IN WITNESS I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
DONE in the city of Washington on this the 11th day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand-nine twenty- [SEAL.] five, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and fiftieth.
Calvin Coolidge
By the President:
- Frank B Kellogg
- Secretary of State.
By the President of the United States of America
A PROCLAMATION
, www E°°°°°°°_ Education is- becoming well-nigh universal in America. The
- "°"““°· rapidity of its expansion within the past half century has no prece-
dent. Our system of public instruction, administered by State and local oiicers, is peculiarly suited to our habits of life and to our plan of vemment, and it has brought forth abundant fruit. ‘
In some favored localities only one two, or three persons in a thousand between the ages of 16 and, 20 are classed as illiterate. High schools and academies easily accessible are offering to thetiouth of America a greater measure of education than that whi the founders of the Nation received from Harvard William and May, Yale, and Princeton; and so widely diffused has advanced stu y income that the bachelor’s degree is no longer a symbol of unusual learning.
All this is reason for gratification; but in the contemplation of worthy achievement we must still be mindful that full provision has not yet been made throughout the count? for education of either elemei-13, secondary, or higher grade. have not been ed by the blessings of education. _ eiliciency of the schools in rural commumties is, in general, relatively low; too often their equipment is meage, their teachers poorly tplrepared, and _the1r terms short. sc ools, notwithstanding eu- extraordinary growth, have not pt pace with the deman forunstruction; even in eat cities many stu ents are restricted to half-tune attendance, an? in outl ° districts such schools are frguently msumcient III number or iinlxequate in quality. , In higher ucation the possibili- ties of existing institutions have been reached and it is that their bleligotgnded or that jumor colleges m considerable num esta .
These deficiencies leave no room for complacency. The utmost endeavor must be exerted to provide for ever child in the land the full measure of education which his need an his capacity demand; and none must be permitted to live in ignorance. Marked benefit has come in recent years from nation-wide campaigns for strengthening public sentiment for universal education, for upholding the hands of constituted school authorities, and for promoting meritorious legislation in behalf of the schools. Such revivals are wholesome and should continue.
Now, therafplre, I, Coolidge, President of the United States, 1¤¤·¤•*·•¤¤•¤*•¤••· 0 ` t e wee ` ovem six as American, Education Week and I urge at it be observed throaghout the United States. I recommend that the Governors _of e several States issue proclamations setting forth the necessity of education to a free peop e and requesting t at Amemcan Education Week be
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