The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-08-01

ONCE or mat, dDOut the Iota1Ao1i -
crops. about the building Of railroads
and about good roads and ruraI de-
livery and other things that sho"
North Carolina is " and moving
on. We are growing more corn and
cotton to the acre than ever before
There is a spirit of keeping the smoke
house on the farm instead OF in Chica-
go, and in other lines OF ano
enterprise, North Carolina has made
more progress in the last five yearS
than in the previous. twenty years.
How has it made this progress?
OF course no one cause a claim
all the credit but the chief credit is
due to the fact that during the last
3,461 days covering a period OF near
~ ten years, the. people OF North car
'olina have built a new public school
house every day. That is a record
that is without parallel and concrete
ly tells the story Of the new spirit
that has worked a revolution m agrl-
culture and In manufacturing n in
business IN North Carolina.
No illiterate people ever became
rich. knowledge is more than pow
er. knowledge is the mother OF
wealth. Knowing how is worth
more than the labor OF doing a thing.
Tha man was philosopher and a
wise man who rendred his Dill Tor
$3.50 for making q window" and Their
rendered his bill for $1,000 for know
ing how
We have had in North Carolina for
all these years the climate, the soil,
the for a larger prosperity
than we have enjoyed, but because
We have not educated all our people
ed, and it waited for the yeast to
leaven the whole lump. Even now
the States prOgress, remarkably IN
creased as it has been in recent years.
lags behind what it should be because
only a portion Of it's people have been
trained to the best service and to get
out Of the soil and the land and the
water and other resources, everything
that is in them.
These thousands Of new school
generation OF children in which there
are few illiterates, but it has edu-
Gated the whole population. When
ever a man comes to the position that
he is willing to vote a local tax on his
property FOR a school house and for
- 1, -
dren Of the district, that man has al
ready come, into the light, and though
he may not understand mathematics
and though he may not be able to
Latin, he is very near to the king
dom Of education and is doing more
for the uplift of his State than the
man who hides his light under the
bushel and is satisfied to have educa-
ton himself without the willingness
blessing may go to all others.
Education is, therefore, the basis
and the fOrerunner Of all progress
which has come to our State and our
country. We shall go forward and
get richer and more prosperous if we
teach our children how to get out of
the soil and mountains and streams
the wealth that has been locked up
in them for all these centuries. This
idea was illustrated in a recent al
dress by Hon. p. p. Claxton, the new
ly appointed Commissioner OF Educa-
ton of the United States, who said:
Just below Chattanooga Is a place
they called The Suck" in the Ten
nessee River. 1t had been in the way
of every boat that went up and down
since the first raft that attempted to
so down the Ohio and up the Cumber-
land to the first settlement at Nash
vile. 1t was just a little rapid in the
river. 1t would have been much bet
ter if it had not been there. It was
the opposite of wealth. But finally,