Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 49]

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Illinois Plan for Land Grant Colleges

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prosecute their investigations, and the students their necessary labor, either at home or on the premises, during the warmer months." "At some convenient season of the year, the Commencement, or ANNUAL PAIR of the University, should be holden through a succession of days. On this occasion the doors of the institution, with all its treasures of art and resources of knowledge, should be thrown open to all classes, and as many other objects of agricultural or mechanical skill, gathered from the whole state, as possible, and presented by the people for inspection and premium on the best of each kind In short, this occasion should be made the great annual GALA-DAY of the Institution, and of all the industrial classes, and all other classes in the State, for the exhibition of their products and their skill, and for the vigorous and powerful diffusion of practical knowledge in their ranks, and a more intense enthusiasm in its extension and pursuit. "As matters now are, the world has never adopted any efficient means for the application and diffusion of even the practical knowledge which does exist. True, we have fairly got the primer, the spelling book, and the newspaper abroad in the world, and we think that we have done wonders; and so, comparatively, we have. But if this is a wonder, there are still not only wonders, but, to most minds, inconceivable miracles, from new and unknown worlds of light, soon to break forth upon the industrial mind of the world.9 \ 1 * Such institutions are the only possible remedy for a caste education, legislation, and literature. If any one class provide for their ow^ liberal education, in the state, as they should do, while another class neglect this, it is as inevitable as the law of gravitation, that they should form a ruling caste or class by themselves, and wield their power more or less for their own exclusive interests and the interests of their friends." "But can such an institution be created and endowed? Doubtless it can be done, and done at once, if the industrial classes so decide. The fund given to this state by the general government, expressly for this purpose, is amply sufficient, without a dollar from any other source; and it is a mean, if not an illegal perversion of this fund to use it for any other purpose.