FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
27 
selfish ends. But, by the education of the 
masses, first one redoubt and then anoth¬ 
er has been taken from 1 the office-holding 
aristocracy. Formerly, the electorate was 
not allowed the right to select the Pres¬ 
ident of the United States, but now this 
is practically conceded, although the con¬ 
stitution of the United States reserves 
the right to an electoral college, and we 
still go through the empty form of voting 
for the members of this electoral college. 
In many of our States, the U. S. Sena¬ 
tors are voted for in the primaries or at 
the general election, and the State Leg¬ 
islatures then go through the form of 
electing these Senators. 
THE DIFFICULTY A FUNDAMENTAL ONE. 
The difficulty of education is a deeper 
one than mere dollars and cents. You 
can’t drive an American—some can be 
bought, but many more may be led. Our 
ideals, however, are toward a democracy. 
Naturally, we should say that since the 
rural population is unable to send its 
children to school, then by increasing the 
earning capacity of the rural adult, the 
difficulty will be removed, and all of our 
children will be put into the schools. Let 
us examine the public school statistics of 
a State in which the earning capacity of 
the average adult is sufficient for compar¬ 
ative ease, and where children are not 
permitted to labor in factories. Massa¬ 
chusetts will furnish us with a good illus¬ 
tration. 
In Massachusetts, according to the 
69th census, there were: 
513,000 children of school age; 
498,000 children attending school; 
404,000, or 78 per cent., in average 
attendance; 
45,000, or 8 per cent., attending high 
school (about one-fourth of those that 
shoud be there).i 
These figures show us that the difficulty 
is a fundamental one, and not a practical 
one (the want of wealth). 
In the whole United States, only 13 
per cent, of our school population have 
reached the last grade in the high school, 
or a little more than a third of those that 
should be there. 
The absence of wealth is a potent fac¬ 
tor for non-attendance on schools, but it 
is not the fundamental difficulty. This 
difficulty lies in the fact that our present 
school curriculum is faulty. We are not 
educating for the efficiency of the indi¬ 
vidual. The whole common school course, 
beginning in the primary grades, through 
the grammar school, and especially in the 
high school, educates the individual for 
professional life, which comprises only 3 
per cent, of our population. To the 
other 97 per cent, of our population the 
studies are purely non-vocational. 
Think of it, ladies and gentlemen; 97 
per cent, of our people (including 44 per 
cent, rural population) are required to 
accept a purely non-vocational course, or 
none at all, simply that 3 per cent may be 
fitted for their vocation. It is really a 
compliment to our present system that so 
large a percentage of our children are 
taking the studies in the higher grades at 
all. Our present graded and high schools 
have shaped their courses in such a way 
as to enable their graduates to enter a 
college or university without examina¬ 
tion. They are given a direct through 
