The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-11-18
THE CLOSING RALLY
Pres. H. L. Smiths Magnif-
cent Address.
Great Enthusiasm at the Last Session OF Super
intendents' Conference---Many lnspir-
ing Speeches.
Speeches

Magnificent was the cloSlHS oCeHe Ii
stirring truly were the last words of the
great State Conference of County super
intendents last night.
It was a grand educational rally in the
Hall of the House Of Representatives.
A big crowd filled the hall and many
ladies were there to hear the Well known
speakers.
There was music, too, furnished by the
boys band from the Institute Tor tho
Blind.
All the speakers who were on the pro-
gramme were present, except DR.. Charles
D.. McIver, who was called home On the
afternoon train by serious illness.
The speeches all teemed with the spirit
of the hour, with force and with earnest
ness. They were eloquent and thought
full and the audience was an unusually
appreciative one.
The address of President Harry l..
Smith, of Davidson ~ollege, was p%articu-
larly strong and forceful, and pertinent
in rebuking the spirit of commercialism
that threatens to tear down the grand
ideals Of manhood and Womanhood of the
Old South.
Governor Aycock spoke last, and very
briefly, but IN the five minutes he occu-
pied he said a whole lot, and he meant
every word of it, too, and his hearers did
not doubt it.
The first speaker introduced by Super
intendent Joyner was the Hon. r. D.
Douglas, of Greensboro.
After a few very happy and graceful
introductory words, Mr.. Douglas stated
that he would speak as one North Caro-
linian to another, confning himself to
the practical part of the question.
He dwelt very forcibly upon the ne
cessity of preparing the public at large
to want this education. to strive for il
and to take it when it is offered to them.
This, he said. is the work of those not
directly connected with educational work.
The Indifference to education, he said,
could be explained by the fact that the
people did not know, and could not be
expected to strive for that which they
did not know. Generations of ignorance
had taken away the feeling of the lack
Of culture.
The great thing that we have to do"
he declared, lis to get the people, not
to think rightly, but to think at all.
Once get them to think, and they will
think rightly. This work must be done,
not by the teachers, but by the thousands
as they rub shoulders every day
He brought out the point that it was
not entirely a phi%lanthropic movement,
Lut one of self-interest as we'll, for when
you give a man the opportunity to be-
come prosperous, you add to the pros
perity of the community. Popular pros
perity has no such bar as popular igno-
rance.
Every man and every woman in North
Carolina should assist in this matter of
helping the public schools of the State.
Jf +hjo ~ lDno hoforo ,on-,- o.z
passed, we can then see as a blessed
reality what we now look forward to
as a hope.
With a few words of recognition of the
potency of the press, Mr.. Josephus
Daniels, editor Of the News and Obser-
ser, was announced, mot introduced"
for all knew him, Superintendent Joyner
said.
After congratulating the conference
upon their selection of Raleigh as a
meeting place, he said that he hoped
that the coming Legislature would be
composed of as great minds as those that
now occupied the seats of the mighty
for the legislators were mighty when it
came 20 appropriations of money as DR..
Winston we'll knew. Gaughtcr.)
Speaking Of the editor as an educator.
he said that the editor worked, unlike
other educators, without hope Of ap-
plause or reward. He could not see the
results Of his work. To him were de-
MED the bright looks in the faces of the
youth, and the applause of the orator.
The editor VIM. w. Holden had told
him that the work he looked back upon
with the greatest pleasure was that
which he had done in the cause of edu-
cation. Then followed a beautiful tribute
to the venerable DR.. Kingsbury.
"The day has come when the printed
page is more potent than the spoken
word he declared.
wv ask no further honor than to fol
low where you may lead in his great
Mr.. Daniels speech was full of the
spirit that would pray with Stevenson
to be able to ccnounce and not be en-
FILTERED" as he said.
DR.. H. l.. Smith, president of David
son College, was next introduced in a
very happy manner.
DR.. Smith said he believed the South
ern States were passing through one OF
the crises of their history. The industrial
progress and the marvellous accumulation
of wealth in the South is being watched
with wonder. Prosperity is going to try
her manhood and womanhood even
moro than the devastation Of war. II
may be that she was richer in defeat and
material ruin than she will be with q
cotton mill on every hill. 1t may be tina,
we are going to be tried by prosperity as
never by university.
If cold, hard, tireless commercialism Is
to take the place of the Old ideals, if We
are to caDitulate to Mammon then the
South was richer when she lay in the
ashes of devastation in 60 than when he1
surface is a gridiron of railroads. Goud
applause.) The speaker paid a magnih-
cent tribute to the heritage of spiritual
and moral force of the people of tho
South at the close of the war.
1t seems that this educational reyiva,
has been sent just at the right moment
to stem the tide rushing toward Nam
mon.
1T rests with you to preserve in the
young men and women of the South that
personal purity and that reverence fol
God and all that is beautifuI lot nc