The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1880-07-27

al ".L1e' the Olive blooms AMIN.
rIoclinlng peace on earth, good viii IN mon
here let it flourish, til from Shore to sbo-a
hen tide shall rest and time shan -, =,
more, 10 i'o
ana heavens veil hath withered 10 a scroll
The waves Of Righteousness Ger 9Th sI,,r
roll 3" Si-iA
Ai-a Zion, the redeemed, the pure, The f-o.
shall! celebrate tie WORLDS cEElr J1,.T-.-.
The reader was the rccipien, Of
warm applause.
The Careless Orchestra ,ndor H..
George Careless, also lender of a.
choir, then executed The s,lrr ''-
overture "Poet and Peasant >,
sisted by the organ, under tbe 81
ful manipulation Of Mr.. lost
J. Daynes. This beautiful pece wa.
! highly appreciated. Elder r F
Cummings, jr., then arose and do.
liverei the following address On
EDUCATION.
IN representing the educational
status and progress Of our Territory
upon the occasion Of our Celebraf;ou
to-day, it il highly gratifying TO me.
as am assured it must lie 10 ali
present who have the slightest inter
est in the welfare of our youth or
commonwealth, to be able to make
so good as showing as can, with Der
feet truth, he made ut the present
time.
reasoning upon natural principles.
one would suppose that it woulG
have been a long time before the
subject Of education would have
received any attention from q COM
munity situated as the pioneers Of
| these valleys were for many years
after their arrival here. But such
was not the case. Stripped and bare;
| scattered and peeled; forced to flee
/ into the heart Of a dreary desert,
more than a thousand miles from
| the borders of civilization, and more
than that distance from the nearest
mart where 4 school book could
be purchased, TO their eternal credit
it IS recorded that they did not, for
a moment, forget the subject Of the
education Of their youth.
In founding their infantile and
feeble colonies, one OF the earliest
buildings to he erected was the
school house. True it was generally
4 humble structure, but its cost was
4 heavy tax upon the cOlCnists. This
tax was cheerlully borne, however.
for though it added to their toll and
poverty, they dreaded ignorancean and
/ its effects more than these, and did
all in their power to dissipate it
from their midst.
Before the general government
/ had had time to even organize that
of the newly settled Territory, and
even before the community here
had received any formal recognition
from any department of it, the Leg-
islative Assembly of the Provisional
Government of the State of Deseret.
on February 2Sth, 1850, only two
Years and a half after the first settle
ment Of the country, passed an act
incorporating a university. This act
of that body, under the then existing
circumstances, speaks volumes IN
evidence of the enthusiasm of the
people upon the subject Of educa-
ton. That enthusiasm has ever kept
pace with the means of the people,
until to-day the school statistics of
Utah prove her to occupy no mean
position in respect to education.
AT the close of the year 1878 the
school population, comprising chill
dren between the ages of and Is
years, numbered 33,6O4. Over 81
! per cent. of these were enrolled, and
over A per cent. were in daily at
/ tendance at school. From statistics
contained in the Report of the Com
missioner Of Education for 1877, il
IS shown that in the percentage Of
| enrolment of her school population,
/ Utah is in advance of the general
average of the United States, while
in the percentage in actual daily at
tendance at school, she still further
exceeds the average Of the whole
Union.
In 1877, when our school pOpula-
ton numbered 1912, there was in
vested in the Territory, in school
property, the creditable sum Of
S56S, 964, being about eighteen and
one-half dollars per capita Of our
schOO! population.
In contrast to this I viii give the
amount per capita Of their school
population which some of the States
have invested in school property:
North Carolina, less than S 50
Louisiana, 300
Virginia about, 200
Oregon, less than 900
Wisconsin,, {" . II.0l
Tennessee, " 30
Delaware, " 300
III respect to the amount per cap
ita Of her school population which
Utah has invested in school property
she exceeds several other Southern
and Western States, IS in advance of
the great States of Indiana. anu
and am confident that if
the necessary statistics were attain
able, they would show that in this
respect also, Utah IS in advance Of
the general average of the entire
Union.
Thus, in the matter Of education,
Ctah stands ahead Of many old and
wealthy States, and of the general
average Of the United States in three
very important respects, namely,
the enrolment of her school pOpu-
lation, the percentage Of their daily
at school, anal the
amount per capita invested n school
When it IS remembered that in
nearly every State in the Union, vast
sums of money, derived from the
;ale of lands or from the establish
nent of special funds, are devoted to
school purposes, and that these sums
to tens or hundreds of thou
1nds of dollars annually, in many
If the States, while the schools of
! tab have never yet received any
assistance whatever in this manner,
he fact that she occupies her pre-
ent advanced position in respect to
speaks volumes in her
praise. And when again it is re
that, while thus advanc-
NC the cause of education in their
midst, her people have been strug-
,ling against Disadvantages incom-
,arably greater than any experience
d by any Of the States, such as
heir isolated condition, the severity
f the elements and the steriiity Of
he soil, to wiring a subsistence from
which they had to toll so severely,
nd the illiteracy that so extensively
xisted among tens Of thousands Of
he foreign population, her present