The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1892-12-17
SUPERINTENDENT WoLFE's LECTURE.

Those of our citiZens-and this embra-
ces n much larger proportion than it
ought to-who did not hear Prof. Wolfe's
lecture at the courthouse Saturday night
missed a treat.
Mr.. Wolfe began his lecture by saying
that it was to be a discussion whether the
| Missouri Institute law is a blessing or a
curse. He defended the law in an eloquent
and vigorous style, saying that it meant
progress for our teachers andprogress for
our children.
GAS thou sowest so shalt8hoarfeap,,,, he
said was the enunciation of. great Law
of compensation. Thfs law should ~
employed in our great educeticnalsHSss
The teacher must invest-he must invest
at whatever cost in such material as would
fit him Tor his great duty. The state de-
handed of the man who practices law thai
he shall be qualified. 1t demands that the
man or woman who practices medicine
shall be fitted by study and education for
tha<AAty. 1t now has come tothat stage in
its progress. to a higher plane of education
and intelligence which demands that the
men and women who teach in our public
| BCuOOIS bIull DC PlCDabCt thop "oih'
This is the vital principle OF the much
abused institute law, and that principle
he would defend to the last.
There is nothing of paramount import
ance to that of the right education of our
children. This cannot be entrusted, and
should not, be, to incompetents. The In
stitute law was not enacted for the con
~zko.A o.1 30 rirhf II hrinua tho min
formed in contact with the informed and
experienced, and aids them to n practical
acquisition OF knowledge necessary to
their own success and the welfare of the
schools.
Missouri he said could not afford now to
turn back. The whole world vas pro-
crossing, and Missouri must not become a
laggard. All nature was progressing. He
believed hat every hour witnessed the
birth of a new world put OF cosmic dust,
which, advancing from chaos to nebula,
and from that to that stage which our
earth knew when God said ''let us make
man in our own image" Other worlds
were passing away, and each hour.per-
haps witnessed one whose fire had burned
out turning + hearth
| stone of the universe. But those ashes
are not lost. They go into natures great
laboratory and are then consigned to other
uses.
We must notego back. We must 60
forward, N no state progresses whose
educational system is a failure.
He criticised the old method of exami-
nation. Hesaidthat some popular fellow
who had more c%leverness than compe-
tency, would secure the nomination for
school commissioner, be elected, because a
good fellow, and as he received q fee for
every certificate, and no fee unless a GER
tificate were issued, he madelit a point to
always strain something in favor of issu-
ing one. Sometimes, he said, the only
qualification a candidate had was that he
was a cripple and needed the place. Then
the abuse of the system became scanda-
lous. 10 redeem Missouri from these
abuses, to advance the system towards a
condition of the highest usefulness, the
present law was enacted. When fully I'M
derstood by the people, and some OF the
fruits OF the new law were partaken of,
he believed it would be firmly planted
in popular favor, and that the de-
mand would be that it be made still
stronger than 1t Is now. Professor Wolfe
was roundly %applauded at the close of his
remarks.