Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-05-08
DECLARES OUTLOOK BRIGHT
Child the Raw Material of Which
Humanity Is Made-School
Factory in Which Work
Is Done.

Ut. James f. Messenger. head OF the de-
Partment Of education at the University
Oh vermont, who spoke upon THE Out
nook in Vermont" as follows:
we have been thinking very much of
ourselves of late and we have been stimu-
lated to do so in variety of ways. Just
at present the whole country is looking at
us 1nquirngly, interestedly. sympatheti-
cally and critically. We have been shock
eu by much that has been said about con-
oltions in Vermont. Some of it was said
perhaps IN bad spirit. | suppose the Rossi-
ter report was written more to relieve
the writer than to help Vermont or to por-
tray real conditions. In n very different
splr1t-in most earnest and commend
able desire for improvement-,Super
tendent Barss has told us, to our shame
OF conditi ms in Vermont. l cannot but
think that even he has drawn too general
conclusions from limited data. He tells
us truthfully what he sees, but he sees
mostly the one side which his work re-
quires him to see. Nevertheless there is
much food for thought in what these men
and others say The food is hard to swal-
low and hard to digest. but it should not
give us mental dyspepsia.
We have been told that in the past Yer
mont produced great men. but that they
went away to enrich materially and spirit
nally all Of the other Str es ir the union.
III fares the land, to Fastening ills a prey
Where some grow weak and the rest go
way
NO TIME FOR LAMENTING.
But the first day in the garden of Eden
was the only day in the history of the
world when some one was not raising
cry for the glorious past. Vermont has
produced able men in the past. Many Of
them have left US, to our loss, but let us
not spend our time begrudging the gain
to others Let us rather rejoice in the
service we have rendered and go about
our business and produce more But still
there are those who throw up their hands
and say, 'if we do produce more, they'll
go away too" But that is on the assump-
tion that conditions remain a they were
IN the past quarter Of a century ago
the West was growing rapidly, land was
cheap, industries We're developing, OPP
portunities were abundant. Nermont's re-
sources We're not on the surface People
knew little of what they were and how
70 get them. Now the conditions are
somewhat changed. Lands in the West
have been taken up, positions have been
filled. and while they are still prog
ressing rapidly, it is not so easy
TO get a start there as it was former
~. Vermont, on the other hand, offers
far greater opportunities than it did even
a decade ago. Agricultural experts havo
told how to fertilize the soil with brains
and get results from, our farms. electrical
inventions have made it possible to util-
iZe our water power, demand for our
products has increased, opportunity is at
our doors But the doors are not to be
kicked open by laundering brute force.
They are locked with combination locks
and it requires intelligence to work the
combination To the man who has the
Intellectual acumen to meet the situation,
Vermont offers opportunities equal to any
State. 1t takes more brains, however, to
thrive in Vermont than 1t does in some
pther States. That is admitted but il
anyone is frightened away by it, let him
go.
If this diagnosis Is correct, II II does
take more intelligence to thrive in YER
mont, the remedy is obvious. To enable
Vermont to retain her proper place in the
rank of States, 1t is necessary to provide
an education of a high order. an educa-
bnaton on our doors. Education ought
TO show every boy and girl something
there is to do. Education in Vermont
ought to show every boy and girl what
there is to do in Vermont. 1t should pre-
sent to him the combination to his own
noors.
VERMONT NEEDS BRAINS
Vermont needs brains. Raw material
ran be collected and sold without much
brains, but Vermont is too small a State to
deal in raw material, either human OF
other. The value is in the refined. finish
ed products The most practical econo'
mists we have are the managers OF large
Industries, They watch every corner and
they known Just where the largest returns
ZONE from. Perhaps we can learn some
bling from them which we can apply tc
Dur plan OF education. From one enc
of the land to the other, in nearly every
held of labor. the cry Is for skilled work
men, and the unsklled workman Is every
where regarded as a man of little value
Some time ago | was asked by manu-
Racturer to recommend young man for q
position. He was willing to pay 5000 {
year to the man who could do what N
wanted | did not know man wh'
gould DO II, Dut COulu nave iouIlu mn
ten men who could work for $500 year
why would he rather pay one man s, 90
lhan another $500? He was not Irlshin,
10 reward him for his merits He wanted
10 make money and he believed that tn
returns from the labor of the one woult
be more than ten times the returns from
the other 1t vas merely an investmen
and he wanted to invest his 5000 wher
It would pay best. Skilled labor is o
more value because Its products are o
more value. Labor is measured by II
products.
Raw material is always cheap and !
would be cheaper still, were II not for tn
fact that 1t can be made into something
A diamond would be worth no more thai
a brack If there was no lapidary to polsl
It. With many jewels, II Is impossible T.
Tell their value. until they are cut ant
polished, So it is with the most precou
of all jewels. a little child. His value cal
not be known until he Is formed and pol
tshed, 1t is the business of the lapidar.
20 bring out the best that Is possible in
Jewel He may by starting on wron
lines reduce by one half its possible siz
pnd luster May no unskiled lapidar,
nave the cutting of my Jewels!