The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-21


over 100000. We shipped to you in the
same year from little strip of land less
than ten miles wide and extending from
Mount Olive to Chadbourne, distance OF
less than one hundred miles on the At
lantic Coast Line, more than $l,0oO,Ooo
worth of strawberries and those who
grew the strawberries made all the or
binary products of the farm, including
beans, peas, corn and cotton. The little
town of High Point on the Southern Rail
way, with a population of less than 5000,
is strenuously asserting her claim to be
the second largest manufacturer OF turni-
ture in the United States This claim
is probably not true, but at any rate
it shows that She is doing a great bust
ness. She is selling furniture in Tacoma,
San Francisco, Cuba and South America.
My own little town of Goldsboro, with
less than 5000 inhabitants, annually ex-
hibits in Grand Rapids the product of
her furniture factory and sells in COM
petition with the factories of that city
her goods in all the States of the North
west We are growing more cotton, more
corn, more wheat, more oats, more veg
etables than we ever grew before and
are selling to the people of the world
our manufactured products Our lumber
business has probably quadrupled in the
past ten years and covers the entire
State. We have not yet learned to make
wooden nutmegs, but our cotton oil is
sold under the name of olive oil through
out the land We in large measure man
ufacture our own fertilizers and the other
day in the Agricultural and Mechanical
College when the boys wanted additional
lathes for wood turning they made them
themselves at a cost of less than twenty
five per cent of what they could buy them
at We have learned a lesson from the
North; we have ceased to set Drawn
against brain; we have learned the power
of skill and are training our young in the
ways of thrift and economy. We have
seen other people grow rich at our eN-
pense until we have resolved to appro-
pirate the fruit of our own labor and
thought to ourselves. TO do this we nave
found it necessary to provide for uniVer-
sal education. We are going to educate
the entire population. Our amendment to
the Constitution renders necessary the
education of the people. Children who
come of age after 1903 cannot vote with
out reading and writing, and we are en-
deavcring to give to every child an OPP
portunity to secure right to participate
in the government of this State We
spend on education this year more than
half of the entire revenue of the State.
OF course l do not include in this the
county and town expenses. We conduct
our penitentiary, our orphanages, our in
situations for the deaf and dumb and
blind our military, our insane asylums,
our higher institutions Of learning, our
executive, judicial and legislative depart
ments of government at a less cost than
we pay for the education of the children
of the State If I were to give you the
figures they would appear to you to be
small because of your great wealth, but
relatively we are doing much more for
education than the great State of New
York We are going to do more still.
want to declare to you that no MEMBER
of that Society in 1910 shall hang his
head in shame when the census reports
of that year in reference to illiteracy
shall be published. 1t will be of interest
to you to know that in educating all our
people we shall not depart from the mem
cries of the past nor forget the teachings
of cur ancestors We believe in agri-
culture and in commerce.; we want to see
all the people grow in wealth but above
all we wish to maintain that sturdy
fidelity to principle and that apparently
reckless disregard of life which has ever
DISTINGUISHED North Carolinians in every
contest where heroism counted. We have
Jagged behind in the contest in these
matters which attract the attention OF
the world In everything in which our
people have been trained they have gone
to the front. When it comes to war they
have been good riders and made the fin
est calvary. They had been trained IN
riding They made great infantry. They
had been taught to shoot with accuracy
and had learned from their mothers that
it was cowardly to turn your back upon
an enemy, and when these people shall
be trained in the arts Of peace they will
learn to do things and create values l
warn you now that they will take their
place in the front ranks with the captains
of industry. All that we want for the
future is to be let alone. We are doing
no injustice to any one. We have peace
throughout the length and breadth of
the State: the humblest negro, slave
though he may have been and unlettered
as he is. can enter our courts Of justice
with absolute certainty of fair trial. He
can turn 10 the Legislature anu his appear
for legislative aid in the education of his
children will not go unheeded, and l de-
clare to you that his prayer for Glenn
ency will not be unheard in the execu-
tive office. We are one people, the white
man cannot lift himself without at the
same time raising the negro. If the
whites are educated the negroes will be
also We do mot wish to be misunder-
stood; we have a problem Of oar own;
we have difficulties which you cannot
When the Chinaman became
a menace to the West the Congress of the
United States passed the Chinese exclu
sion act and freed the white men of the
Pacific from him. When the negro dis
turbs us the same men who excluded the
Chinese instead of aiding us to solve the
problems which are upon us, attack, Willy
and misunderstood US. You nave your
problems We do not NEEDLE with them.
We leave you to work out your own des-
tiny. not without interest on our part,
not without anxiety lest you fail i'll your
solution. but still without assuming to
understand your difficulties better than
you and to advise you upon subjects
which confront you and not us We do
NOT ask for charity; we are not seeking
gifts: all that we do want is to be let
alone to work out for ourselves in love,
in naana in ouiat in fear of God the