The Russellville Democrat., 1879-08-21
AN ABLE ADDRESS.
Superintendent Denton of this State Talks in Sf. Louis.

l State Superintendent Denton dehv cred an address before the Missouri teachers asaociation, which tho Globe Democrat says was the best address delivered, It will be pub lished in the American Journal oi Education, and in the proceedings of the meeting. The high compli ments paid to MT. Denton as a com pllment to our free school system and one we should all appreciate, for it is time that our educational efforts are seen by the rest of the l world, which has for long time seemed determined to cling to the old idea that education Tn Arkansas comes last of all else. Below we publish 8 part of the address as given by the Globe Democrat:
 II might detain you longer with preliminary observation, but I am admonished that I must approach the body of my subject While cheerfully award praise where it is due, and exuit in the labors of faith tul workers in various portions of the south, candor eompels the ad- mission that there was before the war, no compact, organized, general move for the enlightenment and elevation of the masses.
 "Ante- bellum systems were not yitalized by the warm life current streams through the remodeled and reconstructed systems that super seded them. There was no power ful tide Of popular sympathy to i'm part the energy to the cause. The gospel of universal education had not become 8 fundamental article of political and social faith.
 "That we may form even a vague idea of the almost insuperable ob. stacles that had to be surmounted in establishing the various state systems now in operation in the south, it IS necessary that we briefly consider the forbIdding crrcumstan- ces under which the work was ac- complished.
 Judging from appearances, there never was more inauspicious time for so momcntous 6 venture. In most of the states this step was taken from 1868 to 1870. The adop- tion of the public school policy was exacted by the general government as condition precedent to readmis sion to the union.
 "This seemed rigorous condition at the time, but the interpretatiye light that subsequent events have flashed on 1t has thoroughly vindi, cated its wisdom. If tEis vital measure had been lest to voluntary action the reasonable presumption is that l. would have been postponed for years. Defeated, disappointed, chagrined, there was no disposition to undertake an enterprise of such magnitude and cost.
 Contemplate for a moment the sweeping annihilation of value caused by war. It is without par allel in history. The emancipation proclamation plotted out about Sl, 0,000,000. Leaving the slaves out of the estimate, the losses and depreciation; in personal and real property reached the enormous sum of B, 000,0 100000.
 Two hundred and fifty thousand men perished in the struggle, The fields were deserted, industry Ian gulshed, and the very instruments of production were paralyzed. The frame work of society was dissolved, and demoniac passions were uncaged to prey on everything that was not indestrctible. When the last cannon had been silehced, and the cherubic face of peace, concealed for four dreary years, was seen smiling through the sulphurous clouds that rolled away from the vast battle field of the south, the beautious an gel looked on 8 grief-stricken and impoverished people. The fabric of public schools was founded on the ashes and ruins of that melancholy period.
 Bankruptcy, repugnanee to the system because ..of it's compulsory establishment, with disinclination to examine it for the same reason, constituted serious barrier to pro gress. The reckless mismanage ment of school affairs in some of the states in the incipient stages of the work, deepened the prejudice that already existed.
 "In 1867 not state in the south had free school system. Now not one of them IS without it.
 ''In the main, there has been steady growth through the entire decade, notwithstanding painful scarcity of funds, and in some in stances, as iu Virginia. Georgia and Texas, misappropriatlon of funds.
 Awkward and iniquitous legisia- tion has done much to leutralize well-directed efforts. It is a singu- lar and lamentable fact that the leg islator who knows least about schools makes himself most conspicuous in school legislation. And the man who is most sadly in need of schools is generally the man who tries to legislate them out of existence,