understand why the University needs a full-time publicity man. Its students, its Alumni and its record speak for it more eloquently than can any propaganda, no matter how skilfully conducted. The other colleges. in the State do not feel such a need.

Make It State Institution

Strictly speaking, the University is not a State institution, but if those connected with it and this Legislature will undertake the task of lifting it out of its present difficulties I should favor establishing it as a fullfledged State institution. In such an event I should be willing for the State to assume the outstanding debt amounting to $217,500.00.

New Trustees

If the University is to be taken over by the State, the Governor and Council should be directed to appoint a new Board of Trustees, and in order that the services of experienced members may be retained it would be wise to provide that four members of the present Board be reappointed, the appointment of the four other Trustees to be entirely in the discretion of the appointing power. It would be well to have the State Commissioner of Education a member ex-officio and this would give the University nine Trustees. If this is to be made a new institution, owned and controlled by the State, it should start its career unhampered by any traditions of the past and Trustees should be appointed who really have at heart its future welfare.

Agriculture Important

The people of Maine are by no means unanimous in their support of the institution as it is at present conducted. I believe, however, they will support it once they become convinced that the University is to be carried on both in a liberal spirit and in a practical and economical manner. Established as an agricultural school, it unfortunately has allowed this branch of its work to become the least important of its activities with approximately 20% of its students taking Agricultural Courses. In the years gone by the farmers of the State always could be depended upon to rally to the support of the Maine State College, but gradually our farmers have become convinced that agriculture is of minor importance at Orono, and that the teaching of farming is of small moment there. Their interest in its welfare is on the wane, but if new life can be infused into its Agricultural Courses, I believe the farmers of the State will be greatly encouraged. Certain improvements in the farm buildings are needed, and although not called for in the Budget I believe some appropriation should be made for their rebuilding.

The School of Technology stands well among similar schools in the

country and I believe we have reason to be satisfied with what it has done. It may be urged that there is no need of the College of Arts and Sciences, as we already have three such colleges in this State. If the whole plan of the University was to be revised it might be desirable to have its courses limited to those that deal with Agricultural and Technical sciences. However, this matter is settled and it is not advisable to make any change other than to proportionately reduce the number of students taking the Arts and Science Courses, so that the total of the three colleges may come within the limit that has been suggested. Special efforts need to be made to raise the Agricultural Courses up to the position. of prominence and importance to which they are entitled.

No Expansion

As to expansion, in my opinion, the people of the State will not look with favor upon the plans of some of the University's ambitious friends, to add to its already overburdened curriculum a School of Medicine and a Teachers' College. The closing of the Law School relieved the situation considerably and this is no time to think of new buildings, new courses, or new colleges. We should assimilate what we already have before taking on anything new.

I hope the errors of the past may not be repeated, that dissensions may be forgotten, realities faced and difficulties overcome. This all can be accomplished if the right spirit prevails.

We are representatives of all the people of the State of Maine. One of our duties is to prepare the young men and women and the boys and girls who are growing up in our midst to meet the problems of life. We have a great opportunity to take a step forward in settling this University problem, and although it is late in the session it is not too late for action.

Fourteen Points

In conclusion I summarize the recommendations contained in this message. These are offered as one complete program, and I do not recommend the adoption of some of them and the elimination of others. I favor

I.

2.

Approximately the Budget Committee's appropriation for maintenance with an extra allowance for reconstructing certain farm buildings.

Sufficient sums to repair the buildings, even though it be somewhat larger than the Budget calls for.

3. Making the University a State Institution.

4. Assuming the debt of $217,500.00.

5.

A new board of nine Trustees with the State Commissioner of
Education a member ex-officio, four of the present Board to be

6.

reappointed, the remaining four to be appointed by the Governor, with consent of the Council.

A halt upon all expansion.

7. The number of students, regular and special, to be limited to 1000 either by law or by raising the educational standards of the University.

8. Emphasizing the importance of Agricultural Courses.

9.

Reduction in the cost of education, so as to open the University to those not financially able to attend other colleges.

10. Making the University the best and not necessarily the biggest educational institution in Maine.

II. Elimination of politics from the atmosphere of the University. 12. Cultivation of "college spirit" among its Alumni and undergraduates. 13. Placing the University on a sound financial and educational basis, with a thorough internal reorganization.

14. Making it a Maine institution for Maine boys and girls.

Respectfully submitted,

(Signed) PERCIVAL P. BAXTER,
Governor of Maine.

READING OF THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

STATE OF MAINE

Office of the Governor
AUGUSTA

March 30, 1923.

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Eighty-first Legislature:

At my request our State Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Augustus O. Thomas, drafted a bill providing for the reading of the Bible in the public schools of the State, and Senator W. D. Spencer of York County introduced it into the Legislature for me. This is a subject in which I take a deep interest. A hearing was held upon this bill before the Committee en Education on Thursday, March 15th last, at which time Dr. Thomas appeared before the Committee in support of the bill and on March 28th, Senator Spencer addressed the Senate in its favor. Both addresses are masterpieces. As the latter's address is perpetuated in the official Legislative Record I desire to have Dr. Thomas' remarks also placed in enduring form.

Dr. Thomas' Statement:

"The bill before the Committee for consideration is in many respects one of the most important measures which the present Legislature has to consider. I have not been asked by anyone to speak in its favor but there is a world emergency which makes it necessary that we return to the source of the faith of our fathers for wisdom and inspiration necessary to the solution of the gigantic problems which confront the world today. Calvin Coolidge, Vice President of the United States, has said repeatedly that 'the thing which the world needs most is a proper spiritual conception of human relationships.' Our great anxiety and desire to avoid religious confusion, animosity and hatred has driven us away from the source of harmony itself. This bill calls for the reading of certain portions of the Bible at such intervals as seem to be most expedient in the schools of the State. It especially emphasizes the Ten Commandments, the Psalms and the Lord's Prayer.

"The Bible Itself, outside of paganism, is non-sectarian and non-denominational. All faiths, all religion and Christianity Itself are founded thereon. It is in the Christian's belief the only well-spring of spiritual values known to the human race.

"The great question is-Is American Christianity of sufficient temper to include as does the Bible various types of personality and modes of thinking which underlie society, or is it necessary to go into the future over the single track of a still more intolerant future?

"Only a few years ago when, under the most gigantic human struggle of the ages, social and democratic ideals were endangered, our peoples were brought together. It was then that Catholic and Protestant and Jew joined forces and fought shoulder to shoulder under the hazard of annihilation. They were held together by a greater fear, and so imminent danger that it was said on every occasion that if the Great War brought nothing other than a better understanding and greater sympathy and a larger measure of tolerance, it has not been in vain. From the pulpit and the rostrum came the congratulations over the greater union of the souls of mankind which fought together, but scarcely had the Four Horsemen retired from the field ere we began to fall apart. The crisis being over, men and nations fell farther apart, all because of the artificial unity of sudden and alarming danger. Today we see the new and determined struggle of socialism and capitalism, the widening of the line between the Cross and the Crescent, the recrudescence of suspicion and unrest between Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile, between alien and native. The strange revival of the old intolerance is today for too evident. By emphasis on inevitable diversities of formulae and temperament, we are in danger of neglecting, if not forgetting entirely, those fundamental underlying principles upon which depend the safety of both Church and State.

Liberalism versus fundamentalism seems to be the rock upon which the Protestant Church may split and the lack of the spiritual in the administration of governmental affairs the rock of disaster for the State.

"Possibly sometime we shall appreciate the fact that the Bible is the book of faith for those with hope; that it is the instrument of progress of all western civilization, for those nations which have rested upon it have made greater progress in all lines of human endeavor than those which have not known it. The Bible is the greatest production and the greatest force in the world. It has come down to us through generations, centuries, almost without changing a jot. It has withstood the onslaughts of the atheist and the pagan and the idolator. It has withstood the changing creeds of men. Its very mystery has been its strength and has allowed each individual to read into it that which most satisfies the hunger of his own soul for immortality. Strange that we cannot see that religion is individual, personal; that I may read the Bible my way and you may read it yours; that we may not agree possibly on the way of salvation but it cannot be said by intelligent men that any one man or any set of men or any company of human beings, organization or association, has the only royal road to the soul's triumph. The Bible, therefore, is a personal instrument and every man must be allowed to interpret the Bible according to his own reason, his investigation and the best light he can obtain. It is the wonder of wonders, a master of English, perfection of diction, the height of inspiration, complete in history, absorbing in romance, rhythmic in poetry, brilliant in philosophy and proverb, and startling in its revelations. It is the inspiration of law and as our Constitution is the fundamental law of a land, so the Ten Commandments form the basis of all civil and statutory law,-"Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Thou shalt not bear false witness," "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Any human law which conflicts with the tenets of the Ten Commandments could scarcely stand upon the statute books of a state or nation.

"The Bible has been the inspiration for the world's masterpieces in music. in art and in literature. The world is richer for Handel's "Messiah," Meyerbeer's "Prophet Elijah," Hayden's "Creation;" in sculpture, Angelo's "Moses;" in art, DaVinci's "Last Supper" and Raphael's "Sistine Madonna," portraying the mother's love, the finest sentiment which springs from the human heart. You ask the mother what she expects of her boy and she will tell you that she hopes his heart may be so pure that it may be laid upon a pillow and not leave a stain; that his every act may be reviewed by his mother, his sister, his sweetheart, his wife without a blush of shame; that his innermost thought and hope and aspiration may be whispered in an angel's ear. But you ask if she expects this perfection before she gives her love and she will tell you no, that mother love can