ADDRESS OF WELCOME. HON. WILLIAM DONOVAN, PRESIDENT OF BOARD OF EDUCATION, LANSING. Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen of the State Teachers' Association of Michigan: I can assure you, my fellow citizens of Michigan, that I feel honored, indeed, when, as President of the Board of Education of Lansing, I welcome you to the Capital City. The educational institutions of Michigan are the pride of our State, and to you, as representatives of our educational interests are the citizens of our State looking with a great deal of satisfaction for present and future results along the educational line. The teachers of the State must very largely shape the future of our educational interests, as by thought and word and method they build their life-work into the educational structure. I am a friend to practical education, and I believe the strong tendency of our educational system, all along the line from the infant class to the university is to close the gap between the theoretical and practical. So that, first, every student may be able to tell how to do, and secondly, that he or she may be able to do as well. Fifty years ago there were not as many school children in the State as we have to-day in Lansing. There were not as many school houses as we have to-day in Ingham county; and while the expense then was less than twentyfive thousand dollars per annum, the expense this year for the support of the school interests of the State will approximate six millions of dollars. And while the value of the school property of the State fifty years ago was not more than ten thousand dollars, the total value this year is more than twelve millions of dollars. And be it said to the credit of our school interests, while in point of material prosperity Michigan has risen from the twentythird place among the sisterhood of States to a place near the top, as a matter of fact, during the last twenty-five years of our educational growth, Michigan has always been practically at the top. One thought occurs to me as I stand before you this evening. It is this: There are many here, I presume, who can express by algebraic formula those general equations by which problems within the range of mathematics may be solved; who it may be can write out the history of the wandering comet, and successfully predict its return; who could, by looking at the imprint of the leaflet in the coal, or the shell in the rock, can write out for us the history of the geological formation of a certain period; or who can easily resolve a drop of water into its numerous primary elements, and reveal to us its beneficial and its hurtful properties. These, and all such as these, reveal to us the triumph of mind over the material forces of the universe. But who is there in all the world wise enough to successfully and accurately write a formula which shall express exactly the weight and force of a well directed thought as it finds lodgment in the receptive hearts and minds of our students and children? It was my good fortune to have been born under the shadow of our great University, and to partake of its advantages, and as I look back over the twenty-five years of our educational growth in the State, I can see before me now a sprinkling, at least, of those who are now the veterans along educational lines, whose earlier days were shaped for the future by the best thought of the Cockers, the Williams, the Havens and the Tappens of their time. Who can picture to us accurately the influence of the lives of such men as Henry P. Tappen. To you, my fellow citizens, is committed as great responsibilities as devolved on them, and your work shall be to the future what theirs has been to the past. It is, therefore, with feelings of pride and satisfaction that the educational interests of the Capital City greet and welcome you here. Our love for the general work of your association bids us welcome you, and I doubt not but our spirit of selfishness makes us glad to see you, for anxious citizenship, backed by forty conscientious, hard working teachers, supplemented also by twelve members of the Board of Education, and a live superintendent, are heartily willing to devote their time to this Association, that we may individually and collectively absorb the approved thought of the Association for the benefit of the schools of Lansing. I am, for these reasons, especially, glad to see you, and on behalf of the citizens in general, but especially on behalf of our teachers and superintendent and Board of Education of the Capital City, bid you a very hearty and earnest welcome. RESPONSE BY PROF. A. E. HAYNES, OF HILLSDALE. MR. PRESIDENT:-The poet has said, Three roots bear up Dominion: knowledge, will; Obedience; 'tis the great tap-root which, still Knit round the rock of Duty is not stirred, Though storm and tempest spend their utmost skill. Obedience to the request of the President of this Association holds me prisoner in this glad hour and gives me both the honor as well as the pleas ant duty of replying to your earnest and highly appreciated words of wel come. First of all, in behalf of my fellow teachers of Michigan, from her copper and iron bound shores on the north to her rich agricultural prairies on the south, from her salt wells and lumber mills on the east to her lumber mills and salt wells on the west; in behalf of each and of all, from him who teaches inside the bare walls of rough logs, where there are pupils who may yet shape the destiny of both the State and the Nation, to him who so ably presides over our justly renowned University; permit me to thank you for these words. by which you bid us to the thirty-sixth annual feast of good things to come in connection with this meeting of the State Teachers' Association. Standing here as we do, near the closing gate of the fiftieth year of our history as a State, let us for a moment look backward to its beginning and compare it with the present. Fifty years ago to-night Michigan did not even belong to the sisterhood of States; she then had a population of about 175,000, now her population is eleven times as great. Then there was almost an unbroken wilderness from the shores of Superior, the great inland sea on the north, to the Indiana line on the south. Now the value of the annual products of her soil is eighty-eight millions of dollars, of her forests sixty millions, of her mines twenty-five millions and of her fisheries one million. Then there was scarcely a manufacturing establishment in the State, now there are nearly ten thousand. At that time there was not a mile of railroad in either peninsula, now there are over 5,000 miles in operation. Then but few church buildings had been erected, now the multitude of their spires point heavenward, while the dumb lips of their bells are waiting to ring in the second half century of our history. Our educational growth in this period has not been less remarkable. At its beginning we had no Superintendent of Public Instruction, no University, except in name, no Normal School, no Agricultural College, no Denominational Colleges, no well-equipped high schools, in fact, we had almost nothing of educational value, except a wise provision of Congress for the support of the future public school. We now have ten thousand schools, with fifteen thousand teachers, who have in their care nearly half a million pupils. Our University has become one of the greatest of the western continent. During the last half of this period a half dozen colleges, largely maintained by the gifts of Christian men and women of limited means, have been doing excellent service in the cause of higher education. The State Normal School, too, has been blessing the State with its well directed efforts. In this period, also, Michigan was the first State of our country to establish an agricultural college and the first to prove that such an institution can be successfully maintained. And during this period, too, she won the proud distinction of establishing the first school of its kind in the world for her dependent children. Nor has she forgotten those whose ears are forever closed to the voices of friends, whose lips are dumb and whose eyes behold not the glorious beauty of earth or sky. Her benign influence is even felt in her efforts to reform the erring youth within her borders. In this brief review it would not be fitting to forget that at the close of the first half of this period our State was called upon to help in the defense of the nation's life, and how, during those four sad years, she sent ninety thousand of her bravest and best sous of the public school into the battle's front, one-sixth of whom, in soldiers' graves, have given up the years of their manhood in the sleep of death in testimony of their love for human liberty and equality of rights. During the past 36 years the Michigan State Teachers' Association has been a potent factor for good in this rapid development. It has been led and fostered by some of the wisest and best men and women of the State. Each year it has given an opportunity for rare social intercourse among all classes of teachers of our commonwealth, for the mutual consideration of questions of the highest educational value, and has furnished to the teachers of the State many of the ablest discussions of educational topics. In concluding, Mr. President, allow me to say, that while we should rejoice in the history of the past and have a just pride in the progress already made, while we are thinkful for this kindly welcome and rejoice in the blessed privilege of again exchanging fraternal greetings, let us not forget that the present has its problems, important perchance as any since "Father Pierce" founded the school system of Michigan. Some of these questions, such as how to secure the attendance of the 25 per cent of our school population who do not attend the public schools; the relation of education to the labor problem; the better districting and supervision of the ungraded schools and a more effective method of carrying out the provisions of the law providing for the teaching of the effects of alcohol and narcotics upon the human system-not only demand our most earnest attention, but that of every patron of our schools, of every patriotic citizen. Duty done is victory won. May we take up the duties of this session and of our time with conscientious devotion and try to build as well for the future as have the noble teachers who have preceded us. May we remember in all our toil that though The sun may fade and the stars grow pale, And the heavens shall pass away, Yet beauty of soul will never fail, It will shine forever and aye. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. IMPROVEMENT OF CHARACTER THE LEADING OBJECT OF STUDY. BY DAVID HOWELL. Members of the State Teachers' Association: Why are we here? That the members of this Association should assemble from the villages and hamlets of this vast commonwealth to communicate the results of their reflections, and impart the fruits of their observations and experience to each other, is indeed an object of highest commendation. Over a third of a century has passed since the organization of this Association. Year by year its members have assembled to compare notes, and direct the spirit of inquiry on the important subject of education in the true path, and invigorate it by united exertions. No student of the rise and progress of the educational system of Michigan can escape the conviction that the deliberations of this body have had great influence in the development of the system of which we are now justly proud. That the Association has a future equally bright with the records of the past, no one acquainted with the intensity of thought on educational topics will deny. It is with a desire to assist in directing the spirit of inquiry that the following is presented: Fifty years ago the president of the American Institute of Instruction, in an address before that body, said: "A mighty revolution is going on around us, involving not only the fortunes of dynasties, the forms of government and the distribution of political power, but the whole structure and organization of society, and destined to produce lasting and unalterable effects on the character and condition of our race." At the risk of being called an alarmist, I desire to repeat the assertion of Dr. Gray, and emphasize it by adding that what was true fifty years ago is true to-day. Those who are looking into the conditions of society and are studying the various social, economical and political problems of the day, see many conditions which make them apprehensive of the future. For many decades the tide of immigration has set against our shores with almost undiminished vigor. The gates of every nation on the globe have been opened outward, and there has burst out a. living throng with faces set toward the promised land. Through the portals of Castle Garden have come a city in a week, a county in a month and state in a year. But what of this? The ignorance of this vast throng of people of our peculiar customs and theory of government; their lack of ac |