The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-19
AT TIE BAPTIST UNIVERSITY.
Afternoon Exercises of Commence
ment and Dedication.

III,
lander was introduced by Superin-
tendent Joyner. Mr.. Mitchell said he
came with a message from the mother
Of all the schools in North Carolina of
the Baptist denomination, the ChoWan
Institute. They claimed DR.. Vann as
theirs, for there he was raised and
found the woman VINO mad shared
life's joys and sorrows with him.
They claimed DR.. Henson as theirs,
because there he had gone for his
helpmeet. He read a resolution adopt
ed by the ChoWan Board of Trustees
congratulating the Baptist Female
University upon it's freedom from debt.
The day of UNCONVENTIONAL jealousy
was passing away The establishment
Of this university had helped every
other institution in the State.
The speaker dWelt upon our duty
to carry on the great work started by
our fathers, to let their efforts be to
us stimulus to do great things. 1t is
sometimes said that 1T is matter of
sentiment but he remembered how in
the last Legislature, When the cry
came up from the good women Of the
State for some law regulating he
liquor traffic those VINO were opposed
to il said that it was only Il matter
of sentiment.
When Mr.. Mitchell concluded DIR.
Vann arose and expressed the thanks
of the University for the resolutions of
the Chowan institute, read by Mr..
Mitchell. superintendent Joyner sug-
gested a rising vote, which was given
unanimously.
President Charles ID. McIVer.
AZ come to offer greeting and con-
graduation, a message that comes 70
this institution today not only from
your college established and MAIN
tanned by the people of the state, ara
which | have the honor to serve, but
from every institution in North Caro-
lima whether established by public or
private benefcence. This is your glad
day and in spirit they are Ill here to
greet YOU But my feeling is not mere
| ~ one of congratulation. Everybody
congratulates success. / prefer lhefe-
fore rather to give expression to the
gratitude that all of US feel and ought
to express on proper occasion to those
men and women who have made this
happy occasion possible.
at was less than forty years ago
that NaSSar-the oldest college Tor
women with any considerable income
outside of tuition feeS-Was estab-
lished. That marked the beginning
of a new era in the education of wo-
men and consequently in the education
of the human race. L believe 1t to De
a fact that one-half of the sacrfhce
our fathers and mothers made during
the Civil War would be sufficient to-
day to so train the girls and women
that there would never be another
illiterate native man or woman among
us.
1T is also q remarkable fact that
an educated woman can bring an un-
educated husband up to the level of
her intellectual life. Illustrations oc-
cur to ALL President Andrew john
ston's story is conspicuous. But who
has seen an educated man raise an
illiterate or uneducated woman to his
intellectual level?
when the great Baptist church of
North Carolina decided TO place the
educution of women upon the same
financial basis with that of men by es-
tablishng this institution and liber-
ally endowing it, it marked a new
epoch in the educational thought and
achievement of our commonwealth.
"Of course it is recognized that this
institution is only in it's infancy and
that the placing of these buildings here
is only the beginning. But one dollar
year from every Baptist in North
Carolina for the next five years Will
give a larger endowment fund than
has yet been received by any college
in North Carolina for men or women.
If the alumnae and former students Of
this institution and the women of the
Baptist church desire earnestly to
bring about this result, it will be done,
and a college with such spirit Will
find wealthy m1n and women in the
State and out of it glad to make edu-
cational investments in it.
.'When the announcement was made
that Mrs. Swepson had left more .3cn-
ey to the Baptist University than to
Wake Forest college / rejoiced, not he
I
had all been given to Wake Forest;
but what pleased me SO much was u at
| a woman had decided to break the
record and leave the larger portion Cf
her bequest to a woman's institution.
'"There was time when the girls of
| Boston were not allowed to enter pub
| lie schools except during the Vaca-
ton of their brothers.; and when
Thomas Jefferson announced his sys-
| tenn of universal education by public
| taxation he thought it necessary to
| emphasize the fact that he meant to
| include girls as well as boys. The
march has been slow but steady from
these times to the present when men
and women have begun to realize the
value and the far-reachng influence
of cultured woman. This institution
ought to emphasize in every legitimate
| way that any system of education
which refuses to recognize the equal
| educational rights of women with
those of men is unjust, unWise and
permanently hurttul.
| "One-third of North Cardinals pop
ulation is composed of women and
girls of the white race, and the opT.Or-
tunities given to this class of our pep
ulation will determine North Carolina's
destiny The chief factors of any civil
ization are it's homes and its primary
schools Homes and primary schools
are made by women rather than by
men. No State which will once educate
its mothers need have any fear about
future illiteracy An educated man
may be the father of illiterate children,
but the children of educated women
are never illiterate. -tourths OF
all the educated women IN North Caro-
lima spend q part of each day educat-
ing their own children or the children
of others, whereas, three-fourths OF
the educated men in the State spend a
very short time daily with their own
children. to say nothing of educating
them.
Money invested in the education of
4 man is a good investH.ent put the
dividend which it yields is frequently
confined to one generation and is OF
the material kind. 1t strengthens his
. | hi m orh