The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-11-05
Living Issues.
FOR OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

State Ought to DO-Judge r. W. Winston's
Speech Before the State Literary and his
toricaI Association.
1 am asked 80 tell why Durham
county has more rural libraries, a
longer public school term, a larger
attendance of pupils in proportion to
population, and, in fine, a deeper in
terest in public education than any
of her sister counties. And 7 am
also asked TO say, if I may, how this
spirit may be made to spread untilit
covers our good State, even az the
waters cover the sea To endeavOr
to do so is a labor of love. Yea, it
is more; il is a solemn duty at this
hour.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF DURHAM COUNTY
Good roads and good schools r
inseDarable. OF what avail are
school houses and teachers if public
roads are in such a plight that walk
ing ia a faster method of getting
along and much safer than riding?
In 1910 Calvin H. Wiley, then Super
intendent of Public instruction, see-
ing this hindranoe TO the growth of
public schools, complained, in we'll
directed article, that the rivers and
good roads of the North and West
were stripping North Carolina of
her best material. The county of
Durham has not failed to see that a
good public road has an educational
as we'll as a commercial value. Long
before the rock orusher and the two-
wheeled snraper and other patent
road machinery had found their slow
way into North Carolina, Durham
county had constructed rock bridges
and had causewayed with stone it's
worse roads, so that Cameron's low
grounds, in the Flat and Emo and
Neuse river sections had lost their
terrors for those hardy men.
No sails nor rudders need those
ships.
Which freemen drive with wagon
whips.
With maoadam roads, of regula-
ton grade, bisecting all portions of
the country, schools are easy TO
reach, and as Durham county is
small in area and is building about
fifteen miles of road a year, it will
be but a few years before every
school house on a public road will
also be on a macadam road.
Durham has great county pride
Two facts are significant: no man
was aver lynched in Durham county,
and no person in the county has eve
held an office outside of the county.
She is too law-abiding for the former
and too busy for the latter.
DR.. Wiley wrote again in 1910 that
North Carolina had sons who would
honor any people, but we had no
State pride and no State system
people were straining their eyes 80
the desirable features of all other
countries but their own and plants
from our human nurseries were
shedding bloom and bearing fruit to
beautify and enrich many other re
gions, while their native and goOdly
land was desolate and poor. The
people of Durham county do not fall
within the reach of our good doctors
criticism they have faith in them
selves and pride in their institutions.
Her school teachers are full of en-
thusiasm. Her Superintendent Of
Public instruction is not an old,
worn-out fellow who has been foisted
upon the county TO give him a job.
Superintendent Massey gives his en-
tire time and energy TO the work
For 224 days of the year last passed
he was busily engaged cheering the
faint, encouraging the weak and
raising all TO a higher standard of
excellence. He visits the schools
frequently he observes the teachers
and their methods, and he measures
their respective ability and adapta-
ton for the duties assumed. Under
his wise guidance the teachers meet
as many as many as half a dozen
times each yearin the court house
in Durham and exchange ideas and
hear lectures upon subjects that are
instructive and helpful to them.
During the past year he and other
specialists treated of the methods of
teaching, of school management, of
the science of education and other
cognate subjects. These teachers
seem to believe that
"Books give