The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-06-13
LIKE THE CALL
OF HE BUGLE
Continued from FIRST pago.)

DeCCcr we have trusted anu feSpec"
ted each other more and we have
found that all our little school
rivulets and rilIs, smaller creeks
and larger streams form. a part of
larger system-dO not How in diff
ferent, but in the same directions
and that when they have finally
come together there on the bosom
OF the comminglcd waters floats
the ship Of state more or less
grandIy with every mast and sail
reflected in it's pellucid depths.
Il shall not tonight take up your time
in coming over the statistics of our
alarming illiteracy. They tell painful
story Others have told it more effective
ly than / could do and we have all heard
it with such sorrow that there is danger
of our sinking under the load of humilia-
tion that we are compelled to carry. |
would prefer rather TO sound note OF
encouragement, that hearing you might
take courage and go forward. If, as /
think we have already touched bottom,
and the lowest point of our humiliation
has already been reached and passed,
then there is reason for an encouraging
rote
81 have felt that many criticisms
which have been made with refer
ence to our educational condition
were to some extent misleading
and perhaps all of them would DE
in the nature of an injustice, but
for the certainty that they have
been made in love. There will be
one great saving feature in the last
Judgment, every extenuating cir
cumstance will be considered if
not made known. The Great Teach
er, when upon earth, was not harsh
in his exactions, but tempered JUS
tice with mercy. He seemed to rec
Ognize the principle in human ma
ture that responded more quickly
to a kind word than to blow; &he
former takes y0u by the hand and
lifts you mp, the harsh Judgment
knocks you down and tells you go
get mp. The criticism may be neces-
sary and often is, but we have al
ready had it. A father says to his
SON, Harry, come on, SON. 7 am
coming, father, says Harry, and
the little fellow comes blowing and
pnffing under his load with COM
mcndable speed, but the impatient
father s1aps his jaws for his 2ail-
I'VE to make fast enough time and
because too much was expected of
him, and goes off and sulks, doing
worse the next time. No people of
civilization since history began
were ever left with so great bur-
den to hear and with so little with
which to bear it as our Southern
people in the gloomy April of 1865.
Scarcely an able bodied man was
left, except the ignorant newly
cnanciDated negro, who, without
n red cent in his pocket, undertook
TO how a fortune for himself in an
untried world. The Southern sol
der returned to home from
which two-ffths of the wealth had
gone by ono single act and half of
the remainder by the terrible de-
vastations of civil war, and from
which since that time a sum equal
to the whole has been taken in ahe
way OF national pensions for which
scarcely any return has been made.
When the county and State collects
a tax it goes right back to the
township in the payment of public
school teachers, the building of
roads and bridges, the payment of
jurors, witness fees, and in other
similar ways. "A very small part of
the county tax money leaves the
county, or OF the State tax money
leaves the State; it comes right
back TO us, but of the vast sum said
to have been over 100000, 900,
which is taken from the South by
indirect taxation FOR pensions, only
an infnitessimal part has ever
reached us again. It has been as
if for thiry-five years GARNER
should have taken of the products
OF his whole farm and should each
year put on the Northern section
in the shape of fertilizers the
whole of the profits arising from
tho Southern section of the pIanta-
tion. Not only have we been de-
prived of the $5OO,OOO,OOO, none
of which has been returned in any
form, but we have lost the interest
and wealth producing power of
that amount which would have
proven to be a larger sum yet. I
am not complaining, not grumb-
ling. The home coming of the
Southern soldier has been so often,
so eloquently, and so patheticalIy
told that need not say that he
met the conditions which confront
ed him with a courage as sublime
as the world ever saw. He did
not stop with working with his
own unaccustomed hands that he
might feed and educate his own
children, he was ready to divide
the pittance left him with the FACE
that had served him, and which
for all these years has been unable
to do more than make a scanty
living for itself. 1t is consequently
not to be wondered at that the
South has found the task some
thing more than its ability to meet
with the same measure of success
that has been found elsewhere. OF
necessity a double system of
schools has had to be maintained
side by side in districts where the
population is scattered and shift
ing. The double system has had
the effect of 1essening our ability
to meet the demands of thor
oughIy progressive school system.
1t is little less than cruel to COM
pare our progress under these con-
ditions with that of the Western
States with their pIethoric purses
made so by the ever Increasing
value OF the public lands, bought
with the blood of our fathers and
paid for out of their treasury and