Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1921-11-17
U. S. COMMISSION
|. Err OF EDUCATION
Addresses Neutrality-suspicious.
Mississippi On Splendid Educational
Progress During the Past Three
Years.-Says A Community Can
Tax Itself Rich.

A large group of teachers and
many county and city superintendent
from North Mississippi heard DR.. Tag
CERT, United States Commissioner of
Education, in his recent splendid adj
dress at Grenada.
| The real theme of the speaker was
to the effect that education is the
greatest element in human values. He
said that contrary to general opinion,
material prosperity comes as result
of education and never in any case,
| education as result of material pros
perity. An educated citizenship mast
precede material prosperity. Mater
ial prosperity of community, state
or nation is impossible without an
educated citizenship" The speaker
multiplied illustrations to prove his
contentious.
Why is it that the people of the
North, the West, and the East, ride
in Packards and Pierce Arrows, live
in million dollar houses, when the
Southern man is glad if he can ride
in Ford and own a humble cottage?
Why is it that in the South where we
have rich soil and where we have all
the material factors to make US the
richest people of the nation, that we
are the poorest? What is it but a
lack of education? A large per cent
of our white people in the South are
unable to read or write and all too few
have the technical education so neces-
sary to the production of wealth. How
much was Eli Whitney's education
worth to the South? And again: How
much is Edison's education worth to
the nation? The wealth that has ac-
crued to the nation as result of Edi-
sons contributions is at least fifteen
billions. of dollars or lis of the ma
tons Wealth.
A common laborer takes from the
earth a ton of crude iron which sells
for about $40 per ton. Another lab
orer with a little better education IA
shlons the ton of iron into plows and
they sell for $500. Another workman,
not satisfied to make plows Of the
steel, studies further the qualities of
steel and manufactures it into razor
blades and sells them for 81 900. Still
another workman, dissatisfied to
manufacture razor blades, goes to a
technical school and there masters
] the nature of steel. He learns how
to temper it so that it responds to the
Eslightest change in temperature Then
The manufactures the steel into watch
( springs and sells them for $4,000. 1t
is plain that we have here a case of
$40 worth of labor and $1,000 worth
OF education. The same principle APP
plies everywhere. Take an ignorant
and illiterate people living on the
richest soil the sun ever shined upon
( and with all the other factors for
material prosperity present, except
education and such a people will de-
plete the soil and soon become power
ty stricken. On the other hand put an
educated people on depleted soil and
amid most uninviting natural sur
lroundings and before many years have
passed you will find the soil enriched
and a happy and prosperous people.
"The poorest community can tax itself
rich, because the greatest factor in
material prosperity is the human ele-
ment." In view of this fact we simp-
ly block the path to prosperity when
we handicap the education of the
youth by too little appropriations.
The preservation of our great DEM
ocratic government was another rea-
son advanced, by DR.. Taggert for the
education of the youth of the land,
Edward Burke once said that if the
American Republic ever failed it
WAN NC OGCdu0C IL lCllCu " SuQCdlC
its masters, by which, of course, he
mean. the voters of the nation. Our
democratic government is founded up
on the theory that the poorest boy or
girl in the remotest hamlet Of the re-
public is entitled to the same oppor-
tunity of education and to the same
rights and privileges of government
that any other boy or
girl is entitled to. 1t is that every
child in the land may have an equal
opportunity and an unfettered start in
the race of life that the United States
government has committed itself to a I
system of free public instruction.
The speaker admitted that it was !
not always popular to tell the truth.
He thought, however, that no progress
could come till facts were admitted
and constructive program launched