Extracts from Addresses 333
more, to every man and woman of us on the ground war service in some
form or other has come, and the opportunity been taken advantage of
cheerfully, for however much we may have deplored the necessity, we
have nevertheless rejoiced in all these opportunities.
In appreciation of your visit we have arranged an academic festival,1
in the details of which I fear you will find that we have been more mind-
ful perhaps of the hopes and aspirations of our people, than of the com-
fort and convenience of our guests. In the evolution of its programme
we beg your patient participation and indulgent cooperation, inasmuch
as a visit of extraordinary interest to the older educational foundations
of our country becomes to an institution so near the beginnings of its life
a most extraordinary historical event. We honor you for your contri-
butions to letters, science, and university administration. We admire
the enterprise of your mission on a new form of international endeavor.
We rejoice in the opportunity you have most graciously accorded us of
linking your names with Rice, and of being able to say from this week
forth that Shipley and Miers and Walker and Jones and Joly lectured
on their chosen fields of science and the humanities at the Rice Institute,
and out of the riches of their experience freely gave us counsel and wis-
dom for the immediate problems of education and reconstruction with
which we are now confronted.
Governor Hobby: I should be glad to welcome you and extend to you
the hospitality of this State anywhere between the Sabine River and the
Rio Grande, and anywhere between the Panhandle and the Gulf; but I
would prefer to welcome you right here, within the gates and under the
roof of the Rice Institute, than anywhere else in this great State, because
the hearts of the people here are beating for the success and for the
building of this great institution, which is the mightiest benefaction that
has ever been given to the people of Texas by a great man, a great
philanthropist, and a great benefactor; and the people of Texas are heart
and soul in sympathy with the upbuilding of this institution, realizing that
the greatest contribution of private wealth and personal fortune ever
given to such a cause in Texas is represented here in this institution, and
that it will contribute to the honor and glory of Texas as long as time
rolls on.
The foremost of all the subjects that concern the welfare of the people
is the subject of education. It has been wisely said that the principal
business of a democratic State, after all, is the education of the people.
Education is as essential to the continuance of free government as the
1 See the Rice Institute Pamphlet, Vol. V, No. 4, October, 1918, pp.
239-245.