 
11 
 
 those dealing with the teachers in the city schools. Such a division 
 is absolutely essential if one is to arrive at a wise and a just conclu- 
 sion concerning the needs of Texas teachers as a whole, for Texas 
 is primarily an agricultural state; two-thirds of the teachers 
 of Texas teach in rural school?; two-thirds of the children in 
 Texas attend rural schools. Any conclusion concerning the needs 
 of Texas teachers as a whole must, therefore, be based upon the 
 conditions in the rural schools. With this idea before your minds, 
 let me present the statistics : 
 
 There are 14,362 teachers in the rural schools of this state; 
 2,239 are graduates of high schools; 1,021 are graduates of State 
 formal Schools; 617 are graduates of colleges of some sort. There 
 remain 10,485, or 73 per cent of all the rural teachers of this state, 
 who are graduates of no school whatsoever. 
 
 There are 7,400 teachers in the city schools of this State; 2,280 
 are graduates of high schools ; 1,605 are graduates of State Normal 
 Schools; 1,349 are graduates of colleges of some sort. There 
 remain 2.167, or 28 per cent of all the city teachers of this state, 
 who are graduates of no school whatsoever. 
 
 The efficiency of the rural teacher is but one-sixth that of 
 the city teacher. 
 
 Before we draw any conclusions from these statistics, let us exam- 
 ine for a moment the fundamental law governing the teaching pro- 
 cess. Teaching is, in a sense, simply the flow of knowledge from 
 one mind into another. True, this is not the whole of the teaching 
 art, but it will serve to illustrate my point. The teacher represents 
 [he source of flow; the taught represents the recipient of that 
 flow. Now, the questions naturally arise: Under what conditions 
 will flow take place? Ho'w long may flow continue? And 
 when does flow become impossible? We know how to answer these 
 questions from experience, and by common sense. Knowledge 
 flows from higher to lower levels; so long as there is a difference 
 in levels, flow may take place. When the levels become equal, flow 
 becomes impossible. 
 
 The teaching process is still better illustrated by a current of 
 electricity: If T take a storage battery of ten volts capacity, and 
 wish to charge from that source another battery, all that I need 
 to do is to connect, the two by a conductor and the flow of electric- 
 ity immediately begins. The flow continues until the uncharged 
 
12 
 
 battery has received a charge of ten volts, then it ceases. The 
 battery from which I took the charge has lost no electricity what- 
 ever, and the uncharged battery has received just ten volts, which 
 is the capacity of the source. Now. it does not matter what the 
 capacity of the uncharged -battery may be, it may have a capacity 
 for a thousand volts, but it can receive only ten volts from that 
 source. If I wish my uncharged battery to perform a work requir- 
 ing one hundred volts, I must charge it from a different source 
 entirely. This process is exactly analogous to the teaching, process, 
 and with this conception constantly before our minds, let us turn 
 again to those statistics, and interpret them in the light of this 
 fundamental law. 
 
 What means it that 73 per cent of the rural teachers of this 
 state are not even graduates of a high school? It means, ladies 
 and gentlemen, that 73 out of every 100 boys and girls in the rural 
 schools of this State have never come into contact with an intellec- 
 tual force capable of charging their minds with mental power 
 greater than that of a high school graduate. What means it that 
 the rural teacher has but one-sixth' the efficiency of the city teacher ? 
 It means that iwo-thirds of ALL the school children of Texas are 
 taught by teachers whose efficiency is but one-sixth that of those 
 who teach the remaining one-third. We are told that a cultivated 
 mind is the guardian genius of a democracy. Has a democracy 
 builded wisely and firmly when two-thirds of its citizens are given 
 but one-sixth the opportunity for mental development as the re- 
 remaining ONE-third ? Is that equal rights to all ? Is that demo- 
 cratic ? Is such a condition conducive to the prosperity of the com- 
 monwealth as a whole ? Imagine, if you can, all the school children 
 of Texas gathered together. Walk through that vast audience, and 
 two out of every three children you meet have never had a teacher 
 capable of charging their minds with mental power greater than 
 that of a high school graduate. Think what varied mind capacities 
 must be there represented; what a void must exist in the minds of 
 that unfortunate two-thirds ! . What tremendous possibilities are 
 there going to waste. What marvelous resources are there left un- 
 developed. What an inequality in the chances for success in life. 
 Above all, what a menace to the prosperity of the commonwealth as 
 a whole is there represented in the criminal neglect of divine 
 intelligence. 
 
13 
 
 There has recently been placed upon the statute books of this 
 State, a rural high school law. If the services of higher education 
 in the preparation of public school teachers were needed before, this 
 law renders such service absolutely imperative. Between the 
 grammar school and the high school there is a distinct gap. Just 
 at this point comes the transition period in the child's mental 
 development. Transitions in all lines of development are occa- 
 sioned by danger; in the line of mental development they are es- 
 pecially dangerous. Ninety per cent of all those who fall by the 
 Avayside, and are lost to educational influences before attaining col- 
 lege standing, fail just here in making the transition from grammar 
 school to high school. All educators are agreed that the gap be- 
 tween the grammar school and the high school represents the 
 most dangerous chasm which the pupil is called upon to cross in 
 the course of his mental development. The most skillful teachers 
 are required to pilot the young learner across that chasm in safety, 
 for one false step and he falls, not to physical death it is true, but 
 (o a death scarcely less tragic the death of his mental develop- 
 ment. 
 
 The grammar school represents one level of attainment; the high 
 school represents another, higher level. The transition consists in 
 raising the pupil from the lower to the higher. Now, there are 
 clearly but two means by which the pupil may be raised : either he 
 may be lifted, as with a derrick, a leading process in which the 
 teacher goes before, or he may be pushed upward, the teacher 
 coming behind. Strange as it may seem to us, this latter concep- 
 tion is the popular one; people persist in believing that a teacher 
 can raise a pupil to a higher intellectual plane than he himself has 
 attained. Let us grant for the moment that such be possible, 
 and examine the result. The teacher in the rural school comes to 
 the brink of the chasm separating grammar school from high 
 school ; he may even catch a vision of the beauties beyond, and have 
 an intense desire to cross, but he does not know the safe passage. 
 The rural teacher cannot lead him across, for he himself has not 
 made the passage in safety. There the pupil stands upon the 
 brink, irresolute, balked. Suddenly there comes a push from be- 
 hind, and he steps forward. Does he strike the safe passage? He 
 does not know. His teacher does not know. What do you think 
 of the chances? 
 
14 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, two-thirds of the school children of Texas 
 are called upon to cross that chasm under the conditions which I 
 have just described. What should we do? Shall we abolish the 
 high school law? No; let us bring to the aid of that teacher the 
 services of HIGHER education ; let us make of Kim a safe guide ; 
 let us teach him the safe passage ; then he can take the pupil by the 
 hand, and lead him across in safety, and not push him into 
 he knows not what. 
 
 "Whosoever sees farther than his neighbor is that neighbor's 
 servant to lift him to such higher level." This is the principle 
 proclaimed more than half a century ago by the great agitator, 
 Wendell Phillips. In this principle is contained the very essence of 
 a democracy. It is the only sure foundation upon which a democ- 
 racy can safely rest. It becomes the duty of us who have been 
 fortunate enough to have realized the advantages of higher educa- 
 tion, to extend the means of securing those same advantages to every 
 member of our democratic commonwealth. This is but our plain 
 duty as citizens, as men of moral courage. In behalf of two- 
 thirds of the boys and girls of Texas who are now denied such an 
 opportunity, in behalf of the incalculable mental power which those 
 boys and girls possess, in behalf of the best interests of this com- 
 monwealth as a whole, I appeal to you for higher education in the 
 preparation of the teachers of our public schools. 
 
15 
 
 TEXAS 3 XHED OF THE SERVICES OF HIGHER EDUCA- 
 TION FOR THE ELEVATION AND ENRICHMENT 
 OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE AND CHARACTER. 
 
 BY C. Q. SMITH. 
 
 (Tin 1 following oration was awarded third honors in the Hogg State 
 Oratorical Contest,, held at the University of Texas, April 25, 1913. Mr. 
 Smith represented Clarendon College.) 
 
 Life is more than protoplasm; it is also adjustment. 
 
 Through his highly developed intellect man is enabled to carry 
 to greater fruition the imminent ends of existence. We are taught 
 in biology that as the cerebrum increases,, the creature becomes less 
 dependent upon instinct for survival, and that education produces 
 such changes in the brain as insure safe later reaction upon the 
 world. 
 
 The man who can act from remote as well as immediate stimuli 
 is at a distinct advantage in comparison with the man who reacts 
 only from the immediate stimuli. The individual who is learned 
 moves upon safer ground than the man of mere experience. The 
 former sees dangers afar off, while the latter discovers them not 
 until they are at hand, and must depend upon his wits to avoid 
 them. The illiterate knows not bow to call himself to account. 
 He may employ his natural talents, but not increase them. He may 
 hide his faults, but not improve them, he is an unskilled woods- 
 man who continues to chop without stopping to grind his ax. The 
 man of learning, on the contrary, corrects his mind with the use 
 thereof. 
 
 If men could be brought to realize that the perplexities of today 
 are due chiefly to the ignorance of how to adjust the principles of 
 life, and that the greatest end a personality can attain is through 
 developing high ideals, and in promoting their interests, the tasks 
 of men would be easily solved. As man rises superior to his limita- 
 tions and through knowledge turns them into elements of strength 
 and power, he grows in individuality and usefulness. 
 
 "Higher education is the eternal process of superior adjustment 
 of the physically and mentally developed, free, conscious, human 
 being to God, as manifested in the intellectual, emotional, and voli- 
 
16 
 
 tional environment of man/' Nature is man's heritage, and it is 
 his rightful power to subdue it and make its forces administer to 
 his needs. But since nature does not prepare man in the pre-natal 
 period for living, adjustment must be learned in the post-natal 
 period. Only through the highest development and best adjust- 
 ment to environment is man able to put the plastic element into 
 his life. Truth, beauty, and goodness are as infinite as the Eternal, 
 and are waiting to be revealed to man's growing intellect, developing 
 emotions through his finite will. The World is the world without 
 us, it behooves us to make it flesh. The mind creates its own world 
 and pursues self-appointed goals. As man thinketh, so is he. 
 "Through the mind are the avenues of the soul." Science, art, and 
 volition, reached by the intellect, the emotion, and the will of man, 
 are thoughts, feelings, and plans of God in the world. The world 
 is conformable to the mind of man, "who partially is, and wholly 
 hopes to be." The uneducated are shut off from the more refined 
 pleasures of life, because, having eyes they see not, having ears they 
 hear not, and having minds they comprehend not the beautiful ele- 
 ments in nature. Only when we understand the principles 
 and corollaries of our being can we work in harm on v with them. 
 Whole life cannot be found this side of whole truth, the sum 
 total of things that are. The quality of civilization depends upon 
 man's knowledge of man and what he has done. History that can 
 not be applied to our everyday life for the purpose of bettering 
 our citizenship is vain. Through Astronomy, Geology, Biology, 
 and Sociology are we brought to face the unity of Cosmic Laws. 
 
 Education is the potency of free and responsible living. It is 
 the amelioration and elevation of one's existence. Education puts 
 new significance into life, helps man to adjust the inner and the 
 outer self, and lights up all our action; brings out the interrelation 
 of the different parts of reality, and enables us to observe truth, 
 energize goodness, and appreciate beauty. It frees individuality, 
 emancipates personal powers, and widens the outlook; universalizes 
 our individual nature and socializes our impulses; helps us to 
 understand the beautiful and the ugly, and enables us to enjov the 
 one and remove the other ; to understand the good and the bad and 
 so cling to the one and hate the other; to unite the material and 
 the spiritual., the matter and the mind, the real and the ideal ; ren- 
 ders mind susceptible to improvement and reformation. "It 
 
17-- 
 
 softens the barbarity and fierceness of men's minds, mitigates the 
 fear of death and adverse fortune, which is one of the greatest im- 
 pediments to virtue and morality." 
 
 Education builds libraries, galleries, museums, hospitals and asy- 
 lums. It establishes churches and charities. It creates scientists, 
 artists, and writers. It has led men from savage hatred to univer- 
 sal brotherhood. It has transformed battlefields as if by magic 
 into beautiful parks and green valleys. It has bridled the light- 
 ning, harnessed the mighty currents of wind and wave to do the 
 will of man. It is as stable as the sun, and if encouraged, will 
 prove as luminous to the world. 
 
 Learning does not induce indolence, but rather accustoms the 
 mind to perpetual growth ; nor is there any fear that learning should 
 displace business, for it defends the mind against the prejudice 
 both of business and of pleasure. To say that blind custom of obe- 
 dience to laws of government and Deity is safer obligation than 
 duty understood., is to argue that a blind man may tread surer by n 
 guide than a man with his eyes open in the light. 
 
 Man is full of savage and unreclaimed desires, and if he main- 
 tains peace and hope, he must hearken to precepts, laws, philosophy, 
 and religion. But if these instruments become silenced, he falls 
 bnok into confusion and anarchy; for wisdom and learning pre- 
 serve him from errors by whispering to him when counselors stand 
 rnute. 
 
 "All social and political phenomena, are the manifestations of life 
 and ultimately dependent upon the laws of life." But they can 
 never be understood until the laws of life are understood. 
 
 Xo man was ever born free. Nature holds him in bondage and 
 he must evolve into freedom. It is a personal achievement won 
 through inspiration and education. There is no power given man 
 by which he may set up a throne in himself, but the power of knowl" 
 edge; by such he is enabled to approach nearest the Divine Sover- 
 eignty. As the mind selects the action and makes him free is he 
 free indeed. The liberally trained man "knows the truth and the 
 truth makes him free feels the beautiful and the beautiful makes 
 him gentle wills the good and the good makes him strong/' Yon- 
 der in the jungles of Africa is a wretch trembling under the rat- 
 tle of Jove's chariots, hiding in a dark cave, lest a spark from the 
 altar of the angry gods falls upon him ; while down at the station a 
 
18 
 
 delicate-fingered girl touches a key that sends your thoughts around 
 the world. What is the difference? One does not know how to 
 control the lightning, and the other does. One is a slave there in 
 the forest, the other is free to all the world. 
 
 Ignorance and selfishness are the only deep-seated influential 
 enemies to happiness and order. They are ever presnt obstacles 
 to improving the condition of man. 
 
 We are living under complex and rapidly varying conditions. 
 The world has long been under the spell of abstract principles, and 
 yet the people., in a large measure, are not able to organ- 
 ize themselves and their business so that those principles may 
 find just and equitable expression. Old beliefs and old customs 
 are giving away to truth, and as the time-honored creeds pass out 
 other and more imperative truths must follow, or we shall fall 
 into intellectual, political, and moral apathy. To avoid these 
 errors, we must develop guiding principles with which to work. To 
 fail to do this will mean suicide to our race. Japan and China 
 have rolled back the curtains that have long concealed them and are 
 welcoming the light of reason and knowledge. 
 
 The autocrat no longer lives in a cave and argues with a club. 
 Tyrants no longer dole out liberty to a few favorites only, with 
 education came liberty. It overthrew boastful privileges and built 
 constitutional government on ruined tyranny. 
 
 Texas needs the services of higher education for the elevation 
 and enrichment of individual life and character, because Texas, 
 as a whole, is nothing more nor less than the sum-total of the indi- 
 viduals who compose the state. Solon, when asked if he had given 
 his citizens the best laws, replied: "The best they are capable of 
 receiving." If men's standard's are raised, if their citizenship be 
 real, intellectual, sincere and vital, the state is always safe. Laws 
 may change, but principles underlying the existence' of law will 
 never change if the individuals of the Commonwealth are well 
 informed, for the intellectual look upon law with high regard, while 
 the ignorant and anarchic look upon law as caprice and would de- 
 stroy it and return to chaos. 
 
 A statistical view of the educational condition in Texas will show 
 the further need of higher education. More than fifty per cent 
 of the scholastic population never complete the fifth grade, about 
 five per cent enter High School, and less than one per cent enter 
 
19 
 
 College. Why should our beloved Lone Star State, rich in re- 
 sources beyond 'the dreams of avarice,, slumber thus? 
 
 One out of every forty graduates against one out of every ten 
 thousand non-graduates reaches the distinction of a place in the 
 "Cyclopaedia of Biography." We find that only one man out of 
 every seven hundred and fifty in the United States has gone to col- 
 lege, yet out of this small number have come 17 of the 26 presi- 
 dents, 19 of the 27 vice-presidents and 17' of the 34 persons in the 
 Hall of Fame. Alexander the Great in a letter to Aristotle gave 
 him to understand that he esteemed it more glorious to excel others 
 in learning than in power and empire. This is substantiated by his 
 attitude toward Diogenes upon seeing him contented with so little, 
 he turned to his courtiers, who were deriding the cynic's condition, 
 and said : "If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes/' 
 
 Socrates was persecuted during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants, 
 when learning was a crime. Eome never reached the acme of em- 
 pire till she arrived at the height of arts; for when she was at 
 her zenith there lived Virgil, Livy, and Cicero. When Cassar ac- 
 complished the reformation of the Calendar, he is reported to have 
 paid that he esteemed it as great a glory to observe and know the 
 laws of the heavens as to give laws to men on earth. The excel- 
 lent works of Shakespeare, Milton, Macaulay, Carlyle, and Addison 
 ore not the effects of undisciplined talent, but of learning and pre- 
 cept. 
 
 We find given in the celestial hierarchy of the supposed Dionysius 
 the Areopagite that the angels of knowledge and illumination are 
 placed before the angels of office and domination. Christ himself 
 showed first His power to subdue ignorance by conferring with 
 priests and doctors of the law, before He showed His power to sub- 
 due Nature by miracles. St. Paul, the most learned of the Apos- 
 tles, wrote most of the N"ew Testament. Emperor Julian, who pro- 
 hibited Christians the schools, was accounted a greater danger to the 
 faith than all the sanguinary persecutions of his predecessors. 
 
 Higher education is capable of perpetual renovation. The dig- 
 nity of learning aspires us to the securing of immortality. The 
 verses of Homer have lived long after the temples, castles and cities 
 of Greece crumbled into dust. Great is the magnificent ocean 
 steamer that majestically carries commodities from place to place, 
 but how much more should letters be valued, which like ships, con- 
 
20 
 vey knowledge through the great ocean of time to the remotest 
 
 Learning effectually excites the exaltation of God's glory, and 
 offers a singular and sure preservation against unbelief and error. 
 Our Saviour bears us out in this when He said, "Ye err, not know- 
 ing the Scriptures, nor the will of God.*' Thus implying that if we 
 should be free from error, we must study the revelations and will of 
 the God of nature, that our understanding might be opened to the 
 true sense of the Scriptures, not only by general notions and rules 
 of speech, but also opened chiefly to a due consideration of the 
 -omnipotence of the Creator. As heaven and earth contribute to 
 the use and benefit of man, the end ought to be by higher 
 education both to separate and reject vain and empty speculation, 
 and preserve and increase all that is solid and fruitful. Lord 
 Bacon says that, "Undoubtedly a superficial tincture of philosophy 
 may incline the mind to atheism, yet a further knowledge brings 
 it back to religion, for on the threshold of philosophy, where sec- 
 ond causes appear to absorb the attention, some oblivion of the 
 highest cause may ensue but when the mind goes deeper, and sees 
 the dependence of causes and the works of providence, it will easily 
 perceive, according to the mythology of the poets, that the upper 
 link of Nature's Chain is fastened to Jupiter's throne/' 
 
 So let us not pursue knowledge out of a natural curiosity and 
 inquisitive temper to entertain the mind with variety and delight; 
 for ornament and reputation; for victory and contentment; for 
 wealth and livlihood, but "For employing the Divine gifts of reason 
 to the use and benefit of mankind." Let us not seek in knowledge 
 a couch for a searching spirit, a park for a wandering mind, a 
 fort or vantage ground, a shop for profit, but a storehouse for the 
 .glory of the Creator and endowment of human life. 
 
21 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Proverbs of Solomon. 
 
 Book of Job. 
 
 "Advance in Learning." Bacon. 
 
 ''Self Measurement," Hyde. 
 
 * 'Ed 1.1 ca t i on ," Spencer. 
 
 "Thought and Action," Brooks. 
 
 "Eternal Life," Henry Drnmmond. 
 
 "Be Correct,'' Jno. McGrover. 
 
 "Grains and Brains/' McGrover. 
 
 "'The Public Anchor/' McGrover. 
 
 Kdiu-ational Review. Mar. 1909, Pages 298-305. 
 
 Kdiicational Review, Oct. 1909, "The Call to Citizenship." 
 
 Educational l?eview, Nov. 1909, Pages 364-72. 
 
 Educational Review, Mar. 1912, "The Dam Is Out." 
 
 "Philosophy of Education," Home. 
 
 "What Is Worth While." Anna Robertson Brown. 
 
 "Pushing to the Front," 0. S. Marden. 
 
 "'Data of Ethics,"' Spencer. 
 
 "'Elements of Sociology." Giddings. 
 
 "Sociology," Dealy. 
 
 "Elements of Psychology," Davis. 
 
 "The Intellectual Life," Hamerton. 
 
 'American Scholar," Emerson. 
 
 "Essay on Man," Pope. 
 
 "Paths to Power," Frank W. Gunsalus. 
 
 Texas Christian Advocate, Jan, 2, 1913. 
 
 "Fmidamemals," Vol. YTI, "The Passing of Evolution." Wright. 
 
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