The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-05
Rev. ]. A. Baldwin Tells of
Work of His School.
INDUSTRIAL LEARNING
Designed For Boys and Girls who,
Denied Early Advantages, Need
Special Instructions
Along This
Line.

is in the city today. Mr. Baldwin is
here in the interest of the Piedmont
Industrial School, which ne is estab-
fishing for working boys and girls,
more especially those in the mills. Mr.
Baldwin is consecrated to the work he
mas in hand and is endorsed by the
best men of the State.
Mr. Baldwin says he has done the
hardest thing-gotten a start. He has
ESQ acres of land three and a half
mics from the square in Charlotte
on the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and
right near Chadwick and Hoskins. two
large cotton mills 1--WE have" he
said, IAN ideal location, and we have
land enough so that when we enlarge
we will not have to pay exorbitant
prices for it. We have a 16-roo II
frame building, which we believe Is
simply the first OF many more and
larger ones"
Just what is the work you expect
to do?"
1--WE want to give special training
TO boys and girls who have grown up
at work and don't know anything
much, but who are capable of doing
more and are anxious to do il. There
are at almost every mill from one
to dozen such young people from
fifteen to twenty-five years of age.
Many of them didn't have the oppor-
tunity of going to school when they
were younger Some being the chit
dren of uneducated parents didn't
realize the Importance of learning and
SO were Indifferent Now. however,
they do realize 1t and are anxious to
go l know many cases that are pa
thetic in their eagerness. | have just
received a letter from q young wo-
man saying, just think of your
| school all the time. ! want to go so
bad 1 don't know what to do. This
girl taught in q Sunday School l had
some three years ago at mill in Gas
| tonia. She was then only sixteen and
could hardly do more than read and
write. Many of the hard words she
would have to spell out. But she was
/ bright and earnest, and was the best
! teacher I could get for that class.
thought how 1 would like to have
! her in school for year or two, and
/ give her literary course suited to
| her need and some knowledge OF do
nestle science, and Of the Bible, so
she may have a richer life. and be a
| better home maker and a more use
full Christian worker
'"Then there are the boys. That there
are possibilities in them is shown by
the fact that practically all the room
overseers-or bosses as they are
usually called-and very large pro-
portion of the superintendent have
come right up in the mill. Most of
them are very poorly equipped. i
know many boys and young men, max
ing a dollar a day, who with only
the training that a year or two in
school would give, could make two,
three or four times as much. They
know how to manage the help, they
n f1o hi Poi
but they haven't enough education
even to make simple calculations"
why don't these young people so
to the public SCHOOL,"
For two reasons: First they are
large and don't know much, and at
the public school they would be put
in classes with little children. That
doesn't work WELL, In the next place
while they are in the mill community,
the room boss often wants them to
work a day or two every week, when
he is short Of help, and that doesn't
work well. If they are away the boss
will simply have to make some other
arrangement
Are these young men and women
able to pay their expenses at a board
ing SCHOOL,"
THAT is the point of difficulty A
few here and there can, but most
cannot, or at least do not. Most of
them have not learned to save their
money-especially the young people.
This is often because they have no
special object in view. l know sew
eral, however. who in the last year
or two have begun to save their mon
ey in order to go to school,"
do you help them financially?"
'No not directly. Our expenses
are low. We charge only $40 month
for board and tuition. We make our
own vegetables and have our own
milk and butter, and get other things
at wholesale rates, so we can live
cheaply. Boys from the farm will do
the work on the farm. At present
most of the farm is rented out, but
gradually the school proper will use
| more and more of it. In this way they
VIII help to pay their expenses.
There is another thing l want to
do. l want to have a cotton mill
with two sets of handsome to work
in the morning and go to school in the
afternoon; the other to go to school