Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-04-30
and poor tools, they produce little, and
each mans share Is little.
No Industry Can Prosper Where the
Masses Are So Poor,

and poor tools, they produce little, ant
each mans share Is little
No Industry Can Prosper Where tn,
II Masses Are SO Poor.
| Very plain on the whole must be oul
two propositions:
r. G) That the Asiatic laborer Is poor
the American laborer well-to-do, be-
cause the Asiatic earns little, thu
American much-a condition due t.
the fact that the American doubles
trebles or quadruples his productive
capacity, his earning power, by the
use Of tools and knowledge, machin'
cry and education. The oriental doe!
not.
(2) Your prosperity, in whatever
measure you have 1t, Is due to the
fact that your labor earns two, three
or ten times what you would get fol
1t II you had been born in Asia. This
is due in the main not to your person
lal merit, but to your racial inheri-
tance; to the fact that you were born
among a people who have developed
an Industrial order, have provided ed
ucation and machinery, tools and
knowledge, in such manner that your
service to society are worth several
times as much as would be the case II
you were in the Orient.
| In the long rum 1t all boils down to
this: That your prosperity Is depend
ent upon the prosperity Of the people
with whom you have to deal; that
their prosperity depends upon their
efficiency, and that efficiency Is mainly
q matter of tools and knowledge, edu-
cation and machinery. And Of the
two, education, knowledge Is the more
Important, for to 1t we owe the tools,
the machinery.
Suppose you are a merchant, what
sort of trade could you hope for
among a people who earn 10 cents a
day-the head of a family getting
half enough to buy second-rate meal
In a negro restaurant? Or II you are
a banker, what sort Of deposits could
you get among such a people? Or II
a railroad man, how much traffic? Or
II manufacturer, how much busi-
ness? Or IL a newspaper man, how
much circulation? Or If a doctor,
lawyer, teacher, or preacher. how
much income?
What Every Man Owes to the School
Now, the prosperity Of every man.
Of every interest, Of every industry de-
pends upon the prosperity Of the aver
age man with whom that individual OF
industry comes into contact. You
prosper today, you live in greater COM
fort, simply because men in other ages
have encouraged knowledge, education
and as a result of knowledge, have
better tools and machinery for men to
labor with. That is our debt to the
past; to the future we owe the duty OF
encouraging knowledge In constantly
increasing degree.
Pity-may God pity-the man who
fancies he owes nothing to the school
who pays his tax for education grudg-
ingiy as II 1t were a charity-as IL he
had only himself to thank for the
property on which the government
levies pitiable mill or so for the ad.
vancement and diffusion Of knowledge
among mankind. Pity him If he have
not considered; pity him the more, II
having considered, he be small enough
of soul to repudiate the debt he owes
the race. But for what education has
brought us from all its past, but fol
what 1t has wrought (through in
creased knowledge) and through the
invention Of better tools for the better
management of all the powers with
which men labor, our close-fisted
short-sighted taxpayer would himself
be living in a shelter Of brush, shoot
ing game with a bow and arrow, cul-
tivating corn with a crooked stick!
Most of what he has he owes to his
racial heritage; 1t is only because 9TH
er men prosper that he prospers. And
yet owing so much to the past, he
would do nothing for the future; ow'
ing so much to the progress the race
has made, he would do nothing to In
sure a continuance Of that progress.
knowledge and Tools Must Go Hand
In Hand.
Let the 18th make haste to learr
the lesson that the Orient teaches. We
must thoroughly educate all our peo'
pie. Was it not an oriental prophe,
who wrote: my people are destroyed
for lack Of knowledge" In China only
/ per cent of the people can now read
and write, and the highest hope OF the
government is that per cent may pt
literate by 1917. In India only pei
cent can read and write. In Japan fol
centuries past, the education Of the
common man has also been neglected
but she Is now compelling every child
to go into the schools-she Is even forg-
ing far ahead of our southern states
| in that she furnishes her country boys
and girls a school term Of ten months
in the year and an average attendance
of SO per cent. And her industrial sys'
tenn will doubtless be revolutionized as
a result.
In no case, however, must we forget
that education, IL it Is to be effective
must train for efficiency, must link IT.
self with life and work, must be prac'
tical. knowledge and tools must &c
hand in hand. Herein we must fai
not.
Line upon line; precept upon pre-
Icept" At the risk of possible redun-
dancy, therefore, let me conclude by
repeating: Whatever prosperity we
enjoy is largely due to what previous
generations have done for increasing
mans efficiency by means Of knowl'
edge and tools; our first duty to oul
fellows Is to help forward the same
agencies for human uplift in the fu'
ture. And while this is the first duty
of the individual, it is even more en-
phatically the first duty Of a ccmmu
nifty or a commonwealth.
This is Asias most important lessor
for the south-the message that come:
to us trumpet-tongued from any
thoughtful study of the stagnation ant