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Show Education is the Search for God's Truth. By Dr. E. G. Peterson, President of the Utah Agricultural College. The success of any people is bound up with their educational effort. No people under modern conditions can assume leadership and command success suc-cess and happiness in the world unless first of all they have In comparison with others mastered the laws of nature na-ture and assumed leadership in the arts. Take away educational effort, the standardization of knowledge which is represented In schools and colleges, and you are preparing the way for social degeneration. In the great struggle now for fighting fight-ing efficiency which the war compels, let us not forget that we must not only succeed on the field of battle, but that through all the future, ability abil-ity must be matched against ability in the ceaseless, harrowing and perfecting, per-fecting, competition of man and man. One great leader as was Luther or Koch in Germany, Pasteur in France, Montessori in Italy, Shakespeare or Gladstone in England, or Elliot or Edison Edi-son In America, is worth countless dollars and countless armies. The most rigid scrutiny should always al-ways go with every dollar of the people's peo-ple's hard earned money spent for education edu-cation or for any other purpose.. And educational institutions must bend themselves to meet the needs of the farmers and others who are responsible respons-ible for the development of the state. We sometimes cry economy and then plunge into a social cataclysm which consumes billions while our poor brains have been obscessed with saving sav-ing thousands. Truly any investment which will tend to lead us up onto the table land of brotherly love out of the swamp of hate and envy and strife, which comes In measure from ignorance. Is Investment well made. Investment In Gods' truth that is education edu-cation of the right sort. . If it never pays us back a dollar even then how great Is our reward. Shame on the truckler who from each ray of light demands a shimmer of gold. Yet, with it all, knowledge does give us power not only to command the satisfactions of spirit which sepa-j sepa-j rate beast from man, but also the ma- terlal things of life. The educated men hold the responsible positions in the world. There are. of course, and will continue to be brilliant and glor-1 glor-1 lous exceptions, but the rule prevails that training In schools and colleges prepares most of our leaders. Boys and girls should be trained for usefulness. use-fulness. Education need not be perfunctory. per-functory. It should train farmers In the mastery of soil, water, plant r growth, and animal breeding. It should train mothers in the most important i considerations of child rearing, nutri- 1 tion and development. And in mastering master-ing the science and art in these world : old occupations of man, there is a i presumption of intelligence and moral power of the highest order. In preparing pre-paring our citizens thus for life lies our real work in education, our real future as a powerful or, if we fall, a vassal state. ! The educational needs of a state like Utah are first a strong elementary elemen-tary school system where over 90 per cent of the population will continue for some time to receive their entire education. But with the other small percentage we should have great con- I earn. Among them will be found In preponderance our religious and moral leaders, our Inventors, our chemists, physicists, agricultural research leaders, lead-ers, our philosophers, our discoverers of truth, and our compilers of truth, our painstaking chroniclers of events and facts. All these we must train, or our society will step back many years. We need in Utah particularly advanced training in agriculture, home economics, engineering, and, of course, strong sources of information In literature, liter-ature, history, economics, music, the recognized sciences, and such training in law and medicine as conditions permit. But particularly should we train .for mastery in production of food and In the difficult and tremendously tremend-ously Important problems of family life. Here should be our major effort. ef-fort. We must continue what Brig-ham Brig-ham Young began an ennoblement of the foundational activities of our life farming and home making. We can ennoble these occupations by Insuring In-suring that our most Intelligent and cultured citizens find remunerative and pleasurable occupation in them. We must maintain a high intellectuality intellectual-ity and more Important, a high morality moral-ity and spirituality in farming and housekeeping. Already the standard in Utah Is the best The best men and the finest women see duty and pleasure in such work. We should be and are proud of the character of men who own our lands and the women who live on our farms. They are the best we have-Let have-Let us bring to them every blessing bless-ing of science and art. Let us lend our efforts to the end that their strongest sons and daughters may see equal satisfaction In such endeavor. Thus only can we be assured of a strong state and a great nnrlun. All else will fall if we fail in this one great thing. |
