The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-07-11
HENDERSON, N. c., THURSDAY, JULY H. 1895.

bian, feudal lord and serf, privileged
classes and common people, leizured
classes and working masses. These
terms are no longer set in opposition
to one another. The citizen has not
become slave, yet the slave has be-
come free. The gulf between them
has been bridged. But two more bar
riers stand to divide society into
classes-wealth and knowledge. We
have the wealthy few as distinguished
and set against the many toiling for
equality of opportunity. We have
also the educated set against the igno-
rant and unlettered. Already these
two barriers are beginning to give
way under the continuous assaults
made upon them for the purpose of
fastening the true status of man as
proper function in our social life.
The characteristic feature of legis-
lation is the increasing tendency to raise
the position of the lower classes at the
expense of the weather. classes. This
is the real meaning of income taxes
and the establishment of fewer hours
for a days labor. Shortening the
hours of labor is primarily and above
everything else to raise the condition
of the life of the workers at the ex-
pense of wealth, and as consequence
to place the workers more on footing
of equality in the rival of life with
those above them. 1t is the princi-
pie which is behind all measures which
aim at bettering, at the public expense
the condition of the lower classes of
workers. 1t underlies the cry for
graduated taxation, which cry we
may expect to grow louder and in
crease in strength and importantly.
1t is the basis of those demands, now
all but nebulous and visionary, which
in the near future will take practical
shape for the revision of the hereditary
rights of wealth and the conditions
under which great fortunes are trans
mitted from generation to generation.
The demand for equality of oppor-
tunity. voiced in this species of legis-
lation is sure to result in the more
equal distribution of wealth and the
consequent elevation of the many.
There is but one other monopoly for
the few; and that is the monopoly of
education. The same principle that
underlies graduated taxation will sure
ly underlie our education legislature
for the future. The demand for a
considerable extension of the educa-
ton founded by the State and for
State control in the interest of the peo-
pie of high as we'll as of elementary
education, is the last cry for absolute
equality of opportunity. 1t is met in
the main by those engaged in demon
national educational enterprises. The
politicians of the old laissez faire school
view the interference of State as revo-
lutionary. They viewed the establish
ment of the common school with the
same degree of horror. "The State is
usurping the individual Junction."
was the cry when Calvin H. Wiley
| dedicated the first public school to the
service of the ragged youth in North
Carolina. "The State is usurping the
individual Junction. is the cry to-day
when generous State makes it posi-
bic for mountain boy to walk to the
University of North Carolina and re-
ceive its highest honors, supporting
himself with menial employment and
with funds donated hy generous pub
lie.
My friends, the State is no longer a
big policeman whose sole function is
to preserve order. The cry that call
men are created equal" is hollow
mockery to the man who has not the
opportunity to rise. The crushing Of
barriers has written another maxim of
government-"all men should have
equality of opportunity" In the era
upon which we are now entering there
will be no restriction of the interfer
ence of the State, but there will be
progressive extension of the sphere Of
action to every department of our So
cial life. l am no alarmist. I am
no socialist. 1 can only view as you
may do the gigantic problems which
loom across the threshold of our new
century. They surpass in magnitude
any that civilization has heretofore en-
countered. The greatest of these are
States control. The movement in
the direction Of the States regulation,
control and restriction of the right,
wealth and capital must be expected
to continue. The State will assume
these rights when it is clear that their
retention in private hands will inter-
fere with the rights and opportunities
of the body of the people. 1t will do
80 not for destroying competition but
to prevent the destruction in private
hands and in order to preserve or Sc
cure free competition. With State
control there can be no trust and
monopoly OF education. 1t is the pa
triotic duty to labor for broadening
the scope of the States influence, su-
pervision and control. From them
none but blessings can come. Denial
of all State interference will inevitably
tend to ownership. A greater evil
cannot be feared. Here is the field
for that conservatism which has ever
characterized North Carolinians.
: Equality of opportunity is the cry oi
the nineteenth century as it lays open
its heart for splendid achievement.
1t is the burning faggot it hands to the
incoming cycle of years to light man.
kind on to grander victories.
read in the Biblical Reeorder OF a
month ago statement that the boot
blacks in Washington City had better
| opportunities of education than The