3 io HOWARD J. ROGERS 



development of our nation. They are seeking the cause of 

 our industrial prominence, and they will find it, not in superior 

 form of specialized training — they have a monopoly of that — 

 but rather in the liberal training pursued in accordance with 

 the theory and genius of our institutions. 



One more argument should be touched in brief in dis- 

 cussing our educational system, viz., its influence in promoting 

 the stability of our institutions. The education of a democ- 

 racy determines its duration. We are engaged upon the 

 greatest experiment in popular government the world has 

 ever seen. Our remarkable progress should not blind us to 

 the inherent danger of a republic. We have enjoyed a national 

 existence for 125 years; Athens, when she fell before the 

 usurpation of the tyrants, had been a republic 150 years; 

 Rome, when she surrendered her liberties to the keeping of a 

 Caesar, had been a republic 450 years. I do not wish to pose 

 as a crier of calamities, but there is no use in shutting our 

 eyes to apparent conditions. Mankind is not yet very far 

 on the road to the millennium, nor is it likely to be so while 

 human nature is of such unregenerate material as at present. 

 The advancing tide of socialism, the destructive doctrines of 

 anarchy, the theories of Utopians, and false principles of gov- 

 ernment, can only be met by making our general public 

 familiar with true economic principles. To bring economic 

 science within the reach of the masses is the vital problem for 

 a democracy. There is only one machinery that can effec- 

 tually do this — continuous and extensive drill on the rational 

 principles of political and social economics, during the forma- 

 tive period of the minds of our future citizens, is the only 

 inoculant to protect our body politic. It is an old saying 

 that every artisan philosophizes in his own way; but it is a 

 responsibility that the state may well assume to teach him 

 the right way. The strength and promise of our great coun- 

 try lie in the fact that this may be insisted on without lese 

 majeste to a ruler, or enmity to a creed. 



