Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-02-13

of the citizen is greatest. In the
United States the average school
period per inhabitant in 1897 was
four and three-tenths years; the
average school period for Massa-
chusetts is seven years. The pro-
ductive capacity of each citizen of
Massachusetts as compared with that
of each individual in the United
States is as 66 to 81.
If this be true.for common school
education, how much more strikingly
must it be true for technical educa-
tion, that fits a man especially for
productive industry.
In 1882 England woke up to find
that Germany was competing with
increasing success for the foreign
trade of the world. A commission
was appointed to ascertain the cause.
This commission, after a careful in
vestigation, reported that Germany's
industrial growth was owing to her
splendid system of chronological
schools. Since then England has
expended enormous sums of money
in preparing her sons to compete
with the skill of other lands.
In South Carolina it was known
for years that immense beds of cal
careous nodules containing numer-
GUS fossil bones existed in the vicinity
of Charleston. In 1867 DR.. Pratt
discovered the large percentage Of
available phosphate of lime which
these rocks contained. A company,
consisting of DR.. Pratt, w. G.. Bee,
Robt. Adger and @. G.. Memminger,
was chartered to do business. From
this little enterprise has grown the
great phosphate business of Carolina,
employing in the aggregate millions
of dollars.
For 200 years these rocks were
looked upon as useless excrescences
of nature, but the application Of
science opened up avenues of oppor-
tunity that led to fortunes.
would not have you think that I
am applying the "full dinner pail"
argument for moro technical educa-
tion. do not believe that the
ability to make money is true test
of the value of an education. am
pleading, however, for an education
that will fit a man for the duties and
responsibilities of citizenship. The
logic Of circumstances compels the
graduate in practical life to divide
his time between biscuits and books.
Ii is between the Soylla of biscuits
and the Charybdis of books that the
practical man must sail.
1t is easy enough to sneer at So
called bread and butter education,
but submit that bread and butter
are excellent articles to have in
abundance. When our count. y
wakes up without breakfast in sight
| fear that even the persuasive ac-
cents of Demosthenes and Cicero, in
the most finished Greek and Latin
orations, could not give comfort to
the multitude.
Technical education helps to pro-
duce wealth, which insures endow-
ments for colleges. Colleges are not
self-sustaining. They must depend
for their existence and growth upon
government aid or private benefi-
cence. a calculation made from the
catalogues of twelve leading univer-
sites shows that the average cost of
maintaining a student over and
above the fees he pays is $245 per
annum. Very few colleges in the
Southern States have attained a
genuine leadership in American edu-
cation, for the reason that the South
is comparatively poor, and has not
been able to furnish the money to
meet the requirements of great
modern university.
Industrial education, therefore,
that promises to enrich the South
will be watched with the most affec.
tionate interest by all interested ia
higher education.
Technical education has a culture
value not inferior to that OF other
lines Of education. 1t trains,
strengthens and energizes the faoul-
ties of perception, reason and obser-
vation. The system is subjective
and objective.
TO adopt an illnstration from Gar
field a man may read you in Keno
Iphon's best Attic Greek that Apollo
i'ssJyeea h'ssJeaa tiiis ttios unhappy fiifarsyas and