152 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



guidance of a master in the art of leading out the mind than 

 years of desultory and purely perfunctory habits of passing over 

 studies. 



I want you to observe that out in the rural districts, among 

 the people that have made this nation what it is in its institu- 

 tional life and spirit, if an education is acquired it must be 

 through private expense at the high schools and academies of 

 other towns. In these centers of wealth and culture the boy 

 has spread before him a magnificent opportunity for education, 

 equal to the old-time college education, while the sons and 

 daughters of those who have made the country what it is must 

 decline into a state of ignorance and that of European peasantry, 

 and must occupy a subordinate place just as sure as intellect has 

 supremacy over muscle. I think it was the old Chinese philoso- 

 pher Mencius who, three thousand or more years ago, said, 

 ''Those who labor with their minds govern those who labor with 

 their hands and those who labor with their hands are governed 

 by those who labor with their minds." As certain as this is one 

 of the fixed truths of the rolling centuries, just so certain the 

 country boys of New England who have made this country 

 what it is will be governed by those who are becoming educated 

 in our city graded schools unless they at their own expense 

 obtain, or somebody provides for them, the education which is 

 their right. 



I am here tonight to protest against the existing state of 

 affairs. I say here directly that it is the business of the state to 

 give every child in the state an equal opportunity for education. 

 I proclaim it in the name of humanity. Every citizen is taxed 

 to support the school, and the feeling now is that, intellect being 

 the measure of the power of men and the largest capital possible 

 to put into the hands of a young man, it is the duty of the state to 

 see that every child of the state is fitted to run the race of life ; 

 to put him squarely on his feet and by equitable laws give him a 

 free and fair field in which to run, and say to him, ''Now, young 

 man, run the race ! If you fail the fault is your own." I believe 

 it to be the duty of the state, as I now understand the matter, to 

 provide for every child within its borders that best of all patri- 

 mony, the opportunity to obtain a good education that will fit 

 him for the struggle of life. 



yiore than that, the state's highest interest is involved in the 

 question of the education of every citizen. We have come to 



