The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-09-22

that he regards reaO1ng only as d IaSA -
shunnedl People everywhere are now beginning
to see the mistake pointed out ten years ago by
President Eliot in his essay wherein Popular
Education has Failed"
1--WE have heretofore put too much confdence1n
the mere acquisition of the arts of reading and
writing. After these arts are acquired there is
much to be done to make them effective for the
development of the childs intelligence. If his
reasoning power is to be developed through read
ing he must be guided to the right sort of read
ing. The school must teach not only how to read,
but what to read, and it must develop a taste for
wholesome reading"
1t is to remedy just this defect that the rural
school library has been introduced into twenty
nine American States. And though widely vary
ing plans have been adopted, in no other State,
I dare say, has more rapid progress been made,
or greater results accomplished in proportion to
capital expended, than in North Carolina. For
this reason I may be pardoned for referring
at some length to this North Carolina plan,
which seems to be the one best adapted to States
having a large rural population and a small reve-
nue.. The law as passed by the General Assembly
of 1901 provides in substance
That wherever the friends or patrons of any
rural public school contribute $40 or more for
starting a library in connection with the school,
$40 of the regular district school fund shall also
be set apart for the same purpose, while another
$40 will be given from the State appropriation
thus assuring at the outset at least $50 for each
school library; in many cases, of course, the pa
irons raise more than the minimum sum, $40.
needed to secure the $40 from other sources. The
County Board of Education then names some
competent person to manage the prospective IL
brary, and purchase the books for it: these to be
chosen from a remarkably well-selected list pre-
pared by a committee of distinguished educa-
tors two years ago. The same committee, by the
way, obtained competitive bids, from prominent
publishing houses, thus forcing prices to strik-
ingly low figures, even for classics. The smallest
libraries have Is or 80 neat and substantially
bound volumes.
By the earnest efforts of the North Caroline
Literary and Historical Association an appropri
alton of $4,000 was obtained for the payment OF
the States part in the experimental plan just
outlined, and in September, 1901, the appropria
ton became available and the first North Caro-
lima rural school library was established. The
entire sum would have been speedily exhausted
by the more progressive sections had not tht
Legislature provided that the State appropria
ton of $40 for each library should be availabl,
for not more than six school districts in any
one of the ninety-seven counties. Within five
months a third of the counties reached this linn
it, and other schools within their borders applied
in vain for State aid. Before the General AS
sembly of 1903 met in January, 431 of a possibl
500 libraries had been helped. In the face O.
such success, there was nothing for the Legisla
ture to do but make an appropriation of $500
more for the ensuing two years; while $4,000 wa
added to strengthen and enlarge the libraries al
ready established-the same ~Carnegie-like prin
ciple of cooperation to be observed: each gift
from the State to be duplicated by an appropria
ton from the school fund and again duplicate