Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-06-23
The Economic Demands Of
Tennessee.

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civilization, where "cui bono is stamp
ed upon every new direction of develop.
ment; where every door is barred
gold and opens with golden keys-It is
very strange that our educational in
stitutions have so sigually neglected
the economic interests of the state or
section they represent.
In our schools abstract philosophy
has largely taken the place Of practical
science, and logarithmic values have
almost superseded the value of through
information upon those grand points
which affect the destiny Of civilization
and render possible the very existence
Of populated world.
Enter our puplic schools and colleges
Our universities, and what is the
impression made upon the mind Of
those who are interested in the great
economic interests of our country ?
Here are pupils instructed in grammar,
in the pulling conrndrums of modern
arithmetic; geography, why they can
tell you the name of every country
Oh the continent, they can bound every
province and locate every coral reef,
and describe every ocean, lake or river
and yet what can they tell you ofthose
fundamental interests upon which de-
pend the prosperity of the country in
which they live and from which they
are to derive the means Of subsistence
aud their right to recognition in the
great battle Of human life? The con-
jugation of "amo" is thought more Of
both enthusiastically and socially-than
the great principals which underlie the
prosperity of the country and upon
which all its grand interests depend.
In cur great laboratories you will find
students working far into the night
upon reagentsand reaction, equivalents
Of heat, correlation and conservation of
energy, dynamlcs, but where will you
find any university in which a depart
ment is established upon a practical
basis Of agricultural, commercial and
economic utility? When we consider
the fact that science in all its abstract
hopotheses is simply the exponent of
civilization, having for its ultimate aim
the practical development of the world
in which we live, and by which we
live, it is not difficult to see that we
have lost too much in vague efforts IT
the establishment of a philosophy in
stead of fixing upon a solid basis the
discoveries of science. You may take
any student from our plethoric institu.
tions of learning with his blushipg
honors fresh upon him, and put him to
work at any of the practical problems
Of the day and see how utterly helpless
he is. He can calculate for you the
breadth Of the moons penumbra, but
he would be sadly at loss to tell you
how to sink mining shaft, or drain a
marsh, or turn stream, or compound
a fertilizer or sewer a city. He can
tell YOU all about the philosophy of
life, and the elmer consciousn ess," and
the great ecclesiastical questions which
split world on the "flioque," but he
couldn't cure a hog of the cholera, nor
add one iota to the utilitarian capital
Of the world.
Our educators are fully alive to these
interests. In these articles, which is tC
be hoped may direct their attention
more earnestly to them, we are fan
from rejecting upon the demands Of
culture in the development Of what the
ancients called the "humanities" o.
life. We respect philosophy, and VIZ
honor it for having lifted man out o
barbarism and placed him where civil
ization became a possibility, and it
issues Of grand reality. But Will,
philosophy may be considered the flow
er of civilized life its fruit is only to b.
found in the practical development 0
science.
We cannot believe that this practi
cal education would be so thorough,
ignored if there was sufficient enlight
ment upon the extent of the interes
committed to us for development as tn
basis of our political and financial in
tegrity.
Let any thinking man go over til,
figures below, and he will be APPALLED, a
the fact that so little has been don
to develop resources which have hithel
to sprung mp among us like mushroor
IN N nirhi nnA nlnnnsL Enrcnl nnnn ne