The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-05-18
CHARLOTTE CONFERENCE
With the Governor at the Closing Ex-
ercises of Mt. Moriah Academy.
CONTRAST MADE A BEAUTIFUL BLENDING
The Irresistible Power Of the Great Educational
Movement Has Now Invaded the Rural
Districts, and Will Wipe Out
lIIiteracy.


Governor Aycock calls it "a crusade;
Supt Joyner terms it new educational
awakening; DR.. McIver thinks it is a
great educational revival: Mr.. Walter
Page says that it is "a revolution Ihls
great new educational movement III
North Carolina, whatever 1T is, IL mas
life in it. 1t has powerful energy anu
determination in it. 1t has an lrreslst-
ible force behind it and if you don't be-
lieve that # has this life power and
force Just get in front of it and STAND
there trying to stop it for year or So
and see what becomes of you. rms
great question took root in our cities
some years ago and our splendid graded
schools were the result. 1t spread out
into the towns and from these to the
villages Now it has invaded the rural
country and it is going to sweep litter
acy from our good old State and make
what is already the bravest and pest
citizenship in the county among the most
enlightened and most prosperous In all
the land.
Indeed the greatest fact before us to-
day is North Cardinals educational re-
yiyal. 1t is wonderful to what heights
the Tue UdS IlSeHs 1t 10 "OANNAANA
a grasp our people have gotten upon
the problem. We have realized the
meaning of education as never before
We have come nearer giving 1t its true
place in our life than. ever before. We
have thrown our souls into it as never
before. We are ready to make greater
sacrifices than ever before. 1t is great
fire which our educators: led by our
noble Governor, superintendent of Pub
ic instruction and other officials have
kindled and one does not wonder that
it has attracted the attention OF the
whole country, and that the outside
world is saying that it is the greatest
movement in the South since the war.
IN the special efforts which we are
making for the betterment of our public
schools we are apt to lose sight or the
fact that our educational revival covers
a far wider sphere. Our teachers nave
caught it, There has been great
awakening in our leaders themselves.
Many of our teachers under the stimulus
of the movement have taken up their
pens. A few years ago nearly all OF our
books came from alien authors and pub
fishers. Within the past three or four
years dozens of North Carolina teachers
have written books which have proven
credit to themselves and a credit to
the State; others will do likewise. This
new educational movement will stimulate
our people in every phase of life, our
industries will expand, our resources will
yield to intelligent investigation and
development and our State will be richer
and better, our cities, towns and the
rural country have already felt the new
awakening and all classes are becoming
interested.
Some two weeks ago 1 had the pleas
IRE of accompanying Governor Aycock
to the city of Charlotte, in which city
was being held a great educational con-
ference. made up of the leading educa-
tors and others of Mecklenburg and
surrounding counties. During the past
week | attended with him and State
Treasurer Lacy the closing exercises of
the Mt. Moriah Academy, located in a
thrifty rural community a few miles
from Auburn. in Wake county. There
was a contrast between the two meet
ings. but it was one of those contrasts
that make up a beautiful blending. The
first meeting was in one of the storm
centres of Southern industrial and edu
cational development where speech and
song mingled with the hum of spindle
and loom. The second meeting was in
country school house in a grove sur
rounded by field and forest, closer to
nature but farther away from the cleo
trio volts, the whirling spindles and the
hustling throngs.
Music came first on the programme
of each meeting. At Charlotte it was
artistically rendered by a large and
talented church choir. 1t was beautiful.
1t had in it the rapid thrill of the busy
electric current that environed it, At Mt.
Moriah it was gentle charm of en-
chanting melody, akin to the quiet har-
mony of the surrounding wildwood. The
meeting in Charlotte was held in a
magnificent hall in a costly building OF
beautiful interior and exterior design, in
which a great crowd was seated in opera
chairs At Mt. Moriah we met in the
academy building, comfortable but not
costly, in which only one or two hundred
were seated on school benches. But the
object of the two meetings was the
same The theme of the speakers was
education, the text of the sermon was
LET there be light" The powerful and
convincing eloCuence of Governor Ay-
cock at Charlotte mingled with the in
spring and pathetic utterances of DR..
Henry Lewis Smith, the eminent Presby-
terrain divine of Davidson College, and