yment. Society has but little
use for the man who wears a mask.
In this busy world there is honest work for every man to perform.
Civilization has multiplied human wants and also developed the ingenuity
necessary to gratify them. But it requires labor. Not such, however, as
was performed by the slave, but skilled labor--labor where the hand is
guided by an intellect, quickened by the agency of class-room and
laboratory for the task assigned; labor, such as will reflect credit
upon and elevate a gentleman. For there is no honest work a gentleman
may not do. Work elevates a man. It perpetuates the manhood he
inherited, which was built up by labor and thought in the flesh and
blood of his ancestors. The necessity for labor, therefore is heaven's
blessing and to repudiate it is to invite physical and mental decay.
Liberal education should take a far wider range than has ever been
assigned to it and exert an influence affecting matter as well as mind.
It has a double mission, that of facilitating earning power to provide
for physical comforts and also to prepare them to live.
In a republic where every able bodied citizen is an equal factor and
where one is possessed of mutual privileges and obligations, society
demands that each shall do his part. To be consistent society also
should afford equal educational facilities for all; facilities having as
direct bearing upon vocation as upon profession, and for those desiring
it, an educational training as liberal for manual pursuits as is
required for law, medicine or theology.
The standard of manhood must advance to meet the new conditions and the
tremendous responsibilities of the century we have entered upon. Within
the present boundaries of the United States there exists the requisite
area, soil fertility and other resources sufficient to support a
government of five hundred million people. Our patriotism, therefore,
must be directed toward realizing the largest possible destiny for our
country. We should strive so to conserve the natural resources of the
nation that with six or seven times our present population there will be
no abridgment of opportunity to make a living and to fulfill the purpose
for which life was created. The experiment of self-government will have
to withstand severer strains in the future than in the past unless our
education is as democratic as our politics. The educational energies of
the nation must be so diffused as to uplift all classes, redu
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