"FOR THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND"
Davies, Joseph E.
"For the Benefit of Mankind" Extract From Baccalaureate Address Delivered June 1, 1914, Before the University of Louisiana on "The University and The State" By JOSEPH E. DA VIES United States...
...The expense to the State" is an easy and familiar method commonly resorted to to attract public thought, but in the wisdom of the people and in the fundamental consciousness of what is right and wrong that resides in the people of the commonwealth, a State university that furnishes such a function in a commonwealth will ultimately be sustained, cherished and guarded even as the covenant of their faith...
...If young men of the commonwealth were unable to come to it, there developed the idea that the university should go to them...
...It is to be expected that human selfish-ness and greed will always be found seeking special privilege from government...
...To the knowledge of what masters ot men have achieved in the past is added the technical ability of the engineer to erect modern miracles of beauty and usefulness...
...To the degree that such influence is potent for the public good by reason of lack of bias and prejudice, yet to that degree will hostility and enmity he aroused, and to that degree wih these forces seek, as they have sought and even now are seeking, to impair the influence and growth of such an institution...
...To the extent to which it serves directly and indirectly as an agent in the function of government for the highest development and protection of the individual in his social and economic relations in society—to that extent does it fulfill and measure its highest purpose...
...Thus, too, the State university has come to be regarded in some commonwealths as a repository of experience and accurate information, from which facts and the opinions of experts, free from bias and prejudice, aro available to legislators in the making of laws for the benefit of the State...
...It was not accidental that it should have been the president of a State university (Van Hise) who defined the finest purpose of an education: "The least commendable purpose ol acquiring knowledge," he said, "is to apply it to one's own advancement— to achieve worldly success...
...With the extension of the energies of our business men from a provincial field to a world-Wide market, there have come business and administrative departments to give to young men expert knowledge in commercial administration, together with proficiency irt the languages of potential customers among the different races of the earth...
...Thus, in rendering that service to the State, wherein lies one of its greatest justifications, in the protection of the rights of the public by giving information upon matters of public interest, State universities, in the exercise of their fullest development, incur at times the hostility and enmity of powerful, selfish forces...
...f N THE experiences typical of this 1 western country, there is none more beautiful than that situation, with which we are all familiar, wherein the simple vigor and strong virtue of pioneer parents prompts them to self-denial and abstinence, that there may be given to their chlla with even prodigal lavishness, that which they so much desired, but was denied to them—an education...
...I|TS FUNCTION did not stop with J students who came to its portals...
...public discussions of public questions are encouraged...
...Lecture nurses are furnished to communities...
...It is beautiful in its simple nobility...
...To the degree that such influence is potent for the public good by reason of lack of bias and prejudice, yet to that degree will hostility and enmity be aroused, and to that degree will these forces seek, as they have sought and even now are seeking, to impair the influence and growth of such an institution...
...IN THIS MANNER has the develop-ment of the State university kept pace with the development of society and with our conception of the uses and functions of government...
...A third and the highest purpose of acquiring knowledge is to utilize it for the benefit of mankind...
...There has cbme the idea that such an institution, fuirnished and sustained by the State, holds available for the use and advantage of its citizens not only training, hut knowledge and expert information which a university provides...
...Thus has the State university become a laboratory where the scientific at-tkinments of the servants of the State connected with these universities s'hall be used for the practical and commercial advantages of the people of the commonwealth...
...Light, which accurate knowledge and information with unbiased opinion and judgment off or public opinion, is always prejudicial to special privilege...
...The University of Wisconsin tanders to the young men of the farm and the city courses in all lines of study, by correspondence, ranging from astronomy to business adminis-ration, from languages to home economics...
...Not alone in this direct service to its students has the function of the State university kept faith with the conception of the fathers...
...Thus has the university become a potent, potential force in the life of ambitious young men or women unable to attend such an institution, and a power as well in the life of the community...
...It was the statement of the spirit of the State university...
...There is beauty in a Greek ode, but there is beauty and service in a biological experiment that saves the lives of men...
...IN RENDERING that service to the state wherein lies one of their greatest justifications, in the protection of the rightsi of the public by giving information upon matters of public interest, state universities, in the exercise of their fullest development, incur at times the hostility and enmity of powerful, selfish forces...
...In such action there was no thought of self or financial return, but in the inscrutable ways of the Good Father of all Men, there comes to them in their old age a degree of comfort and well-being by reason thereof, such as they themselves could never have achieved...
...It is common knowledge that selfish and powerful financial interests have in the past dominated commonwealths...
...Coincident with the elimination of waste in industry and coincident with the intensive conservation of raw material, labor and capital, there have developed the technical schools that develop the trained chemists, the efficiency engineer, the sanitary expert, and the trained farmer...
...Jokers" are impossible in legislation if it is to be scrutinized by the trained legal expert...
...all reasonable In-cpiiries by the citizens of the State upon any matters are taken care of by a clearing-house established therefor by the university of the commonwealth...
...The humanities were not lost, but practical sciences were added...
...The attack will never be direct, nor will the true reasons be assigned therefor...
...it is indicative of the "stuff" in our people which has made the nation great...
...A higher purpose is to fit one to live the intellectual life...
...For the Benefit of Mankind" Extract From Baccalaureate Address Delivered June 1, 1914, Before the University of Louisiana on "The University and The State" By JOSEPH E. DA VIES United States Commissioner of Corporations THE old conception ot the university, that it should he a place of secluded and cloistered isolation, where the knowledge of the arts and sciences is conserved, and where culture and the humanities were dispensed as a mental decoration of the student, has changed...
...The university is the child of the State...
...The nobility of a people and their ideals, their character and aspirations, are measured by their devotion to their institutions of learning, and so too, will the future through them bring returns, to the perpetuity of free institutions and the welfare of our children that we now dream not of...
...It remained for the American State university to a remarkable degree to co-ordinate the practical with the ideal...
...It was a wonderful conception that the youth of the factory and the lumber camp should have available, possibilities of education, by reason of the activities of the State, whch otherwise he would not have...
...but therein lies one of its greatest dangers as well...
...It furnishes instructors from the faculty to any classes that might be locally brought together...
...This relation of a university to the people and life of a State is indeed one of its great jtustifications...
...The money value of the Babcock test, the increase in the value of the annual production of corn by reason of seed tests, the redemption of waste places by reason of the cultivation of drought-resisting plants and many other contributions of similar kind, cannot be computed in money value, but are all monuments to the practical vision of learned and large-spirited men in the service of the State...
...It has been demonstrated that the State can legislate better upon great problems of municipal government, taxation, the regulation of public utilities, conservation of natural resources, if it knew what other governments had done and what success had been met therein...
...To that extent, too, does it measure the aspirations, character and ideals of the citizenship of the commonwealth in which it is located...
...It is so, I believe, with a State...
...There is no agency in society today more potent than the State university in turning the ideals of men into public service...
...To have received that Intellectual power and training, which one has, by the generosity of the State, entails to the rightminded man an obligation of service to the State...
Vol. 6 • June 1914 • No. 24
