Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1902-12-24

toddy, are ulYldlnS nOnOfS WIN tue
mechanic arts and the natural sciences,
and We have come to recognize that in
the great world Of industry all forms of
useful labor are honorable.
! We believe that the steam engine,
with its every part so ezquiaitiyely
adapted to purpose that it seems to
throb with life and act with human in
telHgence, viii go down into history as
wonderful and beautiful production
Of creative genius as the Phidian Zeus
or the Madonna of a Raphael We be-
lieve that the great captain of industry,
directing with admirable precision the
vast forces Of organized labor, is en-
dowed with the same nice diplomacy,
keen insight and executive ability
that we were once accustomed to re-
gard as peculiarly the attributes Of the
military genius marshall1ng his army
upon the successful field of battle. We
believe, too that he who bridges our
rivers, tunnels our mountains, or,
striking the barren rock, bids the liv-
ing water gush forth and make the
desert blossom like the rose, deserves
as well of his generation and of poster
ity as he who sings our songs or writes
our history.
To one who contemplates the vast
undeveloped resources of the South,
the future is big with promise. We
cherish the hope that the day is near
at hand when every red hill IN old
Georgia will re-echo with the sound of
awakened industry; when the millions
of bales Of cotton raised in the South
will be manufactured in the South;
when her mines will bemore extensive
| ~ developed; her timber more care
fully husbanded the wasted power of
her rivers utilized; her swamps and
marshes drained.
Then to the name of Southerner,
which has ever stood for all that is
chivalrous In man and virtuous in wo-
man, will be restored its former pres
t1ge of afiuence and of power. God
speed the day and grant that into the
hands Of our Southern boys this noble
work shall be entrusted.
If these great hopes are to be real
lied, we must be alive to the condi-
tions that confront US now. We can
not turn beck to the new duties before
US, nor can We shift our responsible
ties upon the shoulders of another.
We must measure up in full to the re-
quirements of ourage. Wemust strike
from our eyes the scales of prejudice
and come to see things as they are.
Our children are to take up the work
of life where we leave it, and carry il
on to perfection or to failure. The re.
suit of their future efforts, the measure
Of their future usefulness, the degree
of their future happiness, are being
determined by the nature of theil
present training. Our public schools
today are moulding the nations des.
tiny. How well that work is being
done the coming years will decide.
However it may be in other sections
we know it can be said in all fairness
that our schools in the South have
been too conservative. This has beer
caused partly by our inability to pro
vide proper equipment for new studies
and largely by the natural disposition
of our people. We Southerners are
inclined to hold on to that which is
! good, forgetting that it is also oul
duty to reach out for that which is bet
ter.
1t is good thing to be conservative
but there is a point beyond which con
, servatism degenerates into sluggish
ness. We must fairly and squarely
meet the issues of the day.
, The influence that this too conserva-
tive spirit has exerted to our education
: al system is plainly apparent. There
are in our public schools, today thous-
| &c L. :