710 THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 



by pnblisbiug tbe results of organized inquiry. Tbe present Commis- 

 sioner of Labor touches tbe vital interests of American labor and of all 

 American society by his reports on the condition of working classes 

 and on the statistics of divorce. The bureau can attain an honorable 

 and influential position in the educational life of the country only by 

 keeping the vantage-ground already gained, by pursuing higher lines of 

 activity, by pressing boldly forward for larger appropriations and higher 

 objects, and by enlisting the cordial support of the best friends of ed- 

 ucation tliroughout all these States. Thus gradually the pressure of 

 public opinion will be brought to bear upon Congressmen, and Congress 

 and the nation will recognize at last that the interests of public educa- 

 tion are quite as important to the entire American people as are the 

 interests of any one class, like our American farmeis or our American 

 workingmcn, however honorable the aims of both classes may be. 



Strengthen all existing foundations of the higher education in 

 America, whether in the individual States or at Washington. Bring 

 the representatives of public school systems and of our American col- 

 leges and universities into more hearty and efficient alliance. Co-oper- 

 ate with every respectable agency for the higher education of the 

 American people, whether by summer schools, teachers' institutes, the 

 distribution of good literature in popular form, or by the institution of 

 home reading circles and university extension lectures, now so popular 

 in the manufacturing towns and mining districts of England. Break 

 down the antagonism between mental and manual labor. Make in- 

 dustrial and technical education as honorable as classical culture and 

 the learned professions. Teach the science of government and social 

 science, European as well as American history, in the public school. 

 Then shall we all have greater respect and toleration for our fellow- 

 men ; then will all begin to appreciate the necessity of supporting all 

 forms of education, even the highest, by the combined efltbrts of society 

 and the State. A noble popularity must be given to science and art in 

 America. The people of every State should be led to see that the higher 

 learning is not for the benefit of a favored few, but that it is beneficial 

 and accessible to the sous of citizens, of whatever station. In the 

 jiroper co-ordination of the common school system with the high school 

 and university, the Western States are leading this Bepublic to a more 

 thoroughly democratic state of society, with fewer aitificial distinctions 

 of culture, with more of the spirit of human brotherhood than the world 

 has hitherto seen. Tho Eastern (colleges and universities will continue 

 to train professors and to develop science, but the West and South will 

 apply both men ami ideas to democratic uses. The whole country 

 needs this popularization of culture. With universal suffrage and the 

 sovereignity of the people at the basis of our political life, pojiular in- 

 telligence must be cultivated so that it may be both able and willing to 

 hold fast all that is good in human history, not only civil and religious 

 liberty, but all that makes for happiness and righteousness in a great 

 nation. • 



