The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1917-07-19

the system was choked with excess of
material School boaSds allowed mat.
ters to drift. Where there were laws
making for compulsory education no
attempt was made to enforce the laws
and indeed there were no buildings to
which the newcomers could be sent
1t was as If the lumberman had cut a
third more logs than his mill could
saw. SO that the logs rotted; as II the
raw cotton was piled up with bales ex.
posed 20 the weather, because the
mills could not handle It; as If the
wheat In the mill grew damp and
sprouted. because the wheat was be.
yond the capacity of the milling ma.
chinery. Including the colored race
and the people who were foreign born
our educational experts believe that
we have about 20,0OO,OOO of illiterates
Ten millions more there are who NAV
be able to read and write but SO far
as capacity for citizenship is concern
ed, must be called illiterate by reason
OF their incompetence to pass upon the
great economic questions that are vital
to the republic and subject to tho bal
lot
Impossible For iIliterates to Compete
With Trained Workmen.
Let us hasten to confess that our
fathers would never have enthroned
free institutions and the ballot had
they not believed that our school sys
ten was adequate to the task Of intel
lectualizing all the voters No Hamil
ton nor Jefferson ever had to make his
mark when he signed promissory
note. 1t is dangerous to give the lever
OF powerful locomotive pulling
passenger train into the hands of a
man who never was on n locomotive
before. 1t Is more perlous for the
state to place ballot that protects
life. property and the welfare OF others
into the hands of ignorant men. No
matter how thoroughly educated a man
Is rs II lawyer, he would not be guilty
of expressing an opinion as to wheth.
er or not n surgeon should operate in
the moment when the patient Is writh.
Ing in agony. That Is a problem for
the expert. Holding a mass meeting
to determine by show Of hands what
the surgeon should do Is a poor sub.
stitute for scientific knowledge and
stitutions and self government are for
fully educated men. A republic can
not he carried on by ilitcrates. Better
n limited monarchy with an educated
house of lords than the dcspotism of
millions of illitcratcs.
ilIiteracy Ia Connection With Industry.
In the second place. the republic
.D,Nn
compete In terms of industry with
trained workmcn in the factories Of
Europe, where experts make cutlery
or weave wool and silk. Imagine a
million illitCrate coored men placed In
mills and asked to weave cotton goods
and then expect to sell that product in
| the south In competition with the out
| put Of million expert English weav-
crS! Can a multitude and mob
! stand up against an equal number of
men marching rs an iron regiment?
| Professor Barker tells us that there Is
n new industrial England. The neces-
| sity involved in war has forced con-
servative and aged manufacturers to
take out their old tools and throw
them into the scrap heap. The old
| Ideas about holding the hand and lin.
| iting the output are gone. Speeding
| up is the order of the day. For every
| yard OF cotton or wOolcn goods under
| the old methods, Barker says. the
| workmen are weaving two yards. and
of better quality, through the new
| methods. But our foreign competitors
are homogeneous peoples. The popu.
lation Of Germany is German, the pco,
| pie of France are French, and the peo.
| pie of Great Britain are OF English de-
scent. tradition, language and ideals
willie we represent divers races and
bloods, with fifty different languages
| and dialects. In the nature Of the case
| preparedness for the coming trade wal
is vital to the prosperity Of our people
Americanize All the Foreigners.
| First.-IIaving affirmed that the pres
ent crisis is not due to any failure or
the part Of the public school teachers
| but wholly to the people and the schoo
| boards that have not been willing e
| furnish the machinery and have allow
ed the situation to drift until we hav,
2O,OOO.OOO illitcrates, 1t remains nov
| for us to confess that our first educa
| tiOnal problem Is how to Americana,
all the citizens. The last election
shows that the hyphenatcd American
represents a problem. 1t has been tn,
subject OF universal discussion In tn,
home. on the street cars, in the pres
and on the platform. Men are caStini
about for solution Of the problem
Detroit has adopted n slogan. "Ameri
cans first" Pressure has been brough
to bear upon the foreigners. RealiZin.
their handicap. they have FASTENED T.
take out naturalization papers. The.
have ceased to leave their families II
Italy and return thither with their sav
ings. Mr. Ford at the end OF the eigh
hour shift, at in the afternoon, ha
his men pass from the machine straigh
into II large room where the teache
points, for example, to the face o
Lincoln and then says, This is Abra
: ham Lincoln" md ffty fOreippcr