E. H. ADDINGTON

OF THE STATE OP LOUISIANA. 173
->
interfere with the advancement of learning; or any attempt to control
the great public school system of our country. I need not remind you
that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. In its promotion a great
duty devolves upon you.
One of the large cities of the Northwest, with a well-established
school system, by indifference, permitted the board to pass out of their
hands at the last election. The spirit of illiberalism took advantage of
the indifference of the people- and gathered the obstinate and intolerant
that find themselves attached to a creed and influenced them to aid in
controlling the election for a new School Board. It is not believable a
free people will rest supinely" and permit the enthusiast to substitute
the dogma of creed to displace the public school curriculum.
In order that all shall realize what is done for the common school
system in our country, may it ever be your great work in civic affairs,
that while you educate the children at the expense of the people, you
also discourage 1 with all the strength of the ballot every attempt to
undermine, weaken or destroy the public school system as established
by the fathers.
Out of our system of free public schools' education there has developed
a degree of literacy surpassed by none of the nations of the world
at present. In this land there is no excuse for illiteracy in any of the
States of the Union. In every village is found the public school. To
the great and almost divine foresight of the "Fathers of the Republic"
is due the ingrafting upon our body politic of a system of education
which will keep step with the advancement of learning, and the ability
to sustain the public schools within themselves by a standard surpassing
that of any other people on the globe.
It is sincerely to be hoped that the number of school children out of
school may be diminished, and finally all the children may find their
way into the public school room; that the parents may find the studies
strictly in accord with the curriculum of the primary school, and therefore
best suited for the education of their children.
These billions of money—almost fabulous in their aggregate—have
been contributed by the people of this great country by means of voluntary
taxation, to prepare the youth for assuming in their own time
the intelligent government of the affairs of the land. In no other country
in the world has money been applied to a more useful and beneficent
purpose.
All over this wide land school houses have sprung up within which
are taught the necessary rudiments of an education to fit the growing
children for proper and useful Jives. A veritable army of instructors is
engaged in imparting knowledge in all its branches, whose lives are devoted
towards the betterment of the mental education of the youth of
the country. In these schools children of all classes of citizens mingle
freely; the rich and poor are brought into close, sometimes intimate,
contact, with the result that in after years a better understanding be-