Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-22

endeavors. and carry them forward tn
umphantly. Some as teachers, and all as
supporters, will make the second Ger fury of
the District schools more remarkable than
the first, and intensity that loyalty to our
system of free education which Is the
most conspicuous trait In our community
life. In whatever they do we believe
that they will show that they have learned
more than books and laboratories can
teach, the higher learning of the spirit
which makes honorable living and gives
independence and contentedness. Very few
can be rich or famous. Very few can win
any form of worldly success, but all can
have what money cannot buy-the true
life of the culture which Is the good taste
of the mind and the conscience Which is
the good taste of the soul We salute them
with joy and hope, as they come Forward
to take our places"
Mr.. Gould's Talk to Graduates.
Mr.. Macfarland then introduced Judge
Ashley NJ Gould of the Supreme Court OF
the District of Columbia as "a good frleho
of the schools-because he has five repre-
sentatives attending them at the present
time" Judge Gould made the address OF
the evening. In opening. he explained that
Re had not known why he had been asked
by the board of education to speak, until
Mr.. Macfarland mentioned the five repre-
sentatives of the Gould family attending
the schools. This is the method adopted
he said amid laughter. Continuing, Judge
Gould said:
This splendid audience, met to common
crate the close of the work of another
year of the public school system of the
capital of the nation, brings other thoughts
to my mind.
More than seventy years ago great
English stat esnlGn visited this country and,
after a careful survey of its conditions,
said: THE university of education in the
United States is more calculated than all
other causes to accelerate their progress
toward superior rank OF civilization and
power. If knowledge be power, and
if education gives knowledge, then must
tile Americans inevitably become the most
powerful people in the world. The very
genius OF American legislation is opposed
to Ignorance y the people as the most
deadly enemy or good government Three
years ago another Englishman. wise ana
sagacioCs observer. wrote book In which
Ec endeavored to account for the world-su-
premacy of this nation: and, quoting a
prophecy of Richard Golden, he gave as
the first reason for the ascendancy of the
United States the superior education of its
people.
Nor is it alone In the realm of the mate
rial that American influence is dominant.
The most vital question which today con-
fronts the nations of the world is that of
interna tional arbitration. and if the time
shall ev.r come when the war drum throbs
no longer, and the battle flags are furled,
1t will be under the leadership and through
the influence of this country.
While l have not called your attention
to the marvellous development of our coun-
try for the purpose of vainglory or to in
flame your sef-esteem even your pa
triotism, l have no apology if that shall
be the result. For. | agree with Tolstof,
that the only nations which ever come
to be called historic those which rec
ognize the Importance and worth of their
own institutions My object has been to
consider the important part which our
system of public education has played in
this most interesting and remarkable his
tory. And no feature of that history is
more interesting than the fact that our
growth in national power and resources
has been coinci6ent with the increased ed
uca tional facilities afforded the people.
Army Without Banners.
I'm the heat of political campaign we
sometimes hear that if this or that policy
prevails liberties are in danger; the
specter of Imperialism is held before our
startled eyes. or we are told that the trusts
are about to bind us hand ard foot; or that
the disparity in the distribution of wealth
is about to reproduce on American soil the
bloody scenes of the French revolution.
But there is an army without weapons and
without banners, led by leaders who wear
no epaulets who seek not glory, before
whose resistless march all such phantoms
fade and flee away. 1t is made up of these
ever-increasing millions, of those who are
being qualified for self-government by our
system of public education, who stand
guard over the life, liberty and property of
the citizen.
The republics need of the enlightened
and patriotic aid OF her scholars is greater
today than at any other time in her his
changes, the extension and development