Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-06-20
18TH COMMENCEMENT
Middlebury College Graduates Large Glass
Honorary Degrees Conferred-Dedi
cation of Chemistry Building

been characterized as the most success
tul commencement of many years.
Scores of alumni, some of them gradu-
ates of half century's standing have
returned for the exercises and with the
families and friends of the students
Middlebury has been a busy town all
week.
On Sunday morning at the Congrega-
tional church, President John M.
Thomas delivered the Baccalaureate
sermon before a large congregation of
students and friends.
He said in part | wish to assert
this morning a serious and pressing need
in our own Vermont, task of suffi-
cient size and difficulty to try all our
mettle, and for which the same divine
fire of religious enthusiasm is needed as
has nourished the zeal of others in
giving the gospel to the heather and
redeeming the outcasts of our great
modern cities. Let us attempt to
realize what the decrease of population
the life of the people. 1t means de-
crease of property values and the wip-
ing out of the fruit of years Of toll and
saving. Farms are sold for less than
the cost of the buildings upon them and
men find that after the labor of life
time they are scarcely farther along
than when they began. Buildings fall
into decay or are destroyed in fire, and
are not replaced Young men see no op-
portunity in the town of their birth and
move away to get chance. Merchants
find their trade diminishing and artisans
less demand for their labor A spirit
of encouragement and depression comes
over the people. Churches built for a
population twice as large as the pres
ent, perhaps with some optimism in
their structure, appear almost vacant,
and it is almost impossible to stir the
enthusiasm wherein religious truth
has fitting utterance. School buildings,
which once were crowded have a few
struggling scholars, often taught by
teacher hardly older than the pupils
and without experience or training
The building is neglected, unbearably
hot in one corner and shivering cold in
the rest. The dictionary is a CON
temporary of the oldest resident, and
that is the extent of the library. There
are no maps, except torn map of Yer
mont which has no suggestion of the
contour of the State, but presents the
fourteen counties in red, and yellow,
and green. There are no seats small
enough for the little children, and none
large enough for the older ones, and the
big boys sit on the front benches with
their knees crowded into their chins or
sprawling their feet towards the teach
er's desk, while they recite the pro-
ducts of Guatemala and Peru. The
one room clubhouse is a disgrace to a
civilized community, both in point of
view of hygiene and of morals. The
text books furnished the children are
tattered and torn and often unspeak-
ably decorated.
Yet for such schools and such educa-
tiOn for their children a large proper
ton of the small towns in this State are
paying larger school taxes than Rutland
or Burlington. The highest rate of
taxes for school purposes in our State |
today is not in the cities, hut in the
back mountain towns. The population
is less than it used to be, the variation
of property is less, the timber I'D been
cut off, and the burden of con. nunity
support falls with increasing weight
upon a diminishing number. Doubtless
some measure of blame should fall upon
people who tolerate such schools, but
have good deal of charity for them.
Relatively, they are sacrificing more
than the dwellers in more favored com
munities. If any of US were citizens of
a town of 400 people, which once had
population of 1000, and whose school
districts were constituted on the larger
basis, we would find the problem hard
to meet and we would tend to relax
into helpless lethargy and discourage
ment.
1t is clear as day that the State must
come to the aid of the small towns,
where education is most expensive and
most difficult to render efficient, because
of the scattered population, and whore
the means are most meager. The State !
demands that every child shall go to
school, and is in duty bound therefore
to provide for every child a decent
school. The State demands of every
man the exercise of suffrage, and in its
own protection must furnish the educa-
ton necessary to intelligent use of that
suffrage. What mockery to compel
man to take the Freeman's Oath, and
swear that whenever he gives his vote
or suffrage, touching any matter that