Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1921-09-15

familiar a household word as Ivory
Soap. This last statement calls for
an explanation. The Textile Indus
trial Institute makes this cloth.
Since this Institution is not only
Model min but a school as well,
am account OF its beginning and its
unusual growth will be; OF interest to
the readers Of Post-Dispatch.
Dr. D. E. Camak, the president
and founder OF this school, tells q
the beginning in these words; I
was called to preach when a very
small boy. In college, in the heart
OF cotton manufacturing section, !
had every opportunity to study ct
first hand the epoch making transit
ton from cotton field to cotton mill.
The deep pathetic humanity OF II
gripped me, and |, as others did,
watched the migration with some
thing of tremulous fear. BY doing
religious work on the Mill Hill" !
came to see the educational, social
and religious needs Of the people;
and one day in the class room, un
der the spell of that prince OF lee
turers. Dr.; H. N. Snyder, felt the
call TO give my live to the solution
Of "the cotton mill porblem,@ as ne
termed it, This one thing ! have
done ever since with the deep con-
yiction that it was Gods purpose for
my,lifc.'
immediately after his graduation
DIR. Camak asked for a cotton mill
charge. During the first eighteen
months in this work five young men
were called into the ministry. One
is now missionary to- Korea, an
other is doing social service work
with foreigners in this county, an
rothcr is a Baptist preacher, and the
other two are Methodist preachers
one Of whom is the Pastor Of the
piedmont Circuit, the writer OF TINS
article. While on this FIRST work
the idea of a min school where boys
and girls by working one week ana
attending school the next could re-
eeiye high school education was
horn in the very soul of DR.. CamakR,
II was his plan to have this q board
inc school of the Methodist Church.
II was to have its own cotton mill.
The student-operatives wages would
make himself supporting and the
dividends of the mill would make
tho institution self supporting.
For several years DIR. Cai..>.-. was
not able to secure any recognition
of the val..e oil his plan lrolil ahe
church. After many years OF sen
sacrifice on the part Of this man tne
Methodist Episcopal Church, South
has accepted this school as its own
property. This school is located at
Spartanburg, South Carolina. ms
school is now ten years old and has
an enrolment of about three hun
dred young men and women. These
come from six southern states from
Virginia to Texas. As has been
stated above every student is sell
|lsupporting, making not only ms
school expenses but his living as
well. The average age OF the STU
dents in this institGtion is twenty,
two years.. many married men ana
women being enrolled among them.
III mas Deel1 ueiitoiiolA oeSo .tieSo =
grown man can make five primary
grades in school in ten months
while working every other week IN
the mill. A high school can be
conducted on this half-time basis
with the studcnt-operative making
on the average a class year Just
as other high schools do.
This school is the only one OF IT'S
Kind in the South. It has attracted
the attention of educators through
out the United States. A former
United States Commissioners OF Ed
ucation, P. P. Claxton, has stated
that it was new departure Of Ed
ucation. The late Senator Tillman
OF South Carolina has said that a
dollar invested in this mill meant
more than in any other school that
he knew OF. AS has been stated, the
finest cotton mill in the world be
longs in fee simple to the Methodist
Episcopal Church. South, in whose
~ =. :. :.