Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-07-30
EDUCATION.
INDUSTRIAL DEMAND FOR EDUCATION
IN THE SOUTH.
will The Southern Boy Make Good?"

materially. In the next few years
It's leaders in politics and it's leaders
of industry must come largely from
the re nks of the present generation
of Southern boys Will our boys
make good? This question was sug-
gested by recent speech that Prof.
Thames from South Miss. College
made at Washington. He startled
me by saying that there was not
a single boy in some of the large
towns Of Southern parentage, that
could hold down $4,000 job. Simply
because the southern boy is lazy or
incompetent. Plenty of them are
hungry for the job, but they can not
render $4,000 worth of service.
Moral:-Young man, get an educa
ton, If you must carry bod of brick
or shovel coal. or worse still borrow
the money to do it. The business
world will soon be as intolerant of
an ignOramus in the mercantile life
as it is now of an ignorant doctor, or
an uneducated minister in the pulpit.
The law, medicine, and the ministry
demand higher standard of compe-
tency in those seeking to enter those
professions, Why not such a stand
aard for the man that presumes to
run a great business, whether it be
a cotton factory or a department
store or a railroad
Recently list of successful people
was complied in a book called, Who
is Who out of 1000 names, includ-
ing highly successful bankers, law
yers, farmers, railroad presidents,
authors, captains of industry, states
men, and others, over 20 per cent
we're college bred linen. Young men
what does this mean? Firt, that the
battle is to the strong and the race
to the swift, as never before in the
world 5 history. 1t is rapidly COM
ing la the South, whose material de-
veiopment assumes larger proper
tions yearly. No matter what the
business or the profession, unless
you are trained for it, you can not
attain permanent success. Unless
competent you can not hold your
I Job. Chance stanceS may Oc-
casionally keep a wea1ling in place
fof responsibility, but the least shake
up that comes along viii throw him
out of his position 1t is verify a
case of the survival of the fittest, an
memorable law of nature that is fast
becoming q law in the commercial
world as well. The same reason that
underlies the displacing of the old
horse car by the modern electric
trolley of today, namely: Il higher CO.
efficient of power, will account for
the dispossessing of the ignorant
Southern white boy by the trained
and educated young man of the fu-
ture, who has either professional or
some highly specialized technical
training 1t is q remarkable fact,
that nearly three-fOurths OF the Who
is who list comes from the educated
college trained class, although this
class constitutes only about 10 per
cent of the entire population. The
United States government goes fur
Their and proves that the educated
man s chances in business life are in
ratio of 200 to l as that of the I'M
educated,
How can the average Mississippi,
or Greene County, boy be made to
realize that his own case IS a serious
one, and that his future success and
usefulness is strictly conditioned on
the amount of education he has to
offer. Let parent and teacher, ora
tor and stump speaker all preach the
gospel of education. Ignorance is
expensive and the boys should be
taught that it is brain and not Drawn
that counts If Tom Smith has to
depend upon his muscle alone, he
will be forced to compete with the
negro and the mule, both of which
lhave more muscle than himself. Tho
Integrity and superiority of the
| dominant race in any land or CLINE
lare absolutely determined and con
dltioned by it's fitness to rule. How
strong an argument this should bt
to spur on the southern youth tC
educate himself for greater service
and for shat place of responsibility
and power which by nature and ira
dition belongs to the Anglo-SaXor
race! The South must invest more
money in education and less in Auto
mobiles: she must educate her sons
or this imcumbus of ignorance viii
shut out the sunlight of prosperity
from her borders. Let us young mel
of the South get an educationl &c
an education or the door of opportu
nifty will shut in your face. Believ
me. the time is past when birth alon
Tor social standing is the condition o
success. Brains alone do not count
but TRAINED BRAINS do.
Those who visited President Roos
4 evelt at the White House while b
was president say that he kept hang
+ ing over his desk poem written b.
r John J. Ingalls, entitled "Opportuni
ty." 1t is also said that never a da
+ passed but what he read the poem a
least once. His record during tn
, seven years administration give
ample proof that the lessons of th
poem were unheeded. The poem
as follows:
t Master of human destinies am |,
Fame, love and fortune on my foot
steps wait,
Cities and fields ] walk;
a [ penetrate deserts and seas remote
And passing by hovel and hear