The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-09
HODGES DELIVERS
 VIGOROUS ADDRESS
Urges Continuation of Battle
 Against ignorance
TAKES UP HEALT MAT TIERS
Wants Better Biscuit and Declares That Written Across the Wan Face of the Multitude Is "Trae- 
 edy of the Kitchen"

The annual address of P. W. Hodges Of Greenvile, president of the Alabama Ed ucational association was the feature of yesterdays sessions. The address in full was as follows:
 Our educational system must assume much of the burden of the blame for the fact that modern life, particularly among the rural population of the south, has not met the demands made upon it in giving to it's civilization generation of men and women with strong bodies. One very potent reason for this, and yet one which we are slow to accept because we love our country and the traditions of our hardy ancestors, is our ignorance of scientific cooking and the selection of hygienia foods. This statement is made in com- plete realization of the fact that it strikes at the very root of our civilization, and that te who makes it does so at the peril of ostracism on the charge of sectional disloyalty. I would not here compare the virtues of cold light bread with those or hot biscuits with the judgment of banish- ment pronounced upon the latter in favor of the perpetual reign of the former, Tor I too am a loyal subject of the king bread of the south. Yet I plead that the hand that makes it shall be directed by sufficient knowledge of practical chem is.ry that we shall have product that IS pals table and wholesome rather than re- pulsive and murderous. Many of you nave had opportunity to bear testimony to my statement that upon the faces of the peo- ple of many of our less favored rural communities is written the very pallor Of de.tair l assert that this condition IS not so much the result of starved intel lects as it is the consequence or un- nourished bodies. When 'psycho-medicaf science shall some day give to the world it's real diagnosis of this malady, l be- 1eve it will write in bold letters across the wan faces of it's victims, 'The Trag- edy of the Kitchen"
 These remarks are made to preface plea that there shall be such revision aud such an adoption of our educational appliar ces that these people shall have the privilege of scientific instruction in the fundamentals of physical life. Is the day when such consummation is a pos sibility afar in the future? Probably so, but until such a day shall come con tented and prosperous rural population is 8 hope we dare not indulge The study of domestic science and the art of house. keeping will make better cooks and house. wives of the girls, while knowledge of, carpentry and sanitation on the part Of the boys will remove the causes that op- crate to render our rural citizenship phys icaIly incompetent.
 The physical welfare of present and fu- ture American manhood is sorely assailed in the practice of what the Indian sup posed to be harmless diversion. Not content with the simplicity of the noxious weed as bequeathed to us by our saw age predecessors, we have evolved back ward through pipe, cigar and cheroot un- til we have fallen under the seductive spell of the chief delight of our pagan contemporaries-the cigarette. The incon- sistency of the man whose high duty it is to train boys, and who yet cannot over come his desire to indulge in the filthy and obnoxious practice of smoking cigar cites. I pass without the worth of serious attention Yet even the teacher devotee will sanction the logic of my conclusion when I declare that in the contention be- tween restraint on the one hand, with it's