Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1913-04-04
Senator Webb Lectures.

Senator w r. Webb lectured at the
Methodist church Monday evening to a
large audience. There was music by
the choir, a prayer by Rev. DR.. Jones
and the benediction was pronounced by
the Rev. Mr.. Howse. Mr.. Walter
Stokes, a former pupil of Webb's School
presided and introduced the speaker.
Mr.. Webb took for his subject "'What
is a School For?" and took. as it were,
for a text a verse from Hosea. my
people are DESTROYED for lack of knowl-
edge"
Everybody, said the speaker, knows
what a school is for and how to run it
except the teachers. After about fifty
years Of teaching he himself had come
to the opinion that there was more to
learn about teaching children than
about any other vital subject. The
children we're the greatest asset of the
state or the nation. In a discussion
with some of the members Of the Ten
nessee Legislature he bad told them
that they rould not make too liberal APP
preparations for schools. Was not
school money wasted? Yes, but he had
seer the states money wasted on other
things, on judges and legislators and
ITn;taJ Ctatoo oanotoro
Destroyed by ignorance. Shortly af-
ter Hosea's utterance ten of the tribes
of Israel were destroyed so utterly that
in all the centuries following no trace
Of the ten lost tribes has been found
Ignorance is death. All the deaths
from yellow fever were due to ignorance
of the fact that the mosquito dissent
mated the disease. Greece, a small and
infertile country, grew great and pow
erful. Ten thousand Greeks kept back
the horde of a million barbarian invad-
ers. The greatest soldiers, the great
est architects. the greatest orators,
the greatest philosophers and teachers
we're Greeks. The average man now
can call the names of more great men
Of ancient Greece than of modern
America Greece then worshipped Mi
nerva, the Goddess of wisdom. But
Greece changed its ideas of learning.
The teachings of Plato and Aristotle
and Socrates were supplanted by the
cult of Epicures. Gross materialism
succeeded the higher learning and
Greece sunk. Now for 500 years Greeks
have been subjects of the unspeakable
Turks and Greeks are the boot-blacks
of America.
Rome rose. She had her teachers
and philosophers, her orators and SOL
diers. 1t was in Rome that prohibition
was first adopted, and by a popular
vote the saloons, the temples Of Bochus,
were voted out. High civilization,
great wealth and military ucces art
and learning prospered inrRome and
she was the mistress ofyAhe world
But Rome was corrupted, From the
Greeks whom she had conquered she
became infected with this same Epicu-
rian materialism and in short time as
the life of nations go, barbarians whose
names ever were unknown pitched
their tents in the heart of Imperial
Rome. Ignorance had conquered and
ignorance was death
Ignorance had caused the death of
uncounted children in the Crusades.
Every day nov it was causing death
and destruction.
The purpose of a school is to teach
children to read. Not merely to read
the words but to read with appreciation.
No amount of personal observation and
experience will give a man wisdom.
That is to be gained from the recorded
experience of humanity from the crea-
ton. TIE first and greatest of these
records is the Bible. Wisdom is the
most desirable OF all CnlnRS, more 0eSlr-
able than fine gold or rubies. 1t is
from books that one learns of the
great thoughts and great actions of the
centuries,
The alphabet is the greatest inver-
ton, the greatest labor-saving device
in the world. The telephone is a won
derful thing, 1t carries a persons
voice over mountains and rivers for
hundreds of miles. But the twenty
six letters of the alphabet carry hu-
man thoughts and words over thousands
of miles and over centuries of time.
Manuals training in schools was a
good enough thing but it should be
thorough and the equipment should be
ample. More important to a school
than fine school buildings was a library.
BOOKS were the tools the school was to
teach the use Of,
The lecture was Illuminated with
many incidents of personal experiences
of the speaker, and full of the wisdom
he spoke Of. 1t made a deep impress
sion on the audience and it is to be
hoped that it will result in the estab-
lishment at the High School of a good