The Tupelo journal., 1908-07-24
MISSISSIPPI EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE

In the calendar of Mississippi's great
events there should be a whitestone set
to mark the days of last week. From
these days there will come-and that in
the near future-events of the import
ance and glory of which we have, as yet,
but dreamed.
On the beautiful old campus, meath
the stately oaks and graceful elms
which shade its velvet sward, there was
gathered, from the four corners of the
State, and from every county within her
bounds, an ~assemblage of her leading
men and women in whose hands lies
the greater part of our future as a
State.
These were the teachers of the State
OF Mississippi, with a few from other
States, who had heard our cry and
come over to help U.S."
There were present in that great
body of teachers, men who stand at
the head of the educational life of Mis-
sissippi-from whose offices in the splen-
did new capitol there is continually go
ing out the vital current which keeps
alive the energy and ambition upon
which we are to build this glorious flu
ture; men who are at the head of our
university, and our Industrial college,
and our Agricultural and Mechanical
aal1n-n ,-a, -l4 lnxN Ey thafp Au~p
efforts, built up the fine private schools
of Mississippi; and last, but by no
means least, that grand army of men
and women who stand in the fore front
of our rural school work, and who are
so bravely leading on the youth of the
State we love, to the attainment OF
these great and beautiful things winch
lie beyond the school room doors.
1t was indeed a most wonderful ag-
by their comon love for the children of
the State, and the patriotism that Is
as strong in the heart and the life of
the most rural teacher of them all as it
is in the heart OF the loyal s~uperin-
tendent himself.
This evidence of brotherhood which
was manifest everywhere during these
delightful days, was one of the finest
things about the conference. Without
it the meeting-great though it was in
numbers, would have been a failure.
1t was during the meeting of the
State Teachers Association held here
in May, that the idea of an Educational
Conference took form and voice. For
some time the idea had been forming
in the active brains and loyal hearts
of a few of our leaders, but it was
not until the last session of the May
| meeting that it was launched. lmme-
diately it took with the great body of
the teachers, and since that time there
has been much interest manifested III it.
State Superintendent j.. n. Powers.
having been one of the originators of
the idea, was put at the head of the
work, and he and President T. p. Scott,
of the B~rokhaven school, and president
of the State Teachers Association, was
authorized to call the conference when
and where he thought best.
Very wisely he thought the time imme-
diately following the great patriotic
rally on the university campus best, and
that campus, already the scene of one
of the finest normals ever held in Mis-
sissippi, as the place.
From first to last this inaugural meet
ing of Mississippi's educators was the
happiest possible success. There was
not, so far as the journalistic eye could
see, and it sees most things visible, not
Il single ripple to mar the smooth sur
face of things, nor was there an unkind
criticism of the arrangements, the lead
ers. the hosts, the speakers, or even the
visitors.
What the results may be from this
conference it is beyond our power to
estimate. But we are certain that they
will be good and far reaching. The
very fact that there were so many teach
ers present on the campus (for 1t must
be remembered that Oxford is one hun
bred and f~ifty-six miles, according to
, my mileage book, from the heart OF
the State proves their profound inter
est. Very few of them possess mileage
books or passes, and as all of us know,
there are very few who have money to
waste from their meager salaries. Thus
their presence at this conference meant
something. And it is certain that they
received something from it, we'll worth
the trouble, the expense, and the sacri-
flee of the trip.
As | sat there in the restful library
of the quaint home of the chancellor,
and looked out over the beautiful old
campus with is hundreds of stately trees
standing there just as kindly Nature
placed them-for her JOY and our
own, the thought came to me that this
alone was we'll worth the price of going.
just to be there where so man. men
of great name and fair fame had had
their training for the great work of
life; where others as great in the Nation
as our own were in the State, had come
to say a helpful word to the young men
starting out on the way of life; and
where so many strong, true men had,
during the years that are gone-as in
the years that are now with us-lent
their brave endeavor to help our youth
grow into the symmetry and the
strength that is a requisite of the per-
feet man. Had there been no lessons,
to say or learn; no speeches to heed;
no great men to look upon, it would
yet have meant a great deal to these
weary, work-worn teachers, whose days
are o~verfulI of the monotOny that hurts
so cruelty, Just to be there, and to drink
in the sweet pure air that lifts the
swaying trees so gracefully; and to
| dream about the men who, passing this