The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-05
THE SOUTH IS AT LAST NAT|0NAL|ZED Dr. c. w. Dabney Speaks At
 Knoxville THE SPIRIT OF UNION President of University of Tennessee Attributes Broadening of Pub-
 lie Life in the South To
 Education

Knoxville, July 4.-More than 5000 per- sons gathered at the University of Ten nessee campus this morning at 10 o'clock for the Fourth of July celebration by the Summer School of the South. Charles w. Dabney, president of the University of Tennessee and founder of the Sum mer School of the South, was the ora tor. He choose for his subject, ''The
 South Renationalized by Education" Preceding the formal programme the students from the various states marched around the campus, singing their state
 songs and giving their state yells After 50 years of separation from the nation these southern states have now
 become renationalized. and have taken their places at the council table of the government That this has actually come to pass Is evidenced by a House of Rep-
 resentatives controlled by a southern
 man, by the recent presence of Ten
 nessean in the cabinet; by the appoint
 ment of a chief justice who was Con- federate soldier, and now we of this school may add with pride by the ap- pointment of our beloved leader to be
 the commissioner of education for the United States. Once before, in 1S63-7, we came just this near taking charge of the government and failed because. as sincerely believe, our people were not vet sufficiently educated and our leaders
 not sufficiently unselfish to deserve the task
 Were Not Ready
 Referring to the attacks of southern democratic politicians upon him, MT. 1 Cleveland said to me in 1896: T believe the southern people are loyal and gen. | erous. vet their leaders traduce me,
 though was the first to invite them back
 to their fathers table
 Breaking with him, the south threw away a great opportunity to regain her | position in the nation.
 After declaring that the provincialism
 of the south Is still needed as bulwark against increased centralization in gov I ernment, government ownership and gov- ernment administration of corporations. etc., MT. Dabney said:
 "The south has passed from the dis
 cussion of state rights and constitutional powers to the consideration of state needs |
 alton are now the chief subjects of con- sideration In our legislatures, and the color line and bloody shirt are for gotten"
 Engine of Progress | More than any other influence since
 the civil war, declared the speaker. the
 educational movement has changed the | 1,t1Ixn ark mi i an engine of progress in the nation. pr.
 Dabney then reviewed the progress Of ed-
 ucation of the south and paid tribute to
 her educational leaders, to Lee, not the commander -chief, but the college pres-
 ident: not Curry, the secession orator and | congressman, but Curry the champion of | the child; Baldwin, citizen of America, and McIvor, teacher, pure and simple. "These" he said, T claim are im- mortals for they founded institutions TOT | the improvement of mankind throughout | the ages. Their doctrine that the cotton
 wealth should be devoted first of all to | the training of the children, has been the | lesson of the 50 years past. d-uch has been accomplished. Tennessee and Vlr- | ginia have led the way in enacting model school laws and systems of taxation. | Great advance has been made in provld- l ing both state ana country supPolt ioi | the schools with the result that 1911 ex- | penditures for education are more than | three times as much as they were 10 years
 ago. the value of school property is three | and a half times as much, money eXpend- | ed is more than three times as much and | the appropriation for state universities | and other state institutions of higher | learning Is twice as much.
 High school facilities have more than l ba pa school term
 creased from 90 to 150 today, salaries of | teachers have increased. agricultural
 schools have been established, etc. Thus
 after half a century of complete or par
 tial separation, the south through pupilc | education renationalized herself and pre-
 nared her people to undertake again their
 share of the nations work. The giving
 of the south of its great educational lead
 CT. pr P. P. Caxton, to the nation IS
 the latest recognition of it's complete na-
 tionalization."