SEVENTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 623 



section of the country either their equal or superior. On racing stock I 

 am not well posted; but I do know that when it comes to buying a good 

 roadster for family use — one you know that has good blood, is gentle, well 

 broke, and cannot be dusted in the face by every other team on the road — 

 they are all so superior in quality, and in price, that a poor man begins to 

 think he had better walk, or get a bicycle. We gather here also the best 

 products of our farms, our dairies, our shops, our stores, and the choicest 

 handiwork of our fair women. We arrange them in attractive display in 

 our spacious pavilion. We offer prizes for the very best. We say to the 

 world, come and see how well we can do. Wouldn't you like to live in 

 such a country, among such a people? In inquiring for points for this 

 address, I found one of our good ladies who is greatly interested in the 

 success of our fair, and who contributes largely to it, very much dissatis- 

 fied with the cutting down of the premium list at the pavilion. If she is 

 right, and there are, I find, plenty who agree with her, this ought to be 

 augmented rather than diminished. It ought to fill this spacious build- 

 ing for the exhibition of our products after the most artistic and attractive 

 fashion, and then crowd it with the most and the best in every department 

 of our industries. I am fully persuaded that the time has come when we 

 must make our exhibitions a more prominent feature, or fall behind in our 

 competition with other parts of our State for our full share of the general 

 prosperity. 



You and I have also learned long ago, Mr. President, that it will not do 

 to even seem to discourage or underrate the work done by our good ladies 

 in any department of life. To their taste, skill, and untiring energies our 

 district fairs have owed much of their success, and I bespeak for them the 

 fullest encouragement in the exhibition of their handiwork. 



3. Another essential of a good country is good schools. The school is 

 another pioneer of modern civilization. California ranks high in her pub- 

 lic school system. She can justly be very proud of it. Its standard is 

 exceptionally high. It pays good wages to its teachers. It grows and 

 trains these largely out of the ranks of its own scholars. We can boldly 

 say to every parent contemplating a home with us: "We can furnish you 

 a first class common school education for your children." We can offer 

 also a university course that is unexcelled. If we lack in anything in the 

 public school system, as I am acquainted with it, it is an academical link 

 between the common school and the university. Some of the older States 

 excel us in this respect. We should copy their example, and in the public 

 schools of at least every county seat have a department that would clas- 

 sically and scientifically fit pupils for the sophomore class of any college 

 in the land. I trust the day is not far distant when this defect will be 

 remedied. As far as we have gone, our public schools are of the best, and 

 we are not ashamed to advertise them as such. Nor can we afford to 

 underrate them as a prime essential of a good country. 



Their exhibit at the late meeting of the National Educational Associa- 

 tion was most creditable, and I am sorry it is not before the public in this 

 pavilion, as it was lately during our County Teachers' Institute. It is only 

 one of a number of omissions that our people should try to have corrected 

 at our future exhibitions. 



4. Another essential of a good country is good morals. You may think 

 it is within my province to treat this point from a religious aspect only. I 

 am accustomed in my pulpit to treat it from a business viewpoint as well. 

 Do good morals make better citizens, more wealth, greater prosperity, and 

 in general add to the attractions and goaheaditiveness of a community ? 

 Is it to its advantage that virtue should be stimulated and vice discour- 



