The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-04
WHAT A TEACHER THINKS.
One of The Best Things in The Amendment
Is The Educational Q Qualification.

if older than twelve, are exempted from
the requirements; if Under twelve they
will have at least nine years to learn
in. Our present school facilities are not
very good but they are sufficient to
teach every boy in North Carolina how
to read and write Within the next nine
years.
2. The educational qualification will
stimulate boys to go to school, will slim
rllate teachers to do better teaching,
will stimulate political parties TO pro-
mote education, will stimulate the State
to enlarge and multiply school facilities,
will give education its proper place. as
the foundation for suffrage, and will set
ND in public life for the youth of our
generation nobler and loftier ideal
of life
3. The promotion of education will be
a promotion of material prosperity. 1t
will develop skilled labor. 1t will train
the hand and the brain to work together,
and through them will develop the unlin-
tied natural resources Of North Carolina.
1t will supply native talent, trained and
educated in skilled labor, for the proper
utilization Of our timber. minerals, cot
ton and other raw material. and the
profitable employment of our water
power, fisheries, soil, climate and other
natural resources. Let us educate our
boys. and we shall cease to be hewers OF
wood and drawers of water for other
States. We shall cease to produce only
raw material, whose profits are enjoyed
by ether States with better trained and
better educated workmen. We shall be-
come State of educated laborers
skilled workmen, enjoying the profits Of
our own resources, and working up the
raw material Of other peoples, whose
lack Of skill and lack of education will
make them our servants.
4. Education will mean more happiness
and more knowledge In each household.
better order in each community, improved
health, comfort and morality throughout
the State 1t will cause more general
diffusion Of knowledge and more &C.
tive intelligence among all classes OF our
people and in all lines of industrial ac-
tivity. Farm boys will read more and
learn more. Mechanics will keep abreast
of the worlds progress in their lines.
The whole mass Of the people will be
lifted up and strengthened for the cease
less struggle of life. Popular govern
ment will daily become stronger instead
OF weaker Popular demands for re-
forms win be biased npon intelligent
comprehension of evils to be reformed,
and win be made with power that
will defy resistance.
3. Even the negro recognizes the adj
visibility Of an educational qualifica-
ton. He knows that it is best for even
negro boys to learn to read and write.
There are some who maintain the negro
win outstrip the white boy i'm the race
for education and will outnumber him at
the polls; that an educational qualifica-
ton will ultimately disfranchise more
whites than negroes. This fear is not
confirmed by statistics. The percentage
of negro children enrolled in school to
school population is not so large as the
percentage of white children, nor Is the
percentage of negro attendance at schools
as large as the percentage of white att
tendance. 1t is. an insult to white chill
dren and to the white race to. say that
the white boy will not learn to read and
write as eagerly as the negro boy. IL
education shah fit the negro to vote, 1t
will he cause for rejoicing. but If edu-
cation shall fit him to vote, the white
race will again protect itself against
negro suffrage. The North Carolina
white boy needs education, not to COM
pete with the negro boy, but to compete
with the educated boy in Massachusetts
and Connecticut. These two great
States are making more money from
cotton (although they do not raise an
ounce Of cottonD than North Carolina.
Massachusetts has the largest average
of wealth per capita Of all the States in
the Union. 1t has accumulated this
wealth by educated labor.
The educational qualification imposed
upon the boys becoming Of age after
1908 in the proposed amendment re-
quires only a minimum of education,
to witt rading and writing. 1t thus de-
prives no one of an opportunity to vote.
But while the requirement is small, its
moral effect will be tremendous. 1t Gre
ates an educational ideal, and starts
popular movement that must and will
produce most wholesome results. 1t will
arouse popular interest in education and
will strengthen and develop our whole
educational system. 1t will not only
guard and protect the ballot, but will
accomplish more for the moral, social
and material elevation Of our people
than any other agency that can be de-
vised. Every teacher, every preacher,
every intelligent man who desires the
prosperity of the State, who knows that
popular happiness and prosperity no less
than popular government. depend upon
intelligence, who believes that education
is not machine but strong vital force,
must support this amendment. Every
NAM who believes the negro to be capa-
BILE of any Improvement, who recognizes
the fact that negro suffrage has been
failure and "a detriment to both races,
who desires the negro to have fair
chance TO fit himself for the ballot, and
who wishes peace and friendship be-
tween the races instead Of enmity aud
war, must support the amendment.
TEACHER.
DIR. BULLS COUGH SYRUP, the