The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-08-26
EDUCATED FARMERS.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BETTER Ed
UCATION

Among the Agriculturists-To Too Many Law
yers I'm Proportion to the Farmer FILL
ing the Government Ozices.
From the Mt. Vernon Springs Star.
We often hear it said that this is
a progressive age; that the people
are improving in every respect, and
that education is more widespread
among all classes.
Is it true that this is a progress
i've age? When we consider our
true condition and the true relations
we sustain to other nations we real
ize that the farmer should be better
educated. We ought to find a great
number of them in the legislative
halls enacting laws for the common
good as large proportion of the
voters are agriculturalists- But as
it now is, there are too many law
yers in proportion to the farmers,
filling the government office Must
the blame rest upon us for thus fill
ing the exalted positions in the at
fairs of the government which far
mers should have?
Of course not when the lawyer
has been willing to sacrifice many
hours of pleasure for those of toll
and hardship in order that he might
prepare himself for active and man.
Iy life, while the farmer, forgetting
that his country's prosperity depends
to a very great degree, upon his ex-
ertions, has been careless and indo-
lent, having the false idea that an
cold field SCHOOL, is good enough
for him and his children. Think
not that the farmers vocation is a
degrading one, fer his is one of the
most honorable pursuits in which
any one can be engaged. When
more educated farmers shall be sent
to the legislature, the state will begin
to increase in wealth, the people will
become more and more enlightened
and progressive. England witness
ed her brightest days of glory when
the parliament was filled mostly
with agriculturalists. Men who have
received the highest honors that tai
ent and tact can command have been
sons of farmers. Our best states
men were farmers. Washington
whose name will live forever en-
shrined in the bosom of every true
American Webster, Clay and others
who upheld their country's cause in
the calm and in storm, were farmers
educated farmers.
Yet it is true, that many far
mers do occupy some OF the most
important positions Of the govern
ment, and as men of genius, talent
and intellectual powers are demand
ed, farmers must of course be train
ed and educated in order that they
may perform their duties with
greater honor to themselves and to
their country.
Not only do they form an impor-
tant link in the chain of the govern
ment, but they have great control
over the education of the people,
and have the power of exerting an
influence upon the minds of men
that will be felt in ages to come.
They stand in the same relation to
the people by whom they are sur
rounded, as the hub of a wheel does
to the parts which surrounded it.
The nave must first be of hard wood
which will be difficult to be torn in
pieces by the heavy jolting of the
load, then it must be turned off by
some symmetrical law, the mortises
chiseled with very great accuracy in
order that the spokes may fit tightly
and the rim be properly adjusted.
Then everything in respect to the
wheel is ready for using. When
ever the hub begins to decay and
everything commences to tear in
pieces then it becomes useless.
So in regard to the farmers. They
must be men Of gentle disposition,
Of mild temper, yet firm in all of
their actions, decided in all of their
thoughts and then they will be
ready and prepared to receive the
benefits which a liberal education is
able to bestow upon them. Let
this education be given unto them
and they will be more competent and
better qualified for making plans for
the education of their children that
they may know what is their duty
to themselves, to their fellow men
and also to their country. Upon
them depends the prosperity Of the
state, the prosperity of the Union,
and also the welfare of the nation.
There is much depending upon
their actions, and it is of no little