Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-09-12
THE CROP THAT MOST NEEDS
ATTENTION.

IL was SdlQ Oh the PurItanS in
New England that when they found a
field that would not raise a crop OF
corn they planted little school house
on it and proceeded to turn out crop
of men and women. Education of the
young was the first thing that was Civ
en- consideration by them. One of the
earliest laws of Massachusetts requir-
ed every town to provide school facil-
tiles for the children. The New
Orleans States had this fact in mind
when it recently declared that it was
this attention to successive growing
crops of boys and girls that gave to
New England the leadership which she
has held ever since sectional strife
wrestled the reins of leadership from
the South more than fifty years ago. 1t
was the value placed upon the intel
lect and charactr, upon manners and
morals, that gave to American states
manship her Washington her Jeffer-
son, her Marshall and the brilliant and
masterful leaders that adorned the
history of the South through a long
succession of years.
1t was only when poverty and dis
tress accentuated by the corruption
and debauchery of the Reconstruction
period spread despair over the land
and cut off the opportunities of educa-
ton and proper training from so many
of the young men of the South, that il
began to lag in the race for material
development. The blight of the Re
construction influences upon the in
tellect and the morals of the South
was an unspeakable calamity from
the shadow of which her people have
not yet fully emerged, and the waste ii
has entailed has been infinitely more
than money can repair or words ex-
press.
Pleading for attention to the educat-
ing of the generation now coming uK
to assume the leadership of Southern
affairs, the States says that the in
SEPARATION excited by the contemplation
of generations of worthy forbears, the
patient development of distinctive her
editary traits and predictions after
dreams of high empire were smother
ed by the effacement of opportunity
and the enveloping cloud of poverty
and ignorance which rested like a pail
over the rising generations. Had il
not been for the splendid devotion OF
the mothers and the indomitable cour-
age of the fathers who were bred in
the manners, the traditions and the
lore of the old school, who, in the
midst of merciless poverty remained
unfiinchingly in their adhesion to
truth and honor and cherished their
veneration for exalted character, pit
Hess indeed would have been. the fate
of the South.
But out of the blackened ruins OF
that terrible period new conditions
have been born. The fiery ordeal
through which the South was made to
pass toughened the fibers of her moral
manhood, accentuated the virtues OF
patience and persistent determination
gave strength to courage and temper
ed impetuosity with discretion. We
have lost three decades, when counted
from the viewpoint of material prog
ress, but out of it have come fruitful
experience and a maturity which will
count for much in future contests fol
mastery.
Our best crop-our boys and girls
have for thirty years been stunted by
unfavorable environments and the de-
privation of essential opportunity fol-
proper development. But we are con-
soled by the reflection that the future
holds out an alluring prospect, and
the productive capacity of the regen.
Grated South-considered with relation
to this particular crop will, in the
glad day even now breaking upon us
give indubitable evidence that it has
fully regained it's lost vigor and vital
ity.
Let the parents in the homes see tc
it that the training in manners and
morals, in heart and character, shall
keep pace with the development of the
physical and intellectual faculties; and
with that accomplished, the South
need not fear the result of the fierce
contest for mastery which, in the re-
adjustment of the political and econ
omic equilibrium, is destined to shake
this country from center to circum-
ference in the not distant future.