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Show 11 some of his professional colleagues believed that Mrs. Carr was the guiding power of the family. But he was the public figure. Though Dr. Carr taught Muir chemistry, he was most committed to education in agriculture and forestry. These, he thought, could be the foundation for an equitable society if they were founded on hard scientific facts. When he came to California, as a professor of agriculture, Dr. Carr became a public figure by trying to influence the future course of the new University of California. He wanted it to be an agricultural school, wanted it to give farmers the professional status they needed, wanted it to be an agent of change. He openly supported and acknowledged the help of Henry George during his battle with the administration of the University, and certainly stood by George in calling for an equitable division and wise use of California's agricultural land. These were the kinds of aspirations he brought to California from Wisconsin. He believed in a new agrarian society based on wise use and foresight. In a speech about forestry he gave in 1873, he quoted the arguments of George Perkins Marsh, insisting that "Social man repays to the earth all that he takes from her bosom. ..." For him, men had to deal fairly with Nature, if they hoped to profit from their use of her. This was the gospel he inherited from George Perkins Marsh. Jeanne Carr was equally interested in the importance of a new agrarian community. She argued in one speech to a Grangers group that the meaning of Christianity was being carried forward |