Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-15
BY JAMES E. BOYLE,
Of Rural Economy, Cornell
University

THE South is our new frontier
Sixty years ago Horace Greeley
said: Go West, young man; go
4 West" Ten million young men
took that advice and the West
ern frontier disappeared. If Horace
Greeley were living today he would say:
Go South, young man; go South"
The next so years belong to the
South. Already young men Of excep-
tional ability in the professions of law
and medicine are headed South. The
economic life of the South has had a
sudden awakening, thanks to the album
dance of cheap power, friendly cli-
mate and an adequate labor supply.
Already two-thirds of al the cotton
spindles in the United States have mi
grated to the South. The railroads, the
banks, the industries, the public utili-
ties of the South are making phe-
nomenaI progress. The South is being
rapidly industrialized. There Is now
passing out of the picture the old arts
tocratic plantation owner, with his
courtly and leisurely rural civilization.
New Agriculture Arrives.
The skyscrapers of Atlanta and the
smokestacks of Birmingham show
new industrial South. You must go to
the country. however, to see an even
greater transformation. There is new
scientific agriculture. This agrarian
revolution in the South is not a
farmers movement only; it is much
more than that 1t is a mobilization
of the banks, the railroads, the mer-
chants, the editors and the schools, all
cooperating with the farmers and
working through the farmers to bring
in the new agriculture.
But it is chiefly the schools that must
do effY1YN1xy tho FiyY9 mir force nj
this mighty movement. Under the IN
spiration and guidance of the new edu=
cation agriculture is being exalted and
dignified. The farmer. with his eco
nomic and social status improved, Is
coming back into his ancient heritage
In the matter of common schools,
high schools and colleges, the South
for seven decades had Jagged behind
the North. Her percentage Of illiteracy
was therefore much higher. But now
that the awakening has come In
Southern education, the South Is I'M
questionably making faster progress
than the North.
If this pace keeps up, it is only a
matter of time until the South out
strips the North. A study of the new
la rs on education in the South, such
N the unified education act of Ala
bama, will convince any possible skep-
tic that the South is in terrible earnest
about its new program. 1t Is willing to
invest time and money and thought
most lavishly.
Type of High School.
The best tangible evidence of this
new and vast expansion in the South's
educational program is the type Of
high school buildings now being erect
ed Comparisons always are odiouS, but
surely few high school buildings in the
Northern cities of America are as large,
or complete or as beautiful as those two
new ones located respectively in Little
Rock, Ark, and Montgomery, Ala.
Not quite so obvious, but even more
impressive to the close observer, is the
high character of the personnel now in
charge of this educational renaissance.
have never observed anywhere, in any
capacity, men who are better trained
for their special tasks than these men.
One of the first things to impress
the educationally minded and observant
traveller in the South is the CONSOLE
dated school. Here the principle of the
industrial merger is applied in the edu-
cational world one strong central
school taking the place of a number of
weak and scattered schools. A good
example of the consolidated school is
seen in Hamburg, county seat of Ashley
County, Arkansas, a village Of 500 in
habitants, in the southeastern part Of
the State. BY abolishing 10 small, I'M
improved school buildings in a terri
tory about II miles square and erect
ing one modern central plant with
ample accommodations for 300 pupils,
a wise investment Of public money was
made.
The new school building in Hamburg
contains a modern gymnasium and au-
ditorium, library and science equip
ment. What the consolidation of schools
is doing in Arkansas it is doing in
other Southern States to bring to the
farm boys and girls longer school terms,
improved facilities and better teachers.
The slogan Equality for Agriculture"
is not a new one, although it has been
receiving new emphasis recently. Fiji
teen or twenty years ago the leaders
who looked at the farm problems from
the educational standpoint pointed out
the inequality in schooling between
farm boy and city boy. Most of city
boys were going to high schools as a
matter OF course. There was no tuition
to pay. They lived but a short distance
from the high school building.
The farm boy lived a long distance
from any high school. And if he did
overcome the handicap of distance this
farm boy had to pay tuition Courses
Of study in the high school were so de-
signed as to lead the farm boy away
from the farm rather than back to the
farm.
-Four Thousand High Schools.
Congress attacked this problem,
among others, in 1917, when it passed
law known as the vocational educa-
tional act, or Smith, Hughes law. This
law provided for a new scheme Of high
school vocational education in agricul-
ture, industry, commercial subjects and
home economics, and for the training
of teachers in these fields. The States
favoring the scheme were asked to
match dollar for dollar Federal funds
with State funds.
The law proved satisfactory to the
States. 1t was PROMPTLY accepted by
every one of the 4S. These States not
only matched the Federal grant but
they put up two or three to one for all
Federal funds received. Standards of
training were worked out co-opera-
lively by Federal, State and local
agencies.
Under this new scheme classes have
been developed in agricultural subjects
in about 1000 high schools. Since there
are only 5000 counties in the United
States, this means a little better than
one high school in every county Offering
work in agriculture. There is now
thousands Of farm boys taking work in
these high schools. The work is called
vocational agriculture because of its
practical nature.
Chief Weakness Apparent.
Its chief weakness as a trade school
experiment is at once apparent. 1t is
training young boys for a vocation at a
period of their life when they have i'm
mature ideas OF what vocation they will
follow later. Some of these boys lack
zest Of purpose. This particular defect
in vocational agriculture education is