The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-16
SOUTHERN COTTON SPINNERS
Finish Their Work and Adjourn.
strong Address of Editor Edmunds.

Atlanta, Nov. 15.--The Southern Cot
ton Spinners Association concluded
it's work to-day and adjourned sine
die. DR.. j. II. McAden of Charlotte,
was reelected president, and c. b.
Eryant also of Charlotte was chosen
secretary and treasurer. The board of
| governors was increased from 8 to Is,
with D. A. Tompkins as chairman.
The invitation of Col. ] c. Hemp
hill of Charleston, that the spinners
meet next year in the South Carolina
city, was accepted. and the convention
viii be held in Charleston some time
in May, 1902
A communication was read from Ed
ward Atkinson of Boston. in which he
made a plea for the manufacture Of
better goods, and referred to the pos
sibilities of the export trade along
that line. That paper was referred to
the board of governors.
The sOuth's Industrial Task.
The subject of the speech of Richard
Fl. Edmunds, editor of the Manufac-
turers Record. was the "South's In
dustrial Task" In the course of his
| remarks he said
Some of our schools, perhaps the
|
edge, have not kept pace with the
growth in material wealth of their re-
| spective states. For this their facui-
| ties cannot be held responsible. In
more than one of the struggling insti-
tutions are to be found investigators
and teachers second to none in earnest
ness and fidelity to their calling. 1t
is not the fault of the boys. They
are knocking for admission in ever-in-
creasing number The blame lies with
public opinion, which permits legisla
| ture after legislature to adjourn with
| out receiving sufficient encouragement
from taxpayers to justify more liberal
| appropriations for the kind of public
education that pays. That opinion is
| gradually changing, as under the guild
ance of an alert press the people are
beginning to perceive that as is pro-
duction, so ought also to be the means
of training men to produce, and as
are such means, so is productive capac-
/ ity increased.
"There are in the South 668 cotton
mills, a dozen or more great systems
OF, railway and hundreds of industrial
undertakings of various kinds, which,
without trenching upon their capital
or without diminishing perceptibly the
dividends for their stockholders or in
dividual owners, could provide the
! means for at least 1000 scholarships,
each matching in amount of annual
cost and covering the same time those
founded by our Pittsburg philanthro-
pist. should like to see 1OnU round
ed at the beginning of the next four
years, so that by 1906 we should have
1000 Southern boys enjoying them
Each cotton mill steel plant. iron
mine. oil well, lumber. mill or railroad
| now able should promise to contri butte
for four years or less SIPS year for
the necessary expenses of at least one
lsy3oor boy at Southern technical
school who Shall show himself by ex.
animation to be oApable of enjoying
such an aid The recipient of the schol-
4 arships Shall bind himself
First. To repay to the institution
in which he shall be student by
giving promissory notes for small
amounts or otherwise, the full amount
expended on his scholarship account,
the payments to be made out of his
first earnings after graduation.
Second. To seek employment on in
dustrial lines within the limits of the
South, certainly during the time In
which he is meeting his 'promissory
notes .
"I0ach donor of a scholarship should
| promise to give, in selecting employees,
either as managers of departments, in
dustrial chemists, members of engi-
neering staffs, etc. preference to the
| holder of that scholarship who may
have qualified himself for such po-
sition.
Some of the donors of the scholar
ships are naturally likely to prefer that
they should be at the disposal of tech
nical schools situated within the state
where they themselves have their hab-
! itat. This natural desire, however
should not prevent them from insist
ing that provision be made by the
state for the strengthening of the
teaching force or the betterment of
equipment of the institution entrusted
| with the scholarship to an annual
amount equal to the sum expended on
account of the scholarship.
BY this plan the state. the donors
of the scholarships, the holders of them
| and the schools where they are ex-
/ pended are linked together by ties of
lofty self-interest which cannot fail to
have notable effect for good upon
everybody Immediately interested and
upon the whole South
Through a process of natural selec-
! ton we may expect one of our exist
| ing institutions to become the central
/ force of this movement. an inspiration
! for others, and educating the authori-
ties in the lower grades of our public
schools to give the necessary prepara-
! tory training, If even at the sacrifice
of useless conventionalities
"Sef-help in this direction will un-
doubtedly induce other help. To him
that hath shall be given"
Mr.. Edmonds quoted extensively
! from letters showing the desire of
/ Southern boys TO receive legitimate
aid. Every technical school in the
! South is helping to train as many as
possible by furnishing work in payment
of board. Hundreds of boys are work
I ing their way through these schools by
1 acting as walters in the diningrooms
! and as helpers around the stables and
dairies where farms are attached to
secure even these opportunities, and
have TO be turned away. sIe contend
ed that the whites OF the South should
not permit friends In the North to do
more specifically for the industrial ed
ucation of the negroes. as at Hampton
and Tuskegee, than the South Is will
ling TO do aside from taxation. for the
poor white boys; urged the cotton mill
men 70 become leaders In the move.
ment.
Good Roads Convention.