The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-15

and think that they ought to stand at the
head of the procession, we are compelled
to educate our children The truth of
the matter is that we have Jagged in the
rear and have failed to come up to the
high mark of our calling. simply because
we were ignorant. We have less crime
than other States 1t is, therefore, not
our vices that have kept us behind. We
will have to look for our relative posi-
tion to another cause, and that cause
may be found in our neglect of education
We have been an economical, thrifty in
dustrious and sober people. obeying the
law and regarding the rights of our
neighbors, but Notwithstanding these
facts we have become the poorest State
in dollars and cents in the American
Union. This can only be explained on
the ground that we have not known how
to do things 1t is incumbent, therefore,
upon us to realize this fact and to correct
it, We can never become a leadGr in
the American Union unless We educate
our people Money is not everything,
and indeed is not the chief thing, for the
"love of money" we are told in the
Scriptures, "is the root of all evil but
it is still very necessary thing in order
we are capable. Education is necessary
in order that we may work out the
fullest industrial and agricultural deyel-
opment of our State. Other people have
made inventions and gained monopolies
and we have bought their inventions be-
cause we were incapable of producing the
things which we wished The time has
come when we ought to cease to buy
! III \ aNry,t tn
begin to create and sell them to other
people. 1t is certain that we have the
finest population In the world, strong.
alert. liberty loving, independent self
sacrificng-wth these qualities we ought
TO become leaders in the world. We
ought to sell more than we buy; not only
more of the ordinary articles of eX-
change, but more of literature and art
and the produce of science. Why should
we not write books, prose and poetry,
make statuary, and execute paintings and
compel the world to buy them because OF
their merit? If We really have the peo-
pie who charged furthest at Gettysburg
and laid down more arms at AppomattoX
than any other people, who sent more
men to the front in the Southern Con-
federacy than we had voters, why
should we not produce things that the
world needs both in wares and in the
products of the mind; if We are worthy
of the great men who made history for
us from 61-65 we will yet do this thing
Those men wrought with gun and sword
and have made a history of which the
Universe is glad If we will work as
nightly in the walks of civil life we will
accomplish so much that our State will
rank with the first State of the world
If we would but do in the ways of in
dustry the mighty works of the patriots
of 1775 when Mecklenburg became famous
We should have no occasion to incite our
people to higher action. Why should we
not realize that the strength of the State
is the average of the intelligence and
virtue of her citizens? Why should we
insist. any part of us, that education is
injurious and lag behind because the ne
gro has not proven himself to be what
the optimist expected? find in the State
men who think that the negro has gone
backward rather than forward and that
education is injurious to him. Have
these men forgotten that the negro was
well educated before the war? DO they
not recall that he was trained in those
things essential for his lite work? HE
/ HAS BEEN LESS EDUCATED SINCE
THEN THAN BEFORE. 1t is true that he
has been sent to school, but his contact
with the old planter and with he ac-
. complished and elegant wife of that
planter has been broken. This contact
was in itself better education than he
can receive from the public schools, but
shall we for this reason say that he is
incapable of training? Ought we not on
the contrary to study the conditions and
realize that the training which he needs
has not been given to him since the war
in like manner that it was before But
! even if we were to deny the duty of edu-
| eating the negro this would furnish no
excuse to us for failure to educate the
white children of the State. ] have no