The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-28
[ooNCLuDEp PROM PAGE 9.l

ing. we nave every variety VI, mo
terial to worko on in agriculture, hor-
ticulture, st~ock-raising, mining,
commerce and manufactures. We
have abundant labor to work with,
but we lack skill and training to
make our work efficient.
New England and the Middle
States early learned that wealth
comes from handling the finished
product instead of the raw material.
North Carolina during all the wears
of her poverty has handled only the
raw material, selling it to others to
gain the profit that comes from the
finished product. There must be a
change; otherwise we shall remain
poor forever. Worse than this, we
shall become too poor even to live;
we shall be ground to powder by the
relentless and irresistible forces OF
modern Industrial competition. To
us Industrial training is an absolute
necessity. Our boys and girls should
be sent to school under a compulsory
educational law. The school term
should be increased to at least five
months a year. A better class OF
teachers should be secured by an in
crease of pay. Courses of study
should be arranged, of a practical
nature, looking as far as possible to-
ward agricultural and mechanical
pursuits. The Agricultural and Me-
chanical College for boys and the
Normal and Industrial School for
girls should be provided with sum-
cient dormitories, recitation rooms,
machinery and other equipment to
accommodate all the boys and girls
that will come to them. Let these
things be done and North Carolina
in another generation will take her
old place near the head of the col
umn in the sisterhood of States.
A good beginning has already been
made in industrial education. Our
College of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts is now training our boys to be
machinists, mechanics, electricians,
chemists, truckers, fruit-growers,
dairymen, stock raisers and manu-
facturers. They are in great de-
mand. Many of them are called
away before they graduate. Our
supply of skilled laborers and of well
educated civil, mechanical and cleo
trical engineers and mill men is
scarcely equal to one-tenth of the
demand. New enterprises through
out the State are steadily increasing
the demand. Skilled labor and highly
educated engineers are imported
from other States, and are doing the
work and reaping the rewards which
belong to our own boys.
The accommodations at the College
are insufficient for more than one
half or one-third of the boys who
are seeking industrial education.
Last year we turned off nearly a
hundred. We need dOrmitory room
for at least 200 more than we now
have. We need a textile building, a
chemical building, a biological build
ing, an auditorium, an armOry and
gymnasium, a library building with
halls for the literary societies and a
building for veterinary surgery. It
is commonly supposed that the State
is spending large sums of money on
our College, but this is not true. The
State appropriation is only SO, 900
annually. .
The State owes it to her sons, espe-
cially to the boys on the farms and
in the work shops, to provide ample
accommodations for their industrial
education to equip the College thor
Oughly with all facilities for educa-
ton to reduce the expense of educa-
ton to so low a point that families
of ordinary means may find it avail
able to their sons and to provide
opportunities for labor and self-sup-
port in order that bright boys with
out any property at all may be en-
abled by their own efforts to be as
fully equipped for life and to make
as good a start as lads more blest by
fortune and inheritance.
-.'..
FROM JACKSON COUNTY.