OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY



a period of service never equalled before. We shall ever thank
God for the inspiration of President Patterson's example of devo-
tion.
    The state university is the real builder of the state. Some may
think the State of Kentucky is built at Frankfort. Not so. The
State of Kentucky is built in the homes, schools and churches scat-
tered all over these green hills and plains, stimulated and guided by
this university. Having this aim and this work, the state univer-
sity must be an institution of, by, and for all the people. It is not
an institution of any party, of any class, of any church. It is not
the university of the Democratic party, or of the Republican party;
it is not the college of the farmers only; it is not the college of the
mechanics only; it is certainly not the college of the rich-and I
hope it is not the college of the poor exclusively-it is the college
of all the people.
    Richard Rumbold, whom they slew in the time of James II be-
cause he was a Democrat, said, in his quaint way, that he never could
believe "that God had created a few thousand men already booted
and spurred, with millions of other men already saddled and bridled
for these few to ride." This is the essence of democracy. Thomas
Jefferson was cur Rumbold in the field of education. He did not be-
lieve that only a few men were born with talents to be developed and
that the rest of mankind was to be left to be driven by the few. He
therefore estahbished the first university of, by and for the people in
the world.
    The characteristic of the state university is that it democratizes
education-puts the highest education in the reach of all fit to take
it. It places the democracy of the mind on the same basis as the
democracy of tile man.
    The attitude of the various types of universities toward the
schools is the significant thing. The democracy begins with the
free schools and educates its citizens from below upward through
high schools and colleges, lifting all up in proportion to their abili-
ties and sending as many of the fit as possible to the university to
be made leaders of thought and action. The democratic system of
education gives every man the freest opportunity to become in the
fullest measure all for which nature fitted him. It produces, thus,
not a series of tyipe men, molded to fit particular places, but a world
of freely developed beings, strong to do the work for which their
Creator made them. This system produces not a few classes of good
workers, like the monarchial plan, but a great variety of strong men
and women, possessing a diversity of potentiality. Democracy gives
a chance to the poor as well as to the rich boy and demands of each
that he be the best and do the best he can. It aims, thus, not to