Litchfield enquirer., 1880-01-15
5taii
WHOLE NO. 27s7.

enue from the school fund, State, town and district taxes and other sources was $1, 39O,- 972. 54 the total of expenditures was $1,375,- S81. 01. The cost of new school buildings in 1878 was nearly $125, ,000 In 1879 it was only $37, 900. The total reduction in the ex- 1 pendtures during the year was over $130,- 900.
 The policy of free schools is now so thor oughly established in our State that do not suppose that any one will think of trying to l disturb it. But as each year these large fig |. ures Of expense come to us and we remember how burdensome is taxation, we are apt to ask ourselves what is the good of all this What advantage does the State derive from | all thls expenditure Might not the whole, or at any rate some part of 1t be omitted? These questions come to us all. May it not be worth while for few moments to consider ] the other sideP And in this I shall only go over facts which have often been published, | and with which many of you are familiar. Lord Bacon has in gorgeous language forci- l bly, illustrated that learned States have been I usually prosperous States and that an in- structed people has been for the most part, | rich, laborious, energetic, and powerful peo- 1 pie. It is not for us to indulge in his style of | lofty grandeur. With us the question is not | one of sentiment. It is the sordid question of | dollars and cents.
 It needs no argument to us here in Con- necticut, with our hard and rocky soil, our | rough and inhospitable shore. and our forbid ding sky, to convince us that we must depend upon our industries of .the earth, or of the mechanics arts. There is nothing for us but labor in some of it's many forms-severe, | never ending labor-EG6Or OnuniG Uincens. Is there anything else for us? Is it not by this | 0f loho o1o hof fn per? Are we not almost compelled to say that it is by this labor alone that we are to exist? There can be but one answer. If then there is any way by which labor can be l made more profitable, any way by which we | can get more of it, or a better quality, any way by which labor can be made more useful to the citizen or to the State, is it not plainly | our duty to use every endeavor to find it In one of the reports made to the Board of Education in Massachusetts some years ago. | the Secretary-Mr. Horace Mann-showed by precise statistical details, collected from the | snperintendents of manufacturing establish | ments, ''that throughout the whole range of | mechanical industry the well-educated opera tive did more work, did it better, wasted less, | used his allotted portion of machinery to more advantage and more profit earned more mon- | ey, commanded more confidence, rose faster, rose higher from lower to the more advanced positions of their employment than the uned- Hcated operative" am confident that every farmer who employs labor can testify to similar rule among farm laborers. In the re- port made to the Board of Education in Con- nectlcut for the year 1870. the Secretary de- velopes this line of thought to considerable extent In the summing up he says: "It proves that education is economy, and that ignorance means waste that the skilled work man so forecasts and plans hls work that eve- ry blow tells, while he economies both his strength and his stock; that even in the hum- blest labor he will do more work, in better style, with less damage to tools and machinery, than the boor who can only use bIute mus cle."
 This kind of evidence might be extended much further. Does it not certainly show that the best instrmentality for guiding and helping laber and the laborer and making it more profitable, is to give him the highest practicable degree of mental culture and use ful knowledge? Is it not then obviously our duty as well as the best industrial policy to promote, diffuse, and perfect it?
 Let me read you brief extract from the most brilliant of New England orators. ..,
 ''There is not an occupation of cililized life, from the making of laws, and poems and histories, down to the opening of New Jersey oysters with broken jack-knife, that is not better done by bright than a dull man, by quick than slow mind, by an instructed more than by a gross or simple man, by prudent, thoughtful and careful man than by light and foolish one. Every one of these occupations in other words the universal labor of civilization-involves, de- mand, ts, a mental effort putting forth physical effort, and you do but go to the foun- tain head as you ought to do when you seek by an improved culture and better knowledge, to give force and power t0 the imperial ca- pacity behind, and to set a thoughtful and prudent spirit to guide it.
 ''You say that you bestow a new power on man when you give him an improved machine. Do you not bestow more available gift when you bestow on him an improvement of that mental and moral culture which makes, i'm proves, and uses all machines In the one case you give him limited amount of coined money, Tn tue other mine of gold or silver.
 ''Such is the additional power you give to labor by improving the intellectual and pru- dential character which informs and guides it."
 I wish to add also another quotation "Re- member that the learning of the few is des- potism; the learning of the multitude is lib- erty and that intilligent and principled lib- erty is fame, wisdom and power"
 IN CONCLUSION.
 I am required by the constitution to give you from time to time, 'information of the state of the government" In concluding this duty on the present occasion, am impelled to say that our complications come from too much rather than from too little legislation. venture to hope that your enactments will be strictly limited to the needs of the people.
 CHARLES B. ANDREWS.
 January 2, 1880.