The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-13

| tertainments will be suggested, thus
/ making the school a social center for the
community.
Around every public school house
where even four or five women are in
| terested in the Improvement of the school
| house or grounds, we want to form local
| associations
There is no fee for active membership
and we will be glad to have all join us
who are willing to give service in this
work.
OTHER SUBJECTS DISCUSSED.
Township Teachers Meetings" was
the theme of Prof. NJ. c. S. Noble. of
! the State University, who showed their
value and the best means to be used in
making them great aids to education.
| Prof. P. p. Claxton. Secretary of the
| Southern Educational Board, was the
| next speaker. His subject was uni
formity of Course of Study" and this he
discussed ably, showing the necessary
correlation of studies and how this could
: be best effected.
THE PRESS AND EDUCATION.
The closing address of the exercises of
the morning was delivered by MIR. jose
plus Daniels, editor of the News and
| Observer, whose theme was 1.-The Press in
! Our Educational Awakening" 1t was an
address full of suggestiveness and from
/ a semi humorous and felicitous introduce
ton passed to an able discussion of the
part the newspapers had taken and
would take in the educational movement.
/ His address began with III account OF
the boarding around" of the early
schoolmaster, and to this he added the
hint that even now-a-days the country
editor often gets his pay in turnips and
firewood while the teacher no longer
depending on the patron for his feed
and board" looks to the State Treasury,
and this, he facetiously said sis the be-
ginning and inspiration of the agitation
for local taxation"
In a rapid review of the evolution of
the teacher he spoke of tie early days
when boarding asound and logging
went otgether and said tliaS this perhaps
offered the solution of the problem pre-
sented by the dearth of "schoolmarms'
in the early days The change came
when school teachers with tender hearts
and big appetites wooed and wed the
daughters of the schools best feeders
and thus made way for the coming of
the young lady and the protection of
the village beaux, and with the fall of
the feeding" system came the paying
and then on to the taxing.
| The editor as "a teacher was then
spoken of and he told how various must
be the abilities to enable them to meet
All the demands upon them, and how
by evolution the teacher, having married
him a wife, became the editor. "He
therefore bought him. to qucts a prom
inent educator in North Carolina a
handful of type and an old press, rented
him a dark room and set himself up tn
pass in Judgment upon the acts of all
men, governors, college presidents. the
President of the United States and even
the angels of God" Thus it is" said
Mr.. Daniels, that the editor is only the
village school master become so by the
theory of the transmigration of souls and
| by evolution enforcing nis opinions by
the printing press instead of by the
rod"
Here he paid a glowing tribute to the
old time school and the old 1ine school
master, saying: I'm this presence [ in
woke their devotion to high ideals their
love of truth and their contempt of soft
living. They laid deep and broad the
foundation upon which the great educa-
tional structure of today has been reared.
/ Without their life and work the light of
knowledge in thousands of homes in the
commonwealth would be darkness.
! Later on he spoke of the great progress
in education, saying in regard to Solo
mons injunction that there was great
Improvement in pedagogics, but no i'm
, provement in human nature, and urging
that it was necessary today to emulate
the old time school teacher who insisted
upon thoroughness.
In discussing the part of the editor
he said these We're provertially modest
and that he found it embarrassing to
speak adequately of the part his profess
sion had played in the educational awak-
ening. In part he said the editor haG
aided in arousing public sentiment to the
point where universal education is deem
ed necessary to the safety of the State.
AT one time the orator had done this. but
now it was the printed page that did it,
and behind the page was the earnest edi-
tor working for his State
This printed page is today, he said,
1.-THE greatest factor in the educational
awakening, and It is destined to become
greater. The EDITORS power will not
grow, his individuality will be swallowed
up in the mighty engine he directs
During his splendid speech Mr.. Dan
iels adverted to the work of many local
papers in the fight for local taxation and
showed how their influence had been
cast for the best interests of education,
being the most powerful factor in the
contest, and said that in the future the
press would ever be found on the firing
line against illiteracy, as it had been in
the past
His plea for a united effort of all agen-
cies to drive out ignorance was a strong
one, and as he closed his eloquent perora-
ton he was greeted by hearty and de-
served applause His address had been
entertaining, instructive, elevating, and
all heard it with deep interest.
THE NIGHT MEETING.
The meeting at night was in the nature
of an Educational Rally" and was par
ticipated in by Governor Aycock, Dr.
aV1nc ATNTx