The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-31
WHY NORTH CAROLINIANS ARE
PREFERRED.

great universities and colleges is to
repress individuality and initiative and
to turn out product as like as the
finished product of any factory. Young
men who go into these institutions
full of faith in themselves are made
to feel that they ought to lose their
Wn individuality and to convert them
selves into a type of the institution.
That system makes thorough schol-
ars and expert investigators, and
when a graduate undertakes to do a
particular piece of work he does it
we'll and thoroughly. He hides him
self in his work-a good thing to do
the great institutions turn out men
who are capable to do things, but
lacking in originality, individuality,
initiative.
Lately we have seen quite a large
number of North Carolinians called to
the head of great educational and
other institutions in other States, the
latest being the election of Rev. A.
G. Dixon to the head of Moody's
Mortified school. Why this demand
for North Carolina men? The answer
is that they have not been educated
out of themselves. In the main they
were trained in the University of
North Carolina, Davidson, Wake For
est, Trinity, Elon or some other COM
paratively small institution where the
q
matriculates. In a college with thous-
ands of students. there is little real
college life. Men learn books, they
grow into capable scholars, and often
write able books upon some speciality.
But they do not know men. In the
critical hour of their development they
miss the contest and rivalry with their
fellows so essential to developing their
staying qualities. The North Carolina
men needed as executives have not
idiosyncracies, if they have any They
retain their originality, their initiative,
their power to govern and direct men.
It is a great thing to write a book
that will live among scientists: it is
a greater thing to touch and guide the
minds of aspiring youths. Graduates
of small colleges can afterwards per-
feet themselves in great institutions.
but the man who has lost himself IN
books or scientific research can never
find himself and regain the leadership
of his fellows which is brought out
in the contests and associations in the
smaller institutions of learning. The
boy who does not come into personal
relations with his teacher and into i'll
innate association with his classmates
loses an indefinable something that
marks the difference between the
scholar who leads men and the schol-
ar who makes scientific Investigations
or writes books and nothing else.
Men educated in North Carolina insti-
tutions think we'll of their own powers.
When they enter college, they think
more highly of themselves than they
ought to think, but the Sophs knock
that out of them soon enough. There
is no democracy and no school where
stitution of learning. 1t puts menon
their mettle. The student who has
the stuff in him, with leadership.
has before him the spirit of contest.
That brings out all his powers, and
instead of lapsng into one of the
alumni he is himself, cultivating his
original power and his own spirit of
initiative.
The world is calling for scholars
who do not follow beaten paths, who
think for themselves. who have origi-
nality and freshness, and whose schol-
arship makes them love and lead
young men into the joy of knowledge
and achievement, rather than to con-
secrating their whole lives to black
letter scholarship.
1t is because North Carolina pro-
duces such men-men whose scholar
ship has not dwarfed their freshness
and originality-that the world is call
ing for them.