Democracy's College, 1967 version Part 1

this is the campus Iowa State University and grant colleges and universities in the United States today these institutions testify to the enduring power of an idea expressing the determination of the people to achieve the American ideal of equal opportunity Iowa State is proud to have made a significant contribution to the growth of the land grant system proud that the efforts of the people of Iowa have helped make a reality of Democracies college 16 07 at Jamestown 16-20 at Plymouth Rock by the late 1700s the colonists were established in the new country and it won their struggle for independence but listen to what Jefferson was saying about their hard-won freedom the only safe guardians of Liberty are a free press and an intelligent and reading people an intelligent and reading people this meant education for all the people not just the rich ones are the best ones but all the people during the 1830s the era of jacksonian democracy movement began for the establishment of a new kind of education a movement to put the farmer in the canny on an educational level with the professional man this was the beginning of the land-grant idea it was steadily spreading as settlers opened up new lands and the farmer of the prairie the rancher of the far west from the skilled craftsman to the day laborer all wanted to learn more the first legislative body convened in Iowa sought to establish such a college that attended failing but 10 years later in eighteen fifty years that speaking affection I hadn't seen him on the floor before that's that farmer from Scott County name's Benjamin you harping about that farmers colleges again for one of the so-called learned professions any young man cannot go to one of these colleges and prepare himself for his chosen career if it happens to be farming it is not alone the farmer who will be benefited by this bill but all laboring classes the mechanic the day laborer the inventor the manufacturer all are provided for and are equally interested with the farmer and the success of this bill the bill to charter the Iowa Agricultural College was signed in March 1858 the college was still far from being a reality times were hard and the state could not finance so ambitious a project for years later on july second 1862 a bill submitted to congress by Justin Morrow of Vermont as being laid on the desk of the President of the United States be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives in congress assembled that there be granted to the several states an amount of public land in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life that fall I will became the first state to accept the terms of the morrill land-grant act the following March the Iowa General Assembly voted to award Iowa's grant to the Iowa Agricultural College in March 1869 the college on the Prairie established by the state and endowed by the nation was finally ready to open at first the college offer degrees in two fields agriculture and mechanics I began to tell us students what I knew about farming it didn't take me long to run short of material so I fell in the habit of taking students to feel good and poor farms because the original curriculum did not provide for the interests of young women a general ladies course was introduced junior ladies by means both of weekly lectures and actual practice in a well-furnished kitchen the lectures embrace such topics as furnishing and care of a home the work in agriculture led to the development of another area of Iowa then by sending forth each year a band of thoroughly equipped scientific veterinarians to supply the College offered no degree in the sciences the strength of the supporting work it offered in the sciences was largely responsible for iowa state's early recognition as one of the leading institutions in the land grant system at an early date the importance of laboratory study was recognized ask the grasshopper how many legs he has don't just go to the book the book may be wrong grasshopper will tell you as a land-grant institution Iowa State had responsibilities not only in teaching but in research and service research developed early and continued each experiment as maybe being best until they arrived at full maturity there were early beginnings in engineering these courses are being identified more and more specifically with the industries of the state outside the classroom the college's name was growing tried to play football with an Iowa cyclone is with the Iowa team had met yesterday at the end of 50 minutes play the big husky farmers from Iowa's Agricultural College had rolled up 36 points qualif it extension to had early beginnings short courses held throughout the state several hundred thousand have been reached by special train instruction and through County agents responding to the needs of the state the college steadily brought it several programs into a healthy balance by the turn of the century it had come of age it could now turn to the task organizing its resources and activities for fully effective management in 1913 undergraduate instructions organized in five divisions agriculture engineering home economics science and veterinary medicine thus by the end of World War one the framework was in place for the ultimate development of this democracies College on the Prairie into one of the nation's major universities you