i6 



telligent the farm laborer, the better for the farmer and 

 the farm. The educated laborer best serves the manu- 

 facturer, and the well informed clerk is sought by the 

 merchant. The intelligence of such a community is of the 

 practical kind, it is knowledge applied to affairs, education 

 made powerful to forward material progress. To the 

 miner, the ranger of the grazing country or the laborer on 

 the cotton and sugar plantation, education is of but little 

 interest as a means of advancement in his occupation. It 

 is sought, if sought at all, as a means of escape from his 

 condition, rather than improvement in it. His mental 

 qualifications are of no consequence to the owner of the 

 mine or field wherein he toils. 



The drafts for such laborers, when made from foreign 

 countries, are often from the ranks of the idle, the vicious 

 and the hopeless, often, indeed, of the desperate and crim- 

 inal. Government and law they have never known, ex- 

 cept as Avords signifying oppression, to which they are in 

 sworn and banded enmity, and for the overthrow of which 

 opportunities are eagerly sought. To them property is 

 robbery, and the destruction of social order the first step 

 in their own enfranchisement. But to the occupations of 

 a varied industry, which depend for their success upon the 

 cultured brain and deft hand, knowledge like liberty and 

 law is not only desirable, but essential. Technical educa- 

 tion is of the very essence of their prosperity. But this 

 education is not necessarily narrow and restricted to de- 

 tail. It reaches out in its comprehension to the principles 

 which underlie a great industrial, commercial and agricul- 

 tural prosperity, and perceives with clear vision the foun- 

 dation upon which the superstructure of progress has been 

 erected. It sees that these principles and this foundation 

 are the laws of a free and strong government, upheld by a 

 people who know and love them. From this perception 

 the flower of patriotism springs as naturally as the flower 

 of the field from its natural soil. This practical educa. 

 tion, springing from the avocations of a people, adds in- 



