The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1898-06-09
EDUCATION.
Address of Prof. NJ. III. Holt, of Oak
Ridge, Before Teachers Association.

OcAtcIcQ at 1UStOa, June 4. | 4
1t gives me great pleasure to be
with this wide awake, progressive
association of teachers of this pro-
gressive wide awake county today,
and to bid you God speed in your
noble and unselfish work. / use the
word noble in no careless or thought
less sense. for training immortal
minds and hearts has always been
and always will be considered by
thinking men as the noblest work in
which men and women can be en-
gagged. I use the word unselfi sh |
adyisedly. for the school room con-
tains no nook or corner for q selfish |
man or woman.
AS we assemble today, let US look
for a moment at the magnitude of
our calling, and let US exalt it and
congratulate ourselves that there
| are at least a few brave laborers
where the fields are white unto the
harvest. In this age of discomfort,
! of conflicting theories, of revolutions
in the thoughts and opinions of men,
in this age when men in all the walks
of life are feeling the pinch of hard
times, the country turns to the
schools as their last and only hope.
The press, powerful as it is, fails to
solve the economic problems of the
century, the politician prophesies the
wave of prosperity that never comes,
and even the divinely inspired pulpit
fruitlessly thunders against error,
without schools, and it is the school
master who must lead the people up
through the fogs into the light no
less now than in other ages and
other lands.
Civilization is the product of
schools, and human happiness and
prosperity are the product of civiliza-
, ton. There is no civilization with
out education, and where civilization
languishes prosperity departs, and
human law is throttled by the red
hand of anarchy. The school mas
ter's power is evident through all
history. Socrates taught Plato
Plato taught Aristotle, Aristotle
; taught Alexander the Great, and
, Alexander the Great changed the
map of the world and left the impress
of his superhuman efforts upon the
! civilization of all succeeding ages
Cornelia taught Tiberius and Caius
j. Gracious, and these brothers struck
the first blows for civil liberty a,
Rome, and paved the way for the
matchless glory of that government
: and finally for Runnymede, and ever
for our OWE Declaration of Independ
8 ence. Roger Ascham taught Eliza
f beth, and Elizabeth's reign was tn,
:, most potent in the history of tn,
world, for it was the age OF Bel
3 Jonson, of Spencer, and of the i'm
j mortal Shakespeare. And so in al
a ages ald countries, back of al
), sublime lives and sublime deeds
j somewhere is the unpretentious
2 conscientious, earnest, humble teach
u er, stimulating, encouraging, actual
# ing, elevating the dormant, laten
b forces of the mind into beneficen
l aud glorious agencies of blessing
b Yes, today the excitement of the wa
u and our victory at Manila ma,
distract attention from the wall @
discomfort which rolls from field t,
factory, from mill to mine, from hu
a to hall, but it does not hush it. w
u see want written in the dress of tn
Is people and in that niggardly econo
k my which chokes out all the highe
Ie attributes of existence, and make
u life one ceaseless struggle for bread
Countless thousands of bright-eye
ic and ambitious boys aud girls VIII
ought to be in school must labor i
mill and shop and field to keep th
wolf which stands gaunt and hungr
and ferocious at the door from enter
70 ing the home. No wonder then tina
70 honest and brave men, thong
., ragged, gather at church and schoe
II house and attempt to solve th
problems that seem to puzzle til
"a wisost statesmen.
:: Does this discomfort come fro,
le lack of natural resources? Let til
g answer be the raw material of
thousand kinds which grows in fiel
is and forest Or slumbers in the bosoI
8 of the earth, which under health
is conditions, the rivers that swee
Is from mountain to sea all ready t
convert into blessings to humanit,
n Is it because we have no heritae
il of history or heroic example to in
spire us? Nay verify. Answer me
of '76, of 1912, of AS of 81 wit
:, your roll of heroic deeds and sti
" more heroic dead.
Is this crisis due to defective forI
of government? No fight has bee
made on this. 1t embodies ever
o, principle of human liberty from til
% earliest Hellenic civilization to til
$: present time. 1t is the product {
is all the ages, and is the realization (
1 the brightest dreams of the patriot
to and sages and statesmen who's
re names have made tradition golde
Ie and history glorious.
Then since from none Of thes
~ causes come threatenings to til
ar happiness and prosperity of OF
" people and the perpetuity of OF
lie institutions, we will briefly enume
ot ate some of the causes which are g
q. least contributory to these har
10 times.
e. The march of invention and til
!" application of labor saving machin
~ cry to all forms of manufacture an
10 even agriculture, have gone ia
is toward throwing people out (
W employment, and producing disaste
1t People have not yet become ad
IS iusted to the new order of thing
This humiliation of time and man
fold increase of power, is soon ev
dent in the production of more tina
is necessary to supply the demand
- and markets are glutted, prices re
81 duced and mill and shop and plo
, work on half time, and sufferin
results.
~ In agriculture, men do not wor
= intelligently. The one crop systel
le hos nrovoi disaatrOus all nuor RI