Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1898-02-09
NORMAL SCHOOL
 DEDICATION.
The Completion Of the New Building Celebrated in Due Form
 al Tempe.
4 Magnigcent Address Delivered by Governor M. H. MccOFd on
 the Occasion.

The formal opening of the new
 normal school building at Tempe
 last Friday night was attended with
 considerable pomp and ceremony.
 The members of the normal school
 board made it the occasion for a
 public reception to members of the territorial administration. and a
 special train was run from PheDix,
 and about five hundred people were
 reported present.
 Governor McCord delivered an ad-
 dress, and while lack of space pre-
 vents it's reproduction in full, a
 synopsis is herewith presented. AT
 ter a felIcitous introduction, the
 governor said:
 ''The benefits of education have
 been gradually rising in human estimation from those days of the dark ages when kings could not even
 write their names. There was a period during the gloom of the middle ages when learning dwsrfed
 with fear only found refuge in the cloister cell of the monk; a period when even writing was confined almost exclusively to the clergy; a period when by the expressed terms of the law a man who could write his own name was exempted from the death penalty. The value of this acquisition at those times is well illustrated in the tale told in the Arabian Knights. An unfortu- nate prince had been enchanted into an ape, but on account of his being able to write a beautiful hand, be was promoted to be the Grand ! Vizier to the Sultan. To be able to | write legibly IS a useful accomplish l ment, but that alone would be of comparatively little value; mere | matter of penmanship will enable ! us to convey the thoughts and i'm pressions of others. but it will not ! enable us to have thoughts and i'm pressions of our own.
 That knowledge is power, that | education is a citadel of liberty, | that national glory and prosperity | consist in the cultivation of our faculties, in the elevation of the liberal arts, in the elucidation of l the sciences, in extending and e1- banding the powers of reasoning, are now acknowledged truths. Those | vampires of the mind who derive their sustenanee from ignorance are now known and viewed in their true light; they are the legitimate prey of advanced education and are being l eradicated wherever the advantages of education have sway. As refuI- gent light maintains the same splen- dor when it illuminates a wider space, so knowledge illumines ali with which it comes in contact. Intellectual improvements is the foundation of national greatness, and like the refulgent light enlarges and extends itself, and contrary to the general laws of nature, the wider it spreads, the stronger it grows, and the more useful it be- comes.
 "In 8 government like ours, where the will of the majority governs, and where that will is expressed through the ballot box, and where permanency and stability depend upon the degree of intelligence with which the ballot is yielded and the laws are made and executed, the importance of a general diffusion of knowledge among the people can readily be appreciated. Rome was impregnable SO long as her populace was influenced by honest purposes and patriotic motives, but when jealous bickerings, debauchery and corruption became rife and the in telligence of her citizens began to retrogade, she began to droop and decline, and as 8 government per ished from the earth. So it may be with us, for our government more than any other on the face of the . earth, is founded in the virtue and intelligence of the people.
 "lt has been said, and with truth, that the common schools of our are the bulwarks of our liberties. Popular education is i'm portant in the sense that it tries to , inOculate the principles which guar antee to every one the grand and unconditiona l inheritance of free dom.
 "To the young men and the young women who are attending this school for the purpose of becoming teach CTS, want to say: We have a right to demand something of you. We : are furnishing you the facilities to obtain these benefits free of charge. The people are paying the expense of building and maintaining thls in- stitution without murmur or com- plaint. When you have finished your course here and go out as ! to impart the knowl- edge you have here gained and [ diffuse it among the rising genera ton we have right to expect and demand that you give to the people in return your best efforts to prepare and give to the state as many good as 1t may be your fortune to have an opportunity to instruct, or at least that you will do your part to accomplise that end. hope and trust that there is not a single student in this school who is striv- ing to fit himself or herself for the honorable and noble calling of tescing that does not fully appre- ciate the advantages he or she here enjoys and 1 sincerely hope they will not fail to improve it to the fullest extent"
 I
 Saturday, Feb. 5.-On motion, the n q