It seems entirely proper for the Extension Service to aid farm organizations through education. It might properly teach the following subjects: 1. History of farm organizations. 2. Description of present organizations. 4. Principles which must be observed by farm organiza- It seems clear that extension workers should be free to point out to farmers the advantages of organization, but it is equally clear that they should not become the protagonists of any particular organization as such. They should not hold office in these organizations nor solicit memberships, and farm organizations should not administer the work of county agents or public funds raised for extension purposes. CHAPTER V SOME FINAL CONSIDERATIONS Without doubt the land-grant colleges as a group have exerted an influence on American life out of all proportion to the size of the Federal grants that have been made toward their support. At the time of the passage of the First Morrill Act only a few States had established colleges of agriculture although there had been a great deal of agitation looking toward the development of instruction in agriculture and other practical subjects. The influence of the classics was dominant in higher education at the moment. The founding of the land-grant colleges gave a great stimulus to the inclusion of the sciences in the program of higher education. With the lapse of time, science would undoubtedly have assumed larger proportions in the offerings of colleges and universities than it did prior to the first five or six decades of the nineteenth century; but the movement toward increased offerings was unquestionably greatly accelerated by the establishment of the land-grant colleges with their great emphasis on practical education. The inclusion of agriculture and the mechanic arts in the programs of the land-grant institutions, although attended by ridicule and scorn from some of the older institutions, was another means of bringing them in touch with the lives of large numbers of persons who had little or no direct contact with higher institutions of the classical type. Much of the instruction in agriculture and mechanic arts in the early days of the land-grant colleges was of a rudimentary character, but in time and with the development of science in its relationships to agriculture, mechanic arts, and home economics, instruction in these subjects has been raised to the college level. 1 Isaac L. Kandel, Federal Aid for Vocational Education: A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Bulletin No. 10 (New York: The Carnegie Founda tion for the Advancement of Teaching, 1917), pp. 73-9. Writing for the Survey of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, Dr. Eugene Davenport, for many years Dean of the College of Agriculture of the University of Illinois, and a pioneer in the development of collegiate instruction in agriculture, said: Perhaps the greatest single service rendered by the colleges in the early days was a sympathetic nursery for science and for the scientific spirit; that is, the inductive method of study. Sometimes I have spoken of these colleges as wet nurses for science when nobody else would harbor the foundling, and the language is hardly too strong. The colleges stood like a stone wall for the education of all classes and for putting knowledge at work for the direct betterment of society in all its interest, farmers particularly, as against the idea of an educated minority constituting an aristocracy of learning and leadership. That such public-supported institutions are by nature publicservice institutions gradually developed as logic corollary to the reason for their existence. The idea that research, education, even formal, is mainly for the public welfare in which the student, instead of being the end product of all educational effort, is a means to an end, gradually evolved as the logical, if not the inevitable consequence of publicly supported institutions of higher learning. This general idea in the early period was often expressed as the "new education," a composite term intended to include science, education at work as applied to all the affairs of man, and the education so far as possible of all classes, trades, and professions. I will not say that all of these points stood out at the time, in fact, none of them did very clearly, except actual studies in science. But as I now see the perspective, these were the eventualities whose foundation was laid back there.2 The inclusion of science, agriculture, and mechanic arts in the program of higher education was a decisive step toward its democratization. But it does not encompass all that the land-grant institutions achieved in this direction. From their inception they had as one of their avowed purposes the opening of their doors to the "industrial classes." These persons constituted an economic group that even in democratic America had not been able to avail itself of higher education to any great degree prior to the middle of the nineteenth century. The land-grant colleges were expected to be hospitable to the "industrial classes." They were, U. S. Office of Education, Survey of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, vol. I, pt. I, pp. 22-3. and they still follow that policy, although the need for it is not so great as it was a century ago.] The results of the introduction of the new materials of instruction in higher education that attended the development of the land-grant institutions and their democratic social outlook have had a marked influence on the development of higher learning in the United States. They have been a potent force in bringing higher education close to life. Their democratizing influence has been carried far beyond those who came to their halls for instruction. The development of the experiment stations has resulted in greatly extending the ranges of human knowledge in the natural sciences, agriculture, engineering, veterinary medicine, and forestry. The benefits to be derived from these researches were from the beginning made available in printed form as well as in the instructional work of the classroom. More recently through the extension service in agriculture and home economics, which is a part of the land-grant college movement, the results of the work of the experiment stations and other research agencies have been made even more readily available. As a consequence millions of persons on farms and in farm homes feel every day the beneficial influence of the work of the land-grant colleges. The close relationship that has been maintained among the land-grant institutions, especially through the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, has fostered a valuable spirit of self examination. The colleges have accepted a responsibility for leadership in agriculture and to a less degree for rural life. This attitude, combined with their relationship to the Federal Government, has resulted in an interest in the solution of problems of practical concern that is unique in the field of higher education. When a broad view is taken of the contributions of this group of institutions, it may well be concluded that they have been among the major agencies of educational progress in the United States. Their influence has been felt in the conservation of natural resources; the preservation and improvement of rural life; the strengthening of the farm home; and the training of a force of workers in fields largely neg lected by other institutions of higher learning. There are, however, inherent in the legislation or in the manner in which it has been administered, certain weaknesses that must be given attention in any attempt at a complete evaluation of the relation of the Federal Government to the work of these institutions. Relationship of Separate Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities The increasing complexity of research problems and the evident failure of attempts to delimit the fields of research by institutional boundaries clearly raises the question of the wisdom of the requirement of the present legislation to the effect that all grants for research shall be made to the landgrant colleges. The tendency of the Purnell Act has been to increase greatly the amount of research in such fields as economics, sociology, nutrition, and marketing, and this tendency promises to continue. The existing legislation requires the expenditure of funds to be made through the land-grant colleges. In some States in which the land-grant college and the university are separate institutions, the State universities are better staffed and equipped to undertake research in some of the fields mentioned than are the landgrant colleges; and in all probability, in every State in which the two institutions are separate, more effective programs of research could be carried out through cooperative effort. Furthermore, the economies that could be effected would make it possible to conduct more comprehensive research programs than are being realized under present conditions. A larger measure of cooperation in research and advanced instruction is essential to their maximum development. Regional cooperation, as well as cooperation within States, is already under way and promises to have a marked growth in the future. In some instances it is true that problems arising from the making of grants to the States for higher education are due, in whole or in part, to the inadequacies of provisions for coordination of the higher educational institutions within the States. The trend of recent years has been toward a |