The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-04

lowing: /. Educational Conferences;
y. The systematic popular campaign
for local taxation; 3. The Woman's
Association for the Bettermen of Pub
lie School Houses in North Carolina.
These agencies have been potent fac
tors in making the Old North State, as
a Northern writer said not long ago,
a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by
night in educational life among the
Southern States.
1t seems, therefore, that hand in
hand with the great industrial pro-
gress of the South goes the twin
brother, educational growth. The
educational conscience of the Southern
people has been awakened from its
ilong slumber. Emptyvisaged ig-
lnorance sitting in the door of the
old log-school house is doomed
Heaven hasten the final day of reck-
oningI In the name of intelligence
and progress, let us welcome all those
agencies, no matter from what point
| of the compass they come, which help
! in the struggle.
! | have mentioned only those ad-
dresses and reports in the volume I'M
| der consideration which have a direct
bearing on Southern educational con-
ditions. But instead of eXhauSting the
| good things contained in it, these are
| but the beginning. BY sort of
| "gentIe brigandage" the managers of
| the Conference succeeded In getting
! hold of much of the best talent III
| the country. 1t is especially notlce-
| able that the Conference was conn
mated bv Southern men and southern
| thought, Every speaker on the pro-
| gram was from a Southern State eX-
| cent the six from New York ana one
each from Maine and Massachusetts
Virginia sent six; Alabama two; Ten
nessee four: Georgia four; North Car
oina five; and Florida and Texas one
| each. From Dr. MclVer quotations
have already been made. The other
| North Carolina speakers were Hon.
Josephus Daniels on THE Progress OF
! Southern Education; DIR. f. Z. Ven
| able on '"The Work of the University
in the South; Prof Edwin Minis on
1.-The University in the South; and
Superintendent j. Y. Joyner on The
! Better School House" Each OF these
productions easily reach the standard
| of thought and literary expression set
before the conference.
Other addresses of especial interest
are as follows: "A Model School" by
Prof p. p. ClaXtOn; Education
Through Agriculture" by DR.. l.. II.
Bailey, of Cornell; The Teacher and
The State" by DR.. j H. Kirkland:
| DR.. Alderman's wonderfully eloquent
and sympathetic culogy on DR.. j. l..
| M Curry; DR.. Lyman Abbotts I'm
pressions of the Conference; and DR..
st. Clair McKelWavs address on The
North and the South"
Just a word about two of these
/ wish every man, woman and child
in the United States could read, and
re-read and then read again DR.. Nc
KelWay's remarkable address. From
the first word to hlS brilliant perora-
ton every thought is, conceived with
sympathetic breadth and expressed
with the true ring of pure eloquence.
wish this article had not grown too
long already for me to quote his SPLEEN
did tributes to Patrick Henry, to
Washington, to Thomas jefferson, to
John Marshall. But even these are
surpassed by the feeling eloquence
with which he pours forth his admira-
ton for the genius and the faith of
StoneWall Jackson" for the great
ness and the grandeur, the magnani-
nifty and the modesty, the corsecra-
ton the courage of Robert u.
Lee" No American, he says can
despair of commonwealth or Of
country when he recalls the familiar
figure and the shining face of Henry
Grady. His presence was an incar-
nate welcome. His voice. was an in
spring appeal. His thought and the
memory of it are an uplifting power.
cannot refrain from setting before
the readers of these words his beauti-
full peroration. Following the tribute
To the South's heroes come these
words: "FelloW-citiZenS let us re-
member the oneness of our American
devotion and destiny. Let us be thank
ful that in the baptism of blood all
serious cause of division and re-
proach were purified away. Let us be
grateful for the years of peace
through progress and of progress
through peace. Let us hail them as
but the prelude of still better days
to come. From this tableland of time,
looking backward on the past and
forward on the future, let us strike
hands for the betterment of politics;
for the cleansing of rule: for the
moral trusteeship of private wealth
and public office; for the lifting of
poverty, through self-help, into COM
fort; for the conSiderate leadership
of ignorance into knowledge; for the
transmutation fof provincialism into
patriotism and patriotism into phil
lauthropy. In this work While our
country is our solicitude, let our field
| be tho world While our countrymen
are our preference, let humanity be
our client. BY recaSting ourselves on
the lines of Gods laws in our hearts,
our State shall prosper, our cities shall
come TO nOnOf, our CO1lIflull-lleS Shall
conquer the DinnacleS of material and
of moral achievements, and our ma
ton shall attain to the benign pur-
poses of Deity in it's discovery and iii
its development And from the van
tage ground of this republic Will
sweep streams of blessings to all the
race of men. If to this we here dedi-
cate and here consecrate ourselves,
the north of our homes and the south
, of your hearts, the North and the
South of our country, will eventually
be constrained to admit that we
fought well and sought we'll and
thought we'll and wrought we'll for
their behalf and for our own" Is it
any wonder after such Il message. DR..
Abbott says that one Of his impress
sions is that the American people are
an eloquent people?
ANA now a closing word about Dr..
Abbott's impressions. OF this spe-
cific Conference he had five different
impressions. First of all he was inn
pressed with the "c-Itraordinary hos
pitalitY of the city of Richmond.
This of course was an impression not
confined TO Or. Abbott Ills second
impression about the Conference was
that the American people are an elo-
quent people Among others ne
mentions Or McKelWaY, whom we