The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-07-21
PERsHING AND THE PEDAGOGUEs.

Following is the address of welcome
delivered by Hon. c. L. Pershing, of
Pottsville, Pa, on the occasion of the
recent annual meeting of the State
Teachers Association at that place. 1t
is a production well worthy of its gift
ed author
Ladies and Gentlemen
This has been a year Of conventions. Re
publicanS, ProhibitionistS, GreenbackeTs and
Democrats have in turn met together and
deliberated, as they each proclaim, for the
welfare of the people Of the State. The as
semblage before me to-day has better title
1 than either to the name of State convention.
You have not come from the four quarters of
this good old commonwealth to debate 1ues-
tions Of tariff OF free trade, hard money or
soft, or any other of the issues which diUide
the people into political parties or factions.
Y ou represent cause which forms a bond
of union between all good citizens of what
ever party name-the great educational in
terests. of Pennsylvania. The constitution
of the State declares that ''the General As
sembly shall provide for the maintenance and
support of thorough and efficient system
of public schools, wherein all the children
of this commonwealth above the age of six
years may be educated and shall appropriate
at least one million dollars each year for
that purpose" You are therefore a consti-
tutional body. You represent not only the
bills and the valleys, the towns and the oi-
ties, the farms and the mines which make
up the 5000 square miles OF territory of eur
home State, but with these, and more direct
| ly. you represent the 20, 900 schools, the 21,-
600 teachers and /, 600, 900 scholars i'm schools
of the commonwealth, all maintained at a
cost which last year aggregated IS, 600 000.-
! These are grand statistics. They speak
! loudly of the advance that has been made in
common school education within the limit of
the last few years. / realize this the more
as | look back TO a period in nv own history
when L had the honor of presiding over a
common school, in a very common school
house, with 70 restless and hard to-be con-
J trolled boys for my flock. The wages were
! ''S20 per month and board myself" The
ofhce OF superintendent of Public Instruc-
ton had no existence, while an annual State
/ convention to consider the subject of educa-
| ton was unheard Of With the advance
madd in the standard of qualifications for
/ teachers, / doubt whether l could now sus-
( tain myself in the same position.
The time of your meeting is well chosen
| The nation yesterday celebrated the 1O6th
anniversary of its independence. The intel
! ligence OF the people is the safeguard of our
institutions. knowledge IS power" is an
| aphOrism which since the days of Lord Ba-
con has been repeated times without number
| the world over. But we must not forget
| that Ignorance, too, is power, and no.
where in a free government can it make its
! power more dangerously felt than through
! the ballOt-bOx. / fear that as nation we do
! not yet understand the debt we owe to our
schools, nor properly value the labors of
| JIiOSe WHO nave devoted tnelr lives to the
| business OF teaching. Not that / believe
| that mere intellectual culture will preserve
| our liberties. Ignorance of the masses nav
! be destruction, but intelligence of itself is
not safety. Our free institutions must have
| intelligence and mOraity-s0me of us would
! advance step higher and say religion and
! intelligence-for their foundation if they are
/ to be perpetIated In this work the church
/ and the schools must cooperate.
/ 1t Is gratifying to believe that we have ad-
a nprinH "
! forceS assert their equality with political
| power in the government of the world
| Hence it is that the name Of Florence Night
| lngale IS everywhere remembered and hon.
| oTed for her work of mercy among the
| wounded and dying soldiers in the hospitals
| or the Crimea, whilst the names of many OF
| the Generals who led the contending hosts
IN that terrible confiect are forgotten. And
/ hence 1t is that the whole nation honors an
| educated mechanic, in whose brain the plan
! of the Monitor was conceived Just in time to
! be constructed 20 meet perhaps the most
! dangerous emergency in our great civil war.
! Ladies and Gentlemen of the cOnventi on
| 1t Is time that proceed to the discharge of
| the duty assigned me on this occasion. On
! behalf of the citizens bid you welcome tn
| this mountain-girt city. 1t is the capital OF
| county celebrated for its mineral wealth
! Thousands of the people of this county daily
| toil IN the mines beneath the snrface of the
/ earth, facing death inmanyfOrmS in their per
! llous explorations. The product of their la.
] 1t IS a county abOunGing in natural scenery
1 which elicitS the admiration of all who be-
/ hoio it-scenery furnishing subjects worthy
of the song of the poet and the highest skill
! OF the painter. And to crown all il is Z
I county which contributes over 500 Intelligent
I men and women to the Grand Army Oi
/ Teachers of the State. You meet in a town
I famed for the excellence of its public schools
the result of the unrequitted labors of those
VINO as directors or teachers have manifested
devotion to the cause which amounts q
enthusiasm-a town whose patriotic citizen.
are always first to hurry to the front in the
1 hour OF danger; the tread of whose either
soldiers was heard marching up the avenue
OF tie National Capital almost as soon as tnt
sound of the guns which battered down the
walls of Sumpter had ceased 20 reyerberatI
"a town whose hospitality, as you will fine
from your own experience, goes hand il
hand with its patriotism.
! On behalf, then, of the citizens I hid yol
welcome TO our county; welcome to Ou
| town welcome to our homes; and, in homo
OF the cause you represent, welcome to ou
hearts