and the more cotton he raised the more negroes he could buy, and the more negroes he bought the more cotton he could raise. This same relation exists between the school systems of the country and the revenue that it takes to run them. The more revenue you have the better system you can make, and the better system you have the more revenue you can raise. The one acts and reacts upon the other. The one is both the cause and the effect of the other.

While Dr. Curry was addressing the legislature of North Carolina upon the importance of increasing the appropriation for the support of the public schools of the State, some member spoke out, saying they were too poor to increase the appropriation. Dr. Curry replied by saying they were too poor not to do it, that they could not afford to refuse ample support to the public schools in which is generated the power that propels the machinery, not only in every branch of industry, but in every department of State.

The South is poor in the present because she has failed to educate in the past. If the South would be rich in the future, she must educate the great masses of her country children in the present.

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION.

BY MRS. W. B. ROBBERSON, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION OF THE WOMAN'S

CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF MISSOURI.

Were it not that I trust the generosity of the Southern people and feel they will take the wish for the deed, I could not come into this presence today in the capacity of substitute speaker, and inadequately prepared for the duty. But there is a message for you from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union that, unless I bring it, might pass unspoken, and though I speak not with the tongues of "men and of angels," as might be almost truthfully said of some of your Tennessee orators, I ask your indulgence as listeners.

Some of you may perhaps not know why the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is interested in Educational Conventions, and it is my part to tell you what they have done and are still doing to help you in the right performance of your duty to

ward God and man. You are the great army engaged in the conflict with ignorance, and we, standing afar off, are watching the outcome with beating hearts and oft times breathless anxiety, but we see you bravely conquering!

Let me show you a little map. Not twenty years ago this map would have been all black. It is a map of the United States showing in black the States that have no laws compelling, in the teaching of physiology and hygiene, instruction as to the effects of alcohol and other narcotics upon the human system. I am glad to say this map is not correct. There are four States in black upon it, where there should be only three, for grand old Arkansas came into line last year. She is going to develop her children as well as her commercial interests. She means to precede the railroads, that perhaps Massachusetts had to wait for. (Referring to statements in the preceding address of Hon. Mr. Hogg of Texas.)

Any of you who place first the interests of "God and Home and Native Land" are standing upon the platform of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and you know why we are interested in the problems of education. You know what the harvest must be that is the return for the one billion dollars spent annually in this country for strong drink!

Twenty years ago, when the outlay was $900,000,000, we received in return 500 murders, 500 suicides, 100,000 criminals, 200,000 paupers, 60,000 deaths from drunkenness, 600,000 drunkards and hard drinkers, 500,000 homes destroyed and 1,000,000 children uncared for. The menace of this traffic, with its increased expenditure and consequent increase of ruin, is enough to bring the most indifferent to his senses.

Twenty years ago the same census tells us that $96,000,000 was spent for public instruction and $900,000,000 for strong drink; and the fact widely known and fully appreciated, that the safety of our republic depends upon an educated people!

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union does not wish to go into politics, but when they see the ruin wrought by liquor, as given in plain figures-without even a glimpse at lost souls, broken hearts, ruined lives and homes destroyed-when the nation for the sake of the revenue it derives-a revenue that United States Commissioner of Labor Wright is quoted as saying costs our government twenty-one dollars for every dollar received— the Woman's Christian Temperance Union may be pardoned for

questioning the sagacity, or the honesty, of our law makers, and from a financial standpoint declaring it a poor business policy.

Under the present condition of things, educating the youth of our country to a proper abhorence of the drink evil is the only thing to be done; and there we join hands with our foremost educators, and decide upon what to teach, and how to teach it, that the manhood and womanhood that is embryonic in all pupils should be fully developed.

During this convention we have heard much of the physical education along with the mental, and we are destined to hear still more, for the necessity of providing a proper temple for the soul, or body for the mind, is forcing itself more clearly upon the educator of today.

ment.

Time was when temperance was taught as a matter of senti"No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven" was the alarm that caused the philanthropic and religious to do their utmost to rescue the drunkard from his cups.

When Horace Mann said: "Virtue is an angel, but she is blind and asks of knowledge the pathway that leads to the goal," he uttered a prophecy. Virtue in this instance asked science, and science has turned the search-light of truth full into the face of the enemy. Science reveals that alcohol is a dangerous poison, that it has narcotic properties, that it deadens nerves of sensation and does not relieve pain; that its use creates a cumulative appetite-a desire for more and more; that its absorption into the body is damaging to bone, muscle and tissue; heart, nerves and digestive organs; that it deadens or paralyzes the higher brain, and that men are unfitted for positions of honor or trust when addicted to its use.

When science proclaimed her truth it became the business of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to put the light into candle-sticks and set them in the dark places, and, teachers, scarcely twenty years ago the educated world was itself in darkness upon this question.

Let us see what confronted the Woman's Christian Temperance Union: (1) The necessity of securing State and national legislation making the study of physiology and hygiene, with special instruction as to the effects of alcohol and other narcotics upon the human system, mandatory or compulsory; and (2) then of arousing the officers and teachers to a sense of their opportunity to so impart the truth that the youth of our land should

shun alcohol as they would the plague. Besides securing the necessary legislation, and admonishing officers and teachers; (3) a new literature had to be provided; school books had to be made to supply the need thus created. This work had to be done by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and was begun and carried out by Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, of Boston, the national superintendent of scientific temperance instruction of that body and a life member of the N. E. A., assisted by an advisory board of educators, professional and medical experts, whose names are synonyms for learning, and one of whom honors this present con-. vention with his presence, Dr. Wm. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education.

Mrs. Hunt's greatest work has been revising text-books and examining those submitted to her committee to be made to conform to standards required by law. These are known at present as endorsed text-books, and the endorsement of Mrs. Hunt, and her advisory board has been sought by the publishers of leading text-books as a guarantee of their worth. It is hoped, that, if this is not already known to state superintendents of public instruction who are present, in providing books for their several States they will make a mental note of securing endorsed text-books. I must add here that Mrs. Hunt's work has been a labor of love, and wholly without financial remuneration.

In addition to her other labors, Mrs. Hunt, having learned that teachers needed to know “what to teach and how to teach it," began the publication of the School Physiology Journal, which in my opinion, next to the Bible, is the best thing that can enter an American school-house. It contains the latest facts of science, and is interesting alike to teacher and pupil. The teacher who reads it and teaches from it may be sure he is giving his pupils the best there is in physiology and along temperance lines.

Teachers, in loco parentis means a great deal. Do you ever consider that you may actually be more in company with a child than its own parents are? Do you not know that what you do and say often carries more weight of conviction than what mother or father says, because "you know so much more," as the child supposes?

Knowing this to be the case and that you have the child while its mind is plastic and "like wax to receive and marble to retain,” I may but repeat in substance what a speaker said last evening:

"It is criminal to withhold from him the knowledge it is his heritage to have and in your power to bestow."

Do you know, teachers, that in these sixteen States represented at this convention all have laws making the teaching of "physiology and hygiene with special attention as to the effects of alcohol and other narcotics upon the human system" compulsory except two, Georgia and Virginia? and I doubt not that, if Dr. Johnson would but repeat the address he made last evening, before the Virginia State legislature, that State would swing into line as grand old Arkansas has so lately done.

Teachers, the State and nation are depending upon you to train up a race of men.

But I do not wish to consume all the time allotted to this subject; there must be others here who have seen the good results of temperance instruction, or who desire to see such instruction more thoroughly given, and from such we wish to hear.

From this subject, and at this time, we hope that helps and hints will be given that will raise the standards of temperance teaching for the whole Southland.*

In behalf of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, I wish to thank Dr. Jordan and also Gen. Gordon, for the courtesy extended to me as a representative from that organization. It means that they appreciate the efforts of the past and endorse those of the present that the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is making to save the children and to protect the home, and, being statesmen, they see in the success of these efforts the safety of the nation. I wish also to thank you teachers for your attention, and to make an earnest appeal in closing that you examine the School Physiology Journal and learn "what to teach and how to teach it."

And to the state superintendents of public schools who may be present, I wish to say that, while we are looking to the teacher for the proper performance of his duty, we know that it largely

*At this point Dr. Buchanan, of the Arkansas University, arose and made a strong plea for work along these lines. At the conclusion of his remarks, Gen. Gordon, the presiding officer, said: "It is the wish of friends in this convention that a committee be appointed to draft a resolution commending the same, and urging it to be more thoroughly observed in our schools, and I will appoint on that committee, Dr. Jno. L. Buchanan, of the University of Arkansas, Hon. Alexander Hogg, editor Texas Pacific Journal, and Miss Louise Bock of the Memphis High School."