The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-11-21
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH"
A College Professor Discusses his
Very important Subject---Good
Reading for all, and
Good Advice.

nanza of the future" can empire In
extent" kindly nature has endowed
her with the treasured wealth OF mine
and forest, farm and orchard, while a
splendid system of w~ater-courses seem
destined to bear the traffic of a mighty
industrial commonwealth.
Exoerts claim that in the Cumber
land valley, which extends from Vir
MIA through Tennessee and Kentucky
Id into Alabama, is the future site of
me center of the steel and iron indus
lies of this continent.
Birmingham, an Alabama city OF a
Gacade's growth, to day produces an
nually more iron than the total output
five years ago of the entire South. Dur
ing the past year Southern cotton sup
piled four-ffths of the worlds con
sumption of that product.
Granite and marble in profusion;
timber res ,urces unsurpassed as to
quality or extent in cottona monopoly;
in iron prospective supremacy; such is
the material basis of Southern pros
perity.
The South enters a valid plea for
commercial ascendancy. Her ports,
undisturbed by ice, are readily aces
sible to the farmer and stock-growers
of the West, with which section, as
we'll as with the North, she is fast weld
ing the links of commercial union.
Forty one per cent. of American ex
ports during last November went from
Southern ports. AL the vast territory
west Of q line drawn from Norfolk, Va
via Cincinnati to Chicago is nearer
Southern than Northern harbors,
When, in the process of years, the
Nicaragua Canal, that mighty thor
oughfare Of nations, shall have been
completed, the South will grasp q
sceptre of worldwide commercial
proves, yielded from the reluctant
hand of the mistress of the seas y
Northern capital has combined with
Southern enterprises to make the his
tory of the New South dense with
achievements. The industrial progress
of the past decade has revealed the
depth of her material resource, has
foreshadowed the possibilities of her
future.
The whole Southland resounds with
the din Of rapidly developing activities.
Contentment smoothes the brow of her
dusky toilers, The superior natural
resources Of a great people are here to
be unfolded under the most favorable
conditions Of climate and environment,
and with the advantage of modern
plants and appliances at the outset.
Who can forecast a limit to the in
dustrial possibilities of this section2
The foreign immigrant, the Northern
capitalist, the aspirant for political
honor alike turn their attention South
ward to this land of dawning promise
and manifest destiny-"heir of all the
ages, in the foremost files Of time"
The history of a people having a ma
tional existence is marked by progress
sive epochs Of change, presenting new
problems to be solved, fresh difficulties
to be encountered.
So the South in passing from the an
cient regime of slavery and industrial
~staguation to a new era of liberty and
progress, found herself confronted by
peculiar problems, social, financial,
political and moral, in each of which
the presence of the enfranchised freed.
man was an important factor.
To-day one tremendous issue, whose
settlement will be fraught with lasting
veal or woe, attracts the attention of
Southern thought. 1t is the problem
of an uneducated citizenship.
Southern illiteracy is appalling"
In the seventeen former slave States
5000, 900 i~lliterates swell the ranks of
the laboring classes-industrially a
weakness. a peril to intelligent, highly
paid Northern labor.
Two voters in every five cast a mean
ingless ballot. Three-fourths of Amer
ica's illiterate voters are here Mingled
with but little more than one third of
her total population.
To counterfeit this peril the South is
educating about one fifth of her people
"a plausible showing indeed were it
not to be remembered that her average
school year scarcely exceeds four
months, while the attendance is by no
means regular, equipments, as a rule,
are meagre in the extreme, and teach
ers lack the ability derived from a
thorough self discipline and special
training.
Out of a colored school population