RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE E AND MECHANIC ARTS. FOR FEBRUARY, 1908. iED QUARTERLY BY THE COLLEGE MAY, AUGUST, NOVEMBER, FEBRUARY. NTERED AT KINGSTON, KHODE ISLAND, AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. COMMUNICATION. From the Board of Managers of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts to the Governor and the General Assembly of Rhode Island. To His Excellency , the Gov^npr v { anxtihe Honorable , the General Assembly of the State, pf Miokb ' 'island and Providence Plantations : In recent discussion, public as well as private, concern- ing the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Kings- ton, there has appeared such evident desire for more exact and definite information concerning the institution, its history, character, and purposes, that it has seemed incumbent on us, the Board of Managers, to communicate to you at this time, a somewhat comprehensive statement. We accordingly beg your consideration of the representations here brought to- gether. Ia making this statement, we are actuated solely by the desire that you may come to a realizing sense of the value of the gift which the general government is offering to us and our children, and may take measures to make its benefits accrue to the State in largest degree. The gift is to the people of the State, not to us ; our obligation is only, in strict conformity with the law, to administer our trust so that it may serve the largest number in the largest wav. I. History. The story of the college begins with the U. S. land-grant act of 1862 which, while clearly describing the education it was intended to subsidize, bestowed on each state accepting the provisions of the act a grant of 30,000 acres of the public land for each senator and representative it had in Congress at that Rhode Island received scrip for 120, land ‘‘subject to sale at private entry Brown University was made the beneficial* fund, and so remained until the year 1894. Meanwhile a desire for change of beneficiary and, in 1888, after Congress had passed the giving to each State $15,000 per. year to establish and hiain- tain “ under the direction of the college or colleges established in accordance with the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862 ” an agricultural experiment sta- tion, this desire was so great that an agricultural school, presumably meeting the demands of the act sufficiently to enable it to attach to itself the projected experiment station, was begun and maintained at Kingston. In 1890^ the second Morrill Act gave to each land-grant school the sum of $15,000 increasing the amount by $1,000 each year until the yearly grant should reach $25,000 and continuing it thereafter at $25,000 each year. The Agricul- tural School at Kingston claimed this fund. But a Supreme Court decision invoked by Grov. Davis declared that, inas- much as the school did not purport to be a college, it could not receive the fund, and that Brown University was at that time the only institution in the State which was entitled to receive the money. Brown had previously offered to re- turn the ’62 fund. On the announcement of this decision, however, Brown revoked its offer, then pending in the vaca- tion of the legislature, and appointed a committee to make contracts with the State. In the absence of legislation, the funds from the 1890 act remained in the hands of the State and Treasurer. In 1892, an act was passed by the Rhode Island Legislature chartering the Agricultural School as a college (see Public Laws, January Session, 1892, Chapter 1078). Section 2 of this act gave to this college “all moneys hereafter received under said act of Congress approved March 2, 1887, (the Hatch Act) and under the act of Congress approved August 30, 1890 and all other moneys which shall be received by the State for the promotion of agricul- ture or the mechanic arts under or by virtue of any act of 3 Congress.” This, however, did not serve to settle the mat- ter. The State treasurer was enjoined from paying the sums over to the treasurer of the college, and after a decision of the United States Circuit Court in favor of the agricultural college, the matter went to the Supreme Court of the United States. While it was pending there, an agreement was reached, in 1894, between Brown University and the State, and, in consequence, the suit before the United States Court was withdrawn. By that agreement or contract, Brown Univer- sity, in consideration of the sum of $40,000 paid to its treas- urer by the State, returned to the State the fund derived from the sale of the land- scrip hereinbefore mentioned amounting to $50,000 and released and discharged “to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations all its claims upon said State of every nature, whether arising from the location and sale of the lands under the land- scrip men- tioned in said resolution ( Resolution for settlement with Brown University, April 19, 1894) or otherwise, and all its claims to or upon the moneys heretofore received and that shall be hereafter received by or that shall hereafter accrue to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations under the act of Congress of August 30, 1890, mentioned in said resolution.” By virtue of the previous act of the State Legislature, these funds came then to the Rhode Island Col- lege, and have since constituted the main support of the college. II. Organization. As at present constituted, the college has three distinct departments, each independently manned and independent of the others in its purposes and its sources of support. There are (A) the Experiment Station depart- ment, (B) the Extension department, and (C) the Teaching department ; designed respectively : (a) for the discovery and investigation of new truth in nature, (b) for the dissemina- tion of information, direction and advice among the people of the state who stand in need of it and cannot come to the college to obtain it, and (c) for the direct teaching of such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in order to promote the ‘ 4 liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 4 professions in life.” The work of the Experiment Station is clearly stated in the Act of Congress of *L887 (Hatch Act) as follows : It shall he the object and duty of said Experiment Stations to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants and animals, the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same, the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth, the comparative advantages of rotation cropping as pursued under a varying series of crops; the capacity of new plants or trees, for acclimation; the analysis of soils and water, the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds, the adaptation and value of grasses or forage plants, the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals, the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and cheese, and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agri- cultural industry of the United States as may, in each case, be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying con- ditions and needs of the respective states or territories. ” To show the line of cleavage between the work of the col- lege as such and that of the experiment station, note the following rulings of the Department of Agriculture, October 25, 1897. 4 ‘ This department holds that no portion of the funds appropriated by Congress in accordance with the Act of March 2, 1887, can legally be used, either directly, or indirectly, for paying the salaries or wages of professors, teachers, or other persons whose duties are confined to teaching, adminis- tration, or other work in connection with the courses of in- struction given in the colleges with which the stations are connected, or any other educational institution. Nor should any other expenses connected with the work or facilities for instruction in school or college courses be paid from said fund. In case the same persons are employed in both the experi- ment stations and other departments of the college with which the station is connected, a fair and equitable divisioh of salaries or wages should be made and in case of any other expenditures for the joint benefit of the experiment station 5 and the other departments of the college the aforesaid funds should be charged with only a fair share of such expend- itures.” Working under these provisions, the experiment station has done a vast amount of valuable work for the State. A prominent educational authority, not connected with the in- stitution at Kingston, a man of high standing in the State, recently remarked that the results of the station work on the one matter of the action of lime on the soil have been worth to the State far more than the total expense of the ex- periment station. The said station has done much other work of equal grade and value. The first two, the experiment station department and the extension department, it is unnecessary for us to describe more circumstantially at this time. But the college proper, the wmrk of direct instruction and training for the young people who attend, it seems wqll clearly to define and delimit. The two acts of Congress, that of 1862 and that of 1890, are quite clear in their description of the kind of school it was intended to foster. While allowing the teaching of many things, they require certain things quite definitely. The “leading object shall be to teach such branches of learning as are related to Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.” (See Act of 1862.) “ Twenty- five thou- sand dollars to be applied only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural and economic science, with special reference to their applications in the industries of life and to the facilities for such instruction.” (See act approved August 30, 1890.) “Fifty thousand dol- lars to be applied only for the purposes of the agricultural colleges as defined and limited in the Act of Congress, ap- proved July 2, 1862, and the Act of Congress approved August 30, 1890.” ( See Nelson amendment to the Agricul- tural Appropriation Act approved March 4, 1907.) The instruction, too, must be of collegiate grade. “An act donating public lands to the several States and Territo- ries which may provide colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.” (See Act approved July 2, 1862.) 6 That the word college is used advisedly is shown by the pro- vision that the funds shall be divided in certain States be- tween “ one college for the white students” and one institution for colored students ” “ however named or styled,” “the fullfillment of the foregoing provisions shall be taken as a compliance with the provisions in reference to separate colleges for white and colored students.” (See Act approved August 30, 1890.) These colleges are required to include both engineering and agriculture. This is shown, first, by the language of the Acts — “such branches of learning as are related to Agricul- ture and the Mechanic Arts” (See Act of 1862.) The Act of 1890 distinctly specifies and enumerates what subjects shall be taught and names immediately after agriculture “the mechanic arts.” Nothing can be clearer than that the intention was to include provision for the two great indus- trial classes, viz. ; the farmer and the mechanic. We have previously noted the fact that the instruction is to he of col- legiate grade. Now when you have instruction in mechanic arts of collegiate grade, it must inevitably be what is techni- cally called engineering. In the second place, it is shown by the interpretation placed on the wording of the bills by their author, Senator Morrill, in his speeches in advocacy of the bills. fi ‘ The most advanced studies were not, it will be remembered, to be excluded from these colleges, yet they must not fall short in the branches related to agriculture and mechanic arts, but must lead in the highest instruction asked for by the industrial classes , which have made and must keep our country foremost in character, wealth and power among nations.” ( See speech of Senator Justin S. Morrill, June 14, 1890.) Thirdly, it is shown by the interpretation of the Depart- ment of Education whose form of report provides separate categories for required statistics on mechanical and other phases of engineering. (See form of report appended.) Finally, it is shown by the practice of every state that has this grant. Every state and territory in the United States has provided for engineering courses under the land-grant act, with the exception of Connecticut, which, after having paid to Yale University over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars as the price of withdrawing the national aid, has ceased to subsidize said University with a portion of the United States fund in return for scholarships in the Sheffield Scientific School, and is now establishing a mechanical de- partment at the Agricultural College at Storrs, according to oral information received from the president of that school. The only other land-grant college which does not combine agri- cultural courses with engineering courses is Massachusetts. In that state the engineering work is done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the land-grant funds are ac- cordingly divided. From this discussion, it will be seen that the required work of land-grant colleges consists of collegiate training (a) in agriculture, (b) in engineering. In conformity with these requirements, the faculty of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts have arranged the courses for such collegiate work. They demand for entrance on the said collegiate work such preparation as is needed for the success- ful prosecution of the specific subjects involved in the said courses, and no others. While they earnestly advise all young people whose circumstances will permit such a course to remain in the high school for four full years, irrespective of whether all the subjects pursued are needed in prosecuting the work of this college, yet since, up to the present time, secondary schools of a character adapted to prepare directly for our collegiate forms of industrial and technical training have not been established in any considerable number through- out the country, and since it is of vital importance to the industrial classes for whom the land-grant schools were es- tablished, that the institution should not be unnecessarily difficult of access for members of said classes, both farmers and mechanics, this college makes no requirement touching the mere number of years spent in the high school, asking only that the applicant show evidence of satisfactory attain- ment (a) in English (usual college entrance requirements, — the main stress, however, not on knowledge of the authors and writings presented, but on the ability and ease shown in correct, accurate, well ordered and forceful expression); (b) in 8 algebra through quadratics; (c) in plane geometry; (d) in elementary German or French ; (e) in the fundamental prin- ciples of physics (or the equivalent in some other science) ; (f ) in history (one full year of high school work on history, an- cient, mediaeval, modern, or — specifically and preferably — English.) The work of the courses themselves is planned, not for the man who intends to carry his formal education on into the graduate field at this or some other school, but for the pur- pose of turning out young people who, under direction, will be able to carry out actual industrial work, either in field, or shop, or office, with that trained intelligence and ready skill so much in demand to-day ; gradually acquiring, in actual practice, the experienced and trustworthy judgment and ripe self-reliance necessary for successful command in due time. The courses, too, provide for the development of the whole nature, physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual, intimately combining, throughout all their range, the vocational theory, science, and practice, with the historical, economic, linguistic and literary work that are of the first importance in shaping the youth as neighbor, citizen and man. In order to be of still larger service to the industrial classes the college has projected and is carrying on a number of short courses and special courses in agriculture and mechanic arts, from six weeks to two years in length, wherein purely practical vocational information and such hand and brain training as is possible are given for the single purpose of im- parting day by day increased efficiency for definite tasks. For these courses no entrance requirements other than the most elementary education is made ; and they are in no sense preparatory for degree courses. Value of the Work. The best measure of the value of such courses is obtained by considering the funds invested year by year, by the various states, in the maintenance of such schools, in order to obtain the full benefits of the land-grant funds. For the year 1905 the total property valuation of those schools was eighty-one 9 and a quarter million dollars. They had buildings valued at twenty-eight millions, apparatus and machinery amounting to four and a half millions, and libraries worth two and a half millions. The maintenance funds from the United States amounted to two million dollars, while the states con- tributed nearly six million dollars to the same schools ; that is to say, the states contributed 66f% of the total amount going to these schools. A recent statement from Congress- man C. R. Davis is to the effect that, during the year 1907, while the amount from the United States Government has remained practically stationary, the appropriations of the states have risen to nearly 85% of the total fund accruing to these schools during the past year. From the very beginning of the distinctively land-grant schools forty-four years ago, they have steadily fought their way into public esteem and favor, and now hold a recognized position, which explains the marked advance, as measured by monetary standards, from 66f% to 85%. The Government fund, which consti- tutes the remaining percentage in each case, did not decrease in actual amount, but the 15% of 1907 was $240,000 greater that the 33^% of two years before. Men do not, over an area as great as the whole United States, uniformly spend their money in a steadily enlarging stream for forty- four years, unless there is accompanying such expenditure a cor- respondingly assured and widening realization of increased return. Over areas where the predominant industrial work is manufactures, as well as where it is agriculture, the posi- tion and value of the land -grant college is assured and un- questioned. It is admitted that these colleges are, in a marvelous degree, serving the industrial classes, “ who look only to a life of honorable effort and labor ; ” that they operate against the constant tendency “ to lift the cost of in- struction out of the reach of the many,” and are “leading in the highest instruction asked for by the industrial classes, which have made and must keep our country foremost in character, wealth and power among nations.” It should be recognized (1) that this State has the same industrial classes as have other states, and that these stand in need of the same service : (2) that there is no reason why the United 10 States grants of money cannot be made to do as efficient ser- vice here as elsewhere ; and (3) that, if the service is not being rendered, such fact constitutes a reason, not for depriving the State of the benefits of the grants from the General Govern- ment, but for investigation and re-adjustment so that the largest benefit may be obtained for all the people. Resources. The permanent property of this institution was reported in 1905 at $331,000. There has been much re-adjustment and some $25,000 worth of additions in buildings and equipment since that time. Making due allowance for old material discarded as comparatively useless, it is still fair to rate the present permanent property of the institution at some $340,000. Of this, there is a library valued at twenty-three thousand dollars, engineering apparatus and equipment valued at nearly twenty- four thousand dollars, and agricultural apparatus and equipment valued at ten thousand dollars. The income for the year 1907 was FOR THE EXPERIMENT STATION. United States Funds: — (a) From the Hatch Fund (cannot be used for teaching) $15,000 00 (b) From the Adams Fund (cannot be used for teaching) 8,000 00 Note. — The Adams Fund yielded $3500 January 1, to July 1, $4500 July 1 to December 31, 1907. (c) From Department sales 1,156 71 (d) From Interest 135 14 FOR THE EXTENSION DEPARTMENT, (exclu- sive of teaching department.) From State Funds: — Included in the annual main- tenance fund of $25,000. (See below.) 2,500 00 FOR THE COLLEGE PROPER. (a) United States funds as follows : — 11 (1) Income from $50,000 land-grant fund. . .$ 2,500 00 (2) 44 44 1890 Morrill fund 25,000 00 (3) 4 4 4 4 Nelson Amendment 2,500 00 Note. — $5,000 increase began July 1, 1907, and yielded to January 1, 1908, the $2500 mentioned under (3). (b) From the State:— (1) Annual Maintenance fund 25,000 00 (2) Repairs (1907) 3,639 00 (c) From other sources : — (1) Tuition for non-residents of Rhode Island . 885 20 (2) Laboratory- fees (for all students) 1,546 72 (3) Incidental fees (for all students) 1,006 00 (4) Sales and service rendered (departments). 5,369 67 (5) Room rent in dormitories 2,397 89 (6) Interest 320 31 (7) Miscellaneous 108 90 Total $94,556 54 Note. — It will, of course, be understood that (2), (3), (4) and (5) are gross receipts from these sources, not net income. Expenditures are as Follows for Year 1907. Note. — The United States fiscal year runs from July 1 to July 1, and the report submitted to the General Assembly February 1, contains statements for United States funds as presented to the Department at Washington ; that is to say, said United States reports cover the latter half of the year 1906, and the first half of the year 1907, while the reports for State funds take in the whole year 1907 and nothing more. Consequently, in attempting to make this statement for both funds cover the same space of time (1907), we have made figures for expenditures from United States funds for the first half of the year by simply dividing by two the amounts already reported to the legislature. Morrill Fund (1890) : — Instruction (January to July, 1907). $11, 856 84 \ I 12 ) Text books and reference books .. . $ 21 49-§- Apparatus 563 13^ Stock and material 58 53 $12,500 00 Morrill Fund (1890) from July 1 to December 31, 1907 : — Instruction $13,292 42 Text books and reference books. . . 272 16 Apparatus 911 20 Stock and material 2,392 37 Tools and machinery 12 30 — $16,880 45 Note. — Of this amount $9,296.74 have been paid from cur- rent funds, (See statement of Current Fund) because of closure of Union Trust Company, where the whole Morrill Fund for the year from July 1 , 1907 to July 1 , 1908 had been deposited. State Maintenance : — Salaries $2,909 21 Traveling 590 21 Postage and stationery 621 91 Construction and repairs 1,887 70 Oil and gasolene 256 81 Fuel 4,604 62 Telephone and telegraph 322 86 Feeds 851 92 Freight and express 410 65 Labor 9,426 70 Fertilizer 405 42 Commencement 325 12 Horse shoeing 116 79 Seeds 150 67 Laboratory material 200 58 Tools 203 64 Furniture 95 15 Books 46 75 Lectures. ......' 49 50 Entertainment 324 14 Pasturage 50 00 13 Dormitory rental $ 40 00 Advertising in publications and circulars 433*03 Miscellaneous 676 92 $25,000 00* State Repairs : — For repairs and improvement (labor and ma- terial) $2,371 53 From other sources (Current Fund ) : — Salaries . . $493 06 Traveling 140 11 Postage and stationery 96 88 Gasolene and oil 68 82 Fuel 4 00 Telegraph and telephone 10 87 Feed 8 20 Freight and express 22 81 Labor .. 1,958 87 Advertising in publications 180 32 Entertainment 182 33 Construction and repairs 178 61 Commencement 131 62 Laboratory material 18 00 Typewriter 73 50 Miscellaneous 182 50 $3,750 50^ Note. — Since the closing of the Union Trust Company, all projected college expenditures that could be deferred have been put off until some settlement with said Trust Company can be reached. Experiment Station : — Salaries ‘.$13,170 80 Labor 3,241 36 Publications, postage, etc 287 40 Freight and express 131 54 Supplies . . x 1,785 90 Library 580 65 Apparatus, fixtures, etc 1,000 17 Live stock 443 50 a 14 Traveling expense, $ 556 65 555 75 Heat, light and water Contingent expenses . Buildings and repairs 61 32 1,115 30 ■$22,929 98 New Factor Introduced. Your Board of Managers have deemed it right, at the pre- sent time, to ask the State for an added appropriation of $75,000 this year. The reasons for this are two-fold : (1) The institution is now greatly in need of larger accommoda- tions. When the present dormitory and boarding hall were planned, it was not supposed that accommodations for more than fifty or sixty students would ever be needed. The school enrolls at the present time 152 students, of whom 127 are in actual attendance at the present moment. We are asking, then, first of all, for actual present necessities. (2) In addition, however, we need to provide for the immediate future. The income from the 1890 Morrill Fund has been increased the present year by $5,000, and the same amount will be added each following year until the whole amounts, July 1, 1911, to $50,000. It seems that, with the doubling of our yearly income from the General Government, larger provision should be made for students who may obtain ben- efit from it. The fund is here with which to enlarge and strengthen equipment, provided roof space (for which gov- ernment funds can not be expended) is given for the equipment when bought, and for the students that would use it. If we would use the nation’s gift for our own benefit and for that of our children’s children, we must treat the situation in a large and far-seeing way. It is a question of taking the funds and providing wisely and liberally for the obligations which they carry ; or turning them back into the national treasury and refusing for ourselves and our children all ben- efit from the increased grant — a grant which comes to Rhode Island in exactly the same amount as it does to the empire state of New York. It surely cannot be held that we have no industrial classes to benefit. They may not, it is true, themselves appreciate (at the present time or to the full ex- L f 15 tent, the tremendous advantages of these benefits. It must be part of the task of those who man the college to awaken and extend interest. But we, in the conscientious discharge of our duty as officers of the Commonwealth cannot afford to consider only the immediate present. In 1862, when Mr. Morrill caused the passage of the first land-grant college act, the discussion shows that not one man in a thousand realized the epoch-making nature of the movement. Yet recently, the foremost educational authority in the United States pro- nounced this act “ next to the ordinance of 1787 the most important educational enactment in America.” Knowing the course of events in other states and throughout the years since 1862, and trusting to the future for confirmation of our judgment, we approach you with the firm conviction that, in treating this matter, we are dealing with the factor that will work most profoundly on the future of the State. There is, in our opinion, no question of state now before you for consideration that approaches in importance the question of adequate provision for the efficient use, now and in the future, of the national grants to industrial education in this State. A Pertinent Example. In re- shaping and renewing the vitality of educational thought, no school in the United States has played a more important part than has the Michigan Agricultural College. As a model from which to work, it has controlled and directed the growth of great schools from Maine to Australia. Its graduates may be found as progressive educational leaders in the majority of the States of the Union. It has beneficently touched and shaped the destinies of that great state in count- less ways and at innumerable points. While we should be- ware of servilely copying any model, however excellent in ^self and in its own environment, yet certain points in the Jiistory of this great school, we may well consider at age as our institution at Kingston, it aggre- re graduates, .an d was being scornfully Lame causes. The 16 files of Detroit newspapers thirty years ago will furnish, con- cerning the Michigan school, almost exact duplicates of the letters we have been recently reading in the Sunday corres- pondents’ columns of the Providence newspapers for and against the college at Kingston. To-day, however, the Michigan school has fought its battle and won.. The state, last year, for instance, completed for its college a building for engineering exclusively, that cost over $120,000, and this, too, in spite of the fact that its great University, sixty miles away and supported exclusively by the state, has an engineering department superbly manned and equipped. It is recognized that the two schools, both belonging to and maintained by the state,' yet serve different constituencies in tin state and, in any case, the fact that both are crowded demonstrates the need of both. To the two schools together the state gave last year, outside of its gifts to three normal schools and one normal college, the sum of $881,000. Yet the State of Michigan has only four times the aggregate wealth and five times the number of inhabitants that this State of ours has. We are asking this State to do not quite one-eighth of what Michigan has done. Last year we asked for only about one thirty-second. Conclusion. We have felt it our duty to call your attention to the mat- ters herewith submitted. We earnestly believe that the largest interests of all will be served by making liberal pro- vision for the school, and by the, steady maintenance of the lines of policy now being followed. It remains for you to consider and determine, in your wisdom, whether you will approve the principles on which we are administering the public trust reposed in us. Respectfully submitted, J. V. B. WATSON, Board of Managers. R. B. B!J1 A