The progressive farmer., 1902-09-02
MoNUMENT-BUILD1NG AND HISTORY
TEACHING.

republication OF the IOl1OW1ng para
graphs from a letter in last weeks
Biblical Recorder written by DR.. John
E. White, a native of this State but
now pastor of the Second Baptist
Church of Atlanta. The letter was
written from Boston while DR.. White
was on his recent tour of the New
England States:
"This New England country grows
on me. It would charm you with its
beauty. Every turn of the road and
corner of the street greets you with
an inscription or statue or slab-te1-
ing its tale of some noble thing that
somebody did for somebody else. The
air is fragrant with heroism of one
kind or another. I am impressed
greatly with the civic educational
value of monuments. The South has
lost and will continue to lose in edu-
cational power by it's lack of memo
rials to record its best traditions. New
England is not all the result of Har-
ward and the public grammar and high
schools. Its parks are universities of
the common people. Every common
bush is fire. We have trouble get
ting our history written; we might put
some stones to tell quickened gener-
alton that we had history to write.
Gall my thoughts here run back
home. The New Englanders do not
know half as well that the South car
ried at least half the glory of the Rev
olution, as I know and all know in the
South that New England carried the
other half. That is because we have
cared so little ourselves to honor
places and names with tokens to be
read of all. I think of it now when
Judge Schenck of Greensboro, was at
work at Guilford Battle Ground, I had
little disposition of sympathy. If
Guilford Battlefield was in Massachu-
setts it would be a garden of heroes.
Who Of us know where the Battle of
Alamance was fought? That was ten
years before Concord. A New Eng
lander the other day knew nothing of
it whatever I think he still thinks I
was drawing on my imagination. If
that ground was hereabouts it's marble
would be higher and winter than that
at Lexington and Concord"
DR.. White, we think, does not over
estimate the educational value of
monuments. But the scarcity of our
monuments is due to the general ig-
norance of our history in much lar
ger degree than the general ignorance
of our history is due to the scarcity
of monuments. When there shall have
grown up a generation of school chill
dren impressed while young with the
dignity and glory of our State history,
taught by accurate and well-written
books and by enthusiastic teachers,
we shall have a citizenship not indif-
ferent to the value of monuments as
memorials of great men and great
deeds.
Until then, however, we shall have
monuments only as a result of the
self-sacrifcing patriotism of such men
as Judge David Schenck. Until then
we shall have such failures as we have
had heretofore. The Raleigh Posts
persistent appeal for a monument to
Nathaniel Macon resulted in only two
or three subscriptions The monu-
ment to Col. L. L. Polk is still incom-
plete. For the Sir Walter Raleigh
monument movement, started with
such blare of trumpets last year, on
ly about $40O of the $4,000 wanted
has been paid in. The appeals of
President Alderman and Mr.. J. W.
Bailey for a monument at the now un-
marked grave of Archibald Murphy
'have been answered only by silence,
profound and sad" Nothing has been
heard of the proposed monument to
Calvin II. Wiley since the Teachers
Assembly adjourned in June. The
promoters of the Worth Bagley monu-
ment, taking the tide at its flood, rails
ed considerable money while interest
in the Spanish War was at fever heat,
but their present inactivity would in
dicate that enough has not yet been
raised to justify them in beginning
work.
The State needs nothing more sore
ly than an interesting, accurate, we'll
propertioned school history of North
Carolina. We believe that the Text