The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-08
INTEREST IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

The teachers are of course the real
leaders in educational matters, but there
is deep interest felt by men of all call
ings in North Carolina in the educat ton
of the children of the State. Indeed in
some communities the stimulus almost al
together comes from public spirited citi-
zens who arouse the teachers as well as
the parents Three items have appeared
in our contemporaries this week illustrat-
ing labors and interest of men who are
not teachers in the public schools. The
first is from the Washington Messenger
and shows how member of Congress and
a leading citizen of Hyde county are
spending part of the summer We quote:
I'm continuation of the plan marked
out after Congress adjourned, Hon. ]. H.
Small and Mr.. S. S. Mann will begin a
canvass of Hyde county during the present
month. in the interest Of the public
schools. They will speak first at Swan
Quarter and Ocracoke. the date to be
fixed by Mr.. Manu.
The spectacle of a member of Congress
devoting his vacation to urging the par
ents of his district to send their children
i to the schools and make better schools for
them is one that must have an excellent
effect in bcttering the public school sys-
tenn of the State.
The second is communication in the
Greenville Reflector by Mr.. A. G. Cox,
the leading spirit in the business life of
Wintervile, a growing village in Pitt
county, where last month the Teachers
Institute of Greene and Pitt counties was
in session about a month. 1t was one
Of the best institutes ever held in the
State and did much good. Mr.. Cox, af-
! ter writing about it, urged parents and
uthurss 70 do -7el tlaey--,ould to make the
public schools Better, showing that un
less they did, the best results could not
be obtained from the increased school
fund. Concluding his sensible article, Mr..
Cox says:
Now we are going to have more money
to spend in our public schools than ever
before and we will have better teachers
with their hearts in the work Let's
stand by them and make our public schools
more successful than ever before"
The third is the spirit manifested to-
ward the new school libraries. In several
ed the fund that comes from the public
treasury, by donations NOTABLY Capt w.
l.. London in Chatham, Mr.. S. NJ Gattis in
Orange; and the Durham Herald records
the generous and helpful act of General
Julian S. Carr, whose devotion to public
education has always been marked by
large liberality. The Herald says:
yesterday Col J. S. Carr gave his
check to Prof. C. w. Massey, superin-
tendent of the county schools, for one
hundred and ninety dollars. This money
is to be used in securing Libraries for
the schools of the county.
Under the Rural Library Act the
State agrees to give ten dollars to each
of the first six schools to apply, provided
%, scrcoI and county board each give
ten dollars When this offer was made
there were a number of applications and
I'm order 10 further encourage the work
Colonel Carr agreed to step in and take
tho place of the State with all schools
that wanted to take up the offer for help
To set lbrary-that is Colonel Carr
agreed to give all schools ten dollars
each. provided the schools complied with
the Rural Library Act. Since making this
offer nineteen schools have applied for the
help. this making twenty-five schools to
apply for libraries.
MIR. Massey is OF the opinion that
many more will yet apply and that by
the middle of the fall term nearly every
white school and many of the colored
schools in the county will have lib
rary. The generous act on the part
of Colonel Carr will do a great deal to-
wards encouraging public school work in
the county"
The State will grow in prosperity as it
grows in knowledge, for an educated peo-
pie get wealth out of the things that ig
norant people use without knowing their
value. The census of 1901 would not show
a large percentage of illiteracy if all the
people in the State who have the ability,
the time and the means would show their
devotion to public schools by emulating
the example of these gentlemen named in
this article.