The Portland daily press., 1892-07-06

PRESIDENT II. II. COOK.
larger gathering of intellectual men
and women than any other organization.
Twenty years ago it was small and OBJ
scure body. For a few years past its
meetings have been attended by from
10000 to $4,000 people, and this year it
is expected that at least 10000 will
gather at Saratoga.
The progress Of education in the
newer sections may be illustrated by
taking two or three sample states. AS
late as 1850 Indiana had no general
school system. The percentage of ma
tive illiteracy was such as to make the
state byword, and in few sections
the condition was such as is described
and not very greatly exaggerated in
DR.. Eggleston's novels. In 1860 the
school system of that state was among
the best in the world. A few years
later it received the honor of being rec
commended as a model for the newer
states, and by the last census the per-
centage of illiteracy is shown to be far
below that of some of the Oldest and
most progressive states.
Massachusetts and Indiana had in
1880 nearly the same population, yet
Indiana had more newspapers and
periodicals, 5000 more public schools
and $4,000 more in daily attendance OF
persons over ten years who could not
read, Indiana had 4.S per cent. and Mas
sachusetts So, which was explained at
the time by the fact of the latter state
containing so many newly arrived for
eigners. Now. however, Indiana statis-
ticians claim that If her foreign born and
recent immigrants from the south be
deducted, the state really has no native
illiterates. incidentally it may be added
that the most widely read novelist, the
most popular dialect poet and the his
torian whose works have the largest
natives and residents of Indiana-Lew
Wallace, Whitcomb Riley and Professor
Ridpath.
Men yet in middle life can remember
when the Universities of Michigan and
Wisconsin were feeble and struggling
institutions, and now Kansas, Nebraska
and the Dakotas have far more flourish
ing institutions than Michigan had in
1860. California is organizing one on a
scale which excites the wonder of the
world. All the new states have better
school systems than any state had forty
years ago, and even Utah is able to
boast Of some native born scholars. The
growth of associations was slower, but
within the past ten years it has been
phenomenal.
The president Of the National Educa-
tional association, which meets at Sara
toga on July 10, is DR.. E. H. Cook, at
present superintendent of the public
schools of Flushing, N. Y. He is a
graduate of Bowdoin college, one of the
editors of The Educational Review, and
has been president of the state associa-
tons of both New York and New Jer-
eey, besides holding other places of
trust and honor in his profession. He
thinks the past year has witnessed great
er progress in American educational
fields than any previous year, and he
and his associates have arranged the
work for this years convention with
special reference to the vital issues of
the times.
The complete figures of the census of
1890 are not yet available, but there is
one department in which the facts al
ready given out are such as to excite
general establishment and in devout
minds an emotion of prayerful graft
tude. Only thirty years ago it was
misdemeanor in many southern states
to teach a colored person to read; today
there are over 100000 colored children
in the common schools of the south, and
several thousand colored students in
select schools and colleges, and the sin
gle state of Georgia has within ten years
educated more colored people than all
the Christian missions in all the world
had done in all previous time.
These facts and many more of equal
interest will be discussed at the meeting
Of the Southern Educational association
at Atlanta ON July Is. The American
Institute of Instruction will meet at
Narragansett Pier, R. L., on the same
day and many other educational bodies
will follow soon after. The last named
institute is said to be the Oldest organ
ization of teachers in the world, and is
made up chiefly of New England edu-
Gators.