(5)
war, as shown by the following- extract from the Inspect
or General’s last report: “The objects of this instruction
are well understood, and it would therefore be interesting-
to learn the practical results of the military work accom
plished at these institutions in connection with the recent
strug-g-le against Spain. They may never be fully known
andinquiry on this subject elicited only partial information;
but the statistics given are suggestiveandseemratherbelow
than above actual conditions. The Presidents of 46 Col
leges, whose Military Departments numbered about 7,100
students before hostilities began, reported that 29 of their
military students and 59 alumni had been commissioned
in the regular army, and 157 students and 296 alumni in
the volunteer army—a total of 541 officers, or enough for
about 12 regiments; and that 1,084 students and ex-stu
dents had joined forces as noncommissioned officers or
privates.”
The students and ex-students of this College gallantly
bore a part in that struggle. Eighty-nine enlisted in the
service, sixty-three of whom were commissioned .and non
commissioned officers. This shows the value to the in
dividual as well as to the state, of scientific military
instruction.
But the chief glory of Agricultural & Mechanical Col
leges lies not in the number of men they have incidental
ly fitted for military duty, but in the stimulus the}' have
given to research in the science of Agriculture and the
Mechanic Arts and in the application of scientific princi
ples to practice in these departments of industry. Unlike
the pomp and circumstance of war, progress in these de-