The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-06-17

framed skill anu IecHnlcdi kION'Ct -
The improvement of agricultnra, the
development of manufactures, the
opening of mines. the extension OF
fishing and trucking interests. the
introduction and successful prosecu-
ton of fruit growing and stock rails
ing, all demand the adequate training
and equipment of each generation or
workmen. Massachusetts, which has
the largest per capita of wealth in
the Union. maintains her position at
the head of the column by persistent,
systematic and thorough training of
her youth in all lines C industrial
skill She produces not an ounce of
cotton. but with two large and well
equipped textile schools produces cot
ton spinners. weavers, dyers, and des-
igners. A cotton weaver in SwitZer-
land converts one pound Of Southern
cotton into delicate fabrics retailing
for $500. He is not selling cotton
but technical skill and knowledge.
A young painter admiripg the rich
coloring of Sir Johshua Reynolds por-
traits, asked the great painter What
do YOU mix your paints with?' with
brains replied sir Joshua. Every val
liable product is mixed with brains.
trained skill and technical
knowledge are worth more than raw
materials. The world produces. today.
fifteen million bales of cotton, and
weaves it into fabrics. If this had to
be done by methods employed cen
tury ago, it could not be accomplished
by the entire population of the globe.
THE FUTURE OF NORTH CARO-
North Carolina has every element
of wealth excepting skilled labor and
technical knowledge; abundant raw
material for varied and extensive man.
ufactures; large water-power and con
venient supplies Of coal; easy access to
the markets of the world: soil adapt
ed to the production Of all crops and
the support of all animals essential II
mans comfort and enjoyment; regu-
lar seasons with sufficient rainfall;
forests of the most useful trees, album
dant and self-renewing; climate fav-
orabIe to health. labor and economi-
cal living; population docile, intelli-
gent. hardy and reliable. The only
thing needed is skill and training.
technical knowledge and machinery
Our boys and girls are growing mp
frequently. too frequently, in ignor-
ance. in idleness and in poverty. By
training and education they should
be converted into skilled workers
Twenty thousand lads in our State
today are earning less than fifty cents
daily. With one. years training they
might earn $500: and with four years
training the most talented and ener-
getic of them might become engineers,
chemists, architects, manufacturers,
developing new industries, directing
skilled labor and furnishing renumer-
ative employment to thousands OF
workmen now idle or earning mere
subsistence. The negro boy in the
South has better opportunities for liz
dustrial education than the white boy.
Hampton Institute in Virginia and
Tuskegee Institute i'm Alabama are
training thousands of negroes an
nually to be skilled workmen. They
have no rivals in institutions for the
training of white youth. In North
Carolina there are more institutions
and larger equipments for negro in
dustrial education than for white. The
State appropriates only $4,000 a year
for the support of its college of Ag-
riculture and Mechanic Arts in Raj
eigh. Massachusetts at the head of
the Industrial column, in order to
stay there and in order to keep us at
the foot. spends annually $1,000 for
industrial education to every dollar
spent by North Carolina. For lack of
a thousand dollars last session one
half of the Freshman Glass in our
Agricultural and Mechanical College
were without tools for working in the
shoDs: for lack of rooms to sleep in,
$50 boys will be turned away from the
college the coming September; for
lack of $500 our college is unable to
make its own castings and to give in
struction i'm this line of work; for
lack of $4,000 we are deprived of a
building and suitable machinery for
textile instruction. Although nature
declares that the greatest opportun-
ity of the century for the develop
ment of cotton manufacture in q J
forms belongs to NORTH Carolina. we
are permitting other States less fay-
ored by nature to steal our birthright.
South Carolina, at a cost of 100000 eS-
tablished Textile School three years
ago. where the public today are weav-
II0 inc UlOSb Dtuuill III IdDiiCS vi Odt-
guard looms. Over a hundred pup Is
are in this school. The State of Geor-
gia has established large and well
equipped Textile School in Atlanta.
and preparations are now making in
that city for the manufacture of tex
tile machinery. The Legislature of
Missouri, after hearing an address
from North Cardinals industrial TO-
neer, Mr.. ID. A. Tompkins, of Char
lotte, Immediately voted $4,000 for
the establishment Of a Textile School.
In North Carolina we are disfranchis-
ing the negro, but providing more
generously for his industrial educa-
ton than for that Of the white boy.
We are asserting Anglo Saxon super
iority and failing to provide the edu-
cation necessary 10 maintain it. North
Carolina should be the Massachusetts
of the South. Her College of Agricul-
ture and Mechanical Arts, rivaling the
Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy, should train annually for the ser
vice of the State and the development
of its resources, thoroughly equipped
engineers, civil, electrical, sanitary,
mining, mechanical and chemical.
architects, chemists. agriculturists.
and horticulturists. BY the side of
this great college should stand a