The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-01-06
OUR SOUTHERN LETTER.
The Man Who Lives in tie South Need
Not Worry Abo Ae Educa-
ton Of Hls children.

other dose of the occasional SYM
pathy we get from those who see
in the North all that is good and
in the South nothing but despair
Don't you think of the future
of your children?" he asked. II
should think that would make you
disconnected with a life at the
South"
"Why?" l asked.
ooh the many opportunities
YOU miss that they would have at
the North"
What, for instance?" l asked
again, for l have that quality of
ignorance that requires to be shown
a great deal.
well, schools and"
Let us dispose of that before
we go further, suggested. my
hopefuls go to school every day.
A wagon comes from the school
house in the morning, picks up
the young folk in the neighbor-
hood, drops them at the school
house, picks them up at night,
brings them back, and they are al
ways on time both ways. They
have a good school, good teachers,
good school com panions and a
good school system. They come
home here at night and tell us
that some harmless looking word
is derived from the Latin ancestor
of over two thousand years ago,
and they explain to each other the
mysteries of binomials and Chemi-
cal affinities and that sort of thing
until it sounds wonderfully learned
at our house, where those things
are not so plenty as hay and cord
wood. What better would they
do if they were somewhere else?
1 get pretty tired of that sort of
complaining OF this section of the
country by people who know
where better places are to be found,
and ] am vain enough to say that
l am here because l like the coun-
try, and stay because l like it,
and that if l knew a better place I
would 60 there.
"But think of the future of your
children" my critics will argue.
And then I do think. Here is
a section of the United States
where factories are multiplying at
a gait so wonderful that l can COM
pare it with nothing outside Of the
industrial belt of western Pennsyl-
vania, where natural gas and cheap
coal have affarded cheap power
and thus stimulate the greatest in
dustrial development in the world.
I cannot see but that the enormous
water power of the South is going
to duplicate that development. If
the young folks coming on want
to be captains of industry or fol-
lowers in the industrial ranks |
know of no place where the oppor-
tunities seem more inviting.
If they want to be farmers GER
tainly no place on earth offers a
better chance than within a hun
bred miles of their own door. II
they want to take any kind of a
part in the great tasks of human
progress, they will never find a
better spot to take off their coats
than here in North Carolina, for
here all is setting a resolute foot
forward, with all that can be
wanted in the way of resources.
There was a day when to go
West was all right To come
South is more sensible now than
to 60 in any other direction IN the
United States. The West never
had the resources of the South,
and never can have. The resources
of his country are not in the West.
A line drawn from New Orleans
northward to the boundary of the
United States will set off on the
east side scarcely more than a
fourth of the territory of the coun-
try but probably three ffths of the
available natural resources. 1t
+ will include most of the best FARM
ing country, most of the mineral