Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-04-22
Important Educational Convention.
Henderson Daily Mail, April 1s. /

| lAnderson Daily Mail, April 13. =
Superintendent T. C. Walton, of the
city schools has returned from Columbia
where on Saturday he attended a meet
ing of the leading educators of the State.
The meeting was-held under the auspices
of the Southern Education Board, ut the
invitation of State Superintendent Mar
tin: The meeting was largely attended
| and was gaid to have been tho most relss
Iresentative body of educators that ever
| assembled in South Carolina.
The Southern Board is undertaking to
arouse the people of the State to take
greater action along the line of common
schools. The meeting in Columbia was
held for the purpose of having the edu-
Gators of the State talk over the educa-
tional needs of the people of the State,
and to map out o plan of campaign for
work along this line. The board pro
poses to pay the expenses OF number
of the leading educators of the, State,
who will tonr the different counties dur
ing the summer, talking TO the people
and trying to get them to take action
that will improve their schools.
lt is desired to get the people to take
the initiative themselves, and in pursu-
ance of this policy committee was ap.
pointed at the meeting in Columbia to
frame platform, 80 to speak, or declara-
tion Of principles along which the work
would be planned. The chairman of
this COMMITTEES was Prof. Walton, of An
derson. The committee's report was as
follows:
Governor Hayward, Superintendent
martin and President ID. Il. Johnson were
elected as the executive committee to
have charge of the summer campaign
FOLLOWING is the declaration adopted by
the conference Saturday:
. HRnnordi.,rr \
that universal education is absolutely
necessary for the true solution of those
problems which will forever confront a
rec government, recalling that the faith
OF our State was pledged by our fathers
to the support OF schools for all the peo-
pie by the act of the assembly of ITO,
which declared that it was necessary
that a free school be conducted for the
youth OF the province affording ipstruc-
tion In the arts and sciences and useful
learning;' reaffirming that, 'as the peo-
pie OF tho past owed a duty to us, so we
owe a duty 20 all who follow us;' that
the commonwealth exists chiefly for the
children of to-day and those of the
future and that the principles of the
Christian religion as well as of humanity
and of sound economics demand that we
recognize and meet this obligation when
taken in it's widest form of expression,
therefore,:
eve, as an educational conference
assembled in the city of Columbia this
April IL, 1908, do make and address to
the people of South Carolina the fol-
lowing declarations:
II. No free government can long exist
without an educated citizenship; this
condition cannot be secured except by a
system of education which shall provide
free schools for all the children of the
State-a system which shall furnish such
training as will prepare every child in
telligently to perform all the services
demanded of him in his relations to
family, society, church and State.
w. The people of South Carolina have
made a noble effort to meet this obliga-
ton, but the actual facts Of our educa-
tional conditions show that the battle for
popular education hns not yet been COM
pletely won and, therefore, demand re-
newed and organized effort on the part
of all who love the State. Some of these
facts are {D the length of our school
term is IS 4/l0 days per annum; the
average in the United States is 145; (2)
the average salary of teachers is per
month in South Carolina, $3l.25; in the
United States, $48; salary per annum
in South Carolina, $l3S.12; in the United
States, 1888: (S) average cost of educa-
tion per capita for enrolled pupils in
South Carolina, 1896; in the United
States, $2029; (4) the statistics also show
that 80 9/l0 per cent of the entire popu-
lation and 18 of every 100 whites over 10
years OF age are classed as illiterate.
TO remedy this state of affairs is
clearly our duty now, and the remedy
lies in hard, persistent work for those
schools which alone can offer an oppor-
tunity for an education to that great
mass OF our deserving and patriotic citi-
zens who live in the rural districts.
In view of the supreme importance
to the commonwealth of better schools
in these rural districts, this conference,
invoking the aid of the two great
agencies, the pulpit and the press. and
the cooperation of all gool citizens, de-
clares itself in favor of:
81. Local supplementary taxation as
necessary alike to the moral and financial
support of efficient public schools, and
hence persistent agitation for the general
extension of this plan, already adopted
in our State by one-sixth of our school
districts.
"2. Better training and payment of
teachers, expert supervision, longer
school terms and courses Of study adapted
to the economic conditions and wants of
the people.
'3. The consolidation, wherever prac-
ticable, of weak schools into larger and
stronger organizations.
The improvement of school houses
and grounds with better equipment for
teachers.
.'6, A systematic campaign, not only
with these aims In view, but also for the
purpose of arousing popular interest In
education.
"The conference, therefore, recon-
mends that campaign executive com.
mittee of three be appointed to organize
and conduct the campaign for carrying
out the purposes of this declaration.h :
Prof. Walton was greatly pleased with
the meeting and what was done, and he
believes that much good will be accom-
piished. The work that it is proposed
to do will be undertaken by the people
of the State, who know South Cardinals
educational needs, and local ideas and
ambitions are to be carried out.