Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-08-08
EDUCATION AND IMMIGRATION
Clarence Poe Speaks of the Needs of
South Carolina.

One of the interesting features of
the recent annual meeting of the
South Carolina Farmers Union was
the address by Clarence Poe, editor Of
the Progressive Farmer.
Mr.. Poe's speech laid emphasis upon
Education and Immigration: Both
OF the Right Sort" as two policies the
South Carolina union should steadily
advocate. He did not advocate unre-
slricted European immigration, but
selected immigration of people Of our
own stock, especially thrifty and pros
porous northern and western farmers.
He urged this especially as the surest
solution of the veXatious race prob
lem.
II cannot believe" he exclaimed,
that you white people of South Caro-
lima will ever be content to have this
garden spot of creation remain per-
manently the abode of predominate-
ly negro population. You have ac-
complished much; the progress you
have made under the circumstances is
one Of the most remarkable achieve
ments in American industry, but /
should like to see just what you could
accomplish If given a predominant
white population and freed from the
drawbacks of the tenant system. be-
lieve you would put the northern
states to shame"
A great body of small white farm
ers, each man living under his own
vine and fig tree, is the safety Of any
state, he declared.
Mr.. Poe spent the first half of his
time emphasizing the fact that the
welfare of every worthy interest, in
dustry and individual in the state de-
pends upon the efficiency of the aver
age citizen.
And the one great question for us,
therefore, he continued, us simply
this: How can we raise this average
OF efficiency?
1T seems to me that there are Just
two basic and fundamental ways: Q)
Education, for the development of our
own people, and CD immigration,
bringing efficient people from other
sections And of these two ways in
comparably the greatest is education.
What Education Means.
"As yet we but see through a glass
darkly as to what education is really
going to mean these next twenty-five
years, and from then on in quickening
the industrial efficiency of the people.
Not only shall we have longer terms
and better grading and all that, but
for the first time the schools are be-
ginning to train for actual life. Here
is the south, for example, always ru-
raj and destined to remain SO, the
of A of fnh ic
true that there are more people en-
gagged in agriculture than in all other
occupations combined, and yet until
now our entire school system has been
hacked and hewed to fit the procrus-
team bed Of the urban model. Made
by city people for city people, the
books and teaching have not been
adapted to the needs of the country
children. We shall take a long step
forward when the farm boy has pro-
portionately fewer problems in arith-
metic about foreign exchange and lat
itude and longitude and the metric
system of weights and measures, and
more about how to calculate feed
ing ration for cows or a fertilizer for
mula from certain quantities of pot
ash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and
when he studies proportionately less
about far-away Australia and Kam-
chatka, and more about the soil that
he walks over and plows in every day
Of his life. The farmer girl (and the
city girl also for that matter) must
learn Of food values, of the chemistry
Of cooking, of hygiene and Of SANTA
ton. Domestic science for the girls
must go side by side with agriculture
for the boys
Take our physiology as another ex-
ample Scientists tell us now that
every third death among us Is the re-
suit of an unnecessary disease, every
third case of sickness unnecessary,
and that the average human life
might be heightened one-third by
proper application of the principles of
sanitation and hygiene. And yet in
stead Of practical instructions for
combating diseases and preserving
there are in the skeleton and about
the difference between arteries and
veins. We have taught men who were
to be farmers all Greek roots and La
tin roots. and nothing about corn
roots and cotton roots. We have spent
our time learning about the construc-
ton of a third century chariot only to
get run over by Goth century auto
mobile.
Make Art Out of Drudgery.
This is what all our educational
leaders are now beginning to see, and
the changed spirit Of the schools, car
rying new inspiration and knowledge
into every line of human industry,
making an art of what once was
drudgery is going to give a zest and
fruitfulness to labor these next twenty
years such as the world has never
known before. l do not think 1t too
much to say that in the next twenty
five years we shall increase the use
fulness Of our schools tenfold; that In
promoting the efficiency of the people
the school will be ten times as impor-
tant a factor as now.
"In other words, much as education
has meant to the prosperity OF peo-
pie until now, the new education Is
going to mean tenfold more, and the
Carolinas should make haste to lead
all other states i'm taking advantage OF
this great energy giving impulse. we
have made great advances in educa-
ton, and yet the best thing the caro-
linaS could do now, the best financial
investment her people could make,
would be to double this school eXpen-
diture. Considered simply as prof.
table place to put money, 1t would pay
the man who has land, the man VINO
has capital, the man who has scientific
knowledge or industrial skill, and the
man who lives by his music. For the
prosperity OF all is measured by the
intelligence and efficiency of our aver
age man. -,
And not only the schools, but all
other agencies that are educating the
people to a higher degree of efficiency
deserve our support just in proportion
to the extent and thoroughness OF
their work.
First of all then, in raising the ef-
ficiency of our average man, we need
always and everywhere to help for
ward the cause of education for the
development of our own people; and
i'm the next place we ought to encour-
age the immigration of progressive
and enterprisng men and women
from other sections.
Need More People.
while the great basic principle
upon which we must build is that the
prosperity of every industry and every
individual is measured by the intelli-
gence and efficiency of the average
man with whom we have to deal, we
need also to remember-simpl as
modifying factor-that up to point
of density which we i'm the south shall
not reach for centuries yet, prosperity