Edwin F. Ladd, 1884

Our brothers’ careers have been productive, constructive, spirited, and prosaic. They displayed impressive skills, talents, and abilities They were, and we continue to be, a beautiful and lively expression of our enduring fraternal beliefs, and that underlying harmony is far-reaching in expectation for all brothers’, undergraduate and graduate. It is the core of what our fraternal founders asserted in 1848 and 1874 and 1899: to live active, commendable, and responsible lives, and to build up community. Clearly and compellingly, they added, and continue to add, positive value at the local, state, national, global, and fraternal level because they engaged life fully and responsibly. In short, they were authoritative pillars throughout life. They were-are exemplary in their citizenship, character, and their sense of dutiful responsibility, and in many instances they were leading voices in their career fields. They prove that success of any kind does not occur by luck or accident, and we remember them because they continue to provide that message for our time. We have long been, from one generation to the next, proud to be Omega Mu Fijis. We continue to cherish our fraternal friendships, our shared memories, and our evolving, forward-focused history at the University of Maine. These things, above and beyond everything else, are the underlying rooted connections that make us proud to be Omega Mu Fijis. Why, after all, should we believe otherwise? We have been doing it well for since 1874 years, and we will continue to do so.
Perge!

Omega Mu Portrait
Edwin F. Ladd, 
​1884

Q. T. V. Years

First Q.T.V. Chapter Hall where Edwin F. Ladd lived.

Q. T. V. Brothers in front of the house in 1880

"Lieutenants-E. F. Ladd"

New York Experiment Station,
Genva, New York

Edwin F. Ladd, standing, first on the right.

​After graduating from Maine State College, Edwin F. Ladd was a a chemist at the New York State Experiment Station in Geneva, New York, from 1884 - 1890. 

In 1890, Edwin Ladd went west to the plains of North Dakota to become the first chemistry professor at the newly established North Dakota Agricultural College, now North Dakota State College. He would serve the school from 1890-1921, and he held many responsible roles in his tireless service to the students and faculty of the college: chief chemist, dean of the school of chemistry and the president of the school. 

Edwin F. Ladd, left

​In personality and mood as a professor and leader, he was always hard-driving, practical, and exact. He always followed the truths he discovered in chemistry, and he applied those truths for the greater good of everyone. His significance as a chemist, college president, North Dakota food commissioner, and senator was remarkable. He always merged robust scientific thinking and experimentation with broad creative thinking, dedicated to truth and facts, in his service to his students, the citizens of North Dakota, and all American citizens. In 1910, the new chemistry building at the college was named Ladd Hall. 

Ladd Hall

"Farm Senator"

"North Dakota Farmers Elect Dr. E. F. Ladd '84 Senator. Dr. Ladd's Political Recognition Comes After Long Service as Chemist and
​College President."

​His extensive scientific research would lead to truths that would breathe health and life into things that concern everyone today: ‘truthful label’ on paint and flour, the pure-food and drug laws, fair railway rates for farmers, and a standard grading method for wheat. These were sweeping reforms, and in achieving them Edwin Ladd positively shaped and improved American society through his efforts. In so doing he became, along with Senator Robert M. LaFollette and President Theodore Roosevelt, a leader in the Progressive Movement. It was even said that He was ‘the most militant’ progressive. 

"One of the heroes of the pure food and drug movement was Edwin F. Ladd"

"One concern of the progressive movement was the quality of food that people ate. Progressives were especially concerned about canned or processed foods such as ketchup and drugs such as cough syrup. Before 1906, processed foods and most pharmaceutical drugs were prepared without any oversight as to purity, quality, or sanitation."

"By E. F. Ladd"

​After the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, Edwin served on the Standards Committee for Food Products. In addition, he served on many civic organizations and boards in the United Sates and in Europe: the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the Society of Chemical Industry of London; the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science; the Association of State and National Food and Dairy, the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, and ex officio Flood Control officer. During World War I, Ladd served on the Food Administration Board to assure that food and supplies would be given to American troops fighting in Europe and elsewhere, and this led to calls to the American public to conserve and have ‘meatless’ Mondays and ‘wheatless’ Wednesdays, so forth.

Biography of Edward F. Ladd
​written by his grandson,
Culver S. Ladd.

Edwin Ladd, far right

​At the conclusion of World War I, Edwin Ladd made speech reasserting everything that he had always said about the American Farmer that he had advocated for in every role he had held: “Will all America awake to the importance of the farmer. Only now do they realize how very important a part of this nation and the world is agriculture. See how dependent out government is today upon out production of wheat in the Northwest. With the war over, the farmer can expect much liberal consideration than he has enjoyed in the past.”

​His resolute convictions, grounded in accrued scientific wisdom, often aroused intense opposition. It never ruffled him in the least. When Republican senators wanted to quietly end the Teapot Dome scandal in order to not hurt the Republican Party, Ladd, a Republican himself, stood firm and aggressively opposed his fellow Republican senators because the first and most important factor guiding him was finding the truth in any matter and not covering up something with political falsehoods for the sake of the party. Facts had always guided him as a chemist, and the truthfulness of the facts of Teapot Dome guided him his unwillingness to turn a blind eye and disregard them. 

​He would not be appeased by their appeals to simply go along for the sake of party image. That was his outlook, and after he openly supported Robert M. LaFollette and not Calvin Coolidge in the Republican primaries in 1924, he was persona non grata in the Republican Party, and he was kicked out of the Republican caucus. 

Senator Robert M. LaFollette

Author

"a life-sized bronze likeness of their former President"

Memorial Speeches honoring
Edwin F. Ladd
in the United States Senate

"It was Doctor Ladd who pioneered in the campaign against adulterated and ​misbranded foods."

"Vigorously he preached and lived the doctrine of equality and liberty, the right of those who labor in the fields to win a their just return in the markets of the world."

Edwin F. Ladd believed with Hume, 'that all the vast machinery of government is ultimately for no other purpose than the distribution of justice."

"He was one of the foremost workers for pure-food legislation and his fight for workable laws and honest enforcement will long be remembered.."

"Never have I approached a subject with greater confidence, for the life of this truly great man  was an open book, each page of which has it story for fellow man and devotion to high and unselfish ideals."

"Although modest and unassuming in manner, with a heart as tender as a child's, Senator Ladd possessed a rugged strength of character and indomitable determination to fight for the consummation of his high and honest convictions. These qualities explain the reason for the respect and regard in which he was everywhere held. In short, he was a success
​at all times and on every occasion."

"a dependable man, an honest man, a man with a vision and with the courage of his convictions. His passing was a great loss to the Senate and to this country."

"The first time met Senator Ladd he made this remarkable statement:
'Early in I life I came to the conclusion that the best way to serve my country was to serve the many instead of the few.'"

"When Doctor Ladd began the pure-food work he found that most canned foods were adulterated, misbranded, and often doped with injurious ingredients, and sold to the consuming public as of high quality. Jams, for instance, were often made with rotten apples and the then dangerous glucose sweetened with saccharin, colored with coal-tar dye, and preserved with benzoate of soda to prevent further decay. Many other foods were adulterated and preserved in the same way."

"With all his gentleness and chivalry, he possessed courage, physical and moral, of the highest order. He was tenacious of his views and unafraid to follow his convictions, regardless of the goal to which they led. He was willing to follow the truth, no matter the prejudice or opposition which his course might provoke. He did not falter but with inflexible purpose he pursued that course to the very end."

"It can be said of him as Matthew Arnold said of Sophocles-
He saw life steadily and saw it as a whole."

"The death of Edwin Fremont Ladd was a loss to his State and to the nation of distressful significance. Among the larger and more permanent needs of society are more individuals of his type. All too rarely for the cause of human welfare do we find men who combine his technical training, scientific knowledge, thinking capacity, energy, physical and mental, with his single-hearted and selfish devotion to mankind and to the service of his country."

"He was one of those exceptional spirits who stand upon the watch towers of this world, looking and yearning for any light that may make more clear the path of all the struggling multitudes of mankind to happiness and hope and peace."

"It was the long hard battle against food adulteration that disclosed to the people of North Dakota and the country Doctor Ladd's fighting strength and his fitness for leadership
​in the political field. He turned his knowledge and experience in the field of chemistry to investigation and research of the food conditions that threatened to undermine the public health...."

​Edwin Fremont Ladd died in 1925, and many tributes poured in attesting to his lifelong integrity to do the right thing for his students, the state of North Dakota, the United States, and the world. One person wrote: “He believed in direct action. It did not take him long to make up his mind as to what side of a question he should take; he wanted to know simply which was the right side. If the right side was popular, he was not deterred from espousing it for that reason; it it was unpopular, he seemed to be more eager to uphold the right.” Lynn Frazier, North Dakota’s Governor, expressed his admiration for Edwin Ladd: “one of the foremost workers for pure-food legislation” and “a citizen…universally loved and respected.

Edwin F. Ladd always stood for truth, a truth grounded in the verifiable results of science, and that truth made him a powerful advocate for the passage of effective, down-to-earth acts for the greater public good in improving the safety and quality of life for all American citizens during the Progressive Movement. In sum, Edwin Ladd tangibly achieved extraordinary results. He was a man of significance, and he made a real difference, and in doing so he left a lasting legacy that we can all be proud of as Omega Mu Fijis, and that is why we continue to say that perseverance and determination are omnipotent. It’s true. Boris Pasternak said it best: “It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear to new and better days but…someone’s soul, inspired and ablaze. 

"It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear to a new and better days but...someone' soul inspired and ablaze."

“What if the space be long and wide,
That parts us from our brother’s side
A soul-joined chain unites our band,
And memory links us hand in hand.”
​(Phi Gamma Delta fraternity song)

Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge!