The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-05-12
M E N w Q M EN
 A ND T N c s

Aidpama Press association at Aiphny' It was delivered by Dr. Courtland Smith, president of Washington and Lee uni- versity.
 l was out of the city when he spoke here several weeks ago, and having heard his speech so well spoken of, I was glad of chance to hear him last week, not he had for the people of the south.
 It's a great thing to be tuned up to an vibrated to the touch of the master hand of the distinguished educator. as he dramatized the life of Robert k. Lee, the south's Christian soldier and teacher who incarnated the ideals of the people among whom he lived.
 have said in this column that a de- sire to make myself acquainted with the war between the states came to me late in life. but that for some time l had been reading deep into histories, documents, memoirs, concerning the great conflict which for four years ragged with a fierce intensity between the south and the north In which brother fought against brother.
 l had delivered the memorial address at Fayette and was immersed in the story of the great men who led the Blue and the Gray, and therefore when one upon whom tho mantle of the immortal Lee had fallen as the head of tho uni- versity in which his name had been coupled with that of Washington stood up to speak about his chief and prede- cessor I was all attention.
 pr. Smith is Tar Heel' by birth, but he just escaped being born In Vir- ginia, the homo of his father and mother, as his parents moved across the line just a month before he opened his eyes on the world. Without in any sense. reflect ing on the worth and the culture of North Carolina, I think I may be per- mitted to say that the president of Wash ington and Lee has the hallmark of an r. F. V.
 
 tions of the Old Dominion he Is a fit person to carry on the work of the great soldier who at the end of the war put aside the sword, and leaving the camp, moved on the campus, forever showing that the veteran of the battlefield can become the pioneer in the educational field; and so Dr. Smiths mission to make Lee the warrior known as Lee the ed- ucator.
 And with the enthusiasm and earnest ness of a true missionary he has en- tered upon his mission to the people of the south, a mission in which personally I take great interest, and in a mission to which I believe southerners will rally with one accord It's great thing in life to have a great purpose to which one can devote his time and talent In the belief that he is rendering the public an unselfiish service.
 count it a worthy enterprise to make General Lee known as 8 far-seeng edu- cator, who had the boldness to break loose from the conventional pedagogy of his day and inaugurate new methods ot approach in educating the sons of those who had followed him with blind de voIlon and undying love which has never been excelled in all the pages of history | It's not for me, here and now, to en- ter the lists as a partisan against the old classical theory of education which obtained in the south before and aftel the war. There is much that can be said in it's favor. One has only to refer to the great leaders who were brought up under it to make out most convinc- 1 ing plea for it's worth. It did give 8 general culture which is rare to find ir this day of college eIecticism.
 But having freely admitted this much yet the forward-looking eyes of the mar who had given his all to the Host cause and knew conditions in the south better than anyone else, realized that the press ing needs of the new day called for mer trained not so much in the humanities as in the trades in order that they might lead in the work of rehabilitation anc reconstruction in land which had been literally impoverished.
 The thing which marks Robert E. Let out as a genius not merely on the battle field, hut in the educational field, is thai in classical era he organized and found ed school of engineering It was g master stroke, for he being the beat ideal of southern chvalry, had raised the banner which was to make 1t tht thing for gentlemen to be unashamed tt work with their hands, and tackie the bis jobs of retaining their devasted lands restoring their dilapidated homes and re building their destroyed cities.
 But he did not stop at this. With ever greater originality and foresight, he be came in 1868. generation ahead of hi times. the founder in America of journal ism as a learned profession. 1t was on thi phase of his work that Dr. Smith hat come to Albany to speak to the Alabam' Press association, and wonderfully vel he did, for when he finished, it was foregone conclusion that the body wa going to get in behind the movement t lre-establish the School of Journalism Washington and Lee university in a bil way.
 The five years work of Lee the edu cator fittingly crowns and supplement the five stormy years of Lee the soldier And undoubtedly, when the long roll finally called, and his contribution to tn luplift and betterment of the human rae is finally assessed and determined. hi work at Lexington will outshine and out