The Raymer enterprise., 1915-09-16

SATURDAYtAY|Nc C0RER STONE
MASONIC Grand LODGE OFFGlATE WITH ANCIENT RITES
MiSTERLY ADDRESS BY HON. JAMES MCCREERY

organization, or longer abide as lusty
and influential member of the old asso.
eiation. what you have done and are
doing here today, in laying the founda.
tions for education and progress, will
remain.
Wherever the American citizen es-
iabishes new settlement and erects
his home castle, whether built of moth
er earth, the wood of the forests, or
from the stone quarries of the noun
tains, his next thot, aye his first thot,
is always for the establishment of the
institutions of liberty, chief of which
are the church and the school.
The common school is essentially a
democratic conception Indigenous to
American soil: the free school is the
guarantee that the inalienable right of
knowledge and untrammelled endeavor
may be enjoyed. as well in the homes
OF self-reliant toll, as in the palaces of
wealth. Most of us here today have no
other degree than that conferred by
the common school of generation ago
and great majority OF our children
must still depend upon the same school
for instruction. Thus the school and
the schoolhouse become the rallying
points OF the neighborhood and bring
together and commingle in one the sep
arate families and weld them into a
community.
Some there are who teach the doc
trine Of absolute individalism and 9TH
ers that OF col e .tivism. 10 the first.
the individual Is all in all: to the other,
the social organization, the community
is every thing. and the individual moth.
ing. Neither of these is right: but
both together reach the truth. The
individual must work out his own sal
walton, Lutsue his own courses, cherish
his own hopes, achieve his own results
but in SO doing he must labor with 9TH
ers and for others. The community
ana the st. are necessary to the real
izatlon of lliuividual life, but the ind-
vldual effort, guided by common ideals,
must create community. state and ma
ton, without which man ia a wanderer
Oh the face Of the earth, without a
home and without country.
The common school is the nursery of
these ideals. The children come TO-
gether both in rivalry and IN harmony
with each other, in the development OF
ideals OF society and the WORKING out
OF Individual Careers. There can pe no
individual career without other bows
and girls, otner men and women to lead
influence or help, and in turn to respond
to leadership, influence and help. The
King must nave kingdom; the citizen
must have country to serve; the pro-
ducer must have the consumer; The
teacner must have the scnooi; and 50
the pupil IN turn must have the teacher
who leads. the patrons who support,
and others with whom they associate
on equal terms, to make the scnool.
koulnson Crusoe on his desert island.
exerted nniseif Tor his man Friday and
his dog, but above all, because ne hop
ed SOME day to lind himself surrounded
Dy larger community, winch he
might serve and perhaps lead ami gov
ern.
Hence, 1t transpired that in our
schools, We should build both broad
and deep. Ii we sow sparingly, We
shall reap sparingly. We think no
cost of care and thot and Daffled hope,
Is too great. Likewise, scarce any pc
cunlary cost in matters OF this kind is
extravagant. We are JUSTIFIED, nay we
are required by an inward coInpulsion,
TO go lu the limit OF our means, IN pro-
ylulng for the education and advance
ment OF our children and IN providing
opportunities for the spiritual and ILL.,
teliectual enlargement. oil our lives.
Thrift and careful husbdndry are
among the nomely and splendid virtues
of humanity, but after ali, are justified
that we may become spendtnritt IN
providing ior the larger necessities of
our lives, and in SO spending, become
rich. True. the almless spehuthrift Is
for the moment fooIishly l-icn, in that
be forgets the future for present graft
ticatlon, but the mlser is always in pov-
erty, always afflicted with imminent
and imagined penury on the one hand,
and the poverty of spirit whlcn receives
no present good or visions OF future
peace ana JOY, out Of the mathematical
abundance ot his possessions.
! know not the cost IN money OF this
adventure. | can well believe that the
cost will prove burden to many, per-
maps TO ali OF you in the years to come,
bur | also know that the expenditure,
however great, and your burden, how.
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