of great educational
centers. The excellence and usefulness of our school system has
advanced just in proportion to the culture and ability of the
teachers. A collegiate education has always tended to foster and
encourage higher standards of scholarship among teachers, and this
influence has been diffused into the public school system. President
Charles W. Super truthfully says: "That which leads up to the highest
must always be supervised and directed by that which is at the top. A
system of elementary and secondary education which does not culminate
in the university, and make that the goal towards which its efforts
are directed, is an absurdity. There must be good teachers before
there can be good schools, and good teachers can only be formed in
institutions that are chiefly concerned with knowledge at first hand.
This has been a recognized principle in Germany for half a century, or
longer; is now almost universally admitted in France, and is the goal
toward which the whole civilized world is rapidly moving."

The efficiency of our public schools has been felt in every department
of our social organization. They have been a strong bulwark against
the influences of a raw and uninstructed foreign population, who, like
a tidal wave, have flooded our shores. Some of these have not only
been ignorant and infidel, but filled with monarchical ideas and
un-American sentiment. The public schools have brought their children
into accord with our American institutions, and developed intelligent
patriotism. They have taught the youth common rights and privileges,
and helped to generate a union of sympathy and sentiment which leads
to the consolidation of our society into a homogeneous body.

The colleges, working through the public school teachers, have
likewise helped to educate the millions of the manumitted and
enfranchised colored people, and to break up sectionalism, allay party
strife, and make for the peace, prosperity, and unity of the nation.
Our political safety has called for a wise and vigorous effort to
educate the masses and to assimilate the heterogeneous elements into
our body politic. The public schools and colleges, with their
interdependence, have in a great measure met the demand, and given us
a legacy of peace, prosperity, and intelligence enjoyed by all the
people.

Likewise, the colleges have contributed largely to the general
prosperity and material progress of society. They are the real centers
of po