The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-19
AMBASSADORS TALK
REID'S COMMENTATOR OF
JOHN BRIGHT.
AS a Result of the Speech July 4th
Will Be a Half Holiday in
Welsh School.

aACA 1Ha tAA1 Aa(t tAi1N AAC 0RoG1h u ALI
bassador Whitelaw Reid at the formal
opening of the new intermediate school
at L~landudho, Wales, dedicated to the
memory of the late John Bright was
one of the most pleasant contributions
to the ceremonies incidental to the &C.
casion. The ambassador was highly
honored, and because of the fact that
he had accepted the invitation to be
present at the opening the governors of
the school declared that the Fourth of
July at the school should forever be
designated as a half-holiday. Copies
of the speech have been bound in
pamphlet form n some have been
sent to this country. A of
the speech follows:
THE work that you are i~naugurating
today looks at once backwards and for
wards-it blends grateful appreciation
for the past with the best provision in
your power for the future. BY a happy
thought you have converted your me-
mortal for a great public servant into a
nursery for efficiency and good citizen
ship in the rising generations.
I'm consequence, a name which has
hitherto stood only for a brilliant and
useful public career, long since
ended. will stand henceforth through
out this beautiful and historic Welsh
country for an open door also to all in
whom you can awaken the ambition
and develop the ability to initiate or
even to emulate hat career, and John
Bright will be thought of in this region
which he loved. merely for the work he
did for a generation hat is gone, but
as an eve present, ever active inspira-
ton to those who are coming forward
from your younger ranks to solve the
new problems of a new time. If only
you can teach them here in this John
Bright School to approach these new
problems with the old honesty, the old
conscience and the old courage that
have made the name memorable in
your national annals, then are you,
within your sphere, and to the limits of
your influence In very deed taking bond
of fate.
ut is not for me, the representative
of another country-another, but not an
alien country, as you, sir, have kindly
indicated-to venture on disputed points
concerning your public men. But so far
as l have ever heard, there is no dis
pute among friends or foes about the
character of John Bright. In fact, n
remark once addressed to one of his
colleagues always seems admirably
fitted to Mr.. Bright himself: We be-
lieve in no mans infallibility, but 1t is
restful to be sure of one nan integ-
rity.' What better guarantee can you
get for your community or for your
country than youth trained up in that
spirit and under the stimulus of such
an example?"
The speaker said that it was right
that the name of John Bright should be
cherished in Llandudno, for in his life
time 1t was a favorite resort for him
when he became broken in health after
the storm and stress of public life, on
two occasions, in 1858 n 1870.
He said that 1t was right that the
memorial should take the form of the
school for the wider development of
secondary education, which he greatly
favored.
Referring to an intimation that he
had received to the effect hat some
discussion of the American system of
education was expected of him, AM
bassador Reid cited several points
about the practical turn of American
education.
1--WE did not lose sight of the great
truth that the ultimate object of the
best education is now, and ever must
be, not so much to teach facts, or even
ideas, as to make character. But the
circumstances of our people rendered
it essential, for the most of our youth,
before or at the same time that we
taught them to make character, we
should teach them to make a living.
Mine men out of ten in this au-
dience, or in any audience in Great
Britain, if asked to name the greatest
two leaders in all American history,
would answer without hesitation
George Washington and Abraham Lin
coin. Both looked to education as a
vital necessity for a free people. But
the different points of view from
which they regarded it bear significant
testimony to the popular uplift in the
republic as it trod its toilsome way
from the Revolutionary War to the
Civil War"
The speaker then went on to tell of A
provision in the last will and testament
of Washington, who tried to provide for
a national university where "the youths
of fortune and talents might be sent
from all parts of the country, for the
completion of their education in all the
branches of polite literature, in the arts
and sciences and in the principles of
politics and good government"
He said, too. that Lincoln, in the
darkest days of the Civil War, had
placed his name to laws making UNI
~precedented appropriations for duc
tional purposes-secondary education.
He described what progress had come
since the Inauguration of this educa-
ton. Agricultural chemistry. most
other forms of modern misunderstanding
science, mining, engineering, civil en-
cheering, mechanical and electrical en-
cheering, all had come because of the
solid foundation laid in the secondary
schools in mathematics, physics and
mechanical drawing.
He did not claim for America origi-
nality in this plan, stating that over
two centuries ago the Marquis of
Worcester had suggested it.
He then went on to explain how our
school system was supported, and said
that legislators and taxpayers allowed
school appropriations with less grudge
than any other expense that must be
incurred, citing as instances the names
of Andrew Carnegie and John d. Rock
efeller as men who had individually
given $40, 900, 900, and to Leland Stan
ford. who gave practically his entire
estate of $780, 0 900 to found the uni