The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-22

Individual and against outside encroach-
nents, and for providing certain public
necessities and promoting certain
schemes for the public good that cannot
well be secured by individual effort
md private enterprise.
Courts of justice and public roads,
hough having their origin in individual
enterprise, have become universally re-
'ognized as the business of the govern
nent. Because the punishment of crime
and the restraining of criminals ana
the physical needs for transportation
md travel impress more strongly civil
zatton in its early periods than do the
needs of intellectual and spiritual cul-
ture, the world has been slower to recog-
nize that free public education is a func-
ion of government than it has been to
recognize the necessity for free public
courts and free public highways.
The time has almost come, however.
for the recognition Of the truth that
ignorance and illiteracy, which, though
not Synonymous, are nearly akin to each
other, are enemies to law and order and
hindrances to even material progress
md menace to organized government
Darkness can be dispelled only by light
and the conclusion is irresistible that the
wisest investment that the State can
make is in the education Of it's people.
In the outset / defined the State to be
IN organization of citizens. but it has
been practically and is now an Organiza-
ton of male citizens, with women as
honorary and associate members, which
fact has given in the public mind an int
preston that the male citizen is more
important than the female citizen. The
male citizen has legislated on educational
questions according to his lights. Be
lieving that the most important factor
III civilization was man, he first de-
voted his strength to that part of our
population which would soonest become
men. and so at first the idea was to
make higher education possible to bows
and young men. More than a century
ago, it was the highest ambition of
many of our most far-sighted statemen
to provide this public necessity. We
find that the leaders in the church and
the philanthropists of that day pursued
the same line of policy. During the past
half century, men have seen that if
these institutions were necessity for
the proper equipment of men, the me-.
cessity Of men themselves demanded an
equal opportunity for the equipment OF
womankind. And so there has been a
tardy recognition of the fact that though
man may be the chief factor in the State
he is not the chief factor in civilization,
and that the education OF woman means
at least as much to society as the educa-
ton of man.
Slowly but surely we are coming TO the
idea that neither the man nor the wo-
man is the most important factor to be
considered, but that the child-and by
child / mean every chilG-is the supreme
concern in our social economy, and re-
joice that this truth meets with almost
universal acceptation among our educa-
ted people.
Let us become impatient at our slow
progress. ] can remember twelve or
fifteen years ago many utterances OPP
posed to the idea of educations being.
a function of the State or of the necessi-
ty for universal education. 1t has not
been many years since young men and
older men discussed seriously in public
debates whether the public school sys-
TEN should be continued or abolished,
and in q few cases | remember that
after full discussion by the debaters the
audience decided in favor of abolition.
have heard within the past twenty
years men of influence in church and
State decry public education as a sys-
TEN that would pauperize the people
and destroy the self-respect and man
hood OF the individual But not many
such utterances have been heard within
tho mast half-dnzau vaarc
And now that we have come to on
agreement that the education of the
children of the State of North Carolina
is function of the government, it sim
ply means that their educational needs
must be met by public taxation. Can
we not hope then that the State will
treat the institutions for its children
with at least the same consideration that
it does its institutions for it's afflicted.
its criminals, and its paupers? Apart
from the fact that these children are
helpless themselves and worse than af~
ficted Of allowed to grow to maturity
without training and without culture,
and laying aside any consideration of
pity for them, the States selfish inter-
est alone would dictate a liberal policy
towards those institutions which will de-
termine its character, progress, and pros
perity in the future
When the State undertakes to do any
thing, it ought to do it, if possible, in
such manner as to set an example to
private citizens. And the public schools
Of North Carolina instead of being infe-
rior to the private schools in the State,
ought to be equal or superior to them,
just exactly as the capitol building at
Raleigh and the State Library are supe-
rior to the homes and libraries of ordi-
nary citizens. As citizens of the State
and as patriots we ought not to see the
States institutions for criminals and for
the afflicted and for the administration
Of justice tower in dignity sbo7e other
structures and institutions around them.
and then be compelled to hang our heads
in shame when we are asked 20 point out
those institutions of the State which are
the training schools for ITS citizenship.
In my judgment, the Act Of the last
not authorizing, but ordering
an election to be held next August in
ovorxy ~, Moth xuhioI