Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-03-07
COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE.
CONTINUED from page one.)

and write is shut off from the world.
What can such a farmer get from the
experimental work at Clemson college
or from eighteen millions Of dollars
voted by congress for the agricultural
department? The times have chang
ed, senator, and you, as a.leader, are
preaching doctrine outsped by two
centuries.
The senator misquotes US when he
says we hold that intellect necessa-
rily makes q good citizen" He also
appears to differentiate between intel
lect and literacy. Many a painful fool
is literate, and many q knave has In
tellect. II Peter was a single ignor-
ant fisherman" as Mr.. McLauriii says,
his development under instruction Is
a splendid tribute to education.
Yes, senator, 1.-The" development Of
a civilization depends upon the moral
and spiritual more than the intellect
ual material" as you say, but teach.
ers Of the moral and spiritual tell
us they find it very difficult to reach
The illiterate, and you are devoting
your energies to the very material
warehouse proposition.
The latter half of the senator's arti-
Gle is, in violation Of the conditions,
not an argument, but speech In
which he declaims from the imagined
viewpoint of the ignorant citizen
when his impious fellows would make
known the difference between B and
Bullfoot Mr.. McLaurin tells US he
Is against force! he Is following the
civilization inaugurated at the birth
of Christ. Mr.. McLaurin appears to
have overlooked the forcible expulsion
of the money changers from the tenn
pie. He also queerly confuses policies
of government" with force" and
forgets that in most Of the Christian
countries Of Europe and in all the
advanced countries, education Is en-
forced. The same Is true Of the ad-
vanced states Of this Union. Compul-
sion is everywhere except in the south,
and everywhere that there has long
been compulsory education the aver
age wealth Of the farmer and his aver
age production Is greater than where
there Is no com pu sorry education.
And why introduce Jesus Christ in
to any sort Of argument, when his life
on earth was given to teaching and
he commissioned his disciples to go
forth and teach! Did he believe in ig-
norance or enlightenment?
Will Mr.. McLaurin tell us why the
state Of South Carolina should force
us and him and hundreds Of other in
dividuals and all the corporations to
pay the constitutional three mill school
tax and any special tax that may be
voted for schools, when neither we
nor they send children to the public
schools? What benefit are we to de-
rive from those taxes we pay. and for
which we receive no direct return?
The only Just ground is the assump-
ton that our return will finally come
through the education of the masses,
and thereby the general betterment OF
moral and material conditions in the
state. That being true Is not the state
morally bound to insist that the peo-
pie take advantage Of the schools
which the state forces US to support I?
When Mr.. McLaurfn will show US
that children will attend the schools
we will consider his plan for raising
a million dollars, although not Of that
class he refers to as rich" Our In
formation is that schools first support
ed with, great generosity. have been
permitted to run down because the
children could not be got to attend
We think Mr.. Dabbs, president Of the
Farmers Union, can give Mr.. McLau-
rim needed information on that point.
The interest Of the editor Of the
State in compulsory education was
in 1898-99, when as an Of
fcer in q South Carolina regiment In
the Spanish American war 1t was
home to him that many young
men could not sign their names. He
witnessed the marks" Of nine white
men out Of 80 in one company. Ten
more in that company could not write
so their writing could be read. An en-
listed negro In the same command
stepped forward among those men and
wrote his name on the rolls clearly and
easily. The officer was shamed for his
fellow South northumberland that
South Carolina had not better cared
for her poor sons. He then enlisted In
their cause and will, continue to the
erd. .. ... .....
Mr. McLaurin closes his letter with
this thought to the young men and
women Of my state:" BE noble, and
the. nobleness that lies in others
sleeping, but not dead. will rise in
majesty to meet thy own" A beauti-
full sentiment to present to the gradu-
ting class Of a college. but we are
speaking now Of first service neces-
sary to humanity II that humanity Is
to comprehend or appreciate nobility
or to pay tribute to the nobleness Of
the dead. We are not talking now for
the fat and sleek who can enjoy the
delicacies Of sentiment and poetry. but
for the famine stricken, those with
hollow eyes and pinched bellies to
whom the barest necessities for devel-
opment Of intellectual life have been
denied.