Each dark cloud has a lining bright; Is a scene for grief beguiling. Eyes that laugh with a mischief bold; Matthew P. Deady THE AMERICAN SETTLER. The American settler was always animated-often it may have been unconsciously-with the heroic thought that he was pre-eminently engaged in reclaiming the wilderness-building a home-founding an American state and extending the area of liberty. He had visions, however dimly seen, that he was here to do for this country what his ancestors had done for savage England centuries before-to plant a community which in due time should grow and ripen into one of the great sisterhood of Anglo-American states, wherein the language of the Bible, Shakespeare and Milton should be spoken by millions then unborn, and the law of Magna Charta and Westminster Hall be the bulwark of liberty and the buttress of order for generations to come. William P. Lord EDUCATION. (Extract from Governor William P. Lord's Message to the Nineteenth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of Oregon.) COMMON SCHOOLS. The general diffusion of knowledge is the best guaranty of the stability of republican institutions. Their safety and prosperity depend on the spread of knowledge among the masses. The fact is now recognized that intelligence in communities is essential to social progress and political reform, is conducive to sobriety and industry, and serves to establish justice and promote the public interests. As a means of disseminating intelligence, our common schools are most active and potent factors. There are no other instrumentalities comparable with them for the accomplishment of this object. They seek to increase the general average of human intelligence by the education of the rising generation, and in this way to elevate the citizen and strengthen the state. The state cannot neglect its educational interests, without loss of public intelligence and detriment to its well being. NORMAL SCHOOLS. The object of the normal schools is to furnish teachers for our common schools. The scope of their work includes special instruction in those branches of education which are taught in the public schools, and thorough training in the science of teaching. The effect of their work, when successfully prosecuted, is to increase the usefulness of the teacher and elevate the standard of our public schools. Our normal schools are a useful and indispensable adjunct to our common school system. . AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. It is the life and prosperity of our country to keep up and maintain its institutions, dedicated to the work of education in all its departments, to their utmost ef ficiency, although it may require some expenditure of the public revenue. Our people, to a large extent, are engaged in agricultural and industrial pursuits. A sound, practical education along the lines of these callings or vocations is a need of our people, and its benefits to the state cannot be overestimated. To fill this want is the object of our Agricultural College, in our educational system. Its chief end and aim is to give its students a thorough agricultural and mechanical training, as distinct from college or university courses. It is a different education in its practical results from a university education, but is not in conflict with it. In this age when so many industrial projects require mechanical or scientific education for their management, the Agricultural College affords excellent opportunities for acquiring such an education. UNIVERSITY. There are those who think our University should not receive financial support, while there are others who think it is bad policy and worse economy to withhold from it any needed aid. It is no doubt true that taxation is for the general benefit, and that objects of its fostering care should conserve the public good. But the fact that comparatively few can enjoy the University's advantages. is not conclusive that its benefits are not for the public welfare. If the University is an essential part of our educational system, in conducing to the progress and development of our state, and to the prosperity and intellectual greatness of the people, it is of general benefit and entitled to receive public support. The University aims to furnish such an education as will enable thosealways the few-who possess the requisite abilities, to become useful citizens and leaders of thought in the professions, in statesmanship, in the various branches of learning, in philanthrophy, and works of charity, in pro moting industrial projects and conducting commercial enterprises, and in devising methods for the moral and political advancement of the people. Its existence is due to recognition of the fact that the state needs captains in every department of life, affecting human happiness and welfare, and that, as a means to this end, it should provide an institution whose course of study would lay the foundation to supply them. S. F. Chadwick A MAY DAY IN OREGON. Nature smiling through her rills, streams, hills, valleys and mountains, greets us this morning and welcomes us to partake of her bountiful hospitality. How beautiful she is. Clothed in her attractive habiliaments of spring; in her tender, strong, but gracious reproduction of everything in her kingdom for the sustenance of man. Here are flowers of every hue and description, filling the air with fragrance; the woods and forests are made attractive by the shrill notes of nature's sweet songsters. Spring, in all her beauty, like hope in its innocent fullness, charms as it possesses us, filling us with the promise of offerings the mind craves, and bespeaks the approach of an abundant harvest for our physical well-being; a season of plenty for the husbandman, his fields, flocks and herds; a season in which, with a light heart, he may go forth to the hills, valleys and fields and welcome this plenteous outpouring from the liberal hand of the Great Giver of all things. ! |