The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1903-06-11

MR.. WALTER ii. FACES ADDRESS Al
THE A. AND NJ. CoLLEGE-TRAINEn
MEN, NOT CLoDHoPPERs, NEEDED
For FARM WoRK-THE EFFICIENT
MAN BEHIND THE PLow WILL TRANS.
FORM NORTH CAROLINA.
As q working craftsman myself ]
congratulate the Commonwealth that
its chief aim Is now become the train
ling of men to work. You hear moth
ing about the dead old doctrine that
cheap wages are desirable tor the gos-
pei now preached to you is the advan-
tage of good workmanship. And this
change of creed marks a new epoch,
It marks change in mems reIstions
to one another and in their relations to
society. 1t covers all the wide differ
ence between a medlaeval world and a
democracy. It covers as great change
as it took the English race nearly a
thousand years completely to make
the change from the feuda1 barons to
Thomas Jefferson.
! Let any man here whose memory
goes back twenty years make list OF
/ the men and of the families who were
the people Of most importance in North
Carolina twenty years ago, and another
list of those who are the most impor-
tant now. He will be surprised to see
how few men and families are on both
lists.
In twenty years the population has
increased half million, without any
immigration to speak of, and In thirty
Years 1t has practically doubled. In
twenty years the ratio CT illiteracy has
decreased from. forty-eight per cent. to
twenty-eight and it is decreasing now
faster than ever before; twenty years
ago North Carolina was hardly reckon
ed as a manufacturing State at all.
But the last census showed that it's
manufactured products are worth more
every year than its farm products
ninety-five millions of dollars as against
elghty-nine millions. Our manufac-
tured products were, in round figures,
worth fiity-one dollars person OF the
whole population but our farm pro-
ducts were worth not quite forty-slx
dollars per person Our manufactured
products per year increased from twen-
ty million dollars to nearly ninety-five
million. Our railroad mileage lncreas-
ed from less than two thousand miles
to nearly four thousand. In fact the
advance has been so general In North
Carolina during the last twenty years,
if man who went away then were to
come back now for the first time he
would not recognise many of our towns,
he would not know the thought nor
the habits of the people. Twenty
years ago your college exlsted-and
existed dimly-only in the minds of a
group of young men who used to meet
in an Office on Fayetteville street and
talk over the possibility of such thing
The greatest progress has been made
in manufactures and in education. II
you will recall how these changes have
come about, you will find that they
were made by comparatively small
number of men who went to work
themselves. Most of the manufactu,-
ing progress made in North Carolina
practically all in fact-has been made
by men who we're born in North Caro-
llna-home industries nearly every one
Of them. Our great educational prog
ress also has been made chiefly by ou,
men and women.
Now if our leaders for these twenty
years had accepted the doctrine that
our people are incapable, they would
have done nothing. If they had ac-
cepted the doctrine OF the desirability
of low wages, they would tave done
uothing. They believed in the effici-
ency of the people. That is the whole
story.
There are two ways OF looking at ha-
man society. One way of looking at it
is to say that God made some mel.
useful and that He made others worth
less, and that we can't do much t..
change the Almlghty's bandiwork-
that the clodhoppers and jacklegs must
remain clodhoppers and jacklegs, and
that the others will take care of
their selves.
The other way to look at them is TO
say that all men are capable OF some
degree Of Development, and that it is
the duty of society to give every one a
chance to develop his aptitudes the
best he can.
The first method makes a sort OF aris-
tocracy Of privilege and opportunity.
It is the way of low wages ana all that
low wages implies.
The other vvav ii tn give the clOd.