The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-09-26
The Unfolding of Industrial Ideas.

| The creative power of the Almighty has
never been exercised without purpose. The
whole universe, in which man lives and has
his being, is guided in its harmonious opera
tions by system of unvarying laws; and the
superior intellect, with which he is endowed,
was doubtless given for the purpose of enabling
him to ascertain what those are, and how they
might be applied to his various wants. 1t is
in this that education properly consists, and,
to the misdirection of the mental powers, may
be attributed the long night of Intellectual
darkness which brooded over the world during
the early and middle ages.
For ages, mankind seems to have had but
slight conception of the laws upon which the
universe was constructed, and, instead of direct
ing his energies to domestic improvement he
was principally occupied in preying upon his
neighbors. Hence the glory which encircled
the brows of war-like chieftains and the con-
tempt in which almost all other vocations were
held. The principal sciences were uncultiva-
ted. Agriculture and the manufactures were
carried on in the crudest manner; and the
ambitious youth saw no other road to fame,
except through the CORY fields Of war.
In the course of time better appreciation
of his relations to the world aroused him and
the purposes for which he was created dawned
upon mankind, and the result has been a total
change in the civilized world. This change is
too conspicuous to be dwelt upon here, for ev-
cry child knows that he is surrounded with ap-
pliances, which only short time ago, would
have been considered as the work of magic.
1t is strange how slow we are, as mass, in
falling into this march of progress. Most of
our institutions of learning are carried on upon
the same old plan, and the graduate must al
most begin his education anew if he desires a
name among the great benefactors of his race.
a new order of institutions, however, is spring
ing up around US, institutions in which agri-
culture and mechanics are SCIENTIFICALLY taught !;
and theories practically applied; institutions
in which labor is elevated to its proper dignity,
and in which the pupil is prepared, both phys
ically and mentally, to grapple with the reali-
ties of life, and to win his way to fame and
fortune in any part Of the wide world
1t is shame that such large proportion of
the Young men of our country can be satisfied
with pitiful clerkships and other vocations, in
which the mind is dwarfed and health impaired
and in which only subsistence can be made,
while so many sources of profitable employ
ment are inviting them to an honest and hon
orable independence. We long to see the day
when it will be difficult to find occupants tor
petty clerkships of every character, instead of
having applicants by the hundreds for every
vacancy, as IS now Tue case. IL SUCH d IeSulI
can be reached, and our people taught to work
for themselves instead of experimenting the
work of others, the cry about the scarcity of
labor will not be heard in the land and every
barren hill will bloom with fields of waving
grain.
The disposition to look upon farm labor as
ungenteel is too prevalent throughout the
Southern country. Agriculture is no longer a
dull routine of daily work, but a science, which
affords full scope for the development of the
intellect. Progress in this department of late
years, has been almost incredible: Science
has guided the farmer not only in the culIiva-
ton of the soil, but in the manufacture of his
implements, and the result is wonderful in
crease in the yield of the soil, and a labor,
which, few years ago, not dreamed could ever
be attained The Agricultural Colleges Soci-
cites and State Bureaus established throughout
the country, will eventually elevate farm and
mechanical labor to its proper standard of dig
nifty and gentility, and there will not then be
such an exodus of young men from the country
to the cities in search of respectable employ
ment-Union and american.