The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1911-04-14

/
Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Frankfort, Ky.
the state, asking them to attend
| conference at the Commercial club.
That conference met on the 31st day
of December last. An organization
was formed, an executive committee
appointed, and it was decided to hold
state wide convention on this date,
in the interest of the rural school
movement
"The slogan, More Schools and
Better Schools" means to the state
more factories and better factories,
more railroads and better railroads,
ton lines, more agriculture and bet
ter agriculture, more citizens and bet
ter citizenship-in brief. school de-
velopment means state development"
Prof. Regenstein then introduced
Captain Brinton B. Davis, president
of the Louisville Commercial club,
who said:
MIR. Chairman and Fellow Citizens of
Kentucky: 1t is a noble cause that
brings us here today. 1t Is a cause as
worthy and great as any for which or
ganized society has ever fought We
see around us some of its standard
bearers. Men who have truly conse-
Grated their lives to the uplift of hui
manity devoting their time, energy and
talents to the education of the growing
generations The Louisville Commercial
Club extends TO those gentlemen a cor
dial welcome, doubly so because we are
bound by a common interest in the fur
therance of a project for which they
are giving their all, and to which we
fain would contribute our mites.
IL is our duty to so exercise our stew
ardships that those who follow may in
herit a treasure enriched through the
intelligent manner of its application.
We should take for example not the
servant who buried his own talent In the
ground that he might return 1t intact
to his master, but he who returned ten
talents for the five placed in his trust.
/ believe l am voicing an opinion in
which you will readily concur when
1 say that the greatest of our natural re-
sources Is the human mind. Without that
great gift, all others were useless in
deed. There are people ON this globe
who have been as richly endowed as we
owing to their ignorance allowed field
and forest and mine to lie unproductive
and unworked. In other words, they
have not sufficient intelligence to appro-
pirate their resources.
This great natural resource-the hui
man mind-the greatest OF earthly bles-
sings Is then our. most cherished heri-
tage and we should not only preserve
II intact. but put 1t out at every usury
that II may return talent for talent. IL
we AFFORD our children greater advan-
tages than We enjoyed, we shall have
the conscientious conviction OF having
performed our duty.
The foremost need OF an educational
system is to keep abreast OF the times
What was good enough for the fifteenth
century was not good enough for the
sixteenth century and the demands OF
the twentieth century cannot be met by
the pottage OF the nineteenth century.
The current OF life is ever onward. but
what shall we say II we cut of the sup
ply at the rivers source.
II We fail to meet the demand OF tho
times; II we do not interpret the call
OF duty Alright. we shall build around
this prosperous empire Chinese wall.
within which will grow the rank weeds
OF ignorance and idleness and Woe and
superstition. barring all the vital i'm
pulses that should act as spring showers
on fertile fields.
Show me the wealth OF Kentucky. You
will point not to the wide fields or the
brushing streams, or the waving for
ests. or the mountains with their treas
ures; nay. you will point TO the human
beings who cultivate the fields, WELD thel
ak and saw In the forest. and use pick
and shovel and dynamite TO open the
mountain caves. They constitute the
grand asset OF the State Of Kentucky;
nay they are the State
And what OF those who take up the
task when we relinquish II; those chit
dren who now 80 TO school 70 have their