The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-04-20
A DAY MADE MEMORABLE
By POWERFUL ADDRESSES
The Leading Speeches Were by Dabney,
Glenn, RUSSELL Toon. Winston,
Brooks and Shaw.
DR.. ABBOTT'S GREAT ADDRESS At NIGHT


labor. The South has forged ahead and
is forging marvellously ahead by the in
domitable energy and skill of her own
white sons. The total product of mines
and agriculture in the South last year
amounts to over two and a half billion
dollars Now with this enormous ma
terial development, it is fact that
agriculture and trucking have not ad-
vanced since 1865. He here drew a con
trast between the appearance of the
agricultural regions of Pennsylvania,
where he never saw a negro and the
farms he saw on a trip yesterday from
Norfolk to Raleigh. For thirty years /
have labored for the education of the
people and the negroes in particular. and
l sorrow only at our strange stupidity in
having so long neglected our plain duty
to ourselves and to them, and the pity
of it all is the wickedness of old Eng
land and New England in having placed
this shirt of Nessus upon the grand old
citizenship and civilization of the South.
The curse of our schools is the infusion
of sectarianship or partisanship into
their conduct and control.
My test of craftsmanship is the con-
scientious devotion of a citizen to the
great question of education. / rejoice
that in this day we are inclined in that
respect to return to the principles of
Thomas jefferson. Every citizen is en-
titled to the inalienable right of educa-
tion. 1t is today in the air we breathe.
Politicians in Congress do not recog-
nize the fact that illiteracy is menace
to~our free institutions. People of
broader and nobler principles like our
visiting friends here are brave enough
to recognize that fact and unselfsh
enough to attempt to solve the problem.
The many excellent schools in the
South, supported by philanthropists, for
the colored people will not alcne solve
the problem What are these among so
many people. They aggregate not 10000
people when there are millions growing
in illiteracy every year.
There should be unity Of effort and
cooperation OF forces, material and
educate both white and black. And
, hope that my last prayer shall! he fer
universal education OF all races and peo-
pie and tongues. state schools at last
must do this work. The eloquent and
noble Bishop Galloway in a recent letter
says that better facilities for TIE eduta-
tion of the white people Of the South
would greatly facilitate the education of
the negro, and / agree with him.
One properly educated white man will
help to elevate dozen negroes where an
illiterate white man would hold an equal
number of negroes in the bondage of ig-
norance and degradation. And still the
philanthrophy Of our wealthy friends
North has been alost exclusively applied
TIL.
change in this respect. / know there will
be a change if the angle of vision by our
friends in the North is not too much dis
torted. / do not believe our noble friends
here from the North and others there
will shut their eyes to the fact that edu-
cation of the white youth of the South is
in any respects the shortest road to edu-
cation of the negro.
DR. MOWERS ADDRESS.
DR.. Chas D. McIver, of the Greensboro
Industrial and Normal College, next ad-
dressed the conference on 1.-Two Open
Fields in the South for Investment" He
said what he had to say would be the
same if not a Northern man or woman
We're in a thousand miles of Winston
Salem. The one reason why our
schools are not doing more work and bet
ter work in the way of education is
the lack of money make no apology for
asking people who are able to give of
their means to the cause of education.
Your bankers and cotton mill men do not
hesitate to take the train for
New York or Philadelphia to Sc
cure funds to start their business, and
l know | have the cause of education
more at heart than ever they have their
banks or their factories.
The first step in industrial education
is to learn to read Whatever this con-
ference should do, it must look first to
the abolition of illiteracy Next the
training of teachers who are the seed corn
of education and none but the best should
be used. The great question then is who
shall teach these children. higher
standard of proficiency in the teacher is
imperative and this standard cannot be |
attained without better pay. 1t must be
recognized that education is expensive,
and that illiteracy costs more than educa-
tion.
1t is difficult to get an agricultural
people to realize that ideas are worth
more than acres That the man of ideas
is apt to hold mortgage on half the
acres of every community. In Massa- |
ehusetts 1900 ideas make a patent and in /
North Carolina it takes 246,000
In proportion to our financial ability, |
we, of the South, are doing as much in
behalf of education as you of the North. |
The speaker here referred to the splen-
did management of the Peabody fund by
DR.. Curry and said he would not advise
the giving of money without condition
that at least an equal amount be raised
by the community assisted. Money in
vested in the education of women yielded