The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-10-08
Founders DaY.

OctODef OF eacn year, IS Ine "reO
letter day" of the Institute. This
year the observance of the day
should be particularly gratifying to
both Mr.. Tome and the public who
are beneficiaries of the Institute.
The program was short and so well
arranged that all tediousness was
avoided and every step interesting,
while the browning object was OBJ
tanned, that of presenting the most
salient points of the Institute and
purpose of its founder, which is
training the mind of the coming
generation to analytic thought by
the process of the newer education.
The performance of the classes
presented the work of the school in
perspective to eye and ear of the
audience assembled to witness the
ceremonies, while the learned men
secured to deliver addresses laid
before the minds of the audience
the soul and spirit of the institu-
ton, the influence it was to, and
will have in moulding the future
where its lamps are carried by the
boys and girls, future men and
women, now going through its
curriculum.
Each speaker presented the sub
ject from a standpoint, or rather
addressed himself to part of the
whole, separate and distinct from
the others. Not the least, if not
the most important phase of the
subject under review was the grand,
triumphal march of the age of ma
chinery, and science applied to the
arts. The Harvesting the latent
forces of the infinite by the hand
of man to accumulate wealth for
the use and enjoyment of the
human family. This task was
assigned to Hon. VIM. T. Harris,
U. S. Commissioner of Education.
He told how this country had adj
vanced in wealth by leaps and
bounds, naming the accumulatiOns
in periods. The increase has been
geometrical under the age of steam,
electricity and mechanical inven-
ton. The Professor particularly
admired the concentration of wealth
and by that concentration the null
tipled power to create wealth by
those institutions which are best
known to the public by the epithet
of "trusts." The Standard Oil
trust had challenged the special ad
miration of the Commissioner of
Education. The great enterprise
and organizing force developed by
the controlling minds of that cor
poration challenged the admiration
of Mr.. Harris. He told his audience
that sixty billions of wealth had
been created in this country, mostly
in the short space of the last two
decades. And while admiring the
force of mind under our higher ed
ucation which had led up to these
vast accumulations, he entirely ne
elected to show the reverse of the
picture.
He did not mention the fact that
half or more of that wealth was in
the possession of 100000 people,
leaving a remainder to be very I'M
divided amongst theseventy
odd millions of people. Mr.. Harris
did not so much as whisper that in
the process of these vast accumu-
lations forty billions of debt had
been piled on the laboring classes,
laborers with brain and Drawn,
who were taxed to pay in interest
to the lucky holders of this debt,
nearly all that their toll in the
future will create, and that this
60 billions of wealth and grandeur,
and its accompanying forty billions
of debt are dragging down the great
human masses, which are Gods
wealth to administer to the holders
of mans wealth, and that millions
on millions of people like the Son
of man haven't where to lay their
head.
1t was unfair in Mr.. Harris while
pointing out and presenting the
power and splendor of the accom-
plishments of modern education to
the young minds before him, not to
also point to them the colossal dan
ger, that stalked, grim specter,
close in its rear, and which danger
they must face on their very
threshold of life when they leave
the school room door.
Had the Professor told his young
audience the methods used by the
Standard Oil Company to reduce
the price of oil to seven cents a
gallon, the broken hearts, ruined
fortunes, the golgotha that marks
the frightful trail of ruin of that
his young audience
would have felt a thrill of horror
creeping over them, rather than
one of triumph and exaltation OF
the conquest of mind over matter
as exemplified by the history of the
Oil trust and similar in
all of which have been
dragged to the light and are readily