The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-17

corrected as soon as possible; but did
the good and lofty and learned Professor
Minis ever reflect that the very hot-bed
of crankism in the United States is he
the State where there is practically no
flIiteracy-less than in sacred Massa-
chusetts itself? We refer to Kansas.
And does he know that Kansas was peo-
pied chiefly by emigrants from New Eng
land?
We believe in education, but we do
not believe that education is obtained
only in schools and colleges, and we
insist that statistics of illiteracy are
not fair or safe comparison of the in
telligence of two States, sections, or ma
tions.
Another indication that Prof. Minis is
away ahead of the benighted people OF
the South in the development of his en-
gines OF thought is given in another part
of his address before the recent Confer
ence:
The question of academic free
dom is live question here, as else
where in the country. More than
many have realized freedom of
speech has won its place in the best
Southern institutions. Professor
Trent was attacked severely by some
Southern newspapers and public mon
for his life of William Gilmore
Simms and his Southern Statesmen OF
the Old Regime, but the University
of the Old Regime, but the Univer-
sity of the South was thoroughly
loyal to him, while men in other in
situations rallied about him. Pro-
fessor Houston was attacked for GER
tain opinions on the money question,
but he is today at the head of lead
ing institution in Texas, and highly
honored throughout the South. The
recent forced resignation of Professor
SIedd would not have taken pla e in
some Southern institutions with which
/ am familiar, whose faculties I'M
hesitatingly condemned the action Of
the Emory College trustees. A book
containing the addresses OF a dozen Of
the most prominent presidents and
professors of Southern colleges would
be a surprise to the academic circles
of the North that have not watched
closely the development of the most
recent phases of Southern life
Now, Professor Minis and all the others
whom he has mentioned may be pleasant
gentlemen personally. Some of them ire,
we know; and we doubt not that he is
Of the number. They may all be pro-
foundly intellectual, and learned even
unto the records Of King Khammurabi OF
Babylon and Prince Ptah Hotep of Egypt.
But we blame no Southern man for re-
fusing to let his son be instructed by
professor who teaches doctrines at which
Southern common sense and practical
knowledge Fevolts. We blame no man
anyhere for refusing to keep in his house
tutor who points out to the children
what the tutor conceives to be the de-
fects in the fathers character and the
mistakes which the mother makes in
managing the household affairs.
without knowing or charging that Pro-
lessor Minis desires the result, we feel
safe in saying that he is travelling the
path that Professor Trent travelled and
that Professor Sledd traveled-the pat at
whose end might well be written the
suggestive Latin line, "No Returning
Footsteps" There is a point at which
the Southern people say, and say proper
", to the instructors of their youth: Thus
far shall you go, and no farther. When
that line is transgressed, other instruc-
tors are found, and Southern scholarship
does not suffer. The greatest scholars
ia the South today are men who keep on
the right lines and do not worry about
Southern provincialism."