The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-09-11

education. Everybody must be edu-
Gated in this system. We should
have compulsory educational laws.
requiring at least fveyears ofschool-
ing for every child in the State.
Better teachers with larger pay must
be provided. Our Superintendent
of Public instruction should be our
best paid officials, men of the highest
talent, with knowledge of all that
the world is doing and with ability
to apply such knowledge to local
conditions.
Industrial training both in agricul-
ture and in mechanics-should be in
troduced into our public schools. In
~struction should be given in chemis-
try, botany and zoology, with COM
petent teachers. Sufficient equip
ment for this purpose might be had
at very moderate expense. The
speaker preceding me estimates the
expense of necessary chemical equip
ment to be no more than $25. That
for botanical would be still less and
for biological not much larger. Edu-
cation must be more practical than
it has been, must be directed toward
industrial ends.
The improvements of our public
schools and the introduction of in
dustrial education are of such trans
cendent Importance as to justify
National aid for these two purposes.
The National Government should as
sist in establishing and supporting
normal colleges for the education of
our public school teachers and in
establishing and maintaining a sys-
tenn of industrial education. 3
The negro is, and will continue to
be, a factor in the development of
the South. By nature and by train
ing he is best fitted for agriculture,
but he is no longer guided, supported
and pushed forward by the white
planter. He is in full competition
with the white laborer. If he has
the character intelligence and energy
to meet the new conditions and main
tain himself as a small land owner
and intensive farmer, he will sur
vive and prosper. But, if he con
tinually runs away from the farm to
the easy, vicious, servile AMI de-
graded life, which he seems to like,
in the towns and cities, he must go
the way of all hirelings and incom-
petents. This is the real race ques-
ton. The negro will neither be
helped nor hindered much by legis-
lation. His future depends now al
most entirely upon himself.
CD Increased transportation fdciIi-
ties producing q change from indus
trial isolation to lCOrId-cOmpetitiOn.
Nothing has contributed more to the
poverty of the South, at least of the
Piedmont section than the cOmpeti-
ton it has suffered for a full genera
ton with the fertile lands of the
Mississippi Valley, the Gulf States
and the great Northwest. Not a
single staple cropcan be grown profit
ably on the Atlantic Coast in compe-
tition with these States. AS was
suggested by the distinguished Com
missioner Of Agriculture in his ad-
dress the other evening, this compe-
tition will probably be less acute here
after in the grain market. Increase
of non-agricultural population in
those fertile sections and new mar
kets opening lin South America
and across the Pacific will furnish re-
lief and prevent permanent reduc-
ton of grain prices to points hereto
fore reached. It is doubtless true
also that newer markets for cotton
will be developed and that the estab-
lishment of cotton mills in the South
ern States will likewise tend to hold
up the price. But it is reasonably
certain hat increased production of
cotton in the Gulf States, in Asia, in
South America and in Africa will be
caused by the continuance even of
the present prices. We cannot hope
to keep cotton at 10 cents. We can
not curtail production and we can
not ~artiicaly force the price up. We
must produce it more cheaply than
it can be produced elsewhere. AS
the American manufacturer with
superior intelligence, skill, energy,
tools and machinery is producing
manufactured goods more cheaply
than any other laborer, so the Amer