The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-25

though the pay has been small, the
schools have been manned by teachers
worth ten times the salary that they re-
ceived Better normal instruction has
provided better teachers, the growing
prosperity has multiplied graded schools,
which have offered better inducements to
teachers, and this obstacle of the lack of
trained teachers is year by year disap~
".
People who live in compact commu-
mites. can have little appreciation of the
obstacle to adequate public schools to be
found in a sparse population. In the
mountains and in the low country the
population is widely scattered, and it is
where the people live farthest apart the
least progress has been made But even
where the environment makes
strongest against progress, the people are
becoming aroused to the neces-
sity Of better schools and longer terms
and are bridging swamps and
climbing mountains to give their sons
and daughters a better chance in life.
So much for the obstacles. You may
and left too little time to give the de-
tails of progress. You are already-the
world is already-familiar with the sta
tistics Of iliteracy, the figures showing
appropriations for schools, and the gen
eral spirit of enthusiasm and hope that
pervades the South. l have dwelt upon
the serious obstacles because I have
often thought that in some quarters the
South has been too harshly judged by
men who read nothing except statistics,
II am somewhat skeptical as
to some Of the figures that are so
often paraded. The conditions are better
than these seem to Indicate, 1t is not al
ways we'll to accept statistics as the
fnality. Carroll d. Wright wasn't so very
far wrong when he said there are three
kinds of liars in the world-just the sim
pie, plain everyday liars, d-n liars, and
statisticians.
am more familiar with North Caro-
lina-its improvement as indicated by Of
fetal figures and in the changed and i'm
proved and improving public sentiment.
and will confine myself to the develop
ment in that State which has the distinc-
ton of being a leader in this and other
progressive educational movements. The
story of North Carolina fairly tells the
story of progress of all the Southern
States. l confine myself, therefore, to
that one State
l can remember-(and 1 am still young
enough to be counted among "the boys")
when there was not single city, town,
or village or a school district in North
Carolina that levied a special tax for
public schools. And at that time the gen
eral school tax provided a fund that at
forded only the most ineffc ent short term
schools. The first town that voted a
local tax for graded schools was Green's
boro in 1874. Today there are rs local tax
districts that support their public
schools by public taxation, quite num-
Der of country districts are doing so. and
within the past year. large number of
towns and school districts have voted a
local tax to establish graded schools.
The Legislature of 1908 passed more
special acts for establishing graded
schools and erecting public school build
ings than ever before in the history of
the State But these figures
in themselves do not adequately convey
the real progress. Many school districts
have been consolidated-that work is go
ing on every month, wisely and rapidly
and this is all preparatory to an acceler-
ated increase in the number Of districts
that will within the next few years vote
special tax to improve the public
schools in village and in rural district,
for almost every town of any Importance
now has its graded school, supported by
taxation.
A concrete example in one growing
town will illustrate the new and better
condition in the whole State. 1t was my
good fortune to grow up in the village in
Eastern North Carolina that had the best
private schools and academies in that
section of the State. Twenty-Five years
ago-I was a very small boy then)-in
the town of Wilson there was a flourish
ing woman's seminary and a prosperous
academy for boys and young men, They
attracted students from twenty counties
and had famous instructors and splendid
wooden buildings. But the public school,
open only about two months during the
vacation of the private schools, was
! taught in an abandoned carriage factory.
The teachers were good, but the crowded
classes and short terms made the public
schools largely failure Few parents
who could pay tuition thought of depend
/ ing upon them. What changes have
twenty years wrought in that town! a
magnificent brick building, costing $50,
| 600, has been erected for a useful and
strong UNCONVENTIONAL college. The
| people have recently built a $4,000 brick
/ building for its excellent public graded
school for white children. Commodious
and we'll equipped building had previous
| ly been erected for the graded schools
! for the negro children. The
change in most other communities has
| been even more marked, for in many
there were only Indifferent and small
private schools before the establishment
Of graded schools. In those a transfer
nation greater and more uplifting than
any array of figures could indicate has
| been wrought, for the influence of these
/ schools of democracy has touched every
phase of community life to bless it.
! The progress in what we call higher
education has been most gratifying In
| 1875 the doors OF the State University
the oldest and one of the foremost insti-
/ tutions of learning in the South, with ar