followed by a degradation of all classes that still shadows and oppresses Jamaica, where emancipation was so long ago accomplished? Can we expect communities to tax their property to the extent of confiscation for school privileges? Using synchronous figures, out of a white school population in the South of 3,899,961, 2,215,674 have been enrolled in schools, and out of a colored school population of 1,803,257, there have been enrolled 784,709, at a total cost of $12,475,709 per year. The good work goes on; but how long shall it be so inadequate? It is hoped that the appeal of wise citizens and able statesmen will be speedily answered by appropriate national action.

Finally, if we contemplate the problems committed to us as a people—the part assigned us, in the providence of God, in bringing all people to a knowledge of Him-are we not admonished to make all haste and unite all agencies to remove all internal hindrances ? How would all our questions of peace and war be simplified, and our difficulties reduced, if there were among us no illiterate Mormons or Indians or Chinese, or other foreigners, no illiterate natives, black or white! Franklin called attention to the possibility that France might take the place of old Rome among the nations, and the French become the universal language, and it was hoped that England and the English might possibly follow as second. Then, perhaps 42,000,000 spoke French, and 18,000,000 or 19,000,000 spoke English. Now, it is estimated that over 120,000,000 speak English as their own tongue; and counting the progress of English in continental Europe, among the islands of the sea, and elsewhere, especially in India and Japan, the number who can understand English may be reckoned at 150,000,000. Should it be true, as estimated by Professor Müller, that in two hundred years English will be spoken by more people than are now living, and become substantially the language of the globe, how needful that we rid ourselves of illiteracy, and come fully to our share in this great responsibility in the service of mankind and the Master. How unspeakable the privilege of bearing the humblest part in furnishing free Christian institutions, science, literature, art and home, social, industrial and civil life in their highest form, nearest to the divine pattern for the future nations of the earth!

REMARKS OF NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER.

PRESIDENT OF THE INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK.

MR. PRESIDENT: What I have to say will detain the Conference but a moment. It seems to me that we should not pass from the consideration of this subject without recognizing its full scope and importance. The dangers of what we may call intellectual illiteracy -the inability to read and write-have been fully and cogently presented to us by Mr. Eaton. But intellectual illiteracy is only one feature of this great subject, and by no means the most important. We are being brought face to face, in this country, with a wide-spread moral illiteracy, which is infinitely more dangerous than any intellectual illiteracy can ever be. This moral illiteracy manifests itself by an inability to read the everlasting distinctions between the good and the bad, the virtuous and the vicious, the right and the wrong, and to write these distinctions in the practical affairs of life. How fast this evil is spreading in one or two respects, we have heard this morning. Every day, as we read our paper, we are confronted with column after column devoted to the narrative of instances of social, political, family and business dishonor or crime. It is but rarely that we are agreeably surprised at not finding at least half a dozen instances of this moral illiteracy recounted. And, sir, while far from being a pessimist, I believe that this illiteracy is spreading, and spreading rapidly, and that this Conference has before it no subject more serious or worthy of more careful consideration.

It is a mistake to suppose that great crimes happen without a cause. They are not freaks of nature. They are the logical outcome of certain causes. The frivolous falsehood leads gradually to the outrageous lie, and the petty pilfering to the great robbery. Inexact and immoral habits of thought and action are at the bottom of all this, and I believe that our system of education is largely responsible for it. We observe carelessly, we think inexactly, and we express ourselves inaccurately. It is to these simple and seemingly unimportant lapses that moral illiteracy traces

its origin. Gradually all mention of ethics and religion is being eliminated from the schools; and it is even fashionable in some quarters, to make ethics an elective study in our colleges and universities. This may be the effect, perhaps it is, of the revulsion against the ecclesiastical control of the school which prevailed during the Middle Ages. But however it arose, it is a dangerous condition of things. It permits young men to go out into the world without a word being spoken to them of the moral law and of the inimitable distinction betwen the right and the wrong. They readily come to look upon fashion or social convenience as the arbiter of morals, and when this stage is reached, the disease of moral illiteracy has set in.

This Conference will be glad to know that an educational movement, which is now sweeping over this land, gathering strength as it goes, will afford us valuable assistance in fighting moral illiteracy. As I have hinted already, the inexactness of thought and action which too much of our education permits or encourages, must be checked, if moral illiteracy is to be killed at the root. The manual training movement will do much toward this. Permit me to make a single illustration. A boy studies well, and goes home at the end of the week with a mark of ninety-five per cent in geography, let us say. Both parent and child, and perhaps the teacher also, are gratified at this, and in their gratification lose sight of the fact that ninety-five per cent is still short of perfection. The ninety-five gained puts out of sight the five lost, and, in consequence, the exact truth, and approximation to truth, come to be looked upon as the same thing. In other words, ninety-five is confounded with one hundred. Bad mathematics, but worse morals. Moral illiteracy has bee n made possible. Suppose now, that the same boy, in the curriculur prescribed by manual training, makes a lap-joint in the woodworking room. If it is ninety-five per cent of true, it will no nearer fit than if it were fifty per cent of true. It must be perfect, it must be exact, or it will not fit. Then, for the first time perhaps, it flashes into the boy's mind that truth is single, that it is perfect, that it is always the same. Approximations, however close, are not the truth. When the schoolboy learns this lesson, and forms his character by it, he will never afterwards become a moral illiterate, unless of his own free will. Education will have done all it can do, to teach him to read and write in morals. Time will not permit the amplification of this illustration. I only desire to impress

AFTERNOON SESSION.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER

8.

The devotional exercises were conducted by Rev. Arthur Brooks, of New York. Hon. James B. Angel, President of the University of Michigan, presided.

On taking the chair, President Angel said:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: In complying with the very kind request of the officers of the Alliance, to occupy this chair for a brief session, I desire to express my deep sense of the honor they confer upon me, by giving me even this brief connection with a body so eminently representative of all the noblest purposes, moral and religious, of the American churches and the American people.

How deeply I, in common with you all, desire the accomplishment of those purposes, and trust that the results of this meeting may be far-reaching and permanent, I need not now stop to say. I am sure that I should but very poorly enter upon the discharge of the pleasant duty entrusted to me, if I should deprive you for a single moment longer of the pleasure and profit which I know we are all to receive from the distinguished gentlemen who are now to address us. I therefore have the pleasure of announcing that the first paper is upon the subject, "The Relation of the Church to the Capital and Labor Question," and will be read by our venerable friend, the Rev. Dr. McCosh, who needs no introduction to any American audience. [Applause.]