STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 23 



nearly one-fourth of that great auditorium will be seated with 

 teachers who are teaching in country schools. And I want to 

 say to you, my friends, that we are not going to have the kind 

 of educational system that we ought to have until every one 

 of those seated in those sections shall be trained for the kind 

 of teaching that the country school needs, and we are not going 

 to have that kind of teaching until we people who are interested 

 in rural education shall demand of our teachers in rural schools 

 superior qualifications, and shall be prepared to pay for those 

 qualifications. There are two great needs of our country schools 

 today. I realize that the country school is the basis of the whole 

 system, and there is little use to talk about scientific agri- 

 culture, or agricultural teachings in the schools, or any of the 

 rest of it unless you have a good country school at the 

 basis of the whole, and the people who live in the country in 

 Maine ought to place emphasis on a good country school. And 

 so I say it is the duty of the people of the State, not only those 

 who live in the country but those who live in the cities and 

 villages as well, to insist thaf these teachers who are to teach 

 in the one-room country schools shall be well trained, shall be 

 qualified for their places, and that they shall be paid so well 

 that we shall be able to keep them there. I found the other 

 day in looking over the figures that of our entire teaching force 

 last year less than half stayed in the same schools for one year. 

 And those are figures that I didn't like to read, and they are 

 figures that I don't like to give you, because I am not proud of 

 them, but they are figures that I think I ought to give you, be- 

 cause I believe that the boys and girls of this State are entitled 

 to good teaching, and I feel that they are entitled to permanent 

 teaching. And I shall not be ready to say that Alaine has an 

 altogether good system simply because it has a good school sys- 

 tem in cities and larger towns, or larger villages, or wealthy 

 places — I shall not be content until I shall be able to say, and 

 the citizens shall be able likewise to echo, that every last school 

 in Maine is placed under the instruction of a competent, well- 

 trained, well-qualified teacher. That is the aim, I believe, which 

 we should seek. And I trust, my friends, that we shall under- 

 stand that this thing is something which must come to pass if 

 we are to make our farms what it has been said tonight we 



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