The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-04-27

that Is Donln0 III rs DouluU IA
progress and in power.
In the battle of life. our school chill
dren-the future citizens of North
Carolina-will have to compete with
the children Of the Middle Atlantic
and New England States. Let us con
slider for a moment the great disparity
between the educational advantages of
North Carolina, and those of the sec
tions mentioned above, and the inevi-
table result will be only two terribly
apparent.
But we need not go to the Northern
States alone to find States ahead OF
ours in education. Let US take our
own Southern States. Reliable stats,
tics show that % per cent. of the white
persons over ten years of age nNorth
Carolina can neither read nor write.
No other Southern State makes such
a discredible showing. North Carolina
lowest in the scale Of knowledgei
Think of it'll The Old North State"
which has 80 often led in the cause OF
right and liberty-so often led other
States in battle-now in the cause OF
education takes the rearl
knowledge is power" and North
Carolina is behind in power. And If
her people fail to. avail themselves OF
the opportunities given them by the
last Legislature, they are depriving
their children and their State of power
and of influence!
If they allow these opportunities to
pass uninproved they are saying: we
will not give our children the edvan-
tages which their future rivals in life
enjoy. We care neither for their des
tiny nor for the future of the State"
Shall they say it, Some may think
that they are utterly careless and in
different, but we do not believe 1t.
North Carolina is slow but she is cure.
With apparent stocial Indifference she
hears, but she ponders we'll. She has
taken a Rip Van Wrinkle sleep on the
school question: but tbs time for the
awakening has come. Let US take her
from the rear and place her in the van.
This is a matter which demands i'm
mediate attention. It admits Of no
postponement. Old North Carolina
must awake, arise or be forever fal.
len."
IL there a man in North Carolina so
selfish, 80 groveling that he will vote
against the measure because he has no
children to send, or is going to send to
higher schoolsl If such q man there
be, may God pity him! Has he no in,
terest in the welfare of his country and
his neighborsl Is his heart too small,
his soul too shrunken to admit a love
for the advancement Of civilization
and Christianity Does he care not if
the "Old Ship of State" sinks in the
waves of oblivion and his country be-
comes the land of the tyrant and the
slavei II his heart has new stirred
with patriotic emotions; if he consid
ers barbarism better than civiliza-
ton, and Paganiem better than Chris
tianity; if he cares more for a few pal
try cents than for the benefits of
knowledge, let him vote against it.
But, as Scott exclaims:
If such there breathe, go mark him
we'll,
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
BOundless mis- wealth as wish a claim ;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf
The wretch. c%oncentered all in self
Living, shall forfeit fair renoWn,
And doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
UnWept, unhonored, aud unsUng."
The question is mi which affects the
welfare of US all, and it folio VS., as a
natural consequence that it is one in
which we are all interested and for
the proper solution of which we should
all labor.
1t lies before the people and awaits
their decision. May they not prove
recreant, but may they, actuated by
the same broad minded patriotism
which has made their past record so
fair, seize the opportunity and give the
children Of North Carolina the same
advantages which the children of other
states eDjoy-place our beloved ''Old
North State" in a position creditable to
herself and to her people.