The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1882-1884, 1883-01-25
OUR EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS.

OUR EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS.
IF the Southern States are to have
a fair share Of the manufacturing
establishments of the country. there
must be a great change in the ambl-
ton of our young men of the South
of the entire country, for that mat
ter-for they have what Mr.. Atkinson
calls'a oisdaln' for labor. AS soon as
they leave tie high school or college,
they turn to the law offices, or medl-
cal or theological schools. or news
papers, or the retail stores. or other
avenues to genteel employment.
They are willing to work for a song
at anything that does not involve
manual labor. No matter how unln-
yiting the prospect may be or how
overcrowdcd the occupation confess
edly is, if it be genteel, thousands
will seek it. when avenues to wealth
and honorable effort in industrial
employment are unsought. Even this
form of folly is seen in the Northern
States, and the New England papers
complain of it's existence in their
towns.
1T certainly is the height of folly
in young man of the South. equip
ped bv the schools for an active and
honorable course, to resort to the
stores and offices for Employment
We have an over supply of clerks,
lawyers and polit MS and we al.
wa,swil II have but We are sadly de-.
f,ient in men whose hands are cul
tivateG as well as their brains-W
lack intelligent mechanics and civil
engineers, and foremen, as managers
of machinery. If we gather enough
money to Start factory. we have to
send to other States to, get men COM
petent to guide the machinery and
conduct the inside operations Of the
ia, tory. If we build railroad, we
must at the outset import engineers,
and afterwards men skilled i'll oper-
attn! railroad.
This is all wrong. The young
man of the future in the South-the
best in the land-should study, as
soon as he can, some department of
manufacturing. He must first. of
course, make himself skilled me-
chanic-learn q trade, in other
wolds-and he need not and should
not dislike the phrase. 1t is certain
ly as honorable and as pleasant to
set a horses shoe as to pettifng a
case in a Justices court, or sell rib
bons in a retail store, or serve in
any other halfpaid and precarious
employment. We must get rid of
the sham gentility labor and seek
that in which brain and skill are
harmoniuusly and effectively united.
If the South is to become independ
ent-if her industrial interests are
ever fully developed, her young men
must abandon old time notions of
labor and prepare themselves to take
charge of m alters that are now neces.
sarily the spoil Of strangers. The
best and most inviting places in
the Southern country now 90, as
they do in Mexico and Egypt, to
skilled men from other and more
sensible States. The better the boy
is educated, the better mechanic o.
superintendent. or engineer, he will
make. The high school is as useful
to the future mechanic as to the fu
ture lawyer or merchant. All boys
need all the schooling they can get
but, after they leave school. let them
turn to industrial rather than pro-
fessional avenues.
ITO effect this we need, as in all
other reforms, a change in public sen
timent. We need sentiment that
will condemn the folly of the past in
this respect. We need sentiment
that will recognize the fact that the
great industries furnish the best
field for the young man Who has ca
reer to make -that in them is to
be found both good wages and the
most promising and desirable
employment that the land affords
live can once secure such a public
sentiment; we can safely trust The
remainder of the problem to the
courage and skill of the Southern
peoplc.-Atlanta Constitution.