The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-06-17

sary about this work we need first of all
to know the facts involved. One of the
strong points in the campaign has been
that men have dared to let up in the full
some fiattery of the people and have
tried to make them realize that the State
has a stigma upon it that should be re
moved.
One of the most important papers to
be read at this meeting will be that Of
Prof. ClaXton, in which he will outline
certain defects in our school work and
suggest improvements. Such facts should
make us blush quite as much as the ter
rible fact of illiteracy. In our zeal FOR
those who have and yet might as we'll
have not, for any good that has come to
them.
The same study of facts must be
brought out with regard to other parts
of our educational system. Libraries
and laboratories are as necessary tor
college work as cotton FOR the manufac-
ture of cotton goods.
One has to make a good many inquiries
about diplomas before he knows whether
they represent scholarship or shoddiness.
J hope we shall not have in North Caro-
lima what happened in Texas when a
man wrote back to one CT his friends
that he had built two colleges and had
he logs cut for another; or when in Ala
hama men started a college on the basis
of a $4,000 subscription Such institu-
ions in the South and West nave made
us the laughing stock of the world and
they ought now to be for us.
Next to realizing the actual facts is
the necessity of studying the best results
of men If other parts of the world. Pro
49,: 49,. -. %Lo - Of anu MONTE and
| especially in education. When Archibald
Murphey was put on a committee &c
make a report on education in North
Carolina, he went to New England and
Europe that he might study what those
who were far ahead of us had done. His
! amp ought to be followed by al
! educators.
If we exchange products of merchan-
| disc with New England then we ought tc
be able to profit by an Interchange Of
ideas. If we hive adopted in business
many of the plans of progressive New
York, then we ought to see the gooc
that might arise if we adopted their idea
of a Board of Regents with genera.
| oversight of the educational system OF
the State. We need to be familir witt
the best educational journals. with thu
best biographies of distinguished leaders
of education; we need above all tC
trvel and see what is being done else
| where. When we do these things We
shal be cured Of this spirit of eyerlast-
ing boaStfulnesS nd shall be able to SCI
about our work IN a more rational way
Fortunately we have in the graded
schools of the State an illustration o
the point l am making. In the Durham
schools, for instance, there has been {
continued progress because of the wa
in which successive superintendent have
appropriated the best results of Other
mems experiences. When Mr.. Toms wa!
elected superintendent, he put out a
once for the North to find out what wa:
being done in manual training. Aftel
visiting Pratt and DreXel Institutes ant
studying the reports of such school sup
e~rintendentS as the one at st. Louis. h
~inaugurated manual training in tn
schools of Durham, selecting as his frs
teacher, not some novice or amateur GU
of a Job, but an intelligent graduate o
Pratt Institute. Besides greatly improv
ing the courses in English, in accordance
with the recommendation of the Com
mittcc of Ten, he adopted the policy o
selecting specialists in each subject. an
now out of the thirty-six teachers in tt
schools twenty six are college graduates
The same spirit of cooperation and o