The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-01-24
THE REMAKING OF A RURAL COMMON
WEALTH

Inc pOpuIdIlOn O1 III OulIeu OJdCeS Is SClu
chiefly rural. Barely two-ffths of our &c, OOO,OOO
inhabitants, according to the Census of 1900,
dwell outside our Country districts" The "Man
With the Hoe is still the representative of the
most numerous class of our population.
But this class has not welded power common
surate with its numbers. 1t has not contributed
its full share to the forward movements of the
last century. 1t has not kept pace with the march
of modern progress. And plain as the condition
is. the cause is equally plain. Isolation and Il
literacy have shackled the country-dweller. His
remoteness from railroad and telegraph and
printing-press-his physical isolation-has large
ly shut him out from contact with the material
forces which have revolutionized city life, while
the ineficiency of his schools, his inadequate edu-
cation, has kept him in intellectual ISOLATION
has largely shut him out from contact with the
powerful new influences in all branches of sci
ence and trade and industry,
Now. however, these conditions are changing.
Isolation and nliteracy. the ancient enemies of
rural progress, are going down before well-planned
movements for better public schools, better coun-
try roads, rural mail delivery, rural telephones.
public school libraries, agricultural teaching, etc.
To describe these new forces as they appear in
one Southern State, and to picture through them
the remaking of a rural commonwealth, is the
object of this paper.
The Improvement of Public Schools.
Let us glance first at the work for better public
schools, for the school is the index of a peoples
progress. Six years ago, a distinguished North
Carolinian, now editor of a magazine of inter
national reputation, said, in a public address de-
livered in this State: "The doctrine that we
are too poor to maintain schools has kept us poor.
1t has driven more men and more wealth from
the State and kept more away than any other
doctrine has ever cost us-more even than the
doctrine of secession" This lesson we have now
learned, and all the better because it has been
taught by the stern old master whose school is
yet as dear as it was in Poor Richards day. We
have found that the ineficiency of our schools is
a two-edged sword, which both impels emigration
and repels immigration. And while from the
days of the Revolution until now there has been
handed down from sire to son a deep and abiding
dread of taxes, we have at last come to see tina
the indirect tax levied by ignorance is more
burdensome than any direct tax ever levied to
maintain schools. The last Legislature found il
necessary to issue bonds in. order to free the
State from debt, but it did not dare to reduce
the school tax rate of IS cents on each 500 worth
of property, or to repeal the special appropriation
of $200,00 o for aiding the weaker common schools
On the contrary, larger amounts for the State
educational work were cheerfully voted. Within
the last five years, the average length of schoo
term for both white and black races has been in
creased more than 40 per cent, while the numbe
From an article a 6y Clarence n,f0 4; Poe, Editor of The Pre-
Months, R so1 of Reviews for Deoemhbaear l 3 R k%sinie