USEFULNESS OF THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

Prof. Atherton's Reply to the attacks upon them— Twenty-six hundred students in twenty-four institutions.

To the Editor of the Tribune.

Sir:-In the paper read before the National Educational Association, at Elmira, on the evening of the 6th instant, on the subject of the "Relation of the General Government to Education," I had occasion to show that the institutions founded on the basis of the Congressional land-grant of 1862, and the commonly, though erroneously, called "Agricultural Colleges," were doing an amount of work for popular education which was not only far greater than the public in general supposed, but greater than could reasonably have been expected of institutions which have been in existence in many cases only a few months, and, on the average, less than five years. For one item, I stated that twenty-four of these institutions contained last year 2,604 students. A distinguished gentleman present inquired how this large number was made up, and whether or not it included all students in the institutions with which in some cases the so-called agricultural colleges were associated, specifying particularly Cornell University and Sheffield Scientific School. I had great pleasure in replying that the figures had been taken from advance sheets of the forthcoming report of the United States Department of Agriculture, kindly furnished me by the Commissioner, in which the students were classified as, first, "Number of students in the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the collegiate year"; and, second, "Number of students in the University and Agricultural and Mechanical College for thecollegiate year"; but that, without referring to my documents, I could not reply in detail respecting any one institution. I had no doubt, however, since the Department at Washington had made up its tables on the basis of this division of students into two classes — agricultural and mechanical students forming a class of themselves-that Cornell University and all others were put upon the same footing, and their students classified in the same way. The gentleman who had propounded the inquiry replied that this was 'unsatisfactory," which I have no doubt was true.

Since reaching home, and getting access to my papers, I have taken pains to verify this point, and find the case to be as I had supposed. Cornell University, for instance, is set down as having 207 students in the Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges, and 525 in these colleges and the university, or, as it might be stated, 207 students in the agricultural and mechanical departments, and 318 in the other departments. In case of the Sheffield Scientific School, 157 are given as belonging to the agricultural and mechanical departments, and 809 as belonging to these and the whole university. This, of itself, does not indicate whether the number 157 includes all the students in the Sheffield school or not. But I find that the catalogue of Yale College for 1871-'72 gives 174 as the number belonging to the Scientific School, 27 of whom are "special" or "graduate" students. It seems probable, therefore, that the 157 mentioned are intended to include all except these 27. The number 157 is a clerical or typographical error, obviously, for 147. How many of these should be reckoned

as receiving the benefit of the Congressional land-grant it may be difficult to say. Certainly not all of them. But any deduction that needs to be made on this account is much more than made up from other sources. The Illinois Industrial University, for example, is set down as having 194 students in the "Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges," or departments, and 381 all told. But here, in estimating the number of students who are receiving an education by the aid of the Congressional grant (and that is the real question in each case), we should include the entire number 381, for the reason that all the funds of this institution have been accumulated on the basis of that grant, and directly in consequence of it. The same is true in several other instances.

It is a distinct fallacy, too, not to put it too strongly, to convey the implication that the usefulness of these institutions is to be tested by the question how many of their students are studying "agriculture," or how many "farmers" they have turned out. The true test is indicated by the terms of the act Congress of 1862, which terms are generally repeated in the state laws relating to these institutions. In establishing these institutions, Congress declared its design to be to provide a "liberal and practical education for the industrial classes, in their several pursuits and professions in life"; and to this end the institutions were to teach, not necessarily manual farming, but "subjects related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." It is the more important to note this, because the fallacy mentioned is partly suggested by the misleading name "Agricultural College," and lies at the bottom of the popular misapprehension as to what any institution of learning aims to do, or can do. The enemies of the colleges perfectly understand this, and are therefore likely to repeat the fallacy until the good sense of the public makes them ashamed to do so. G. W. ATHERTON.

RUTGERS COLLEGE, New Brunswick, N.J., August 9th, 1873.

Hon. J. C. GIBBS, of Florida, was then introduced, who read the following paper on

EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.

The future of the American nation is a subject of profound interest to considerate men. The present life of this nation is so interwoven with the future destiny of the entire human race, that there is no form of government or society on the broad face of this earth that may not and will not be affected for good or evil, in the most positive sense, by the history and acts of the people of these United States. The distinct mission of the people of these United States is to give to the world a system of government in which is shown the largest possible personal liberty for individual development compatible with national safety. The mission of this nation is as distinct and emphatic as that of Israel of old. With the birth of every nation destined to live, to endure, is a grand cardinal idea, a living thought, breathing in the full sunlight of the fervent hearts and vivid imaginations of a chosen few, who are lifted by a divine afflatus beyond the ken of mortal vision, and are prepared to do or die in the advocacy of the idea, the grand thought, that glimmers and glows in their consciousness like a precious jewel in the burning sun. This idea this

living thought-marks every stage of the nation's life, from its incipient steps down to its last stage of decadence. The Jewish government was a theocracy; its mission, to teach the world that GOD, JEHOVAH, is Sovereign King, Lord, Emperor, of all the earth; and from the day that Israel crossed the Red Sea down to the present moment, prosperity or adversity has been their lot, as they adhered to or departed from the grand idea that underlies their mission, and is the very corner-stone of their existence to-day. So with these United States: our mission is to make room for liberty, make room for the development of the individual; and nothing but contention and bloodshed can and will mark every national departure from the national oath thrown to the world with our national symbol, in 1776, in which we declared certain truths self-evident in relation to individual development. The entire world understands that here, in these United States, the largest personal liberty may be enjoyed; we have for a hundred years been inviting to come to us, from all parts of the earth, those who are sighing and longing to develop every faculty that GOD and Nature has implanted in their being.

Are not the duties of American citizenship high and responsible? The nation's sacred honor is pledged to make room for the struggling millions of the earth, and with an abiding faith in the strength of republican ideas and institutions, we say, Come to us and we will do you good, for the LORD hath given to us a goodly inheritance. We are here to-day as builders, reconstructors, to examine carefully one of the great foundation-stones of the temple of our liberties-national intelligence! We are here to learn what the opportunity, what the means, by which the entire nation may learn and correctly apply the principles and doctrines of 1776. There is undoubtedly a vast pressure upon this corner-stone, National Intelligence, but we report that it is in fair condition and very nearly level! It will bear an almost unlimited pressure for the next fifty years. Some time ago it slipped from its resting-place upon Virtue, and caused much unpleasantness; but the people raised it with the strong lever of Justice, and then blocked it with the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, and it is able to-day to bear the strain of 25,000 more school-houses in the late rebellious states of our Union, because there are 3,000,000 in a strictly illiterate condition, and the public mind is largely conscious, by the experience of the last ten years, what may result from ignorance and arrogance in a country professedly free. We are here to-day to ascertain what has already been done, and what is now in progress, and what we may reasonably expect in relation to the future. Justice and equity demand that the magnitude of the educational wants of the Southern States, and its intrinsic importance to the whole country, be laid before the public mind, from time to time, that men every where may understand that the education of the mass is indissoluble from a healthy condition of free government.

The exact measure of an American citizen is his usefulness to his country, his GOD, the world. Other nations may have a different standard of measure, but here on Columbia's soil, the birth-place of WASHINGTON, HANCOCK, JEFFERSON, and LINCOLN, usefulness will be the recognized standard measure of a man.

We are here to-day from the distant State of Florida to say what we are

doing to train up men and women, irrespective of race or color, who shall add lustre to the glory of our common country by those sterling virtues of manhood and womanhood that constitute true greatness, whether they be found in the palace or hovel.

It might have been inferred in 1867 and 1868, without violent supposition, that Florida would have been one of the Southern States in which reconstruction would be most difficult, because more than three-fourths of her existence as state and territory had been blasted by a long and continuous Indian war, and before she could recover from the barbarizing effects of savage warfare she was cast into the seething, boiling caldron of secession, only to be withdrawn by the strong hand of Federal power, suffering and distracted in all her interests. But the sound sense of a majority of the people of Florida, colored and white, saved this state from many of those terrible political blunders that constitute crime in the highest sense when the life and precious interests of a state or nation are swinging over a vortex of ruin and misery. Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, and others, furnish much food for thought in this direction for reflecting minds.

There was, prior to the war, in this state and other states of the South a system of education that was called public, but it failed in all the essential features of a public-school system. Slavery had much to do with its failure. It has been said to me, by parties who had opportunities of knowing the exact truth, that these institutions were regarded as pauper institutions, and the wealthy would not send their children, and withheld largely moral and material support. As society was constituted in the days of slavery, the rich white man had very little interest in the poor white man, and fierce animosities existed by reason of the sharply-drawn lines of class distinctions that are not explained by saying lines of demarcation always exist between wealth and poverty. Slavery divided the whites into two classes, and kept them apart, inculcating the idea that they had no interest in common. I have heard them give expression to their estimate of the class to which the supposed offender might belong, after an interchange of incivilities, in language somewhat deficient in beauty, but not in force. During moments of unpleasant excitement, the words "ristocrat" and "cracker" take on additions hardly fit for polite ears, and then flash out and fly around like blue lightning. The brutal influence of slavery was in many respects barely secondary in its effects upon the poor whites to that of the slave. In many parts of the South it is regarded as an insult to say You are a poor white man." The freedmen give birth to the same thought in two sententious words: “Poor buckra!" expressive to their minds of dirty personal habits, shiftlessness, laziness, want of energy and force, stolid ignorance, dishonesty, and, worse than all to the southern mind, moral and physical cowardice. It expressed even more than this-jibe, jeer, pity, contempt; and even the slave standing in the midst of his shackles would say, Here am I-poor, wretched, ignorant, disheartened, outraged in all that is dear to man by legalized enactments, with no hope between this and the grave-superior to you, a white man, born free, but without hope, without aspiration. Have not the poorer class of the whites strong reason to be staunch Union men, and stand by the old flag unflinchingly? The horrors and tyran

nies of ku-klux organizations will be impossible when the poorer class have access to the common schools.

The Ninth U.S. Census shows the following condition of literacy and illiteracy in eleven states, in round numbers:

This is truly suggestive, and the inquiry is pertinent: Have we not a missionary field at our very doors?

The resources of Florida for educational purposes may be stated as follows: 85,714 acres of land granted by Congress for the support of two seminaries, one east and the other west of the Suwannee river. These lands were selected and appraised by the agents of the state, and approved by the Department at Washington.

Also, the 16th sections granted by Congress to the state for general educational purposes, amounting to 704,692 acres. Of the seminary-lands 46,000 acres have been sold, leaving unsold 39,000 acres. Of the school-lands 110,000 acres have been sold, leaving a balance of near 594,000.

Section 4, Article 8, of the Constitution of 1868, declares that the interest of the common-school fund shall be applied exclusively to support a uniform system of common schools.

The proceeds of all lands that have been, or may hereafter be, granted by the United States for educational purposes.

Appropriations by the state.

The proceeds of all lands or other property that may accrue to the state by escheat or forfeiture.

Donations by individuals for educational purposes.

The proceeds of all property granted to the state where the purpose of such grant is not specified.

All fines collected under the penal laws of the state.

Such portions of the per-capita tax as may be prescribed by law for educational purposes.

Twenty-five per cent. of the sale of public lands which are now, or may be hereafter, owned by the state.

A special tax of not less than one mill on the dollar of the assessed value of all property in the state-assessed $32,000,000.

In addition, each county is required to raise by annual tax for the support of common schools a sum not less than one-half the amount apportioned to such county from the income of the common-school fund.

The cash expenditure for the year ending September 30, 1872, is as follows: The interest on the common-school fund apportioned among the several counties amounted to $15,784.53. The warrants sold for about 60 cents, which realized $9,470.80. From the defective character of the returns, it is not