That period which was characterized by the most serious search for knowledge in America came during the poorer days of our people. The educational facilities of that period were meager. The highest diploma then given represented a degree of learning which almost anyone may easily obtain now. Yet those were days when young people endured the most severe sacrifice in order to obtain a measure of educational advantage for themselves. From the modern educational viewpoint, the little red school house at the cross roads may look like a rather poor affair, but it housed some tremendously earnest spirits. Some of our most distinguished public servants were there prepared for usefulness to their times. In those days, poverty threw some severe limitations around the young person seeking an education. At the same time, it provided a great incentive to go forward, and it placed behind the obtaining of an education a motive that was of great credit and value. Many young people defeated the limitations of poverty by winning scholarships. This within itself was of great value because it required a high standard of studentship. Its advantage is unknown in the institution which caters to rich men’s sons. We have been through our periods of poverty that pinched boys and girls into preparing themselves for better things. We have also had our periods of economic independence. We have just emerged from one of actual prodigality. Its unfavorable effect upon education cannot escape our eyes. Conditions incident to the war write a few entries on the credit side of the ledger. It put many soldier boys into schools for technical training. It helped to awaken the country to its weakness along these lines. These things, however, were overshadowed by the way in which the recent period of swollen incomes made against learning. The high wages of the war period and of the time immediately following it lured from the schools a vast number who would otherwise have remained. The economic incentive to getting an education was removed. It was a time when a boy could obtain high wages without learning. In many cases he could go into the shops and get better pay than his instructors were receiving for work that demanded thorough preparation and intense application. Statistics showing how much more money the educated man could make had lost their meaning. The time had come when brawn possessed greater earning capacity than brain. School men all over the country had hard work to keep their schools from going to pieces because of the depletion in attendance which they suffered.