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Show SUCCESS IS REWARD fN TOUR OF THE DEMONSTRATION TRAIN PRACTICAL EDUCATION IS "EXTENDED TO PEOPLE OF STATE i . i yNTERIOR views of traveling public educational institution which has just completed the most effective trip on Salt Lake Route that has ever been ac- I - complished in the west. j j ... . i V 'rr-;''V 'V-v;,il " i "r- IV v ,Yv" A S ; ' ' ' 'I ' ;&f$$' f fe- " woo-z agjz; Cszzu ------J!iy-L? lb nP'S? - - ri , Mi ll ; I a f-i- - ( - L y a a XsX vs 1 U s Citizens Show Great Interest Inter-est by Flocking to See Mass of Exhibits. By DOUGLAS WHITE. General Industrial Agent Salt Lake Route. YOU ask me for a direct opinion on the operation and effect of the .1016 demonstration train over our system. Well, the operation can now bo looked upon as the easiest thing ever since we landed the train back in Salt Lake this morning after a twenty-one-day tour without the breaking of the most fragile of our exhibits. Lots of people will not consider that much of a feat, but I can assure you that it has taken a heap of watching on the part of Salt Lake Boute officials, including some few anxious hours on my part, to accomplish this result. But it is done now and our 1916 train is a matter of educational history, so I believe we are all entitled to feel good. And this good feeling should permeate to the hard and willing workers from the Utah Agricultural college, without whom the train could not have accomplished accom-plished its. purpose, or in fact even made ;i start toward its goal. V?e Lave been operating demonstration demonstra-tion trains since 1910 and they have grown from one car until in 1914 we carried four cars in the train. Then we held off for a year aud decided to centralize cen-tralize our ideas on 1916. I had a think or two coming and had figured out the estimate of possibilities reasonably correct. cor-rect. I distinctly remember that "when we began, this demonstration train campaign cam-paign I insisted that each town should be given a day's. time. I met with a lot of argument, such as '"Too much time to spend," "Cannot afford to give those local people in each littlo city so much attention": and from orhers, "Your expense will cat up the benefits. bene-fits. Obstacles Overcome. Well. I listened and then, backed by tho officials of our traffic and operating operat-ing department, T laid out a tour cover-ling cover-ling each stop with a day's work. The ! result told the story, for the people I came, they stayed, and they asked ques-1 ques-1 1 ions, Each year there was an increase of interest until we had representatives in every county, from each town in the county, and people in southern Utah were "driving .sixty miles each way to visit the train. So far so pood. but. our exhibits began to be short of necessary illustration to the splendid story that the college men were telling to the people. I was like a publisher who had a good periodical but not tho necessary number of pictures pic-tures to keep the renders interested. We needed the pictures, and T called a conference between Dr. Peterson, of Utah : Dean Knight, of tho Nevada i Agricultural college, and Dean Scrug-ham, Scrug-ham, of the Xevada School of Engineering. Engineer-ing. Professor J. T. rain Til and Professor Pro-fessor L. M. Winsor likewise added to the conference, while T sat around on the outside and waited to sav "Me too " in case T got my cue. Well, the cue J oatne. and it took but a few minutes to settle the idea. "vTe would secure the j eo-operation of the big manufacturers ; who make thingp for the modern development devel-opment of the rmirh. We would add materially to th'11 exhibits ns put forward for-ward by" the colleges and we would I'ombino it nil in a Utah-Nevada train operated over the Salt Lake Rente. Now, let us look at the result. O' , : : . DOUGLAS WHITE, industrial agent of the Salt Like Route, who was in charge of the demonstration train, and (right) John T. Caine III, who was in charge of the Utah Agricultural college exhibits on the train. or K . vf6 I At I 'v-v 1 3 ? I " k" v ,l i E t til; sii'ij w w w uJ 3 I April 7 there was assembled at Salt Lake the greatest demonstration train ever lined up on any railroad or by any combination of agricultural colleges. There was everything that had ever been shown ou a like train and in addition addi-tion there was. first, the most extensive exhibit of equipment and suggestions ever arranged to properly illustrate the science of home -economics; second, there was a display of dry-farm suggestions sugges-tions covering every phase of this interesting inter-esting feature of intermountain development: devel-opment: third, irrigation was given its full deserved attention, with working models to illustrate the latest ide;ts in the handling of water, both by gravity and pumping methods. I won't attempt to follow the entire ten exhibit cars by numbering each feature, fea-ture, but there were caterpillar engines and tractors, pony tractors and plows, pumps and their accompanying motors, a display of electric, devices covering every class of electrical development from the household curling iron and washing machine down, or up, according to fancy, through the gamut of electric ranges, generators, dynamos and other contrivances, to the condensed plant for the production of power or light to supply sup-ply the small community. There was a car devoted to the growing grow-ing of sugar beets and the intelligent use of the resultant product. With it all came John T. Caine and a herd of prize-winning stock, and the government took cognizance of our efforts to educate edu-cate the fnrmer bv sending a car of wool exhibits, filled wit h information which, if followed, would absnlntolv prevent the woolgrower from growing wrong. Was Long Caravan. Betides all these exhibit cars, there was a necessity for keeping the people l . r: I r ( it- s If I k 4 1 1 , j V k ?- J Xf I who accompanied, the train comfortable, and this required sleeping and dining car facilities, with a business car for office purposes and the accommodation of visiting officials. To be candid, it looked like a pretty big eavaran when I saw it lined up a "car at a time in the Union station. But I did not find anyone any-one else who was shivering, as each man was interested in his own section of the train, and the only two women workers, Miss Gertrute foeCheyne, of the college home economics department, and Miss Gibson,' of the Utah-Idaho sugar exhibit, were bubbling over with enthusiasm. So I just gazed on the complete train and made up my mind that with the help of these enthusiastic exhibitors the Salt. Lake Route would pull this greatest of demonstration trains through to a successful finish. Well, the finish !; here, and the best recommendation is that next year 'a train will double the sixe of the oue for IfilG. At every point the populace has turned out en masse to visit the train. Thousands Thou-sands have seen the caterpillar and its Ln-oat ploughs tear up the. sod and sagebrush sage-brush of 1'tah aud Nevada. The electric elec-tric equipment has made hundreds of housewives ''sit up and take notir-e'.' of the wonderful progress mafic in the inventions in-ventions for the saving of their labor. Siii.far and the cultivation of the sugar beet has become a household word in those sections where the scientific educators edu-cators declare the beet can be successfully success-fully cultivated. Pumps an- gasoline motors have rivalled livestock in the attention of the farmer, while the carload car-load of home economics exhibits have shown the rancher that while he is buv-ing buv-ing the latest equipment for his fields he must give to his wife's kitchen and dairy a like aitenrion or he will immediately imme-diately have an argument on his hands. Then, too. this anie equipment ha taught t lie story of proper sanitation of he r;. cch and home, with thr result that ihe story of sanitary posHhilit irs is sinking in. I believe that Utah and Nevada have progressed greatly under the tutelage of the former demonstration trains, hut the 1916 train has so far outstripped its predecessors pred-ecessors as-to leave them , decidedly in the lurch. Where the early trains told the story, the 1916 train has hammered the point home by actual illustration. It is my belief that this system is the only one to be used in this latest phase of "distributive education. This train takes the information direct to the student stu-dent or operator and not only tells birn or her, but shows them how. The result re-sult can already be foretold, although there will be lots of it which can never be traced. Yet there will be a showing of things done which can be directly traced to the work of this 1016 train. The spontaneity of results can best .be illustrated by one incident. The train was accompanied by Dr. W. E. Taylor of MolLue, 111., one of America's greatest great-est soil experts. The great plows hauled by the caterpillar had just finished tearing up a series of furrows in some mighty hard Utah soil. Dr. Taylor was there and some of the interested spectators specta-tors asked him a question regarding the quality of this soil. One question followed fol-lowed another until Dr. Taylor was mounted upon the plntform of the great plow and for an hour discoursed on soils. And the crowd not only stayed, .but doubled and trebled during his talk. Did the people come to this train for information1? Dont you doubt it, for if you do, you are the one to be fooled. New Features Planned. It was the same way all along the line interest, ajid the intense kind of interest, at every point. We had the governor with us for three days. The people were all glacMo see Utah's chief executive, but they waited for the eve-, njng, when the train was closed, to hear what he had to say, and I am free to confess that the governor found as many things to interest him in the train 's exhibits as did an' of his constituents. con-stituents. This much for 1916, but what of the corning year? Well, as I have said be fore, there will be a lot of additions and good ones, too. For one thing, there will be a "Red Cross "'car containing all classes of first-aid exhibits and a department devoted to the handling and dieting of invalids in the home. This exhibit will be direetlv under the supervision super-vision of Dr. Guv Cochran, the Sail Lake ltoute'e chief surgeon. There wil! be a decided addition to the displays of Utah's Agricultural college, while Nevada's Ne-vada's College of Agriculture will add a car or two to the train's Length. The display of manufacturing exhibits i? already shaped to double and possibly treble the work and interest of 1916, so that I may assert the demonstration train feature as now established by the agricultural colleges of Htah and Nevada, Ne-vada, in co-operation with the Salt Lake Route, is to oe continued as a powerful factor in the development of the two states. |
