GENERAL SESSIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION.

ADDRESSES OF WELCOME.

AARON GOVE, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, DENVER, COLO., AND CHAIRMAN OF THE LOCAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

Mr. President and Members of the National Educational Association:

By invitation of the chamber of commerce and board of trade, seconded and supplemented by the city and state authorities, you are about to open the thirty-fourth annual meeting of your association, in Denver. It is my privilege and pleasure to pronounce a word of welcome, and to introduce those high in authority who will appropriately address you. Denver and Colorado are complimented by your presence. We believe the interests that you represent to be so intimately connected with our country's welfare that their encouragement and promotion is a necessity for national existence. The program for your deliberation has been made with skill and care. It covers the broad field of current educational effort, with provisions for expansion by scholarly representatives of the profession, and the program affords opportunity for free and unlimited discussion. You have come up from the lowlands to meet on a level with the summit of Mount Washington and above the Alleghenies. From this point you have the privilege of viewing the entire country, westward and eastward to the ocean, and southward to the gulf. The waters of Colorado flow to every sea. From such an eminence a man should be above bigotry, intolerance, enmity, or prejudice. The heart should be full of charity for all mankind. I trust the volume of proceedings of this meeting will exceed in value any that have preceded it, and that, when this association has adjourned, you are to remain with us several weeks for recreation; that you will find a welcome on the plains or in the mountains, and that for whatever expenditure is required I am sure you will be glad to learn that silver coin is the established and accepted currency of our people.

And now, Mr. President, it having been intimated to me by your administration that long speeches at this time would be quite unnecessary, I beg to abruptly close.

HON. JUDSON L. BRUSH, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF COLORADO.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the National Educational Associa

tion:

I regret very much that I have to announce the absence of Governor McIntire, by unavoidable delay in St. Louis. As acting governor of the State of Colorado, I extend to you a hearty and cordial welcome, not only extending the right hand but both hands and both arms. The freedom of the state is yours and the fullness thereof. The people of the state are yours to command.

The people of the State of Colorado appreciate very highly your meeting among us, feeling that we cannot come in contact with the educators of the United States without being largely benefited thereby. We invite you to visit the city of Denver, a city that every Coloradian is proud of, her schools and church buildings, her places of resort. We invite you to visit our mountain scenery, which is unsurpassed in the world-the Switzerland of America. We ask you to go down into the bowels of the earth and examine the resources of Colorado in her mineral wealth, and then ascend her lofty peaks looking down upon the mystic clouds below. We then ask you to go with us and visit her coal fields, which, when developed, will surpass even those of Pennsylvania; also, her marble quarries, which for texture and beauty surpass those of all the country. We will then ask you to go to our valleys and traverse 12,000 miles of irrigating canals, covering 2,000,000 acres of agricultural lands unsurpassed in the United States. We then ask you to visit our schools, commencing with our little schoolhouses and advancing to our state institutions, which all and each are the pride of Colorado, out of which is evolved the one great principle of equal suffrage. We ask you to investigate the workings of equal suffrage in Colorado and Wyoming, believing that, if you do, you will all go to your homes strong advocates of it. One word more,-I have had the privilege of seeing in convention the statesmen of this country; I have had the pleasure of participating with many of the business men of the country; I have had the opportunity of looking upon the deliberations of the manufacturers of the country, and also many other conventions representing various lines of activity; but I wish to say, without any appearance of fulsomeness, that I have never seen so much intelli

gence, scholarship, and culture represented in an association. In no other calling is there so much given in what goes to make up human life for the money. There are many persons here working for salaries who in other lines could make five or six times as much.

May you have a pleasant and profitable meeting, and may success attend each and all of you. May your paths of life be strewn with flowers, and may you have a safe return to your homes. God bless you all.

HON. THOS. S. MCMURRAY, MAYOR OF DENVER.

I desire to join with the governor in extending to each and all of you a cordial welcome. We welcome you, not only as you come to us as individuals, and you are all welcome as individuals, but we welcome you as part of our national life. We also welcome you in your representative capacity, representing the great educational system of America. We feel that you have a right to all that is good, all the best that we may have. The public school system of our country was founded away back in the infancy of the nation, and from that day to this it has held a firm hold upon the hearts of our people. As you come to us we welcome you, and we trust that your stay among us will be pleasant to each of you; that you will find recreation and pleasure everywhere. We also trust that we may derive profit from your sojourn among us. At the same time, ladies and gentlemen, addressing an audience of this kind, representing those that are teaching, those that have committed to their care the rising generation, we feel that you do not believe that commencement day is the end of study, and so we say to you, as you come among us and as you go around this state and city, we believe that you are desirous of obtaining profit and instruction as well as pleasure and recreation. If you are fond of painting, you will find fit subjects all through this country-such landscapes as you may never have seen before. Are you fond of the study of botany? In no other state will you find such a flowery kingdom as you will see in Colorado. Are you fond of geology? As you go through the mountains and see strata after strata, you will find material for new lessons in that study. The beauty which you will find here is simply the beginning. Throughout the length and breadth of this great state you will find things that will charm you. I take great pleasure in extending to you the freedom of the city. All that we have is yours. We ask you to examine our public buildings, of which we are proud. Go throughout the length and breadth of our city. Go around through our drives and parks. Visit the canons and look at

the city from the mountain peaks. Make yourselves at home, and see to it that you get out of this all the recreation and pleasure that you can. It is all laid out before you, and the very best is at your door.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, permit me again, as before, to say, on behalf of this city, that it is an honor to welcome you as its guests, and permit me to extend to you the sincere and heartfelt welcome of the city of Denver.

MRS. A. J. PEAVEY, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, COLORADO.

Members of the National Educational Association

FELLOW TEACHERS AND FRIENDS: After the words of welcome which have already been spoken it would seem quite superfluous for me to attempt to add anything, but I may perhaps be permitted to give the emphasis of a woman's voice and heart to what has been said, and so fling open a little wider the gates of entrance to our beautiful city and the glories of our mountain state. Thus, I trust that the hospitality of deed will be found to outmatch the hospitality of words, and that you may be so impressed with our purpose and act that the long journey you have taken in order to come to us shall lose its aspect of weariness in the enjoyment of the present and passing hours. I think I have a special reason, however, for giving you welcome. You come to a state which has recognized the political equality of women, and has seen its way clear to give the full right of supervision to those upon whom it has laid responsibility. Whatever personal opinion you may entertain on the question of woman suffrage, you need have no doubt of its purpose in this state to stand for all that is noblest and best in the sacred and honorable work to which you have given your life and strength. If there is one thing that definitely marks the progress of education more than another, it is the position which woman has taken and held for the past few years in relation to it. A great deal of cheap wit has been expended upon her efforts and some sharp criticism has been flung at her accomplishments, but these things cannot rub out the fact, that, in her own personal education and in her work as a teacher and director in the schools, colleges, and universities of the land, she has contested for the palm with her brother, and in the contest has not been left behind. She may not be able to compete with him in a bicycle race. or in a rowing match, but her record in Vassar, and Wellesley, and Smith, and Holyoke, and Bryn Mawr, and in such co-educational institutions as Madison University, and Ann Arbor, and Oberlin, not

to speak of many others, shows that she is a workwoman that needeth not to be ashamed. Perhaps the chief influence which she has exerted may be spoken of as individualistic. It is certain that her rise in power furnishes the best antidote to those socialistic tendencies whose aim is to level all men down to a minimum rather than permit that natural exaltation which is the reward of personal integrity and laudable ambition. We realize the peril of greatness, and the danger that besets every one who makes his merit known; we know that every quickened aspiration is liable to be touched with self-love, and that success in any enterprise is often marred by an unsymmetrical development of life; but we still claim, that it is the privilege and duty of every one to have respect unto his divine heredity and to make the very best of that which God has made. It is this claim and full assertion of it, with such limitations as must surround every virtuous endeavor, that marks the educated woman of to-day. She has given a tremendous impetus to high culture by holding steadily to the moral and spiritual purposes it is destined to serve. I think I may say without undue boasting that she has done more to elevate the work of teaching into a definite profession than any other agency. Think for a moment of the advance which the science or art of teaching has made within the past quarter of a century. Twenty-five years ago we knew the names of a few great teachers. When we had mentioned Arnold of Rugby, Taylor of Andover, Emma Willard of Troy, Mary Lyon of Holyoke, our list was nearly exhausted, but there are hundreds of men, and more than hundreds of women, to-day who rank far above these in everything pertaining to their profession except the reverence which attaches to antiquity. Now we have a professional literature on this subject which begins to take rank with other professional literature. We have professional schools, in which the art is taught with system, and these are daily increasing in efficiency. With this rise into the dignity of a definite science the old methods are sure to pass away. The time is coming when admission to this work will no longer be regarded as a makeshift, or a temporary expedient, or the means of getting without earning a livelihood, nor even the means of paying a political debt. This elevation of the standard of this profession is due more to the individualism of woman, through the opportunities and privileges of education which she has grasped and firmly held, than to any other cause. She has stepped to the front, and by the absolute merit of her performance has obtained a recognition which a few years ago was impossible. It is only necessary in proof of this to point to the increasing number of women who are taking their degrees in science and philosophy, and who are manifesting their pedagogical and executive ability in the best institutions of learning