Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-06-04
To The Herald:

bestowed has found expression in re-
cent times than that of the General
Education Board in giving $25O,OO0
to George Peabody College for Teach
ers as a memorial to the life and
work of the late Seaman A. Knapp,
There has not been a name to
which farmers, their sons and their
in the South are so much
indebted as that of this good man
who died a little over a year ago. In
organizing the cooperative demon
work, in promoting the boys
clubs and canning clubs among
the girls on the farm, DR.. Knapp
did three things which firmly fix his
in the history of the great
Industrial awakening now going on
in the South. His fight against the
boil weeyil, while epoch-making, will
in time sink into insignifinance when
compared with the splendid cam
paigning for diversified farming, for
deeper blowing, and for increase Of
live stock on the farm. For his wis
dom and sane counsel, for his perva-
sive optimism and untiring industry,
our people will not cease to remem-
Der him.
1t is, therefore, fitting that a name
which has taught such great les
sons and conferred such great bene-
fits upon the whole South in max
ing agricultural pursuits more worth
while and in rendering life in rural
communities more economically pro-
fitable and humanity interesting,
should be associated with that Of
George Peabody,-America's first
great philanthropist, and in a real
sense the Southern school child's first
great friend.
George Peabody gave over $1,000
600 to the South in 1867, at a time
when she had no heart and no
strength with which to establish a
common school system for her boys
and girls. He gave to teachers Of the
South their first training school in
the Peabody Normal at Nashville. As
a result of his services the South
has its own school systems today and
thirty-seven state-supported normal
schools rendering a fine service to
the teachers in our public schools.
And now the Trustees Of the Pea
body Education Fund are massing
a portion of the principal Of that
gift in a great central Teachers Col
lege. This institution will lend guild
ance and direction to the normal
schools and to the public school sys-
tens. 1t will furnish normal schools
with instructors for their faculties.
1t viii assist public school superin-
tendents to a wider knowledge Of
their field. 1t will study those newer
needs of the South, such as training
of teachers in agriculture, nature
cooking and sewing, home
making, the Improvement Of public
health and sanitation, the enrich
ment of country life and the more
practical direction of the country
schools toward the needs of the coun-
try people. 1t will study the econo-
of school expenditure and of
waste in public education. In brief,
institution is calculated to per-
form such a wonderful service that
every dollar expended in public edu-
cation in the South will bring far
greater returns than heretofore.
E~ighty-five per cent of the people
the South live in the country.
This gift to Peabody College guar
a foundation for carrying out
one of the cherished aims of the
College and gives in a fitting way
that the majority of the
people will now be served educa-
in a way responsive to their
demands and suited to their needs.
In this work of rehabilitating our
section, industrially and agricultur-
ally, the work of the superintendent
and supervisors of schools is the pi-
votal force around which will ga
ther all the forces Of tax payers and
health campaigns and rural libraries
and extension lectures. 1t is now GER
tain that the whole tendency Of
George Peabody College for Teachers
will be to render the greatest SER
vice to that part of our population
which is the largest and in greatest
need of service, for the College will
nave to do with the South's great
Industries, with the questions of to-
and with a majority of u citi-
,enship, rather than with the ques-