The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-02-05

vel OF the individual character is that
il insist upon getting is experience
at first hand, regardless If expense.
The history Of the world has been
n great pains TO provide certain MAJ
inns and ~indis.giable examples -eldt-
ing TO cause and effect. Nobody de-
mics the truth Of these Fundamental
principles or ne force Of these lessons
Or experience. Yet. with the individual.
the rule remains that the acceptance
is that Of the head alone. Youth at
tains TO maturity along the old Tires:
looks the same follics in the face with
full understanding and embraces them
with the same enthusiasm: builds the
same tail castles of dreams. warns
the same secret ambitions. suffers the
same eX~travagant despair, comes at
length in create. or less degree TO the
verdict # the preacher Of Ecclcsiastes
and is no whit surprised to realize in
the end that he knew it all before
hand.
Because this is nature does not
minimize its pathos. Think Of the
waste which it scatters as it walks
through life. Think of the hearts that
bleed. of the lives that, failing the
general dcliverance, end the melo-
drama with tragedy. Consider the
lost notion" the expenditure of time
and energy and wealth. Verify the
road to tho final Vanity of Nanities"
is strewn with wilted flowers and
marked by footsteps raced in blood.
Must a state go the same way? Must
it. to-, advised of the reaction, ncOun
ter the debauch? Must it, with open
eyes, tamper with the habit that from
Il worm becomes a constructor which
must he throttled with pain and ira
vail? Must this vast, conglomerate in
telligcnce, founded on precedent, built
of war n adventure and holding
within itself the history of innumer-
able dead lives and high hopes and
brave deeds, rush upon its future with
the heedlessnesS Of the boy? Must it,
too, get it's experience at first hand?
Or is it possible that the State, guar
dian against error, shall be able to
foresee as we'll as realize, not only with
its head but with it's heart. In some
things the State depends upon the
people; in othec things the people
must depend upon the State.
The State ought to be the brain and
the heart Of the people. minus the
passion of the individual.
This is not written as an essay. 1t
has a destination and it would ask
the consideration of thought. We
believe that North Carolina is, in a
sense, just upon the point of faring
forth to meet new conditions. The
State is confronted with new problems
late in the day. On all sides we car
see the examples of similar causes.
Other States nave failed to foresee and |
are struggling. Shall we wait the mo-
ment of the vital struggle? Shall we
drift into the position of all but help
~lessness? Shall we take the travail and |
the agony of d~eliverance? Or shall we
profit by the experience which we see
The new question is more money. /
Money has come to the State before it
was realized that it had come. It's eff
feet has been pleasantly Intoxicating.
We have never tired of pointing out
we had it; that we were getting
it; that more was on the way. AS q
child plays with a bright penny, we
turned it over, and admired it,
and gloated on it. Have we not failed
to realize it? Have we seen the respon-
sibllity it carries or thought of the
things which are corrolary to its pow
er of mere purchase? Have we paused
Iin l. ~, ,;-,o - 49, -
menace Of h yellow CLEAN of that
which is at once blessing and curse;
that is charity and greed; that is hap
and sorrow; independence and
oppression; liberty and slavery? Mon
ey comes acclaimed and feted and
welcomed with hands held out and
beating with JOY and yes Slist-
ening with expectation: too often it
in arrogance, in injustice, in
poverty and ignorant homes
md hives of human beings %fattening
the grave on sin, h problem of
ages is the plethoric purse: in
Carolina, we occupy the cor
point Of history and it's les
sons, seeing the money come, knowing
its danger, its power for good and its
capacity for evil.
How will this old State respond to
he golden crisis? Will it shipper like a
niser among its riches while its peo-
pie are pressed under their weight?
it forget all that it has read and
heard and seen in its clutch for more
gold and more? VIII it forget in the
lew delirium the things of which it
has been proud for the practice and
he Indulgence which it knows in its
brain turns ashes on the lips of those
Who are most avid for the feast?
Or will it take the gift in a new way,
hOughtfUlly, with regard for the les
sons its misuse has taught, with clear
yes and a cool head and a thankful
leart? In other words, must it suffer
a child, TO recover with pain as
l man? Or Will it take the view point
IF q man who would guard his own?
Nor is this in any sense an academic
The condition has begun
the dangerous tendency is already
manifest. What has resulted in other
richie" States in abuse and deceit
md oppression, is already in the MAX
ng in North Carolina. There is grow