The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-05-24

without seeing anything but prohlp'-
ton territory ho
Ne referred to the passage OF the
child-IabOr law III 1913, anu tl1 .
ia Enlistment of the StoneWall Jackooi
Training School, as two speclal ied-
lures Of legislation which marked tue
beginning Of a new day in the STATE.
There is still room for lnpfoNehienS
he contended, as North aroma s1l
allows Sc hours a week "hlle some u
the great manufacturing STATES hase
adcpted the S-hour law. Night WORK
for children is still tolerated ana the
age limit for children is one year pc
low the standard. He looked lor more
humane laws in the future.
The state has started on an era OF
social reform and the people are pc
ginning to see that the chief asset o.
The state is not its material wealth
hn+ its people. especially its chlldreh'
the hope of the future.
He t3ok up the matter OF the State 5
.dvancament material resources IN
twenty wears, recalling the ~fallaclous
of Ed ward Atkinson relative
to cotton manufacturing in the South.
He said tina it was impossible TO say
accurately how many cotton 1nllis
there We're in North Carolina because
the statement would be py
the building Of new mills before IL
could be published. He rejo1ced IN
this material progress. he contend
ed. however. that in all sections the
industry has been cursed by the en-
ployment of too large a per cent OF
women and children. He also referred
to the furniture factories where chill
dren under fourteen years OF age are
not employed. The assessed value OF
property in North CarOyina has IN
creased from NIX, VVU,VVo " @''o,
600, 000.
1t is estimated, he said, that there
are living outside Of North Carolina
329.625 "exiles,' who left the State
mainly because they did not know the
opportunities that were before them II
they had remained at home. We have
received $4,000 immigrants from other
States, making stiIl a loss of a quar-
ter million Of souls.
The new era of prosperity in all
commercial and Industrial life that
has daWned upon North Carolina the
age of scientific agriculture, the deVel-
opment of our unsurpassed natural
resources, of the forests and of our
water powers, is enough to keep every
young man at home today who wants
to make the best use of his life ana
to attract in increasing mi those
less fortunately situated III other
States. It is a great thing for q State
When it becomes large enough to re
tain the best men whom it produces.
Our cities are already reaching that
point and the State has about wholly
reached it. l for one am glad that we
still have here as the overwhelming
bulk Of our people, that native Saxon
stock which has proved its proves in
all lands and in every field Of human
endeaVOr. With such a people, the
future of the State is secure and ilS
growth hcnceforth shall be q rum
phant progress.
/ turn next to the educational ad-
VI moo in North Ga rnfjn3 ct me
give you a few figures. From the re
port of the late superintendent Finger
for 1890, we find tpat the school term
was only so days, the shortest school
term in any State in the country. Now
it is about one hundred days in the
year. and in many local school dis
tricts, not My in our cities but in
rural communities. we have already
reached a long school term through
extra taxation. In 1890 the people of
the State, men, women and children
paid A cents per wear for school pur-
poses; in 1900 $1.22 a year; three
times as much. The school fund of
1890 was $718,00 in 1908, nearly
three million. The average salary
that our school teachers receive is in
creased from $1,000 to $4,000 a month.
In 1890 we had 6,835 schools and
only 5,793 school houses, which left
more h q thousand schools to be
taught in a haphazard fashion where
the children could be reached. We
have been consolidating school houses
lately. We have been building more
than one new school house a day every
day for seven years, but we now have
$500 schools and school houses.
We still have $4,000 white litter
ates in North Carolina over ten years
Of age, but hat number will steadily
decrease by death and will not be
greatly increased by the addition of
children over ten who haEo not Jaa,o
ed to read and write. Let the names
of those men be remembered forever
who undertook the educational evan
~geiization of the State in the early
= and Alderman and
JOvner and Alexander Graham and
NObl and MoHEs.
Simultaneously with the growth Of
our public school system has been
the growth of our high schools and
colleges and universities, in endow-
n ont HaI1 ~ ~ n-4 q "a