The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-03

While l realize that the work of this
conference is directed primarily to the
development of rural schools, the subject
assigned for this hour necessarily sug-
gests the problems Of higher education in
the South. Many southern people. even
leaders in educational work are ignorant
OF the men and movements connected with
the solution of these problems, while
northern men are as ignorant Of them
as they are of many other phases Of
southern life. A fight just as difficult.
Just as strenuous, as that in which Won
are engaged is now being waged by other
leaders in behalf of higher standards Of
admission and of graduation and increas-
ed endowments and equipments No one
who has been at the heart Of this move
ment for universal education can fail 70
be in deepest sympathy with it, but un-
less the leaders Of higher education are
just as enthusiastic and wise and patient
as the members of the Southern Educa-
tion Board they will leave very pressing
problems unsolved. The rebuilding of old
commonwealth is to go on not only in
the rural schools, but in the libraries
laboratories and lecture rooms of south
ern colleges.
The organization to which has been
entrusted the working out of many of The
problems Of colleges and secondary
schools is. The Southern Association OF
Colleges and Preparatory Schools, organ
lied in Atlanta in 1895. Realizing that
the South has suffered from lack of a
properly correlated educational system.
they have endeavored to define more ac-
curately the work of school college and
university. To that end they have insist
ed on definite and rigidly enforced re-
quirements for admission and graduation
requirements approxlmating those that
now prevail in the best northern instl-
tutions This association has had to
work in the face of strong opposition
on the part not only Of second rate col
leges, but Of colleges and universities
that have comparatively large endow-
ments. and equipments, but have not de-
veloped an educational conscience with
regard either to standards of admission
or graduation, College presidents, instead
of being educational experts, thoroughly
familiar with the most recent educational
progress, have thought that enthusiasm
for the masses might atone for the se.i-
Gus neglect of the more technical but
none the less important, phases of higher
education. That this movement is soday
as successful as 1t Is due primarily tC
the untiring energy and wisdom of Chan
cellor Kirkland of Vanderbilt University
who for ten years In his own institution
and among the other institutions Of the
South has stood for the highest ideals OF
educational work. He and men like him
have appropriated the best results Of ed
vocational work In other parts of the coun-
try. We have all been gratfed to hear
the sincere tributes that have been paid
to Thomas jefferson as an educational
leader; what he has done for American
institutions has been adequately appre-
ciated at this conference. Southern in
stitutions. with the same open-mindcd-
ness need to reap the benefits Of werk
done within the past twenty-five years
by Presidents Eliot and Hadley Gilman
and Harper. The followers of Jefferson,
in both education and politics, frequently
miss his prime yirtue-open mindedness
and progressiveness; he went everywhere
for ideas and institutions-to France,
England and New England
Public sentiment Is growing In the
South in the direction Of an insistenee
on the demands made of a modern we'll
equipped college. Men are beginning to
see that endowments and libraries and
laboratories are absolutely essential for
the development of scholarly work and
are working to thwart those institutions
of learning that have perpetrated frauds
upon the public in the name of higher