The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1908-05-23

He said the walls Of Sparta hung on
the spears Of its youth. and the men
and women of this land of ours today
determine the efficiency of our civili-
z3tion as il vas graded from our pub +.
tic schools. The upper or higher insti-
buttons Of learning are doing little for
| tie genera! public by comparison with
| the results obtained by our public or
- mmon schools, for these are our true
| ins titutions of learning. OF the eight
| teen million school children only two
million are taught in private schools
and the percentage in the latter is
growing smaller year by year. The
| rublic instruction Of our youth is the
hope Of the nation. There is only one
pupil in eight who attends a private
school. and in making this statement
II was i'm no sense a reflection on this
mode Of instruction. but showing the
worth of the public institution.
| Democracy had not yet indicated
| its completeness while the public
school has shown it's worth and po-
tency. In the consideration of govern
ment in all its ramifications good citi-
zenship was only an incident in its
growth and development. He then
showed plainly how perverted was our
process of education, when forty per
cent of our people were engaged in
agricultural pursuits, Yet about all
our education was the opposite of
teaching our people the uses, proper
ties and conditions and appliances to
the soil. Properly speaking four per
cent of our people were engaged in
professional work Of various kinds,
" lille thirty-five per cent were dis
tinctly agricultural. In the state OF
| florida forty four per cent devoted
their lives to agricultural pursuits and
three and half per cent to profess
s;onal, yet in all this preparation for
d life's vocation, there was only one
institution that taught scientific agri-
culture.
In our high schools hundred hours
| a year were devoted to classics and
Lot moment to imparting agricul-
| tural information. He deemed this
kind Of education misnomer or mis-
fit This kind of education went on
/ the assurance that one style of coat
or pants would conform to every form
i'll the land and yet the mere thought
CT it shows it's abnormal absurdity.
He said his years Of experience dem
cnstrated to him that Latin learned
III high school course was almost q
total waste of time. He admitted II
conduced to some mental training
but was not of enough benefit for the
time devoted to the study.
! He laid great emphasis on the fact
that school trustees should make theiI
!, 70 to Of no nj W
He also laid much, stress on the fac
that moral conviction is a prerequi-
site of good citizenship. All educa.
ton that fails to lay this down as 6
maxim and fundamental principle is Z
failure in real results to good citizen
ship. In illustration of this phrase Of
his subject he instanced the lives Of
Aaron Burr and John Marshall. Prob.
ably Burr was the superior Of Mar
shall in nttural requirements, bu
his perverted life uncontrolled by
moral ties and convictions of duty tt
all was a miserable failure, while Mar
shall living in the doctrine of the gol-
den rule lived life Of usefulness ant
power to his country. A strong mora
7 urpose in life ever seeks an enc
worthy of the living. The creates
men Of all ages were born and bred IL
moral purpose.
He said the greatest menace of tn,
present day was the SUPERFICIAL
living on the surface-and here cam'
the greatest task Of the teacher t,
. shape the lives of his pupils. TIL,
speaker did not have much faith il
, preaching, but all power lay in prac
, tice. He didn't wish to rail at wealth
hut there was something RADICAL.
wrong in our land and government
! when in the great city of New York
/, poor woman worked seventeen hours
, day and seven days a week to carr
barely enough to feed seven orphans
while several blocks away a woman
, spent $500 in the adornment of he
pet dog and $4,000 on garment
When our institutions and laws en-
| abled a Carnegie to amass enough
wealth and give it away that wa
, equal to all the wealth Of real estat
and person property in the state o
. Florida, there was something radical
: ~ wrong somewhere.
He took up the immigration ques
] ton. He said one trouble lay wit
! our educated men. They do not d
) their duty as citizens. In the Ian
Y sUage of Kossaath, when he visite
Y this country years ago, who saw at
e glance that people prefer their per
: sonal interests to public duty. He clos
cd his magnificent address by present
f ing the almost perfect man in the per
i son of Robert E. Lee, whose highes
: PERSONAL obligation was duty, VIII