The Washington herald., 1912-03-31

Prominent among the many forces en-
deavoring to carry light into the strong
holds of darkness and illiteracy in the
Southern mountains is the Southern In
dustrial Educational Association, with
headquarters in this city, Room is,
Southern Building. The vital necessity
Of lifting the stigma OF ignorance and its
perils to the nation from the thousands
of the Anglo-Saxon race in the remote
mountain districts OF our land has
been told and retold in appeals
that philanthropy might well have
needed and the nation aided. There
Is hardly a church. or school. or chapter
school,. or a D. A. r. chapter from New
York 10 California that has not heard
the ringing call for aid for this work
from the little woman whose name Is
synonymous with the cause Of the long
neglected mountain children, and there
is hardly a church. or a club. or a
that Is not to some extent now making
an effort along those lines. The work
that Bishops Lyman and Satterlee begun
in the North Carolina mountains is still
carried on by their successors. and though
there are many schools. struggling hero
ically for the mountain upllft in North
Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, and Ten
nessee. they are but a drop in the bucket
of necessity.
mountain SChOOh
And again. the mission schools in
the mountains are without endowments
and have a hand-to-mouth existence.
The many urgent calls upon the Southern
Industrial Educational Association for
aid. for Industrial teachers, for scholar
ships, and for a helping hand in all direc-
tons are pathetic.
Mrs Martha Sawyer Gielow. of Ala
he fotYpdar Of he Southern In
dustrial Educational Association, Is a
woman whose name had already COM
manded respect and admiration in two
continents. where her determination to
use her gifts for the uplift OF humanity
took crystallized form.
AS a reader and writer of the folklore
OF the Southland. she had won recogni-
ton and stood without peer in the ly-
ceum and Chautauqua platforms. Having
by her charming gifts educated her two
children, this courageous little mother de-
cided to adopt a few hundred OF the un-
educated mountain children of her South
land. .-
Knew Conditions.
Having spent a year in the East Ten
nessee mountains, when a girl, Mrs.
Gielow was well acquainted with the
conditions and needs Of these neglected
pCOplc- lHuccus net pen at al cdAl udAt
had advocated their uplift, and she had
championed their cause,
while still on the dramatic platform.
After serious elaboration as to the
best method OF procedure, Mrs. Gielow
decided to head her own organization,
and with a dozen interested friends, she
secured a charter of Incorporation on
December q, 1905, and organized the
Southern Industrial Educational Asso-
ciatfon in Washington. Having procured
her board OF officers and trustees to spon-
sor her enterprise. Mrs. Gielow started
forth on a mighty crusade against white |
Illiteracy in the Appalachian States.
Justice Stewards Report.
How well she has succeeded is. evil
denced by the outward results.
Justice Shepard president OF the asso-
citation, says In his annual report: The |
work Of the association cannot be esti-
mated by the amount of money taken
IN. the diffusion of Information and the |
lrousing of other forces to greater ac-
don, has done untold good" To edu- |
,afe the people to realize the necessity |
n the work has required years of siren |
lous effort, and has taxed to the ut |
most the strength. ability, and geniuses |
~ the leader of the Organization
Another contribution from her brain /
md pen to her cause, is the original