The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13

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guise. 1t came with the faunt
of ignorance, the malignity of
passion, the hatred of prejudice.
1t came with the appeal to tear down.
1t came upon the shoulders of greed
prodded on by cunning. Never did
such cloud precede a towering;
never did a growth follow with surer
seeking for light. For a time the
storm ragged, ignorance prospered, vice
played about the political heavens,
plumber laughed in the dark. Finally
the people awoke. In agony and
bloody sweath they wrested themselves
free. They looked about to count the
cost and seek the cause. They found
the cause and they saw the remedy.
Patriotic leaders seized their opportu-
nifty. They went up and down the
State preaching education. Aycock,
with the eye OF prophet, saw the
need and fostered the trend. The de-
sire to learn broke out like an cpl
demic. No wonder the conservatives
were alarmed. The old seed, hum
81
like rose born in mid air. Education
became a desire of the mass, an ambi-
ton of the home. Politicians gasped
and followed as best they could. Earn
est educators with McIver in the lead
went up and down the State. striking
while the iron was hot. pledging cam
didates, melting the people to self
help and self-sacrifice. Joyner spread
his literature abroad. The better ele-
ment of the press fell into line, led
on the vanguard. 1t was an old tale
which enthusiasm made new. 1t fell
on ears that seemingly had never
heard, certainly had never listened
before. What had been waiting
through the years for an expression.
the thing for which five generations
of noble men had given their lives.
earned the impotent reproach of being
"craze." 1t was high insanity
which has cast the reason" of delay
at length behind. 1t was the discov-
cry of the essential in life, the reali-
zation that ignorance could not be let
alone. 1t meant-and means-the
better beginning of a higher order of
civilization, deeper faith, sterner
progress, and a purer ambition.
Read in this paper the article of
the State superintendent. 1t shows
what has been done, it marks the lines
of the future campaign, it indicates
large possibilities. 1t brims with fig
ho CHI
the extent of the wave. 1t is an
illumination to the average man. The
progress is of itself amazing the fig
ures are more significant as showing
the conditions from which the move
ment gathered it's first strong inf
petus.
We learn that one thousand, one
hundred and fifty-four new school
houses have been built in four years;
that for the past two years there has
been a new school house erected for
each day of that period that in the
past year there have been established
ninety-six districts in which the peo-
pie have voted to tax themselves speci-
ally for educational purposes.
Think of a thousand new school
houses! OF hundred thousand chill
dren started with new impulse towards
getting an education. What a bomb
across the barrier of the years con-
tanned in that great force! Where will
the ripples of school house end?
How many homes will be brighter,
ind ctt,ia will hn
how much wealth will flow into the
State from the maturity of that host
of little girls and grimy-fist boys?
To look at a school house is, as it
were, to gaze on a black night into
the translucent vault of heaven. The
pacity to grasp the idea of the infin-
itieS-is much the same. With these
thoughts, it seems for the moment
incomprehensible that the larger fruit
ton of education is yet in the future
What would the State have been to-
day had present conditions obtained
fifty years ago. The thought is almost
notifying. yet it is foolish reproach
to the past. All things wait their
time; education comes at the end as
common desire; it is born in the brain
of the seer. Young peoples are inevi-
tably set first on winning physical
battles. The winning of the brain
with the consequent training of the
heart is an older conquest. Barring
the setback of the war with it's re-
version to the poverty of the begin
nings, the South has moved constant
ly, if slowly, to her educational des-
tiny Now she is gathering speed
through the impetus of the years and
there is a clear road ahead. The
awakening has come; the idea is fix
ed; the workers are multiplied; the
ideal is immortal!
BINGHAM AND unRNEp