The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-09-05

Boys, girls, do you realize what
wonderful opportunities the present
age, with generous hands, holds out
to you? Do you ever think of the
wonderful achievements in industry,
the arts, professions, science, 6iscoy-
cries, that have been made in the last
half century-even in the last decade
the fruits of concentrated, analyt-
ical thought? To all of these you are
heirs.
What are you going to do with
them? Are you going to accept them
as gift of the gods, as some mirac-
ulous transformation of the elements
and laws of nature, with which hI-
man thought and endeavor and striv-
ing after knowledge have had no part,
and sit down in listless content with
no thought of higher endeavor? Or,
are you going to prepare yourselves to
build on the foundation whicn others
have laid for you?
Never in any age had the boys and
girls such full and free opportunities
to discipline and store their minds
with the knowledge and power to
think rightly and achieve as they have
today. One-third of the States reve-
nue. is set apart to furnish you the
means of education, and the wealth Of
the cities and school districts is taxed
to supplement this means. Fifty
years ago the public school system as
we know it today was in a compara-
lively embryonic state. The private
school, of which only the children Of
the well-to-do could avail themselves,
was the principal provision for higher
education and advancement. All that
is changed, and our free public school
system is fixed and proved in8titu-
tion, with district, ward and high
schools, articulating with State Uni
versities, of which every boy and girl
may avail him or herself.
In this republic of ours, where no
caste or accident of birth handicaps
the youth of studious habits, deter
mination, ambition and self-reliance,
some of our most foremost statesmen
and scholars have risen from humble
parentage and poverty, and they are
held up to the youth of our land as
examples worthy of emulation, and so
they are, but they are exceptions to
the rule. l have not the statistics be-
fore me, but it is estimated that above
ninety per cent of our greatest states
men, scholars, scientists and writer's Of
note, from the institutions of our gov
ernment down to the present day,
have been men and women of college
trained and disciplined minds, who
have been taught to concentrate
thought and action in their every un-
dertaking.
This fact ought to stimulate and
thrill every boy and girl in our land
and cause them to appreciate the ad-
vantages of our universal system Of
free education, Our public schools
are now opening up all over the coun-
| ty for the 1920 scholastic year. Are
you entering upon your school duties
with full realization of the oppor-
runities which are yours--opportuni
ties and advantages greater and more
far-reaching than any ever enjoyed by
your parents? Nothing worth having
or attaining is ever achieved without
purpose, labor and persistent deter
mination, and If you would achieve
lyou must study and apply yourselves.
Are you satisfied with a mediocre,
hum-drum existence, with no higher
ideal than the enjoyment Of feeting
pleasures as your days go Ky? Is
there not vision in your mind of q
betterment Of your condition in which
you may make your life useful when
manhood or womanhood overtakes
lyou? It is well to know that the cas-
ties in the air which you build for