THE ANNUAL MEETING. 151 



" It is not the illiterate classes, by any means, that are most misled and cheated 

 by the demagogues. It is those who can read the newspapers and campaign 

 documents that are most easily accessible to the flatteries, deceptions and cun- 

 ning artifices of wily political manager.-. The illiterate classes are indeed, to 

 no small degree, protected by their very ignorance from the most insidious 

 forms of political imposture. The great mass of the people have a smattering 

 of education and the whole system of demagogical art assumes it and is 

 adapted to it. The common schools teach just enough to turn out 'powder 

 and ball' for demagogues." 



The arguments of this writer are intended to prove that the mass of the 

 people should be taught much more and much better than they now are in the 

 public schools, or they should not be instructed even in the elements of knowl- 

 edge. The conclusion is that the schools should be improved and elevated or 

 they should be destroyed. 



Between these two reformers the public school system will evidently find 

 great difficulty in standing where it now is, and still greater difficulty in 

 attempting to move in either direction. One demands less and the other more. 

 It will be a hard matter to satisfy both. 



These two writers, Mr. Richard Grant White and Mr. Youmans, are not, in 

 themselves, very alarming objects, nor specially to be dreaded. 



But they are representatives of two classes which are already considerably 

 numerous in the country, aud which are apparently increasing. 



Besides these two classes, there is one other, composed mostly of the mem- 

 bers and leaders of one or two religious organizations, which declares that the 

 State has no right to educate, and that all systems of instruction controlled by 

 the State should be at once and forever abolished. The public schools are 

 denounced, not because they fail to teach reading, spelling and practical arith- 

 metic, but because they do or do not inculcate certain articles of faith and cer- 

 tain forms and observances which are supposed to be of vital importance to 

 human well-being. 



Now, whatever we may think of the assertions and arguments of the men 

 whom I have quoted and of others who might be quoted, they are among us 

 and about us. They will speak and write. They will be listened to and read. 

 They will exert an influence which must be felt, and will be felt, to a greater 

 or less extent, in every city, village, and school district. 



Those especially who are, by nature and habit, opposed to all expenditures 

 which call for taxes and taxation, will be very ready to accept these assertions 

 as true, and such arguments as valid, and to make them an excuse, at least, 

 for denouncing aud voting against all appropriations for improving the char- 

 acter of the schools and the condition of the school-houses and grounds. 



How are these men to be met, and how are their statements to be treated? 



These are questions of great practical importance to all friends of the public 

 schools, and to the State and Nation. 



They cannot bo met by mere rhetorical declamation about the value of the 

 common schools as the "people's colleges," as the safeguard of our institu- 

 tions, and as the peculiar glory of our age and our country. 



Their statements cannot be put aside by asseverating that our school system 

 is a "sacred legacy," bequeathed to us by our fathers, to be transmitted by 

 us to our children; nor by repeating the trite maxim that "intelligence and 

 virtue are necessary to the support and perpetuity of republican institutions." 



The truth is that in this period nothing is sacred in the eyes of the so-called 

 "advanced thinkers." No creed, or institution, or custom can claim exemp- 



