The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-05

or the oppression of any class or classes
Be reasonable in this important matter
and let the car of true progress be pushed
forward with bravery, resolution and
union of heads and hearts
The reduction of illiteracy in North
Carolina is marked, is full of encourage
ment, if viewed from certain standing
point. The white illiteracy reduction in
the decade ending in 1900, was 81 per
cent. But the dark spot is in the fact
that the negroes greatly excelled the
whites, to the great shame of the latter.
Negro illiteracy declined, it is said, IL
per cent. If true. then the Legislature
in self-defense and to save the State from
a greater disgrace. will have to pass a
compulsory law--forcing the recalcitrant,
neglectful and ignorant whites to send
their children to school, 1t is an offensive.
bad thing to do, but it must be done or
stop educating the negroes 1t will not
do to have re negroes partly educated.
and the white iIliterate standard to re-
main at Is or 20 per cent. far below the
negro standard,
l have been writing since 1867 in favor
of general and particular education; in
favor of the right kind of education, the
threefold kind; the education Of the soul
the mind and the hand There is so much
of downright twaddle nowadays concern
ing the necessity of educating the masses
to make them better citizen, more profit
able workers, more upright and religious
men and women. that an ill-informed
reader might conclude reasonably that the
education of the mind was the great up-
litter of all people, the moral and rehg-
ious elevator, and the great plan of re-
demption for time and eternity Presi-
dent Venable. of the University of North
Carolina, had some timely, necessary re-
Elections just here in his address before
the State Teachers Convention at
Wrightsville recently When recall the
fact that the truest patriots, the greatest
lovers of freedom in all this land have
been among the plain, simple. virtuous
people in the State who had but little
education. and many OF them no educa-
ton, / see at once how deceptive is the
hollow cry that education is the one great
thing to make patriots and freemen and
good citizenship. 1t is a fact that many
Of the most depraved, wicked, dangerous
citizens are men who can read and write.
gogues, the spoilers. the corrupters, the
selfish money grabbers-I zee no great
force in the anxious plea for universal
education to save liberty. to enforce law,
TO guarantee the perpetuity of free in
stItutiOns. etc. Never were the courts
held in less regard snan now. Never be-
fore were laws so little enforced against
the violators if they have money or friends
IN the courts and among the lawyers. The
country would be unquestionably richer
in dollars with educated voters. but
whether it will be really safer is another
question. with the leaning against it.
The very worst enemies today against
Constitutional Government regulated by
law-of a genuine government of the peo-
pie, and for the people, and by the peo-
ple-to quote Lincolns famous sentence,
he stole bodily from New England
School Reader in the thirties-the very
worst, most aggressive enemies are now
among the milnons of well educated men
in the Northern States. The public prints
and periodicals in the North abound with
dogmas and opinions that are utterly hos
tile to local self government, to the true
interests of the people, and are subver-
slve of the government which the great,
lllustrIous forefathers established on
these shores-the government that Madi-
son and his able compeers set in motion.
believe In education, of the right kind.
that makes men better as well as more
competent, but l am not blind to facts.
can go back for fifty-f1ve years, and /
am not unfamiliar with the trend of
things-the drift of public sentiment in
the North now, and the apings the
part of the South The South would be
wise to stand clear of Northern usurpa-
tons and deliverances-to shun the poll
teal teachings of writer's, speakers and
politicians of that rich reckless section. It
would do well to reflect long before
adopting the religious, the ethical, the
economic, the political views OF certain
educated circles in the rich, prosperous,
usurping, aggressive North. Look at its
devotion to trusts its high robber tax
views, the preponderating power of the
Money Kings. the immoralities practiced,
the corruptions rampant in municipal
government and so on. This is very
fast age, in which men rush into the arms
of self-seeHers and political demagogues.
1t is a time of wide, intense palaver and
swift adoption of alien views and unsound
principles that need to be watched and
stunned as you would shun a lazaar
house. Beware.
The address of ex Representative w j.
Green before the youth of Fayetteville
upon the late President jefferson Davis.
is meritorious. entertaining and edifying.
read it in the Fayetteville Observer with
much pleasure. and am gratified that my
old schoolmate. who knew the great man
he so warmly eulogizes from his boyhood
down to the very close of a noble life. has
presented such a striking pen-portrait.
have long held President Davis In high
admiration. He was not fiawless. was
not always right in his acts. but he was
always brave. noble, magnanimous and
patriotic. He was indeed one of the
grandest men of our beloved Southland.
SO rich in historic men. equal in the
highest elements OF character to any in
all the long bead-roll of nations. Mr..
Davis was truly of heroic mould. one of
the master spirits of the Western World.
Man in every inch of his makeup, of
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