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£ljc Skshoba iewiiai. VOL. 41. I ALUMNI ORATION aMOCRUI editor delivers alumni address 9 AT A-ft M COMMENCEMENT BibJfCt for the Occasion “Dreaming W and Building for Mississippi” Belay ton Rand, of the Class of 1911, Bsd Editor of the Neshoba Demo- Bat, delivered the Alumni Address B the 1922 Commencement at the Ag- Bultural and Mechanical College Beturda v June 3in the college audi- Brium. The subject of the address Bis “Dreaming and Building for BlsslHslppl.” The address was pre fllt'd l*y a band concert by the col ■Ke hand, and the rest of the day ■as given over to exercises for the Bumnl. BThe address which pertains to Bme of Mississippi’s problems fol- Bws; Bi’ubllc men from within and with- Bit the State, for many months list, have been asking the question; BVhat Is the matter with Mlssls- B*pl?”, and their answers to this Buell mooted question have been ■ven much publicity. As a result tbe ■oAslde world, and we within the Bate) have begun to believe that Blsslsslppl suffers from some Incura ■e malady. While it is true that Bmstmctlve criticism cures many Bs we la Mississippi have had Bough ofehronic kicking for a while. Bir State’s Interests can be better Brved, at least for a season, by cat- Bpgutng our many assets than by Blvertlslng our liabilities; by reeli ng our many virtues than by re- Bunting our many sins. MMississippi will be cursed, more or ■ss, with Inertia, and the outside Borld will continue to look upon ■t with indifference, as long as her Bokesmen are chronically critical. Bid her kickers and knockers ont- Bimber her dreamers and builders. Hecently 1 clipped a bit of verse from ■ copy of Forbe’s Weekly. It was Ivritten by Ted Olsen, and is entitled, ■The Knockers. ’’ Its sentiments are n such sympathy with my message If the morulng that I shall preface by remarks by giving you the bene m or it. ■‘The dreamer blazes out a path to | lands remote and dim, I Far heights men never trod, until ■ the vision beckoned him. L&md err the Jungle closes round Br.> where first he struggled through, H/ie builder comes upon his heels to make the dream come true. Dreamer and builder, hand in hand, across the world they go; The trails they make, the towers they build, the wondering world may know. And when their temples stand com plete, challenging heaven’s crown. The knockers gather round, and start to talk the structure down. For this was bullded In a way that breaks all proper rules; And thatdeslgnls Incorrect accord ing to the schools; And that offends most shockingly i some fundamental law; ' And that —like this, and all the rest —displays some hopeless flaw, And so the critics saunter home. confiding each to each, How mightier than spade or sword is man’s great weapon, speech. And each congratulating each, that by their words alone The dreamer’s dream, the builder’s work-rare wholly overthrown. And while the critic fellows sleep, the builders come again. And recreate from dust the dream i the knockers would have slain; * Not perfect quite—proclaiming still I the crudeness of the clod, But wrought for stalwart service In the toll of man and God. ' I And while the knocker folk (leplore, fe and strive to fix the blame, V Dreamer and worker, hand In hand, * toll onward Just the same; Content to build as best they know, as every builder may— And caring notune single damn for what the critics say!" I In my address to you perhaps I Run filling for the time the role of a (dreamer; a dreamer, speaking to a group of dreamers and builders, and it takes both to build roads and erect temples. And tbe time is ripe ■or the dreamer and the builder in ’Mississippi- We have bad enough [for all time of factionalism and fault finding. II we could capitalize the energy and talent that annually runs to waste In Mississippi In par tlsanshlp and chronic knocking, and divert Its force In channels promot lux, building and boosting Missis sippi, the agricultural, the economic and the educational status of Missis sippi would undergo a rapid and happy transformation. I, tor one. have confidence in the citizenship of Mississippi, and faith In her future, and I think her history Justifies me in my convictions. Few states have been subjected to as many reverses, and It is when we re view her struggles that her achieve ments seem phenomlnal. In the Way of 1812. in the war with Mexico, and In the tragedy of the BO’s she contributed well her share in .blood and treasure. Along with her sister .Southern states she lay pros trate In’O'* Her wealth, measured In slaves, was converted Into a pub lic menace, and her sons and daugh ters in numbers uncounted Joined that army of Southerners. 5,000,000 strong, that migrated North and West, following the Civil War; either to escape the Insults of black misrule, the tyranny of the carpet-bagger, or In search of larger opportunities. Those who remained at home faced bankruptcy the Bolshevtkl of the 70’s, and the destructive period of so-called recon struction. Head the tragedy of those times in the faces of tnose who sur vived It. Remember that through It nil. we have raised cotton; raised cotton, pitted against the combined attack of the boll weevil and the broker, and the strategy of the man ufacturer of cotton fabrics. In Old England and-New England. Picture whole families In the cotton fields, when the women should have been at home and the children in school. Picture Mississippi with her perplex ing race problem, with her high per cent of Illiteracy, without a satisfac tory road system, her sons ever drift ing away, giving up her best blood to the upbuilding of tbe great South west. Consider a Mississippi with more than her share of demagogues ami ambulance-chasers, cattle ticks, hook worms and boll weevils, and rememl>er that through it all we have been purely agricultural, with out cities, and, except for lumbering, without other industries. Add all these things together, and if you then have anything but admiration and pride for what Mississippi has achieved through It all, you are Ig noring history. Constantly exploited by her demagogues from within, and her money-changers from without, verily, Mississippi has been between the devil and the deep blue sea, and because she has well-nigh gone down three times in the swim is nothing to her discredit. 1 have read It somewhere In the books, I think it was in one of Em erson’s essays, that Lord McCauley was proud over a London news dis patch tha t there were ten thousand thieves in London. There was con solution In the fact that London was big enough and rich enough to support ten thousand thieves. 1 wonder what Lord McCauley would think of a State that could survive war and pestilence, the Uolshevikl and the di-magogue, the cattle tick/ the hook worm and the boll weevll t contribute generously to the upbuild ing of a dozen or so states, support a few thieves while doing it, and still grow strung and great? We have listened all too long, in Mississippi, to her disciples of discon tent; her propagandists of pessimism I turn my back upon them and tell you that there Is no cause lor alarm provided we can catch the vision and the spirit of the constructive op timist. Ofcourse Mississippi’s politics Is rotten, and¥ this Is our outstanding liability, but 1 believe that a state wide wave of enthusiasm over our latent resources and possible devel opments would enlist Into such a crusade a number of those who are now fighting over the fortunes of some worthless demagogue. Perhaps a program of achievement would put factionalism on the wane. To tight it in any other way is too much like fighting Johnson grass. When I quit fighting Johnson grass in my back yard, and began cultivating other crops the grass died. Politics in Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana has been at times about as dirty us it is in Mississippi, hut When tbe people of those states went to work on a constructive program for the development of their lauds and industries, their politics Ivecame a little cleaner. And even’ where the Republicans gain power things are not so clean. Republican patronage, for instance, is about as vile and fla Patience, Tolerance and Triumph. PHILADELPHIA, MISS. THURSDAY. JUNE 8, 1922 grant a thing as we have to contend with, and we find it showing itself In most every little Southern city. No Mississippi has no monopoly either on demagogues or political scandal. And I cannot help but be lieve that woman suffrage in Missis stppl is going to have a purifying, clarifying, “fumigating" effect upon our politics. | have always had a kind of heavenly conception of South ern womanhood, and sooner or later, Mississippi is In for a good political house-cleaning. Much (ms been made over the fact that Mississippi’s population has fallen off. For many years tbe trend of population has been from country to city, and Mississippi could but lose in such a shuffle. We are a rural people to a higher degree than the people of most any other state, and it is only in our agriculture that we must look for any great industrial developments. And when we compare our agri culture with that of other Southern states we make an excellent showing. In 1920 tbe value of Mississippi’s farm products exceded those of Ala bama by over $30,000,000. She raised more cattle In 1920 than either of the Southern States excepting, of course, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. The potential possibilities of Mississip pi’s agriculture are exceeded by those of no other state In the Union. She has the world’s greatest long staple cotton belt. Her soils vary, offering undreamed of possibilities in fruit and truck growing, cerials, dairying and cattle. Her rainfall is abundant and well distributed throughout tbe seasons, and her climate has never been fairly advertised to tbe world. The surface of our agriculture has not been scratched, and in few places can soil as rich and productive be bad at such ridiculously low prices. Why bemoan tbe fact that we are without great quantities of miner als? Soil, climate, rainfall; there is no greater combination of valuable and inexhaustible resources. When the oil of Oklahoma and Louisiana rfhall have flowed Into oblivion, and the furnaces of Birmingham are for ever extinguished Mississippi will still be feeding and clothing the bun gry, naked world. When at Muscle Shoals, several months ago, I learn ed that business men in that vicinity had agents in Mississippi obtaining leases to lands having valuable de posits of bauxite, which Is rich in aluminum. History tells us that Mississippi was the first of tbe States to mine lead; and while persistent activities in wlld-cattlng may bring In a gusher, we must, nevertheless, look to our future In agriculture. And while profitable, successful agri culture is our predominating prob lem our political leaders go about the State blowing about trusts and combines, and Mississippi has fewer of them than any state in the Union. About $6 per cent of oar people farm, and yet there are people In Missis sippi, and most of them farmers, who are gullible enough to swallow this menuce-of—the—money—power stuff, while they and tbelr soli, their marketing, and farm development are crying for information and en lightened leadership for putting ag riculture on a profitable basis. About the first thing I learned under Taus sig, in economics, was that tiiougb the tariff was an Important issue Its significance had been much exagger ated by America’s two great politi cal parties. So we in Mississippi strain at a gnat and swallow a camel And then our BIG BUSI NESS (we haven’t any such thing) thinks, on the other band, that it is legislated against, and that capita] is driven away, when an honest in vestigation will show that the laws of a number of states, Texas for in stance, are more inimical to capital than the laws of Mississippi. Some wizard Is going to step Into Mississippi’s political arena some time, informed along agricultural lines, familiar with the forces that have enlisted one and one half mil- Hon recruits in the America Farm Bureau, and posted on cooperative marketing, that heretofore has been confined to a few fruit and truck growers exchanges, and that has grown 800 per cent In the last year, creating rapid changes in the mar keting of cotton and cereals, and captivate tbe multitudes with anew vision; multitudes that today follow a leadership of either this or that faction, and does nothing either for their agriculture or their pocket books, and gives them nothing ex cept eometblng'to get hot over. It would be a foily lor me to speak longer along theee lines; yon here In Hn agricultural College are more fa miliar with thin Interesting question tiiau 1. I must apeak briefly on Mississippi's educational progress, for of all the happy otneoa of the time* Mississippi's educational achievements fill with new hope the dreamer, the prophet and the build er. In proportion *to Mississippi's assessed valuation she spent mure money on her common schools In WJO thrtn either Alabama, Georgia Louisiana, North or Houth Carolina In 1880 Mississippi spent |83U,000 on her common schools; In HfcJO she spent ten times that amount. Bbe leads ail other states In the develop ment of her agricultural high school; she has AH of them. Bhe Is now In the consolidated high school era of her educational history; she has 700 of them. In the hills of Mississippi they monthly multiply. I have seen fathers aid mothers in my county going without many of the necessi ties of voting in special bond Issues for tbe education of tbelr children. When We contemplate that most of our protdeins In tbe last analysts are educational, and that our prob lems In agriculture, politics and else where spring from. ignorance and ll literacy these are hopeful stgua Wherever, the world over, people of the Anglo Baxou strain of stock have been given educational advan tages tbe stars have begun to write for that people another story. Oli ver Wendell Holmes, when a profes sor In Harvard, was once asked, by an anxipus mother, ’'when the edu cation Of a child should begin.” His answer was, “A hundred years be fore it is born.” Tbe mothers and fathers of Mississippi are a little late, but today they are determined that tbe educational opportunities of their children shall be equal to the educational opportunities of tbe children of other states, And In speaklugon education hap py should we be that this great In stltntiou has been dreaming and hulldjjig, She has contributed gen erously her share to make farming in Mississippi more pleasant and profitable. She has been that great leavening force that has kept us moving toward our 'destined goal. She has never been among the knockers. I turned back to Missis sippi from the East several years ago, ambitious to contribute my bit for a better Mississippi, and I went about the State looking tor a loca tion and encouragement. I talked with business men and lawyers everywhere, stud I heard only tbe voice of tbe knocker, repeatedly ad vising me to stay away. Bat as 1 went here and there about the State I met graduates of this Institution engaged In teaching and extentlon service, and I found them every where full of enthusiasm fbr Missis sippi, and I said, “Thank God for A. & M,” Thank Qod for an Insti tution surrounded by many obsta cles that can go on talking about the latent resources In Mississippi’s “un plowed spaces.'’ preaching diversifi cation. I letter hogs and cows. Thunk God for an Institution alive and alert to tbe opporunltles of Its people. The average legislator and farmer In Mississippi has criticised this institution because It semjs so few of Its graduates back to tbs farm. The purpose of A. a M. Is to teach Its students to toll and spin, to hoe and plow, of course, but this school performs a greater service than that. Her greatest service to Mississippi has been lu the cultiva tion of community leadership among those who pass her portals. Id my small town a merchant,.a county agent, a creamery operator and a country editor have graduat. ed from tills Institution. It Is uoff a conceit to say that 1 believe these men are serving Mississippi, and the story of my small towu Is tbe story of countless communities over tbe State, Tbe cry of the time In Mississippi Is for optimistic and constructive leadership, and thahkful should we lie that this College has taken the lead Id developing It. For a genet*' attuu A. and M, has served Missis slppl as a sort of broad-casting sta tion of Information and enthusiasm, and every community In tbeStatd has been an unconscious receiver for this great central plant. The per sistence of a few great leaders here has fought on with little praise and no profit bonding fur us: building opportunities lor you and lor me. I envy this vast army of students before me, more than 1.000 strong! I understand there are 40 graduate# finishing this year In vocational education. In the community Inter est that is being quickened here and there with tbe commlng of the con solidated high school you are to find a place. 1 envy you. I have gone a little farther along tbe way than yon, and ( know some of the Interesting things that you are going to sxperlenee In this great Mtats of Infinite possibilities, The atmosphere Is fifll of aerial voices, perhaps I should sa.v, “radio voices”, whispering words of hope and opportunity to you- Sometime I wish Idtere were fewer opportuni ties In Mississippi, Just one or two, So 1 would not be kept so busy hop ping 4||a-llke from one to the other. And yelfyou boys have a lot to learn. Not lung ago just eleven years, I sat where you now sit, aud 1 knew that I knew more then than i know that I know now “I need to think I knew I knew. But now I must confess. The more i know I know I know, I know I know the less.” But this one thing I think I know, and I have spent a lot of time and money learning It, and I did not learn it In College, and It Is this that I get out of a thing only what I have put Into It; no more. You can not get something for nothing. You get out of this Institution only what you have Invested Into It It looks simple on the face of it, and yet had I learned that fundamental ten or twenty years ago I might to day be editor of the Commercial Ap peal Instead of the editor of the Ne shoba Democrat. Many of these non-booklsb, practical things you will have to pick up along the bitter paths of experience. 1 should like to see, you invest more Into this Institution. I have about decided that A. and M. will never have a very strong Alumni Association until tbe spirit of her student body steams up a little. I look about me here and I see many who have grown old, and grey, serv ing our Alma Mater. They need our cot>pera44on, and the Lord knows, they deserve It. Our Alumni Associ ation Is getting the full support of our graduates. I appeal to you who are younger, and who In time may become graduates, as well as you who are older, to help us strengthen our fraternity, that our concerted effort may bring a great er School and a greater State. Let us make our Alumni Association the most potent force for good within the State. Let us give to those willing to spend their time and tal ent to Its promotion the support they deserve. Let us substitute gratitude for Indifference, and show our Alma Mater. Ood bless her, that devotion and fidelity she derserves. Tbe relationship Is a sacred one, lik en to that that exists between tbe mother and tbe babe that drinks her milk. We have a common pur pose: we have a common mother; let us see that she never wants for anything. Make her proud of her oftsrlng. And we have duties to perform that need every shoulder to the wheel. This College, aloug with our other state colleges and our University, must be divorced from politics, forever. A. and M. most be put upon a mlllage basts, In such a way that Its management may know Just what to expect, and that itlnay be relieved from Its bi-annual embarrassment of going Itefore our State Legislature like a veritable men dicant, begging for alius. It must be put upon a mlllage basis In such a way that Its rapid growth may be taken care of. tor It Is now growing much faster than tbe assessed value of our property, and It will continue to make the same progress. We must provide some means by which at least, occasionally, gradu atos of A. aud M. will have represen tation on the State Board of Trus tees tor our College and University. There will never be any security for A. and M. until these things are done, and any constructive pro gram for our Alumni Association most be prefaced by the consumma tion of these things: aud these things done there are many other things to do. “Let us foster within these walls a finer college spirit so that students may carry it away with them with redounding benefit ttfths school and our Association. May our professors assume less tbe roles of kindergarteners among our men, aud may students heed tbe ad vfhe of tbelr elders that honor may prevail. A. and M. le less a Jail than when I attended It; lets make It less so, so that onr recollections and re flections of the future may have hap pter associations, and bo that we shall ever think of onr attendance here with a thrill. Let students, faculty and alumni solve our athlet ic problems together, I think It a mighty poor spirit on the part of any alumnus that expresses itself in the words; **l shall never pay my dues In the Association, nor play a part In Its’ deliberations until A. A M. hasa winning team” but, after all, there is evident dissatisfaction from within and without over our athletics, and the whims of a few sen* sltlve individuals create sentiment, and we have to contend with It. Students, professors and Alumni, alike, let us work together for School and State, and If we would have en-> thuslasra for Mississippi let us drink freely of her past. Sir William Row* land. Early in the lastcentjury Mississip. pi was rising to prominence and pow er. On his plantation, pear Natchez, Sir William Dunbar anticipated the extraction of oil from cotton seed fifty years before it was done com mercially. Mississippi has to her eternal credit that she established the first state college for wtynen. General Hinds and his dragoons did noble work at New Orleans. .Jeff Davis and his countrymen were the heroes of Monterey and Beuna Vista. Quitman placed the “stars and stripes” over the capitol of Old Mex* ico, and we played a leading role in the winning of the great Southwest. Sargent 8. Prentiss, matchless, in comparable, on the stump and at the forum, charmed spellbound multi tudes from Maine to Mississippi. Ah! Those were stirring days for us. We hear again the press of the world congratulating Robt. Walker. Secre tary of the Treasury under Polk, on his tariff reports. We hear Sharkey refusing cabinet positions under Fillmore and Taylor, and recall that Jacob Thompson, Jefferson Davis, and some time later, L. Q. C. Lamar served as cabinet members to as many presidents. We recall that the Southern Convention was called at Nashville by Mississippi, and presided over by a Mississippian, and that when the States of the South seceded froin Ubion our heroic, but much maligned Jefferson Davis was chosen to preside over their destinies. Before fratricidal strife tore us asunder in the 60’s our sons stood high at home and abroad. Without a Civil War Mississippi would be holding her own today with her sis ter states, and had she never seen a slave nor a boll of cotton diversifica tion would have made her the richest rural empire in the world. For fifty years we have been passing through a period of arrested development. “Lulled by the languor of the land of the locust,” Mississippi awaits to day but the clariou call of her dream ers and builders. She awaits some George or Walthall to lead her from the mud and mire of partisanship to the golden pinnacled heights of civic rightousness. Factionalism, dragon like, crushes the spirit of today and our hopes for tomorrow. Pulpit, press and politician—all who knock help to feed it. Thankful should we be that our people are sickening of factionalism. We have le j s of it, and long before the consolidated high school shall have worked its happy transforma tion Mississippians will cease a futile fight to dream and build. Fraternal ism will then take the place of fac tionalism in Mississippi and her sous will prosper. I realize, my friends, thkt I am playing on anew key, but enthusiasm is a catching tune, and I believe in mass psychology. Let us, therefore, dedicate this hour, our time and our talent to building and boosting Mis sissippi, that her disciples of discon tent may be forever exterminated, and that her propagandists of pessim ism may be converted to the new vis ion, and that we may all be baptized with the spirit of the 60’s. Let this Alumiui Association, and God bless her—our Alina Mater—this glorious, enterprising institution, work hand in hand with other dreamers and builders for the promotion <>f a great er St tie, “and recreate from dust the dream the knockers would have slain.” Amf tomorrow will carry us on the wings of promise to some diz zy height from which we may see the infinite possibilities of today un folding. Faithful to our College, faithful to our fraternity, faithful to Mississip pi. let us transform the State within a decade. You and I have faith in Mississippi, and her people, and if. I have given you today but the fabric of a dream, so let it be, far from the dawn of God's first day dreams have been the mothers ot groat achieve ments. , NO. I