Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-03-11
GIVES RESUME OF DO|NCS
OF SIXTY.F|RST CONGRESS.
Shows Prominence of SOutherners in Enact
ing Some of Most Important Measures
and Appeals for Still Close Rela=
tons Between All Sections.

the next 10 years. The appropriation
Of large sums of money and the build
ing Of schoolhOuscs and the appoint
ment of superintendent and teachers
arc not, however, all the necessary
steps in the growth of really useful
and successful educational system The
organization must be made thorough
and effective. The curriculum must
be simple but comprehensive. The sup
crvision by superintendent of the
teachers must be close and severe
The number of hours per day, of days
per week and of months per year for ed
ucation, especially in the rural districts.
must be increased and the real educa-
tional benefits to the people may then be
improved in d degree proportionatc to
the increase in appropriations in school
houses and i'll teachers. \ school system
upon paper and in a statistical report is
one thing; a school system calculating
the purpose for which it is adopted and
in planting real education in the minds
of all children. rich and poor so as to
give them a thorough groundwork for
their life pursuits il quite another. Ed
ucation in the South is in a transition
period.
"You have the race question in the
South; you have the question Of efficient
labor. Both are most serious problems,
but believe as strongly as l can believe
anything that the solution is to be found
in a system of primary and industrial ed
ucation offered to every youth, male and
female. white and black. If one can
Judge of the prospect from the enthuSi
asm of educational conventions held in
every state in the South he may safely
prophesy that the movement is on foot
to bring about in actual operation the
best standard of primary and industrial
education.
ut is a great pleasure for me tn come
to the South again. When [ was here in
the early part of my administration I ex-
pressed hope that | might be permitted
to do something to bring the North and
South closer together and to convince
our southern brethren that they were
part of the Union and part of the gov
eminent and that We We're all really
Americans with no Mason and Dixon line
to divide us. Ny hope had been realized
for my appointments of southern men to
high offices have been received through
ont the North as well as the South as
proof that birth in the South and partic-
ipaton in the Civil War on the side of the
Confederacy was not the slightest bar to
preferment to the most exalted positions
of those plainly competent and fit
1.-The growth of the South in wealth, in
education, in civil order and in civiliza-
ton has contributed greatly to the growth
Of the country. BY making a greater
South you have made greater country.
What is almost monopoly in the growth
Of cotton, you have Swelled our exports
to a point never reached before. BY
raising in great quantity that which all
nations must have and which you only
can produce you have increased the de-
pendence of the rest of the world upon
American industries The science of ag-
riculture has progressed here as in other
sections.
But, my friends, know you are not
so sectional or partisan as to conilne
your interest to southern commerce
and trade and that YOU will not object
if, for short time and in the re-
marks which | am about to make. |
turn this meeting into a committee
on the state of the Union and consider
some of the issues now pending or
which have been recently disposed.
tine 61st Congress just closed has
enacted more useful and progressive
legislation in it's three sessions than
any Congress since the war. Tie
close of it's third it's last and its
shortest session. was obscured by such
an apparent clogging of business as
to leave the impression that it had
done at that session little or nothing
in the way of helpful laws. 1t is due
to that Congress to remove such an
impression for it has done d number
! of things that deserve communication
| during the last three months.
One of the crying evils of the pres
| ent day is the expense of litigation,
This Congress has passed an act
| making substantial reductions in the
cost of appealing cases from the court
| of first instance to the courts of APP
| peals. 1t has adopted a revised code
Of the laws creating federal courts
and fixing their jurisdiction. 1t has
abolished circuit courts altogether, and
in this way has been able to simplify
| the practice in those courts and great
| ly to reduce expenses. 1t has in
creased the salaries of the supreme
court justices 500 a year The in
Dnu