ADeceOmbef,bi90^'}      Chairman's  Address  on  Education.  579 
required  of  them  daily  in  the  store ;  it  has  found  so  large  a  number 
of  candidates  deplorably  lacking  in  the  fundamental  knowledge 
really  more  vital  and  important  than  pharmaceutical  learning  ;  it  has 
discovered  graduates  to  have  profited  so  little  by  their  pharmaceuti- 
cal courses  for  these  reasons,  that  it  has  established  a  preliminary 
examination  in  the  general  branches  which  a  candidate  must  first 
pass  before  he  can  come  up  for  the  pharmaceutical  examination. 
Think  of  it !  We  must  permit  the  water  to  rush  through  great 
holes  in  the  dam  above  and  then  try  to  prevent  the  inevitable  flood 
below  by  sweeping  the  water  back  with  a  broom  ? 
We  have  now  the  chance  to  correct  this  condition  of  things  and 
stop  up  the  leak  from  which  we  have  always  suffered.  It  would  be 
little  less  than  folly  of  the  most  stupid  sort  not  to  grasp  the  oppor- 
tunity and  make  the  most  of  it. 
The  second  reason  why  it  is  of  such  cardinal  importance  that  our 
prerequisite  laws  should  impose  definite  preliminary  and  also  cur- 
riculum standards  is  because  these  will  prove  a  safeguard  against 
the  rising  of  a  horde  of  mendacious  and  mushroom  schools  which 
prerequisite  legislation  will  call  into  being.  Medicine  suffered  this 
crippling  penalty  as  soon,  thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  as  she  began  to 
make  graduation  from  college  compulsory;  and  it  has  taken  her 
nearly  aU  of  the  intervening  time  to  correct  the  mistake.  The 
poorest  and  the  most  disreputable  medical  schools  arose  in  great 
numbers  in  the  leading  cities  of  the  country,  and  it  was  long  before 
they  were  forced  downwards  out  of  existence  or  forced  upwards  into 
the  paths  of  virtue.  Why  can't  we  profit  by  example  ?  Must  we 
burn  our  own  fingers  before  we  find  the  stove  to  be  hot  ?  An  ounce 
of  prevention  is  worth  considerably  more  than  a  ton  of  cure — and 
it  is  applied  a  good  deal  more  easily. 
I  am  no  extremist.  I  am  no  doctrinaire  with  head  in  the  clouds. 
I  am  convinced  of  nothing  more  strongly  than  this,  that  we  should 
neither  go  too  fast  nor  too  far  in  this  new  educational  era  upon 
which  we  are  now  entering,  if  we  desire  our  progress  to  be  sure  and 
if  we  expect  it  to  be  permanent.  But  I  certainly  believe  that  we 
should  insist  upon  at  least  one  year  of  high- school  work  as  an  en- 
trance requirement  in  every  graduation  prerequisite  law  that  we 
enact,  with  the  clear  understanding  that  in  the  years  to  come  this 
standard  is  to  be  advanced  just  so  fast,  and  only  so  fast,  as  the  con. 
ditions  permit  and  make  necessary.    I  "  the  Territory  of  Oklahoma 
