The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-05-12

.,,-oostion Of the Rev. DR.. Edward Alb
tatt and following the example of Mr.
Smiley at Lake Mohonk, invited num-
to, Of guests to his hotel at Capron
c,rings West Virginia, to consider the
o.t.on OF Southern education. For a |
number of years Mr. Robert c. Ogden, of
New York city has been accustomed to
invite 4 party of Northern friends to ac-
company him to Hampton Institute, in
virginia. of which he Is a trustee, to par
+icinate in its Commencement exercises. |
From these two sources has grown the |
Southern Educational Conference, which |
met in Richmond, Virginia, week before
last Of which we gave a brief paragraph |
account last week.
Three sessions we're held daily; the
Music Hall was always full and often
crowded. all standing room being taken;
Northern speakers were heard, and al
ways with cordiality, but sentiments of the
conference were voiced chiefly by South
crn men, and, was proper, all the of
fees were filled by Southern men, except
that Mr. Ogden was enthusiastically re-
elected President. The houses Of the best
families in Richmond were thrown open
to the guests, and the problem how to at
the hospitabI invitations of the hosts was
a wholly insoluble one. The spirit of the
Conference was akin to that of a religious
revival IN the spiritual earnestness which
dominated it. Problems which two years
ago were discussed with serious apprehen-
sion were treated as theoretically solved,
and the reports from the field indicated
that they were in the way of practical
solution.
Ii is apparently no longer questioned in
the South that the State provision for the
education of the colored race is to be equal
to that for the white; the proposition to
appropriate only the taxes received from
the coIored c.~.zens to the education of
the coored children is not now seriously
entertained and Is not likely to be renewed,
The question whether the peoole will tax
themselves for popular education IS beng
answered in a manner which, if not uni
versaIly satisfactory, is universally pro-
gressive and hopeful. And the problem
of the rural school is being solved by
d concentration of district schools and a
transportation of pupils One of the most
significant addresses was that giving an
account Of rural school, equipped with
not onlzJ the necessary room for a graded
school but with an assembly hall for pOpu-
lar use. provided with twelve acres of
land furnishing means for possible hortl-
cultural and Horticultural education, and
accompanied by provision for bringing to-
gethcr to the school all children within a
radius of ten miles.
In brief the Conference, which is South
ern in its territory but National in spirit,
indicates a great educational revival. A
full rpTOrt Of tho of the Con
ference Is to be published hereafter and
information concerning this report can be
obtained by addressing Charles w Dab
ney Southern Education Board. Knox
Vile, Tennessee. Here we attempt, not
such d report, but an Interpretation of the
movement of which the Conference Is an
expression. 1t carries with it hope fol
much more than d mere academic develop
ment. 1t means a revival of industry, OF
liberty, Of home life, of the religious
spirit.
l. Much of the current discussion con
corning industrial education is based upon
the old and false assumption that indus
trial education and higher education rep
resent different il not antagOnistlc con
teptlons; that the highest education Is that
which ISSUES in the three learned profes-
SONS; that mechanical and agriculture
education prepares for an inferior calling
ana ndIcates inferior capa bilIty. The
southern Educational Conference indicate.
heaIthtul reputation Of this narrow anf
narrowing conception. The end OF educa.
tioh is life; the object of life is service
ana that Is the best education which fit!
'he pupil for the best service that he cal
render. The first service that he can rem
'st 70 society Is to support himself ant
S' not become a burden on the charity o
'lhefS. The second service Is to aid IN con
uioullng to the life of others That all In
"uStry Is honorable, and all idleness is
ulsefaee, Is the first postulate of the ney
educational movement that no industr
'9 4fodgery If 1T is intellgently performed
ana no industry is ennobling if it is pei
FORMED uninteIigently, is its second pos
,""'e 1t Is a far higher and better thin
~ make table intelIigently than t.
pie'eA d sermon write an editorial, o
''',h school mechanically The old edu
N''Ioh prepared for three learned profes
lN' lhe new education prepares for III
iiseht activity in every department o
'he Old education was literary an
,e9slonal the new education is indus
' ana universal. Thus the revival O
N"'lph means revival of industry
''iHih6 and so an ennobling of all VC
lN' transformation of all by the /
''HlB power OF quickened INTEL
lhe abolition of drudgery by mix
-, "pof ot the hand with the labO
''e br7ln, an ultimate revolution in ir
'oslly SO that the man with the hoe
snaI no longer by synonym for stunte
da 'iSehce, dwarfcd affections. an
'"el ambitions. Education means life
universal education-universal nc
IN III the persons admitted to it, bl
III The vital topics with which i deals-
ns universal life-a vitalizing of th
-, .' ~ and the factory. the full recognitio
Wy truth that all toll can be intelGger