92 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



hatefulness and meanness of wrong-doing. This need not and should not be 

 done to the prejudice of any religion or any theology. Nay, even, it should 

 constitute the seed that, under the influence of religious culture, may grow 

 up and be made to flower into the beauty of holiness. I believe that under 

 such early systematic and continuous instruction the moral character of the 

 teacher class would be improved by the performance of the duties imposed, 

 the strength of correct public opinion be increased, the power of conscience 

 among the masses in determining toward right action would be strengthened. 

 The record not only of illegal vices, but of little meannesses as well, would 

 be shortened. The amenities of social intercourse would be increased, the 

 honorableness of men in ordinary transactions would become more habitual 

 and general, and even the slough of political nastiness and meanness be 

 dried up by making it unprofitable even in fishing for votes. 



I pass to the third branch of this discussion, viz.: The proper scope and 

 end of industrial education: Industrial thrift is a necessity to the state. 

 Wise statesmanship will therefore guard jealously every influence tributary 

 to it. Material prosperity is the basis of every other kind of progress; with- 

 out this every other claim to progress is poetic and sentimental. It is like 

 love in a cottage, or fine art in a hovel. These are possible circumstances, 

 but culture and refinement will soon bring about a betterment of material 

 surroundings or succumb to their depreciating influences. 



Again, progress in civilization means progress of the masses— progress 

 along the whole front of society's battle line. Phenomenal cases count but 

 little, or are positive drawbacks. A thousand capitalists with a thousand 

 dollars each, the income from which is united to industrious effort in sup- 

 plying family wants, furnishes an example of material thrift, social power, 

 progress and stability not at all to be compared with one capitalist with a 

 million dollars employing a thousand hands at so much a day. Henry Ward 

 Beecher was many years ago credited with the remark that wealth, like 

 snow, was a good thing when evenly distributed, but bad when lying in 

 drifts. Happily the foremost industry of our state is favorable to the com- 

 paratively even distribution of wealth; I mean agricultural industry. It 

 constitutes a kind of strength most unvarying, and the least affected by 

 economic changes and financial disasters. Without question it is for the in- 

 terest of the state, without prejudice to the claims of other industries, to use 

 its power in every legitimate way to strengthen and make eflEicient this nat- 

 ural source of its greatness and power. Encourage and make eflacient the 

 labor of nearly half a million agriculturists of the state, and the derivative 

 interests, so to speak, will of necessity prosper. It is the story of the fabled 

 giant illustrated ; when he touched his feet to earth he was strong and irre- 

 sistible, elevated above it he was weak and powerless. What, then, is the 

 theory of profitable, industrial education? Evidently every farmer's son and 

 daughter cannot become a scientist even if tastes and aspirations looked 

 that way. 



The most learned farmer, technically speaking, is liable to be about the 

 least successful practical farmer, and the most unprofitable kind of farm- 

 ing is experimental farming. The scriptural injunction is, ''Prove all things; 

 hold fast that which is good." The practical farmer should not bother 



