The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-05-11

rem to great degree. Such children
soon become discouraged and wish to
leave school, and frequently the aver
age teacher encourages them to do so.
as they constitute a drag on the pro-
gress of the class as a whole when they
are present"
Miss Gordon feels that the people OF
the South do not yet have true appre-
citation of the value of education, as
evinced by the niggardly appropria-
tons of public funds for the sch oos
You tell me the South is too poor
to educate her children, then | tell you
the South is too poor not to educate
them. If we are poor. 1t is because we
have been ignorant. Ignorance always
lack of opportunity. 1t was ignorance
of the value of our great forests. OF
our great mines. OF the Possibilities in
the franchises we sold TO Northern cap
ital. that made us let these sources OF
great wealth slip from us, and so left
us poor. The sooner we get some edu-
cation among our people. and learn to
appreciate the value of what is left US,
the better. The South must nave COM
pulsory Industrial education, and we
must have 1t right away. We can take,
and are taking the children from the
mills. but the South must supply some
place for these children to go. it must
supply enough interesting schools to
keep the children contented.
InstnImcnt Plnn EVIL.
another force taking the children
into the mills in the South is the in
stalment system Many a child is
i working to pay the weekly instalment
of So on the piano. or the 80 cents on
the green plush album. No one ap-
proves more than of sweet homes and
the refining influence OF music, but it
is paying high rate for these little
Ieleganc!es when the future of child
Is put up against the green plush
album
Miss Gordon said that in her expert
ence as factory inspector, she has
never found a Jew or negro child in
mill. factory or department. store in
Louisiana. They are at school being
we'll nourished, playing out in the
glorious Southern sunlight, waxing
strong and fat. ut is only your little,
white-f faced. shrunken- chested. curved
back, white Christians" said Miss Cor
don, "who are in the mills and depart
ment stores of New Orleans. So that
the argument against compulsory edu-
cation. SO often offered, that it will be
political menace to educate the negro
child. Is not we'll founded"
Address by Miss Adams.
In discussing Child Labor and Edu-
cation" Miss Adams said that the
other speakers had lifted her speech.
You can get many children to leave
school at fourteen and earlier by at.
fidavits," she said. because the schools
do not interest them. and because the
parents think OF the money they could
earn. To speak of the great industrial
advancement, and then to admit that
ad,,ca tion has not made correspond
Ing change. means that we must spell
failure. So far as education Is con-
cerned. the parents feel that their chill
dran are not getting in the schools
what they think they should get
".ro obtain the best results you must
modify the school as you go along.
You must make it relate In the best
sense to tho factory; make the child
dominate the machine because he un-
derstands IT, and teach him how his
wage earning capacity in the factory
will increase by moro thorough
school knowledge. You must socialze
and humanize the school. The lack OF
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