rt of many of the strongest public men in the
country must be gratifying to all who recognize the necessity of having
sound political ideas prevail among the rising generation. The object of
the Institute is, in outline, to secure thorough instruction in all
schools and colleges on topics relating to government and citizenship;
to establish special schools of civics at important central points; to
secure, as far as possible, the influence of the press in promotion of
the same high purpose, and to disseminate, far and wide, sound political
literature. That the project has the interest of our soundest statesmen
and scholars may be seen from the fact that the President of the
National Advisory Board is Chief Justice Waite of the United States
Supreme Court, while the Board includes United States Senators Colquitt,
Hawley, Wilson, Blair, and Morrill, Secretary Lamar and Ex-Secretary
Hugh McCullough, Presidents Noah Porter and Julius H. Seelye,
Commissioner Eaton, and others. Among the New England officers and
members are such men as Judge Mellen Chamberlain of Boston, Secretary of
Education Dickinson, General Carrington, and many college presidents,
leading business men, prominent editors, etc. The membership is now
something over two thousand, and it is worth noting that aside from the
small fees thus obtained, there is no income, and the officers are none
of them in the receipt of any salary whatsoever. The Institute is
entirely unpartisan, and the importance of the work, which it is its
purpose to accomplish, cannot be overestimated. It has entered upon the
work of political education in the United States at a favorable time,
under the best of circumstances, and under the auspices of the most
eminent men of the day. Indeed, it may be doubted whether any
undertaking of a patriotic and educational character has ever commanded
in this or any other country the unqualified support of so large a
number of citizens of high distinction, belonging to every class and
calling. There seems, so far as our study of the plan of the Institute
enables us to judge, but one thing needful to its permanency and highest
success as a moulding influence in American political life of the
highest importance. So long as its officers are obliged to depend wholly
upon the dues contributed by members, an element of uncertainty will
enter into its plans which cannot fail to largely interfere with the
fullest realization of its possibilities for good. Th