The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-09
HO )GES DELIVERS
 VIGOROUS ADDRESS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE so

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9.) country which stands a monument of glory to the pioneer. We have not been a people to say that we must live as our fathers lived. From the first history of our country progress has been the "open sesame" of na- tlonal opportunity and all progress means a departure from the old ways so soon as they have served their ends. An adherence to the too prevalent heresy that we neither need nor de- serve anything which our fathers could not enjoy because of the crudeness and poverty of their country would force the conclusion that the pinnacle of de- velopment attained by us In the ma terial arts and sciences, as well as in morality and education, should be re- duced to It's first level with the hope less cry that 1t has all been In vain.
 Until we shall conclude that pine poles and clapboards make better houses than brick and mortar, that the Indian trail is to be chosen as a route of travel rather than the beau tiful public highways of chert and ma cadam, that the stage coach is a bet ter means of transportation than the fast mail, and that the log sch ool house and slab bench conduce to intel ligence more than do the painted school house and comfortable desk, then, and not till then, may we claim that compulsory attendance Is a dan gerous departure from the good old ways of our "daddies." To such as hold to this extreme view of the linn itations of our public educational pol icy I recommend the sane conserva- tism contained in the teaching of the couplet:
 Be not the first by whom the new is
 tried,
 Nor yet the last to lay the old
 aSide."
 It is urged against laws for compulsory attendance that the desirable ends of morality and intelligence cannot be att tained by legislative enactment. The same truth is given to us in the homely adage, You can lead horse to water, but you cannot make him drink" The truth which we have usually conceded this trite sen- tence to contain fails to take into account all the facts when 1t Is urged as an ob- jection to compulsory school attendance. Should the horse referred to be supposed to represent that isolated abnormality of the equine family that has been born without the appetite for water, then the adage gives us truth; but if he be taken as a type of the animal creation to which
 
 sparkling liquid which he at first refused, his thirst is aroused he satisfies hls appe- tite, and blesses the hand that led him thither. The analogy is plain, for as the horse body, with a craving for limpid water, will revel in the delights of grat- flied physical desire when led to the source of supply, so the child-mind im- bued by the Creator with thirst for in- telligence, when brought if need be, by statutory enactment to the open foun- tain, which is the Alabama public school, will eagerly drink of the richness and bounty, and bless the powers that have made the provision.
 Every teacher with an experience of a few years has felt the swelling pride of at tainment as he has watched the lazy and indifferent, or even vicious child, re- spond to the influences around him-the stimulus of his temporary defeats, the sweetness of his success, the emulation of his fellow-workers, and the noble example of his earnest teacher-and by the high way of honest application, against every antecedent probability, arrive at the desti- nation of a sterling manhood.
 What spirit among us was not touched when he read the true story of the little Kentucky boy who patiently hood his row of corn on the hillside field and impa- tiently gave expression to the pathetic depths of his longing spirit when he looked up the mountain and down the creek and cried in his despair, 'I won- der If there won't nobody come here to iarn me nothing" The spirit of Ameri- can childhood is not the demoniacal shriek. Let us alone. What have we to do with thee." but 1t is the far-sounding Macedonian cry, Come over and help us."
 There Is another much overdrawn objec- tion to compulsory attendance which complains that an additional hardship would fall upon indigent parents, par ticularly widowed mothers, because their biting poverty demands the unremitting toll Of each member of the family to se- cure even meager sustenance It would seem that the remedy for such an extrem- ity could be found in the helpful inclina- tion of neighbors, in organized charities or even in properly directed state help. To fail in our efforts to reach just this class of persons Is to fall short of the at tainment of one of the prime purposes for which compulsory attendance is to be in- augurated. We must make exceptional provision for their maintenance while they obey the mandates of the law, rather than to exempt them from its operation. Let l the feeling of the state toward these chil- ! dren be the patriotic sen tment expressed in the words of Dr. Curry when he said eve are not too poor to educate them; ne are too poor not to educate them.''
 But a final objection that is often raised