The Topeka state journal., 1901-12-26

quiet and after responses to two en-
cores, Arvin S. Olin, professor of peda-
gogy in the state university. Introduced
President J. N. Wilkinson, of the state
normal at Emporia, who gave the in
vocation.
Governor w. E. Stanley then well
900 members of that profession Of the
state Forty years ago., said he,
when the people came out from the
east and sought to establish state with
the rights of freedom as the corner
stone they did not forget the interests
of education, but they laid the founda-
ton of our school system which has
since been our glory and pride. And
now our state makes a showing of a less
degree of illiteracy than any in the
union. I take it that this is because in
tious class of teachers which raise high
our standards.
I'VE have much upon which to con-
gratulate ourselves. The education of
the last century has been to make our
boys and girls strong intellectually The
education of the century upon which we
are now entering must be to discipline
the heart as well as the intellect The
church and school house are conspiring
to give us a better type of manhood
and womanhood. We must look to the
twelve thousand teachers of Kansas to
be the forerunners in developing the
ship. 1t is in your power, teachers, to
give the best citizenship. We look to
you to develop the manhood and wo-
manhood of the state in which old John
Brown dropped the sparks that never
went out until they blazed up in a flame
which forever annihilated human Sla-
very. The church, home and the splen-
did fraternal orders are doing their part,
but to you more than any others we
look to do your part
G. A. Strong, of Ellis, gave the re-
SpOnSe on the part of the visiting teach
ers. Among other things he alluded to
the national tragedy of the present year,
saying: No such teaching resulted
in that crime came from Kansas The
teachers and citizens are a unit that
they will Danish such thoughts from
the minds of the American people. We
will teach honor, duty, patriotism and
loyalty to the laws of the land And I
say to the governor that if he wants an
army to put down anarchy every teach
will be ready to respond to the CALL,
After a vocal solo by Mrs. John Klein
hans, William M. Sinclair, of FL Dorado,
president of the association. gave the
annual address, He said:
PRESIDENTS ANNUAL ADDRESS.
There is no doubt in my mind that
the American passion for wealth is the
source of very many of our social ills,
and is destined to become much great
er one unless checked. Some one has
said: 1t is the black plague of our ma
tional and social life; yes, even of our
individual life. 1t consumes all our
lofty ideals and makes gold our God.
Education which once had ideals loftier
commercial basis
Our time honored and revered in
stitutions of learning, degrees from
which have been held as the highest
prizes within the reach of scholarship
and culture, have seemingly so far de-
parted from their ancient dignity and
worth as to be ready to beStow their in
estimate rank for a mess of pottage.
The times will indeed have changed
when the millionaire and doctor of laws
means the same thing. Money can
10 80.
institutions of learning are more or less
Influenced by the money-getting mania;
from university down to district school
Through it Rockefeller becomes greater
than Shakespeare, and Schwab than
LOngfellow. Our industrial schools are
peculiarly liable to suffer from the ILL
advised acts of legislatures and regents
who would exalt technical skill and
minimize liberal culture and scholar
ship They forget that it is not neces-
sarily the function of the industrial
school to make men m ore Skillful in the
trades but to add to skill, knowledge,
thereby elevating the mechanic and en-
nobling his calling. Invention and en-
terprise have multiplied and perfected
the implements of all trades and pro-
fessionS to an extent far beyond that to
which the workman himself has attain
ed We do not need so much to en-
phaSize the plOw as the plOWman: it is
not the gun that gives effectiveness to
the army SO much as the man behind
it; it is not she ballot that is to bring
perpetulty anu honor 10 our lnslltullOhS
so much the voter who is to cast it.
Another evil growing out of this ed
ucationa1 commercialisn is the losing
of ideals. What has become of the
great ideals of art? Where are the
Raphaels and Angeles? Pictures are
made rapidly now and stone is turned
into statuary in a hurry that both may
be converted into money. The artist
has been seized with the fever of our
passion for wealth, and instead of try
ing to accomplish great things in art is
striving to put into the market the
greatest amount of work possible and is
thereby changed from the artist to the
artisan Literature too has suffered,
and our men and women of letters now
turn out books by the CARLOAD The
man who spent seven years a single
poem would be voted very slow in our
day when poems of the length of his
may be written before breakfast. What
If that poem does still live and give evil
dence that it is immortal? What If a