The news & observer., 1905-10-22
Comments Living Topics
(By Archibald JohnsOn.)
Town and County.


Town and County.
If the town is the place to raise
| money, the country is the place to
raise men. All the men who are do
| ing things (there are exceptions, but
they prove the rule) are those who
| followed the plow in their youth and
teased frugal living from old mother
! earth. The town needs a constant infu-
sion of fresh blood to keep it vigorous
| from the rural districts surrounding it.
Town boys, as a rule, are not fellows
the business men are looking for.
The hardy, healthy, unsophisticated
| country lad grows up into man of
! power and influence in the cityS life.
But while all this is true, we are
! obliged to acknowledge that the
money that is needed to move things
! in the religious, as in every other
realm, comes from the city in a large
measure. North Cardinals popula-
ton is largely rural, and yet we are
told that three-fourths of the money
that goes into Baptist missions is con-
! tributcd by town and city churches.
! Perhaps this is equally true of the
other denominations. We should not
! be surprised if the proportion in favor
Of the towns is greater among them
because the Baptists are stronger than
/
! tricts. Now, what is the reason for
this better development among our
<Own brethren? In our judgment it
IS merely a matter of training. In
the town the pastor lives among his
people, and gives his whole time to
the work of stimulating their growth
in the grace of giving. He breaches
every Sunday, and holds extra services
through the week. In short, he
1 IL l.
and does not fool his time away in
.he cornfield. In the country the
"reacher pays one visit a month
to his people. He cannot attend
Sunday School He can see his peo-
pie only on Sunday morning, and then
| for only one hour. How can they
grow on nutrimeDt so meagre as this
man can furnish. no matter how gift
ed he may be? The solution of the
problem is easy to suggest but hard
to put into practice. 1t is for our
country churches ITO form convenient
| fields and settle the pastor among
them, giving him a decent support,
SO that he may give himself Who'll
| ly to his great work. If this were
! only done the waste places would bios
som as the rose.
Compulsory School Attendance.
We do not believe that North Caro-
| lima will ever take her rieItful place
| until the legislature enactS law COM
! pelHng parents who are too stupid to
/ avail themselves of the free school
advantages to send their children,
whether they wish to do SO or not.
| Perhaps the time has not yet fully
| come for SO drastic q measure in view
of the fact that the public school syS-
| tenn is not what it ought to be, but of
one thing we are sure: there are peo-
pie in North Carolina who simply will
not send their children to school be-
cause they do not want them to re-
ceive the blessings of an education.
| They do not believe in it, and would
prefer to keep their children litter
ate. We have them in ThomaSviile.
| There are families within easy reach
of the graded school entitled to the
advantages it offers. They have been
urged by the superintendent and by
| many members of the committee to
| send their children, without money
and without price, but they stubborn
| ly refuse to . so. Now a gan who
will thus rop his children of their
rights ought to be punished by law.
! Six months in Jail for such a person
| would work Il wonderful change i'm
/ his sentiments, and force him to give
| to his child what he would deny him
without the fear of punishment. And
no doubt this is true of many other
| communities in the State. Talk about
taking away personal liberty A man
who thus prostitutes the sacred name
! of liberty is not worthy of it. When
there is a school within reach of every
| boy and girl in North Carolina where
! they may enjoy the benefit of inStruc-
! tion without the cost of penny the
| time will have arrived to enact a gen
eral law to force avaricious and heart
| less parents to surrender their right
to hold their children in perpetual
| bondage The State cannot do less
than this when it has provided the
! way for it to be done.
Dixon and Ogdeu.
| Tom Dixon represents one school of
| thought on the race question, and Mr..
Ogden, of Wanamaker's store another
Dixon knows the darkey from his
head to his heels; Ogden knows moth
| ing about him except from hearsay
| The knowledge of one is practical
| that of the other entirely theoretical
| Dixon thinks that education will not
solve the problem, but will rather
make the negro more discontented and
/ harder to manage than ever. Ogder
| sees, or thinks he sees, in the Uplift
of the negro race by education, a pan
acea for all our woes. Dixon lives
right among the negroes and employs
| them; Ogden lives in New York, and
we dare say would not have them
about his place. For our part, VIC
will take Dixon's judgment every time
upon this question in preference tC
Ogden's Both are honest men. Mr.
/ Ogden is sincere and honest Chris
tian and really desires to help mat
| ters in the South, but he is disqualified
! by reason of his total lack of infor-
| nation. He believes Booker Wash
| ington, who boasted recently that the
NEGRO race has shown itself superior
to the latins in the progress it has
made within the past forty years. Mr.
ogden does not know that the negro
has made no real progress at all eX-
cept by imitation of the white people
about him. They write no books, make
no discoveries. or do anything else that
requires original thinking. They are