The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-03-06
EDUCATE THE FARMER.
some Great Fallacies and What They
Have Cost Us.

"The farmer, the common laborer
OF any sort. needs no training. Edu-
cate him and you spoil him. The
poorer you keep him, the richer will
be the upper class" These have
have been our great pet fallacies.
And a long time have they been
preached.
Hugging the vampire delusion, the
southern plantation owner has seen
vast areas abandoned to broomsedge
and gullies, in spite of the fact that
Intelligent handling would have kept
them productive thousand years.
Preaching this fatal doctrine, the
merchant has sold western meat and
scooters and tobacco. when with pros-
porous patrons he might have quad
rupled his profits by selling sulky
plows and harvesters and carriages
and pianos. t"t
Deluded by this fallacy. the states
man has struggled against fate, only
to die and be forgotten by people too
l.oorly educated to read his bio
e-aphy. and too poor In property to
tuild a monument to his memory.
while smaller and meaner men in
sections unshackled by these ancient
errors. are famed In song and story.
Writing editorials in support Of the
aristocratic instead of the democratic
theory Of industry. the editor has seen
his patent-outside weekly fail Of sup
port. when properly trained and
educated people would have brought
him wealth as the head Of pros
porous daily.
Fighting public taxation for better
schools and other methods Of train
ing and enriching the average man.
your manufacturer has struggled
along with small business when a
prosperous average man would have
given us great industries like those in
the North and West.
still arguing that education and
training would spoil the working
man. and that "cheap labor" Ia what
we need. your banker has complained
that the South offers no opportuni-
ties for the great financier. forgetting
that cheap. unprosperous labor means
small. unprosperous banks.
Opposing taxation for better
schools. the railroad. hauling cotton
In the fall and low-grade fertilizers
In the spring. have fought passenger
rate reduction as a life and death
matter when a well-trained people
would supply the various traffic and
the heavy dividends of the other Sec
tions. .Si
Your lawyer. doctor. preacher.
teacher-each falling In line with the
ancient heresy. has paid the penalty
in diminished fees. diminished sal
aries. diminished influence.
Victims of the vicious teaching I
am pointing out. your men Of talent
---artist. sculptorf poet, orator-have
too often fed to other sections, or
else have died with vision unfulnlleu
among a people unframed to appre-
ciate their genius-when but for
these things you might see statues Of
Southern leaders in every Southern
city. the work of Southern artist in
the worlds greatest galleries. the
thought Of the Southern poet the
common heritage Of mankind. 1t is
not that We have had no mighty
dreamers; II Is that they sleep In
neglected graves trampled under foot
by war. and waste. and error.
Now. war and waste. thank God,
are behind us. Let us also put error
behind us.-From an address by
Clarence H. Poe. editor OF the Pro-
gressive Farmer and the Southern
Farm Gazette. before the Southern
Commercial Congress-. Washington n