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 Oak Street 
 UNCLASSIFIED 
 
 
 
 
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 PENNSYLVANIA STATE 
 
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 COLLEGE BULLETIN 
 
 
 VOL. XV 
 
 November 1, 1921 No. 12 
 
 INAUGURAL 
 
 of 
 
 John Martin Thomas 
 President 
 
 • v‘\ 
 
 The Pennsylvania State 
 College Bulletin is is¬ 
 sued monthly by The 
 Pennsylvania State Col¬ 
 lege. 
 
 Entered as second-class 
 mail matter February 7, 
 1908, at the Postofflce at 
 State College, Pennsyl¬ 
 vania. 
 

The Future of 
 The Pennsylvania 
 State College 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 by 
 
 President John M. Thomas 
 
 October 14, IQ2I 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/futureofpennsylv00thom_0 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 O N June 14, 1855, in the City of Harrisburg, 
 at the office of the Pennsylvania State Agri¬ 
 cultural Society, the Governor of the State, the 
 Secretary of the Commonwealth, and seven other 
 citizens met for the organization of a new type 
 of educational institution in the Commonwealth 
 of Pennsylvania. Their authority was an act of 
 the Legislature approved February 22, 1855, con¬ 
 stituting them trustees of “The Farmers’ High 
 School of Pennsylvania,” “an institution for the 
 education of youth in the various branches of 
 science, learning, and practical agriculture, as they 
 are connected with each other.” Distinctions be¬ 
 tween grades of schools were not exact in 1855, and 
 it was twenty years before the term “High School” 
 came to be applied consistently to the public second¬ 
 ary schools. The school Governor Pollock and his 
 associates had in mind was an institution of college 
 or university rank. Every reference in public ad¬ 
 dress or private letter by Frederick Watts, their 
 spokesman and the first Chairman of the Board of 
 Trustees, is to an institution of collegiate grade. 
 Doctor Evan Pugh, the first President, said to the 
 students in his inaugural address, “You are here as 
 members of the first Agricultural College which has 
 gone into successful operation in the United States,” 
 and he never referred to the institution as anything 
 but a college. But the term “college” was avoided in 
 the charter in order that there might be no confusion 
 with the existing type of literary college, and no mis¬ 
 understanding that here was an attempt to make a 
 new start in the educational enterprises of the nation. 
 
 a New Type The college was to be of a new 
 
 of College order in that the emphasis was 
 
 to be upon science, not upon letters. There was 
 
4 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 to be a definite abandonment of the traditional cur¬ 
 riculum. “The object of the Farmers’ High 
 School,” said the first catalogue, “is to afford a sys¬ 
 tem of instruction as extensive and thorough as that 
 of the usual course of our best colleges; but to differ 
 from the latter in devoting no time to the study of 
 the ancient languages, and in devoting a correspond¬ 
 ingly large time to scientific instruction.” It is diffi¬ 
 cult now to realize how revolutionary that statement 
 was in 1859. It was the announcement, not of a re¬ 
 vised curriculum, but of a new genus in American 
 educational institutions. 
 
 That this college was designed to be a new order 
 was indicated further by the fact that it was to be, 
 not an instrument of general literary culture, but 
 frankly vocational, to prepare youth as definitely and 
 practically as possible for specific callings, and in 
 particular for the occupation of a farmer. The aim 
 was to provide for the more ambitious youth a col¬ 
 lege education which would not by its very nature 
 attract them away from the farms and factories and 
 send them into the learned professions, but which 
 would return them, or at least some of them, to their 
 homes with the knowledge, skill and character to 
 make them successful in the occupations pursued by 
 the great body of citizens. This was a new purpose 
 and ambition for an American College, and it was 
 fully recognized that the institution would need to 
 be organized on a new system in order to fulfill its 
 function. 
 
 Underlying Pur- But there was something deeper and 
 pose of the New more fundamental in the minds of 
 College the projectors of the Farmers’ 
 
 High School. They were looking toward the 
 extension of higher education to a new class 
 of students, and the inclusion in its benefits of 
 
Pennsylvania State College 5 
 
 all classes and conditions of men in the great 
 American democracy, especially of the people 
 on the farms and in the industries. All American 
 colleges, then as now, were theoretically democratic, 
 and the doors of all were generously open to youth 
 of every class and station. But the youth who sought 
 them from the farms and from the homes of workers 
 were led almost inevitably from the occupations of 
 their fathers. The colleges did not train their stu¬ 
 dents for industrial life, and business and the indus¬ 
 tries did not feel the need of such men as the colleges 
 then trained. The result was that industry, agricul¬ 
 tural and other, was without educated leadership 
 and was losing its power and influence in the politi¬ 
 cal and social life of the Republic. Democracy was 
 in peril because dominance in affairs was tending 
 to pass into the hands of the learned men of the pro¬ 
 fessions, while the great masses of men of business 
 and men of the farms and industries were without 
 the ability and skill to bring their power to bear. 
 “The great body of our citizens,” said Frederick 
 Watts, “have not the power and the influence which 
 they ought to have for the proper balance of power in 
 our political and social relations. Something must 
 be done to increase their power—how shall we do 
 it?” 
 
 Now note the answer: “Education will impart in¬ 
 fluence, but it must be such education as will lead to 
 
 the desired end.Here is our want. At present 
 
 we” (i. e., the great body of citizens) “have no suit¬ 
 able college in existence.Now the institution 
 
 we are striving to establish, at the earliest possible 
 period, is intended to supply this great social, politi¬ 
 cal, moral and economical want.” 
 
 That utterance of the first President of our Board 
 of Trustees made July 2, 1857, to an audience of 
 
6 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 farmers in a barn on this campus is worthy of pres¬ 
 ervation in the history of American education. For 
 the foundation of this college was part of a wide¬ 
 spread movement toward scientific and industrial 
 higher education in the middle of the past century, 
 and in all the prophetic utterances which stimulated 
 that educational revolution none penetrates more 
 deeply into the underlying causes of it than those 
 words of Frederick Watts. 
 
 The New Type of The new type of American col- 
 Coiiege and Amer- lege was due to the instinct of 
 ican Democracy self-preservation in American de¬ 
 mocracy. It was the effort of the great body 
 of citizens to maintain their place and power in so¬ 
 cial and political affairs. The pioneer with the axe 
 and the plow had won for the nation its magnificent 
 home. He had penetrated through these valleys, 
 over the Alleghenies, down the great valley of the 
 Ohio, and over the boundless prairies to the Rockies 
 and the Pacific. In subduing the continent, he had 
 wrought the national character,—the manhood of the 
 frontier, strong, hardy, independent, resourceful, 
 full of energy, enthusiasm, and the love of freedom, 
 insistent above all things upon absolute equality of 
 all men in right and privilege. But the men who had 
 conquered the forests and fought the savages found 
 themselves unequal in councils of state and in so¬ 
 cial privilege to the men of the cities and the learned 
 professions. When they turned to educational in¬ 
 stitutions for the knowledge that would give them 
 power, they found they could attain skill in large af¬ 
 fairs only at the sacrifice of the occupations to which 
 they had given their life. There were no American 
 colleges to match the chief interests and occupations 
 of American life. The schools of higher learning 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 7 
 
 which had been scattered carelessly on western terri¬ 
 tory during the frontiersman’s advance across the 
 continent were utterly inconsonant with the life 
 which had grown up about them. They were weak 
 copies of seaboard institutions, which in turn were 
 replicas of the aristocratic universities of England 
 and which had changed marvelously little in studies, 
 manners and purposes from their European models. 
 
 For the saving of his manhood wrought in his fight 
 with the wilderness, for the maintenance of the 
 equality in right and privilege earned by his giant 
 labors and granted him by the Constitution, the 
 American began the erection of his own type of high¬ 
 er school. The movement had no single exponent 
 who adequately symbolized it, and its story must be 
 brought together from scattered sources. But wheth¬ 
 er in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, or in Illinois, 
 where for twenty years Jonathan B. Turner pled the 
 cause before agricultural societies and teachers’ con¬ 
 ventions, the fundamental idea was the same,—to 
 provide education of the highest grade free and open 
 to all classes, for the children of the farms and shops 
 and factories, and to give them such education as 
 would not remove them from common industry and 
 business, not even the business of the farm, and there¬ 
 by to raise the level of American industrial life to an 
 equality with professional life. It was an attempt to 
 realize democracy, to make good the doctrine of the 
 Declaration that all men are created equal, or as 
 Frederick Watts put it, to increase the power and 
 influence of the great body of our citizens. 
 
 The Morrill Act The culmination of this educational 
 and the Land- revolution was the approval by Pres- 
 Grant Colleges ident Lincoln Qn J uly 2> 1862, of the 
 
 act sponsored by Senator Morrill of Vermont, which 
 
8 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 granted lands from the national domain for the en¬ 
 dowment, support, and maintenance in each state, 
 which cared to accept the provisions of the Act, of a 
 college that would realize the ambitions then stir¬ 
 ring in the masses of the nation. The needs of the 
 agricultural and industrial classes were first in mind, 
 and it was prescribed that the institutions thus cre¬ 
 ated by joint authority of the federal and state gov¬ 
 ernments should be colleges where “the leading ob¬ 
 ject should be, without excluding other scientific and 
 classical studies, and including military tactics, to 
 teach such branches of learning as are related to ag¬ 
 riculture and the mechanic arts.” The broad pur¬ 
 pose to democratize higher education, to provide for 
 the ambitious youth of all classes the widest and most 
 extensive opportunities and advantages, was set forth 
 in the declaration that the purpose of the land-grant 
 colleges was “to promote the liberal and practical ed¬ 
 ucation of the industrial classes in the several pursuits 
 and professions of life.” 
 
 The Morrill Act and the designation of this in¬ 
 stitution as the college to carry out its purpose in 
 the State of Pennsylvania both clarified and broad¬ 
 ened the aims and objects of the projectors of this col¬ 
 lege. From that time forward the goal was clear and 
 the educational aim was enlarged to include a thor¬ 
 ough education of college grade and also at the same 
 time a practical and liberal training for positions of 
 responsibility in any of the industries of the state. 
 The institution took its place as one of the land-grant 
 colleges of America, and in due time the name was 
 changed to “The Pennsylvania State College.” 
 
 One still hears occasionally the suggestion that a 
 lang-grant college, and this college in particular, 
 should confine itself to the teaching of agriculture 
 exclusively. A college is under obligation to carry 
 
9 
 
 Pennsylvania State College 
 
 out the terms of its charter, and the charter of this 
 college includes the Act of the Legislature of 1863, 
 accepting the grant of the Morrill Act “with all its 
 provisions and conditions,” to which acceptance the 
 far-reaching engagement was added, “the faith of the 
 state is hereby pledged to carry the same into effect.” 
 Unquestionably the provisions and conditions of the 
 federal act of 1862 cannot be carried out without a 
 strong and worthy school of agriculture, generously 
 supported and directed in all its operations toward 
 the promotion of all agricultural interests of the 
 Commonwealth. Loyally and with utmost sympathy 
 with the endeavor The Pennsylvania State College 
 throughout its history has recognized and discharged 
 that obligation and today is eager to perform its full 
 duty by the fundamental industry of the nation. But 
 just as clear as is our duty to teach agriculture is our 
 obligation also, in this mighty industrial state, to 
 teach engineering and mining and natural science 
 and the liberal arts. In Pennsylvania we cannot 
 “promote the liberal and practical education of the 
 industrial classes in the several pursuits and profes¬ 
 sions of life” without regard for the youth, farmers’ 
 sons as well as others, who wish to equip themselves 
 for positions of responsibility in the mines and 
 mills, the factories and schools, the transportation 
 systems and commercial enterprises of this great 
 state. 
 
 Justin Morrill was a master of exact language, and 
 if he had intended the organization of farm schools, 
 devoted solely to empirical instruction in practical 
 agriculture, he would have found words to express 
 his purpose. It was the youth of the industrial 
 classes whom the Vermont storekeeper and son of a 
 blacksmith had in mind. He sought to provide for 
 them a liberal education as well as a practical train- 
 
10 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 ing. His statute forbade the exclusion of any scien¬ 
 tific and classical studies which the needs of aspir¬ 
 ing youth required. Behind his effort was a mighty 
 nation-wide popular .movement as was indicated by 
 the passage of the Act by two successive congresses, 
 the second time by an increased majority in both 
 houses. That movement was the endeavor of the in¬ 
 dustrial classes, especially of the great body of intel¬ 
 ligent American farmers, to extend free popular edu¬ 
 cation into the upper grades, and to make that edu¬ 
 cation both broad and practical, thoroughly Ameri¬ 
 can, and suited to the people for whom it was intend¬ 
 ed. It was not a movement from within the 
 schools or the learned circles; its sponsors and advo¬ 
 cates were not educational leaders or professors in 
 existing' institutions. They were far-sighted com¬ 
 moners from the rank and file, and the whole move¬ 
 ment was the press upward of democracy into higher 
 education. 
 
 The Pennsylvania State College has been true to 
 its charter and loyal to its genius, not only in the fur¬ 
 therance of agriculture, but also and equally in the 
 development of strong schools of engineering, natural 
 science, mining, and liberal arts. It has not broad¬ 
 ened its curriculum more than was necessary and 
 right in order to carry out the specific terms of the 
 Acts of Congress and of the State Legislature. Its 
 trustees would have been false to the trust reposed in 
 them if they had consented to a more restricted edu¬ 
 cational program. The young people of the Com¬ 
 monwealth by the steady increase of their number 
 who have sought the industrial courses have set their 
 approval upon the broad opportunities offered them. 
 No work of the public institutions of the nation has 
 been more in the spirit of the movement which 
 founded them than the inspiration which came to 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 11 
 
 hundreds of the graduates of this college in its chem¬ 
 ical laboratories under the genius of Doctor Pond. 
 
 There is not time today to recite the history of this 
 college, but I cannot resist mention of the appeal of 
 President Pugh to the Legislature not to divide the 
 Morrill fund among several institutions. It is one 
 of the ablest documents in the early history of 
 the land-grant colleges. He was a giant of a man 
 that first President. Teaching school and working as a 
 blacksmith to pay his way to the laboratories of Eu¬ 
 rope, the Quaker youth made contributions to science 
 which are still recited in the history of chemistry. 
 The course of study he laid out for this college was a 
 half century ahead of his time. The trials and ob¬ 
 stacles he overcame in the early years of this college 
 almost surpass belief. In this day of confidence and 
 hope, it is fitting that we pause a moment in honor of 
 the memory of the first President and the first martyr 
 of The Pennsylvania State College,—Doctor Evan 
 Pugh. Two other names stand out in the story of its 
 hard, heroic struggles,—General James A. Beaver, 
 the sturdy fighter for Penn State for nearly half a 
 century, and Doctor George W. Atherton, President 
 for twenty-four years, father of the school of engi¬ 
 neering, under whom the college first began to come 
 to its own in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
 
 a state Whether in dark days or brighter, 
 
 institution this institution has held true to its 
 
 charter, and has developed steadily, though some¬ 
 times slowly and painfully, toward the hope of its 
 founders as the public institution of higher learning 
 of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. From the 
 first projection of a Farmers’ High School in the 
 meetings of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural So¬ 
 ciety, the purpose has been kept steadily in mind to 
 
12 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 affect this college to the fullest possible extent with 
 a public character and public duty. Its trustees were 
 chosen by the people through the state and county 
 agricultural societies. It was directed to render “a 
 full and detailed account of the operations of the in¬ 
 stitution” each year to the Legislature. Funds 
 from the public treasury completed the erection of 
 its first building, and from the first it was expected 
 that the college would be supported by the state. 
 Representatives of the state government, never less 
 than three, have served continuously in its govern¬ 
 ing body. It is now and always has been solely de¬ 
 pendent upon state and federal funds for its main¬ 
 tenance. It has always been free and no Pennsyl¬ 
 vania student has ever paid one penny of tuition into 
 its treasury. 
 
 Its genius and spirit are that of the great state in¬ 
 stitutions of the West, with whom it has shared the 
 benefits and obligations of the Morrill Act. Like 
 them it regards the whole territory of the Common¬ 
 wealth as its campus and its field of service, and to¬ 
 day its representatives are in sixty-two counties of 
 the state, co-operating with the Federal and State 
 Departments of Agriculture and carrying directly 
 to farms and homes the latest knowledge of agricul¬ 
 tural experiment and research. In shops and fac¬ 
 tories also, and in the mines of both the eastern and 
 western sections teachers from this college are bring¬ 
 ing the light of science, so far as resources permit, to 
 the great industrial population. 
 
 The State College 
 Should Become 
 the State Univer¬ 
 sity 
 
 President Atherton looked forward 
 to the time when the college should 
 still further broaden its function and 
 
 change its name accordingly. When Governor Pat- 
 tison opened the engineering building in 1893, he 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 13 
 
 said, “May agencies arise when a public system of 
 education in Pennsylvania shall extend from the 
 primary through the graded school to the universi¬ 
 ty.” When he finished, Doctor Atherton said, “I 
 want to add that this shall be the university.” The 
 time has now come, after the twelve years of notable 
 advance under the leadership of Doctor Sparks, 
 when the ambition of Doctor Atherton should be 
 realized and The Pennsylvania State College should 
 frankly assume the name and function which its pres¬ 
 ent strength and service justify, and become in name 
 as it is now in fact The Pennsylvania State Univer¬ 
 sity. 
 
 We have now a state university in all but name. 
 Our school of agriculture is recognized by experts 
 as one of the strongest in the nation. In point of at¬ 
 tendance of agricultural students, it is the third larg¬ 
 est in the country. Its services to agricultural science 
 during the past fifty years have been among the 
 most notable. Wherever, the world over, is intelli¬ 
 gent interest in nutrition and the conservation of 
 food, the name of Armsby is held in honor. No col¬ 
 lege of agriculture in the United States has so good 
 a farm close at hand for operation and experiment 
 as we have in our two thousand acres. On these farms 
 are the oldest fertilizer experiments in America, re¬ 
 ferred to in all discussions of preservation of soil fer¬ 
 tility. Here are the largest experimental orchards 
 in the United States devoted to the study of methods 
 of orchard culture. This school of agriculture is the 
 only cause you can name why Pennsylvania in ten 
 years has advanced from thirteenth to seventh place 
 in the value of agricultural products. 
 
 Another worthy integral element of a state univer¬ 
 sity already existing here is our school of engineering. 
 
14 
 
 INAUGURAL: The Future of The 
 
 We have 30 per cent more students in engineering 
 than we have in agriculture. A year or two ago ours 
 was sixth engineering school in the country in point 
 of attendance, and had facilities been furnished us 
 for well qualified students who were eager to enter— 
 Pennsylvania students—we should today rank third. 
 In ten years the engineering school has increased its 
 attendance from 675 to 1100. More than 900 engi¬ 
 neering graduates are today serving the industries of 
 Pennsylvania. Of the 2580 graduates in engineer¬ 
 ing, in civil, mechanical, electrical, and other courses, 
 60 per cent are in engineering occupations today, 65 
 percent of them in Pennsylvania. In this mighty in¬ 
 dustrial state, the first in the nation, nothing but lack 
 of resources stands in the way of development of an 
 engineering college second to none. The personnel 
 and the spirit on which to build it are already here. 
 
 Our school of mines, though the youngest of our 
 schools, enrolls a larger number of Pennsylvania 
 mining students than any other mining school in the 
 state. The buildings are not creditable to the first 
 mining and metallurgical state in the country, but 
 the foundation has been laid for a college of mines 
 worthy of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The schools of liberal arts and of natural science, 
 into which years of devoted and skillful labor have 
 gone, the departments of home economics, military 
 science, and physical education are here as the con¬ 
 stituent elements of a university. The large depart¬ 
 ment of education presses for recognition as a separ¬ 
 ate school. Last year we enrolled 114 candidates for 
 advanced degrees, in addition to graduate students 
 at the summer session. In at least a score of depart¬ 
 ments of instruction, we have today sufficient facili¬ 
 ties for study for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 
 The college has been too modest in its published 
 
IS 
 
 Pennsylvania State College 
 
 statements concerning its graduate work, and many 
 an institution with a pretentious graduate school has 
 fewer advantages and is doing less work of graduate 
 grade than we now do on our campus. 
 
 No Obstacle There is nothing in our constitution 
 in Constitution or organization to prevent the addi¬ 
 tion of other technical or professional schools, by 
 creation here or by affiliation with existing schools 
 elsewhere, as the needs and welfare of the Common¬ 
 wealth may demand. Here are the foundation and 
 the structure carefully and painfully built up for 
 nearly three-quarters of a century for a state univer¬ 
 sity worthy of the imperial Commonwealth of Penn¬ 
 sylvania. The background is here, the subtle but 
 most substantial spirit and genius out of which alone 
 a university of the state and for the state can be erect¬ 
 ed. There is no example in the history of American 
 higher education of a large and successful state uni¬ 
 versity built upon a private foundation. In this 
 learned company I make that statement without fear 
 of challenge. It has not been done because it cannot 
 be done. You cannot inject the quality and genius 
 of the American state university into an old estab¬ 
 lished institution fathered by private motive and de¬ 
 veloped under private control. 
 
 On the other hand, the land-grant college has 
 grown into, or has been attached to, a state university 
 in no less than twenty-three of the commonwealths 
 of this nation. In the list are such great institutions 
 as the Universities of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, 
 California, and Ohio. No less than nine have made 
 precisely the change of name which I am suggesting 
 for Pennsylvania. Only a few months ago both 
 Maryland and Delaware took this step, and the end 
 is not yet. The more far-sighted knew at the begin- 
 
16 
 
 INAUGURAL: The Future of The 
 
 ning that something far greater than schools of agri¬ 
 culture alone would be the outcome of the Morrill 
 Act. Abraham Lincoln said to Jonathan B. Turner, 
 “If I am elected, I will sign your bill for state uni¬ 
 versities.” The advance from land-grant college to 
 state university is a perfectly natural and normal one. 
 There is involved no change in ideal or purpose, but 
 only an expansion of educational program and an en¬ 
 largement of the field of service. 
 
 The state Owns This college is now ready for such 
 and Controls the expansion. Only one other institu- 
 Coiiege tion in the United States of so many 
 
 students and none of so extensive courses of study still 
 bears the name of college. No radical changes are 
 involved, and there are no insurmountable obstacles, 
 either legal or sentimental. If there is anything in 
 the constitution or structure of The Pennsylvania 
 State College which in the judgment of the people 
 should be altered in order that it may become The 
 Pennsylvania State University, the institution so far 
 as lies within its power stands ready today to make 
 the necessary change. The equitable title to its 
 $4,000,000 plant is already in the Commonwealth. 
 This campus and these buildings should be regarded 
 as truly the property of the state as the State House 
 at Harrisburg, and if any declaration or other instru¬ 
 ment from our trustees is necessary to that end, it will 
 be forthcoming on demand. Some of our trustees are 
 now elected by agricultural and engineering socie¬ 
 ties, a method which when it was devised was be¬ 
 lieved to insure public control. The present Board 
 is able, harmonious, representative, and efficient, but 
 if any change in method of selection is necessary or 
 desirable to assure the people of this Commonwealth 
 that this institution is absolutely under their control 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 17 
 
 and sensitively responsive to their wishes, that change 
 will be made. We are not only willing to make it, 
 but I am sure I speak for every Trustee and for every 
 alumnus when I say that we are eager to make it. 
 The moment we discover that such change is desired 
 or thought wise by the people of the state, we could 
 not be true to our past, to the memory of Pugh and 
 Atherton and Beaver, if we did not stand ready to do 
 anything in our power to assert and maintain the full 
 and absolute ownership and control of this institution 
 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
 
 From Thaddeus A P ril U - 1835 > in the P 0USe of 
 Stevens to State Representatives at Harrisburg, 
 
 University Thaddeus Stevens of Lancaster, an 
 
 emigrant from my own green hills of Vermont, 
 against a hostile House, instructed by their constitu¬ 
 ents to the contrary, by the sheer might of his elo¬ 
 quence and his heart of love for the humble and 
 the poor, burned into the conscience of Pennsylvania 
 the principle that the common schools should be free 
 to the children of all the people. In course of time, 
 by natural development, the free public schools have 
 been extended to include the secondary grade, and 
 today there is a path to the free public high school 
 for every child of the Commonwealth. From out 
 its poverty and meagre resources, in days of misun¬ 
 derstanding and cruel criticism, at one period with¬ 
 out a penny from the treasury of the Commonwealth 
 for nearly a score of years, its buildings mortgaged, 
 efficient leadership nowhere to be found, this college 
 of the humble beginnings has kept open through all 
 these dark years one door through which the youth of 
 this state could enter freely to secure an education of 
 the highest grade as provided by the state. Over 
 and over again the door has been too narrow, and 
 
18 
 
 INAUGURAL: The Future of The 
 
 we have been obliged to say to many that there is 
 no room. For many years the privileges provided 
 were too meagre to be worthy of Pennsylvania, and 
 even yet in many respects they are not worthy. But 
 now we offer all we have, and all our strength and 
 devotion, that Pennsylvania may complete her sys¬ 
 tem of free public education by a university where 
 the humblest may have like privileges with the most 
 favored in the best that American education can pro¬ 
 vide. 
 
 state University In this day there can be no argu- 
 Cpwn ° £ ment that no state educational system 
 System is complete without a free state uni¬ 
 
 versity as its apex and crown. That does not mean 
 that the state university is to dominate and control 
 the lower schools, still less other institutions of high¬ 
 er learning. It means merely that free public edu¬ 
 cation shall not stop with the high school, but go on 
 to college grade. It means that it is the conviction 
 and will of the people of the state that the higher 
 reaches of education, education unto leadership and 
 for the professions of which the public has need and 
 which lead to the most ample rewards, shall not be 
 the privilege of the few but the right of all. Not 
 until public education is crowned by a free public 
 university is democracy sincere in declaring that all 
 men are created equal and that the doors to the high¬ 
 est service and the noblest personal attainment are 
 open to the humblest who can show himself worthy 
 to enter them. It is too late to dispute the doctrine 
 that all the resources of a state are liable for the 
 education of every last child in the state. It is too 
 late in free, democratic America to question the obli¬ 
 gation of the state to summon its ambitious youth 
 to free and equal opportunity in the most ample 
 learning America can afford. We are dealing to- 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 19 
 
 day with no trifle of the name of an institution. A 
 state university means a call to the heights to every 
 last child in the Commonwealth, and an increase of 
 self-respect and dignity in every citizen. It means 
 a nobler and worthier estimate of manhood in every 
 home in the Commonwealth. It means that we shall 
 measure man in Pennsylvania, not by what he may 
 learn as a child, but by what he may acquire when 
 the treasures of learning and science are open to 
 him in his full manhood power. 
 
 A University 
 Worthy of Penn 
 sylvania 
 
 If Pennsylvania is to have a uni¬ 
 versity acknowledged as an integral 
 part of its public school system, it 
 must be worthy of Pennsylvania,—worthy of the 
 youth of this Commonwealth, worthy of this state of 
 imperial domain, blessed in natural wealth above all 
 others in the nation, whose coal is of greater value 
 than all the gold of the earth, whose iron and steel 
 is the greatest single industry in the world, which 
 has a greater diversity and a larger amount of in¬ 
 dustry than any other commonwealth and at the 
 same time is exceeded by only one in its rural popu¬ 
 lation. If Pennsylvania is to have a state university, 
 it must be worthy of the most noble history and 
 traditions of this mighty Commonwealth,—of Wil¬ 
 liam Penn and Benjamin Franklin and Albert Gal¬ 
 latin and Thaddeus Stevens, and of the sacred mem¬ 
 ories of Independence Hall and Valley Forge and 
 Gettysburg. We must either do a big thing or 
 nothing at all. It would be most ignoble to project 
 as the cap-stone of education in Pennsylvania an in¬ 
 stitution narrow in scope, meagre in facilities, or 
 cheap and tawdry in buildings and equipment. The 
 dignity and the honor of a magnificent Common¬ 
 wealth are at stake, and the only worthy ambition 
 
20 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 and goal is a university second to none in this nation 
 in the excellence and beauty of its plant, in the cali¬ 
 bre and scholarship of its faculty, and in the nobility 
 and worth of its ideals of service. 
 
 If Pennsylvania is to extend public education to 
 include the higher grades, it should be in one state 
 university, not more. In no state which supports 
 two state institutions is there general satisfaction with 
 the results. In every state which has both a State 
 University and an agricultural college there are 
 fewer agricultural students in proportion to the 
 population than in states in which the agricultural 
 college is an integral part of the state university. 
 The counsel of experts is unanimous and positive 
 against dividing the effort of the state in higher 
 education. Later experience has only given added 
 force to the observation made by President Prichett 
 a few years ago, that “the greatest weaknesses in the 
 maintenance of good standards by the state universi¬ 
 ties have been exhibited in those states where the 
 state institutions of higher learning are conducted 
 in two or more colleges instead of being united into 
 a single institution. In such cases it has almost in¬ 
 evitably happened that an unwise competition has 
 sprung up, demoralizing alike to the institutions 
 themselves and to the public school system. Gener¬ 
 ally, the rivalry appears in the form of a competi¬ 
 tion between the state university and the state school 
 of agriculture and mechanic arts. Duplicate courses 
 are established at the two institutions, and low stand¬ 
 ards of admission, and log-rolling with the legisla¬ 
 ture, are the natural outcome.” 
 
 Ten Thousand There are now nearly 9,000,000 
 Students people in this state, and if the same 
 
 proportion were to seek higher education as are now 
 in attendance in universities and colleges in the en- 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 21 
 
 tire country, there would be 50,000 college students 
 in this state. Certainly the youth of Pennsylvania 
 are not less ambitious for higher education than the 
 average of the nation. It may be fair to assume that 
 four-fifths of this burden will be undertaken by the 
 private and denominational universities and colleges. 
 It is reasonable to expect the Commonwealth in its 
 own institution to make provision for one out of five, 
 especially when it is considered that there are fields 
 such as agriculture which on the ground of ex¬ 
 pense or for other reasons private institutions will 
 not care to enter. Not in ambition for numbers but 
 in consideration of its obligation to the Common¬ 
 wealth this institution should anticipate expansion 
 to 10,000 resident students. Already that number 
 has been reached by institutions in other states which 
 Pennsylvania should strive to emulate. 
 
 The Trustees have taken the initial steps in the 
 preparation of a building program for an institution 
 of that size. On this most beautiful site, at the exact 
 center of the state, with ample spaces for develop¬ 
 ment, and with the worthy buildings already in place, 
 it should be possible to construct an educational plant 
 of dignified and harmonious structures, which should 
 fitly express their civic character, and which the 
 citizens of the Commonwealth would be proud to 
 own, an object lesson of the place that education 
 holds in the hearts of the people, and emblematic 
 of the strength and wealth of the keystone state and 
 of the intelligence and character of its people. 
 Educational If we are to have a university worthy 
 
 Program 0 f Pennsylvania, we must preserve 
 
 every portion of the magnificent educational pro¬ 
 gram already in force, evolved with rare foresight 
 by the leaders of the past and preserved through 
 trying years by tremendous sacrifice and labor. We 
 
22 
 
 INAUGURAL: The Future of The 
 
 must strengthen every school we already have, the 
 largest as well as the smallest, playing no favorites 
 and asking only where is the greatest need and where 
 is the greatest possibility of service to the state. For 
 the sake of every school we should add a graduate 
 school just as soon as it can be adequately supported. 
 To meet the needs of the state, we should have a 
 School of Education, a large and worthy school of 
 teacher training. Over 2,000 persons without col¬ 
 lege degrees are now teaching in the public high 
 schools of Pennsylvania. By recent statute after 1927 
 the qualifications for secondary school teachers in the 
 public schools of the state will be notably advanced. 
 This institution should do its part in offering studies 
 for college credit in summer and extension courses 
 for those now teaching who desire to meet the con¬ 
 ditions, as well as in training those who will be 
 needed for new positions. 
 
 If we are to do this, we must increase largely our 
 accommodations for women students. Pennsylvania 
 has hardly been fair to her daughters in public 
 higher education. I should like to see on this cam¬ 
 pus a Home Economics laboratory the equal of any 
 in the country, and a group of homes for women 
 enabling us to multiply several times the number 
 now in attendance. 
 
 The heart of any college or university is its school 
 of liberal arts. The student of engineering, mining, 
 or agriculture, the man who will go directly into 
 business, not less than the man who intends the study 
 of the law or medicine, needs strong inspiring courses 
 in literature, history, mathematics, economics, phi¬ 
 losophy, and political science. In the technical col¬ 
 lege or university these departments need to be all 
 the stronger for the reason that students have less 
 time for such studies. The manhood and the culture 
 
23 
 
 Pennsylvania State College 
 
 needful for the educated man of any calling cannot 
 be secured through a few elementary courses in lan¬ 
 guage and mathematics in the Freshman year. I 
 would find place in the Junior and Senior years of 
 every technical course for required studies in polit¬ 
 ical science and economics, conducted by the most 
 enthusiastic and inspiring teachers who can be found. 
 Nine-tenths of a man’s reading after he leaves col¬ 
 lege is on subjects related to these departments, and 
 it is essential that he be master of the fundamentals. 
 A state institution should above all things educate 
 good citizens and the studies fundamental to good 
 citizenship should be strongly represented in its 
 curriculum. 
 
 We cannot do justice by liberal arts until we make 
 large additions to our Library. The building, the 
 provision for new books, and that for administration 
 are all inadequate for the institution we have today. 
 
 Research If we are to become the State Uni¬ 
 
 versity of Pennsylvania, we must largely increase our 
 facilities for research. The citizens of the state are 
 familiar with the great benefits that have been de¬ 
 rived from the researches conducted by our School 
 of Agriculture. They have added millions to the 
 agricultural wealth of the state, and have brought 
 new life and enthusiasm to agricultural pursuits. 
 Those investigations have been supported largely by 
 the federal appropriations through the Hatch and 
 Adams funds. The state has added almost nothing 
 to them. The generous provision of the national 
 government for agricultural extension is bringing 
 to the college more questions than we can answer. 
 There is not too much extension, but there is not 
 enough investigation going on to support the ex¬ 
 tension service. 
 
24- 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 Most inviting fields of investigation are open, not 
 only in agriculture, but also in every school and de¬ 
 partment of the college. Problems press for solu¬ 
 tion in engineering, in mining, in chemical industry, 
 the study of which would infuse new life into the 
 laboratories, and the results of which would be of 
 untold value to the people of the Commonwealth. 
 Pennsylvania cannot always retain its pre-eminence 
 in industry by virtue of its natural resources. The 
 work of the scientist and the expert is necessary to 
 the continuance of our prosperity, and money spent 
 in their encouragement will return many fold. 
 
 Extension Through its agricultural extension 
 
 staff of 127 workers there flows out from this campus 
 to every corner of the state a steady stream of in¬ 
 fluence toward better agricultural methods, and 
 toward worthier and ampler life in the farm homes. 
 These missionaries of agricultural science teach the 
 value of the silo, and how to spray potatoes, and how 
 to increase the profits of the dairy. But they teach 
 much more. They are making farmers talk chemis¬ 
 try and imbuing the masses of the people with re¬ 
 spect for the man of science, the man who knows. 
 As an institution of higher learning, we glory in this 
 work. A few years ago at the inauguration of a 
 New England president, it was said: “Now a new 
 American ideal has arisen in the state universities of 
 the West, then as now inchoate, heterogeneous, 
 sprawling, but showing the world for the first time 
 in history the spectacle of an entire people striving 
 to give itself a higher education, proclaiming that 
 the studies which in other lands and other centuries 
 were the luxuries of the few have now become the 
 necessities of the entire democracy.” Gladly we 
 place ourselves at the side of the western state uni- 
 
25 
 
 Pennsylvania State College 
 
 versities as thus defined. It is in our heart, so far 
 as we are able, to teach all knowledge to all men 
 within the field assigned to us. It is our creed that 
 the studies which in other lands and other centuries 
 were the luxuries of the few are now the necessities 
 of an entire democracy. And in pursuance of this 
 conviction, we are eager to “sprawl” if that be the 
 proper term for the carrying of educational advan¬ 
 tages to the homes of the people. If so privileged, 
 we will “sprawl” to the remotest valley in this Com¬ 
 monwealth with the science which Armsby and Bab¬ 
 cock and Dorset have illuminated in the laboratories 
 of agricultural colleges. We will “sprawl” into the 
 shops and factories, into the homes of miners and 
 coke-burners and steel workers, and teach them the 
 facts of science underlying their work and more ef¬ 
 ficient methods in their labor and ways of accident 
 prevention. 
 
 There has been only a beginning of adult educa¬ 
 tion in America, and the greatest future of the public 
 institution of higher learning in this country is in 
 educational extension. 
 
 Can Pennsylvania ^ have tr ^ e ^ t0 s hoW that the field 
 Afford a state and work of a state university of the 
 University? western type are natural to this in¬ 
 
 stitution, and to outline some of the developments 
 necessary on the basis of our present plant and pro¬ 
 gram. I am aware that the undertaking is a large 
 one, even though the development of The Pennsyl¬ 
 vania State College for sixty-five years has been 
 toward an institution of this type. The rural pop¬ 
 ulation of Pennsylvania is larger than that of the 
 six New England states with their six agricultural 
 colleges. The Pennsylvania State University would 
 have a larger total population to serve than the three 
 
26 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 great state universities of Michigan, Minnesota and 
 Wisconsin combined or than all the universities of 
 Canada. 
 
 But can Pennsylvania afford a state university? 
 I answer that no state in the union can better afford 
 it. Her aggregate wealth is more than fifteen bil¬ 
 lions of dollars. The value of her farms alone ex¬ 
 ceeds a billion and a quarter. She pays one-sixth 
 of the income taxes of the United States. Her 
 manufactures exceed two and one-half billions a year, 
 more than one-tenth of the country. Taxes in Penn¬ 
 sylvania are lower than in any other state in the 
 North. The state could build the largest university 
 in the Union, and provide for its maintenance ac¬ 
 cordingly, and her taxation rate for purposes of the 
 Commonwealth would still be lower than that of 
 any other state north of Mason and Dixon’s line. 
 
 The state could build and maintain her own un¬ 
 iversity without a dollar of additional expenditure 
 with the money now bestowed as subsidies to private 
 charitable and educational institutions. It is a wrong 
 principle to grant public funds for private work. 
 If the work is public, the public should support it 
 entirely and control it absolutely. If the work is 
 private, or if it belongs properly to a lesser political 
 entity than the Commonwealth, the largess of the 
 state only serves to remove responsibility from where 
 it belongs. The state will never do its duty by its 
 poor and unfortunate by the hit-or-miss method of 
 subsidy wherever private initiative happens to be 
 active. That method is insufficient and unscientific, 
 and its continuance for many years has probably done 
 more than anything else to injure the fair name of 
 Pennsylvania among philanthropists and social work¬ 
 ers in other commonwealths. 
 
 In addition to the forcible objections usually 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 27 
 
 brought against this practice, I would urge that the 
 practice of subsidizing private institutions is uneco¬ 
 nomical for the state. It robs the public of the earned 
 capital increment of its appropriations. When pub¬ 
 lic money is appropriated to a private institution, 
 there is a certain temporary return to the public in 
 the service rendered. If it is an educational insti¬ 
 tution, the return is in students educated, teachers 
 trained, or similar work. But there is a permanent 
 value from the public gift, and a very great one, 
 which does not accrue to the public, but which 
 inures to the private corporation controlling the in¬ 
 stitution. That is the increment of strength in gen¬ 
 eral good-will, increase of scientific reputation, 
 alumni loyalty, and other intangible assets of great 
 value, which are lost to the state whenever either 
 party dissolves the partnership. What the state 
 fosters and builds, that should be the property of 
 the state. Think of what states like Michigan, Illi¬ 
 nois, and Minnesota have today in their magnificent 
 state universities. They own them for any public 
 educational service which the will of the people 
 demands. They cannot lose what they have put into 
 them at the whim of a corporation or an alumni as¬ 
 sociation. How much poorer would those states be 
 if they had spent equal money in helping the work 
 of a half-dozen private colleges! 
 
 But instead of asking whether Pennsylvania can 
 afford a state university, we should ask rather, Can 
 the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania afford not 
 to have one? Can we afford to say to the youth of 
 this state, if you had been born in Ohio or Wis¬ 
 consin, you might have attended a magnificent uni¬ 
 versity provided by the state. If you were a citizen 
 of Utah or Arizona, your own state university doors 
 would swing open to you. But you had the mis- 
 
28 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 fortune to be born in Pennsylvania, and Pennsyl¬ 
 vania was too poor to follow the example of twenty- 
 three other states and develop its land-grant college 
 into a real state university. I cannot believe that it 
 is the will of the people of this great Commonwealth 
 that such answer should be returned to its ambitious 
 youth. 
 
 Relation to other We ask today the good-will of all 
 institutions sister institutions and the co-opera¬ 
 
 tion of all citizens of this state in the expansion of 
 this college into The Pennsylvania State University. 
 In this step we intend no hostility or injury to any 
 other institution of the state, small or large. There 
 is a field for each, ample and inviting. The large 
 university under private control, free to fix its own 
 policies, free from political pressure, is in enviable 
 position by virtue of its perfect liberty in the selec¬ 
 tion of special fields of learning and restarch and 
 its freedom to maintain its traditions and its historic 
 genius unmindful of popular demands. The small 
 college also, particularly the college which focuses 
 the interest of a religious denomination in higher 
 education, has conferred inestimable benefits upon 
 this nation, and in thorough scholarship in the funda¬ 
 mental branches of higher education and in peculiar 
 opportunity for the development of character in its 
 students the small college will always have its own 
 attractive field and will render service of greatest 
 value. This should be a day of co-operation in 
 education as in business. The prosperity of one in¬ 
 stitution is the stimulus of all. An adequate state 
 university at this central point of the state would be 
 a benefit to every other institution in the state. 
 
 Appeal to I appeal to the alumni of Penn State 
 
 Alumni to show their faith in its future by 
 
 gifts to the college proportionate to their hopes. 
 
29 
 
 Pennsylvania State College 
 
 The recent legislature was asked for $2,885,000 for 
 buildings urgently needed, a sum very much too 
 small considering that we are ten years behind in¬ 
 stitutions in other states, but we received only $250,- 
 000. To accept that result is to stand practically 
 still for two years. A state institution ought to be 
 bult by the state and we must not relax our efforts 
 until Pennsylvania has placed on this campus an 
 educational plant adequate to the work we have to 
 do. But an emergency confronts us. We are turn¬ 
 ing away applicants for admission, citizens of Penn¬ 
 sylvania, a thousand a year. We are checking the 
 growth of departments of investigation and instruc¬ 
 tion which are of incalculable value to the industries 
 of Pennsylvania. That must not be. This college 
 must go forward and go forward now. We cannot 
 wait. Delay means denial of opportunity to boys 
 who will never have another chance. We must go 
 to the next legislature with a broad popular move¬ 
 ment behind us which will force aside all obstacles 
 and challenge the people of Pennsylvania to place 
 this college where it shoud be among the state uni¬ 
 versities of America. Nothing would better evi¬ 
 dence such a movement than the erection on this 
 campus of buildings sorely needed, such as residences 
 for both men and women, a hospital, a gymnasium 
 and recreation building, which in a state institution 
 can appropriately be built from private gifts. 
 Alumni of a state institution are not released from 
 obligation to their alma mater, and a great demo¬ 
 cratic public service institution like ours may well 
 appeal to generous citizens as an appropriate object 
 of benevolence. How can one better express his 
 patriotism than by gifts to the institution of his state 
 where the most ambitious youth have free and equal 
 opportunity in education unto the highest service? 
 
30 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 I propose therefore an endeavor to secure $2,000,000 
 as an Emergency Building Fund to be obtained from 
 alumni and friends of the college, and to be used 
 for such buildings as are proper to be built from 
 private funds in a state institution. The times are 
 unfavorable, but the needs are great, and we must 
 meet them now. Nothing will put the might and 
 conviction of the people behind us like a successful 
 effort to help ourselves, and the harder the times, 
 the greater the honor and reward of success. 
 
 Difficulties and I am not unaware that the program 
 Encouragements j have sketched is exceedingly large 
 and difficult. The building of an adequate and 
 worthy state university in the Commonwealth of 
 Pennsylvania is a tremendous undertaking. My 
 friends, I cannot build such a university. The Trus¬ 
 tees and Faculty and Alumni of this state college 
 have not the power and ability to build it. If we 
 could, it would not be The Pennsylvana State Uni¬ 
 versity. This university must be built upon the con¬ 
 viction and by the will of the nine million people 
 of this Commonwealth. If it be their desire and 
 judgment that on the foundation laid by a handful 
 of earnest farmers sixty-seven years ago an institu¬ 
 tion of the people and for the people shall be erected 
 to crown the free public education of the Common¬ 
 wealth, nothing can prevent it. Whether such be 
 the will of the people of the state, I do not know. 
 But these things are clear. There has been a steadily 
 deepening conviction on the part of the people of 
 Pennsylvania for many years that the state should 
 complete its system of public education by a uni¬ 
 versity owned by the Commonwealth and entirely 
 under public control. Plans for the erection of such 
 a university by other means than the expansion of 
 
Pennsylvania State College 
 
 31 
 
 this college already owned by the state have not met 
 with favor and have been abandoned. The normal 
 schools of the state have ceased to be private enter¬ 
 prises, and are united under the control of the Com¬ 
 monwealth for the training of elementary teachers. 
 The State Department of Public Instruction has been 
 greatly strengthened, efficiently organized, and with 
 remarkable unanimity the people have rallied to its 
 generous support. An educational program adequate 
 to the needs of the state in all except higher educa¬ 
 tion has been undertaken with enthusiasm. The 
 Supreme Court has rendered a decision precluding 
 further state appropriations to sectarian institutions. 
 This state college, founded on the model which has 
 developed state universities in twenty-three other 
 commonwealths, protected of Almighty God through 
 a half century of penury and adversity such as al¬ 
 most no other American college has endured, has 
 advanced steadily, and in recent years rapidly, in 
 attendance and influence, and in the good-will and 
 confidence of the people of the state. Everywhere 
 it is spoken of as the people’s college. It has students 
 in numbers from every county in Pennsylvania, far 
 and away the most representative student attendance 
 of any college in the state. The youth of Pennsyl¬ 
 vania believe in it, and besiege us with pleas for 
 admission. The farmers believe in it, the business 
 men believe in it, the people generally believe in it. 
 Its courses of study are more complete than those of 
 many state universities now existing. Its educational 
 program requires but few additions to make it one 
 of the best rounded state universities in the nation. 
 It needs only the change of one word in its name to 
 take its place with the most noble product of Amer¬ 
 ican democracy, the American state universities. 
 
 I have taken today the only position as to the future 
 
32 
 
 Inaugural: The Future of The 
 
 of this institution which can be taken consistently 
 with the spirit of its founders and the steady advance 
 of the college to its present power and influence. The 
 guiding of Providence and the steady push of events, 
 in other institutions not less than our own, have been 
 toward the establishment of Pennsylvania’s Univer¬ 
 sity here. Humble before the opportunity and re¬ 
 sponsibility, we tender all we have and our utmost 
 effort in the future to the good people of this state, 
 and loyally await their will. 
 

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