Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1904-07-29
MISSISSIPPI NEWS MATTERS
A Brief Chronicle of ALI Important Happenings
Educational Matters.

before this paper will have reached
you, the School Bulletin should be in
circulation even to the remotest parts
OF this great State of Mississippi and
every reader of its bright and breezy
columns will be the better for its com
ing. This is a four page (six columns
to the page) quarterly, issued by State
Superintendent Whitfield, in the in
terest of school work in this state. and
1T IS as full of good things as the pro-
verbal "egg is of meat" A careful
reading of this helpful little bulletin
warrants the prophecy of good things
TO come, from the venture. It's pages
are filled with information concerning
scheol work, arguments in favor of i'm
proving every department of the work
IN Mississippi, and records of good
work done. In recent speech. deliv-
cred by Supt. Whitfield in Copiah Co.,
he discussed the question, ,"what is
our supreme duty at this moment ?"
He emphasized the great need of CIV
ing to our children better tools with
which to work, better trainingto better
opportunities than were ever ours.
He calls attention to the fact that life
In the olden times, was simpler than
it is now, and that men today, must,
IN order to succeed, must be equipped
with worthy weapons in the contest
with the best of other lands and sec
tions, continuing, he deplores the slug
gishnes of many of our people who
seem to think it a form of treason in
the child who aspires to know more
than his father knew. He says that
our sons have a ten-fold better train
ing than their sires, and glories in the
fact that we. have two prime factors,
necessary to osuccess, viz blood and re-
sources. "In soil, timber, water and
climate we are second to none, while
the last census shows that ours is the
largest percentage of pure Anglo-Sax-
on blood of.any state in the union. -
With such potent weapons as these,
we can conquer any thing, if these pos
sibilities are only given the right train
ing. And yet, we are so wofully be-
Lind on, sister states. Our glorious
forests are already denuded of their
hard wood for which our own people
were psid-if paid at all Ridiculous
ly-small prices, while the well trained
buyers, reaped rich harvests and made
fortunes of many millions, because
they had learned what to do and how
to do it. We toll and sweat in our
cotton fields to sell the feecy staple
at say. ten cents, while the buyers
convert into products which brings
them an average of ninety cents for
each pound Of cotton bought of us for
the pitiful sum of ten cents. We re-
main peor in. spite of hard work, while
they grow rich, with little effort !
And all because they have learned
what to do and how to do it. And so
1t is all down the line, we, IN our slow
walk (for I cannot call it "march'
Of progress, continue to wear our
selves out producing materials out of
which our wiser and more progressive
neighbors grow fabulously rich,. and
all for the lack of training. Surely it
is time for every parent in Mississip-
pi to wake up, and set himself to the
noble task of putting into his child
ren's hands better tools than he has
ever worked with. But this he cannot
do, while the present custom continues
Of putting the bulk of the farm work
on the tender shoulders of boys of
twelve years who ought to.be in school.