Newspapers / The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, … / July 13, 1917, edition 1 / Page 3
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EDUCATION OUR GREATEST NEED Produces Highest Order of Manhood, Says Dr. Hillis. AMERICANIZE FOREIGNERS By Rev. Dr. NEWELL DWIUHT HILLIS, Pastor of Rymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. B?V. mt. NEWELL DWIGUT "H I is "What Is the Matter With Our Education? A Study of Intel leetual Prepared ness, " was the subject of anoth er of the series of Bern tuns by the Itev. Dr. Ilillls, pastor of Plym outh church, Brooklyn. Ills text was "Wis dom Is more pre cious than rubies and knowledge than much fine irold." Our fathers came to this new world because they denied the right of King James to rule any man's life save his cwvn. Nv'inthrop, Brewster and their associates each proposed to be his own king, and they trained their sons to rule themselves. But the men who signed the compact in the cabin of the MayOower were under no delusion as to the difficulties involved in educating men for self government. They knew right well that Prince Charles in his palace was being educated from child hood in all matters pertaining to polit ical truth, economic truth and financial truth, a%d they determined to prepare their sons for all the problems of gov ernment, relating to life, property and the welfara* of their fellows. Upon landing at Plymouth, therefore, the first thing they did was to set apart a public square, around which the cab Ins were buiJded. In the center of that square they erected a building, which was to be used for moral teach ing on Sunday by the minister and for general education during the week days by a teacher. One of their first laws also had to do with taxation for the support of education. And since all the colonists were to be kings in their native right, each law was pro posed before all the voters and by th?n analyzed and debated, and then a day was fixed for casting the ballot. Election day was made to be a solemn festival, and about it were to be clus tered all possible associations of dig nity and beauty. High Order of Manhood Produced. On that high day all work ceased and the citizens put on tfheir best garments. At 9 o'clock they assrtnbled in the public square, and at a given signal the procession was formed. The minister and the magistrate marched at the head of the conipanyk then came the teacher and the physickin, followed by the selectmen and all the voters. Then a sermon was preached, in which the citizens were told plainly that for a man t? cast his vote for a selfish end and without considering how that vote w?uld injure his neighbor's property, happiness and life was to be guilty of a crime. Men voted as in the sight of the all seeing God. , The election procession in old New England towns was as dignified and wonderful a cere mony as the one that once took place in Athens, where each Athenian was made to cleans his body, put on a white robe bound with a violet girdle and. having been approved by the priest and the civic official, he dropped his bn|lot into a marble urn. In the beginning each community was a pure democracy. Better plans for the man ufacture of a high order of manhood were never developed. The quality of soul produced is the proof of the fa thers' plan. Self government made men brave, prudent, wise, self reliant and farsighted; it gave men initiative and called out all their reserves. And not only were the best interests of the home and the state conserved, but crime was practically unknown and whole villages were without lock or bar on granary or hou^e. That was not only the heroic ane of our history, but the golden^ age -of our patriotism and prosperity. The Raising Up of Leaders. The passing of fifteen brief summers and winters witnessed the death of the heroic leaders of the colonists. Ex posure to the New England winters, in sufficient food, pfjor cabins, the ten sion of constant attacks by Indians united to do their deadly work. Alarm, ed by the passing of Winthrop. Brew ster and Carver, the colonists Iwgan to talk about the raising up of loaders to take the places of the heroic blind that had gone. Instead of sending to Cam bridge and Oxford for their ministers they determined to rear their own wise men and produce their own Eiishas as successors to the ascended Elijahs. In 1G3(5, therefore, the colonists united their gifts and founded Harvard col lege, and a little later came Yale and others. Having provided f<?r the training for citizenship of the com mon people through their school on week days, they now prepared to of ficer the regiments of workers by train, ing their own ministers, magistrates and physicians. The New Crisis. During the next half century our school system did its work successfully. The growth of the population was largely by natural increase. The schools for the common people a ml the colleges, working with the four pro fessions, the ideals of their founders. Hut ufter the civil war a crisis develoi*Kl. Great railways woro i tlung across the Uocklea. An area of expansion began, ltepresentatlves of the steamships aud railroads placard ed central and southeastern Europe with advertisements. New settlers came in like a tlnod. Soon millions of new peoples were here. The school houses and force of teachers were equal to the native stock, but no pro vision was made for tbe educational problems incideut to tbe arrival of a million newcomers eacb year. Soon the system was choked with excess of material. School boards allowed mat ters to drift. Where there were laws maklug for compulsory education 110 attempt was made to enforce the laws, and indeed there were no buildings to which the newcomers could be sent. It was as if the lumberman had cut a third more logs than his mill could saw, so that the logs rotted; as If the raw cotton was piled up with bales ex posed to the weather, because the I mills could not handle it: as if the wheat in the mill grew damp and i sprouted, because tbe 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 20.000,000 of Illiterates. Ten millions more there are who may 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 tbe ' great economic questions that are vital ! to the republic and subject to the bal lot. Impossible For Illiterates 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 Lelieved that our school sys tem was adequate to the task of lntel lectualizing all the voters. No Hamil ton nor Jefferson ever had to make his mark when he signed a promissory note. It is dangerous to give the lever of a powerful locomotive pulling a passenger train into the hands of a man who never was on a locomotive before. It is more perilous for the state to place a ballot that protects life, property and the welfare of others into the hands of ignorant men. No matter how thoroughly educated a man is as a lawyer, he would not be guilty of expressing an opinion as to wheth er or not a surgeon ihould 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 a show of hands what the surgeon should do is a poor sub stitute for scientific knowledge and skill. The simple fact is that free in stitutions and self government are for fully educated men. A republic can not be carried on by illiterates. Better a limited monarchy with an educated house of lords than the despotism of millions of illiterates. Illiteracy In Connection With Industry. In the second place, the republic containing ?JO.OUO.fXtO illiterates cannot compete in terms of industry with [? trained workmen in the factories of | Europe, where experts make cutlery I or weave wool and silk. Imagine a : million illiterate colored men placed in : mills and asked to weave cotton goods I and then expect to sell that product in the south in competition with the out put of a million expert English weav ers! Can a multitude and a mob stand up against an equal number of men marching as an iron regiment? Professor Barker tells us that there is a new industrial England. The neces sity involved in war has forced con j servative and aged manufacturers to take out their old tools and throw them Into the scrap heap. The old ideas about holding the band and lim iting the output are gone. "Speeding up" is the order of the day. For every yard of cotton or woolen goods under the old methods. Barker says, the workmen are weaving two yards, and of a better quality, through the new | methods. But our foreign competitors j are homogeneous peoples. The popu I lation of Germany is German, the peo I pie of France are French, and the peo ple of Great Britain are of English de scent. tradition, language and ideals, while we represent divers races and bloods, with fifty different languages and dialects. In the nature of the case, preparedness for the coming trade war ; is vital to the prosperity of our people. Americanize All the Foreigners. j First.? Having affirmed that tlie pres ! ent crisis is not due to any failure on the part of the public school teachers, but wholly to the people and the school boards that have not been willing to | furnish the machinery and have allow e<J the situation to drift until we have I 20,000,000 illiterates. It remains now ; for us to confess that our first educa I tional problem Is how to Americanize , all the citizens. The last election ' shows that the hyphenated American represents a problem. It has been the subject of universal discussion In the home, on the streat cars, in the press and on the platform. Men are casting ! about for a solution of the problem. Detroit has adopted a slopan. "Ameri , cans first." Pressure lias been brought to bear upon the foreigners. Realizing ' their handicap, they have hastened to take out naturalization papers. They ! have ceased to leave their families in Italy and return thither with their sav ings. Mr. Ford at the end of the eight j hour shift, nt 4 in the afternoon, has ' his men pass from the machine straight into a large room where the teacher | points. for example, to the face of Lincoln and then says. "This is Abra ham Lincoln." and fifty foreigners shout after him. "This is Abraham Lincoln!" Then. "This is a slave,' | "This is a scboolhonse." "This is a .savings bank." The superintendent of ?acb squad of men ina?es these young foreigners understand that they are handicapped by Ignorance uud that Uv. ing In the republic and being protects by ltd laws and enjoying its property they must devote themselves to the service of the country that has moth ered them. On* Way to Educate the Foreign Peo ples. Several years ano. on the ground ot self I urged men In charge of a j?iv.:t iie\v.^;>u|ter to help raise mouey to ..iv .1 i u\;e opera house on each W . blrthduy and to Invite flu ;v i ? il.c guests of the city all for oi- or - \. > had l>eeu naturalized dur i:>. i! ? year, to provide two si*eakers ot national reputation, to pin to each new dtij.en a little American tlag. to give tlu.il an extract from Washing ton's address. from Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg and his second inaugu ral. with the Declaration of Inde pendence. all made beautiful by the printer's art. 1 urged that we attempt to secure the passage of a law that would tlx Washington's birthday an the day for the naturalization of all foreigners and that every association of patriotism, music, eloquence, be in voked to invest the beginning of Amer ican citizenship with dignity. There was not a man with whom I then pleaded who had vision enough to un derstand the scope of the enterprise Mut soon or late some such plan \\ ill be brought about that will American ize the citizens and do away with the hyphenated American problem and >i ganlze all the disputatious groups Into a solid regiment of Americans. We Must tntellectualize All the Work ers to Meet the New Crisis. Second.? 'The second educational tusk that confronts lis is the task of intel lectual islni; all our workers. The time was when only the four professions needed the higher education. Now that lift' tins hecoine complex our tools are delicate as well as powerful. Oth er nations who are our competitors for the foreign trade are replacing general education with technical training. The old Hebrews compelled each parent to teach his child a trade. In Europe, even in the king's palace, young prim es are taught a handicraft? now as a jew eler or a lapidary. The ti^tie lias conic in this country lor a radical step. The average boy drops <n.t of school at fifteen or sixteen, lint the most pre cious years for the boy are his memory years. Before, therefore, the boy leaves the care of the state lie should have one year to make him a skilled worker in iron, wood or wool or silk. Gal braith lias taught us that a bricklayer's fifteen movements of the hand can lie reduced to seven, thus doubling t he work accomplished, while saving his strength. The Training of Women. Every girl also, lest she be thrown upon her own resources through the death of husband or father, should be trained how to make a street dress, a party gown, a suit, a work dress and the outer robes. The state should force every young woman, whether her fa ther be rich or poor, to master every detail of cooking, giving six or el^ht hours a day to the problem until it could not longer lie said of an occa sional girl that what lier husband car ries into the front hall she throws out of the back door. It may be also that the whole system < f education will have to be revolutionized. The Amer ican school system is built upon a gen eral training before twenty and a spe cial training after. The history of men of genius and of achievement shows that the special training should come before twenty and the general training afterward. No one is wise enough to state all the facts in a sin pie discussion, but enough facts have been assembled to raise many ques tions concerning the necessity of rev olutioni/.ing our entire system of edn cation. We Must Socialize All the Families. Third.? The third educational prob lem tlint confronts our country is how to socialize the new families. In the human body the new food is turned into vital cells through exosmoso and emlosmose, but there seems t<> be no similar method between new families and the native stock. Missions, IMble schools, social settlements do much. So f;ir as men are concerned t lie sa loon has helped even while it has hurt. It has been the poor man's club, where in the evenings he meets his fellows and enjoys talk, good or bad. This, however, does nothing for the women or the children, and they are the real heart of the problem. The last elec tion shows that within two or three elections prohibition is to become na tional. Inevitably the saloon must go for reasons not alone of health and morals, but of Industry. In our Amer ican climate, with Its long winters, our cities must make ready a substitute to take the place of the saloon. The method must Ik? along this line: A great hall in each ward, made cheery and warm, under municipal supervi sion, with music, pictures and state ments as to the great men of the day and great national events. The time must come when each day the govern ment experts will turn the whole land for ten minutes into a whispering gal lery, with the newest scientific coun sels as to foods and weather and crops, with the conditions of the country. The winter nights are America's lirst great asset, and it is being thrown away, but ultimately this hall and the method thus outlined will become the university of the workers and a train ing college for worn women and chil dren. ?_ Lucky Ma! "Not until I married (lid I realize how lucky my mother was." sighed the bride. "Why?" "Well, she had me to help tier wash the dishes, and I have to do our dislies all alone."? Detroit Free Press" "When Dollie grows up" "She'll have a New Perfection Oil Cook Stove? just like mothers. Up-to-date housewives swear by the New Perfection. Over 2,500,000 of these stoves are now in use. It's the stove of steady habits ? never cranky, never out of order. The flame stays put ? you can have just the amount of heat you want, from a quick boil to a simmer. There is no wasted heat. It keeps the kitchen cool. A new and exclusive feature ? the re versible glass reservoir. ALADDIN SECURITY OIL a superior kerosene, gives best results. It's always clean, always reliable. STANDARD OIL COMPANY (New Jersey) W..Wo?; D.C BALTIMORE Richmond, Va. " Charleston, S. C. NEW PERFECTION ==?^ OIL CQOK STOVE ABOUT THE SELF MADE MILITARY OFFICER By CAPTAIN GEORGE L. KILMER Somewhere at this time there Is a young man nt work an<l putting In his overtime at much training as he hopes will fit him to be a soldier when he goes to camp to do his bit, who within two years? one year if the army goes campaigning? will be wearing shoul der straps. By a short cut he will sidestep West I'oint and get there be cause he is a born leader. While get Photo by American Press Association. KIFLE SALUTE. ting ready for hardship by sleeping on a plank in the barn or out on the bare ground he will be thinking over his future job, not his future fortunes. The self made officer is never a gen ius; simply a very practical man of native resource. War is a succession of accidents and surprises. Seldom a campaign or battle goes through as planned. In the midst of confusion quick shifts must be made. Then the born leader comes to the fore in the ranks. lie sets himself to work, and then a superior tells him to direct oth ers. The others are glad to see order come out of confusion, follow the new lead, and all goes well. The self made man may not be a scholar, but he will have a mind train ed to orderliness. Self disciplined, he can discipline his fellows. If he can not write or keep accounts he can get some one to do it. Flis reports to headquarters will be as well dope as his trench digging and scouting enter prises. Some day there'll be a hurry call for a lieutenant and none to spare. But the self trained leader can fill the role, and "promoted on the field" will be written opposite his name on the company records. It will all be due to the habit doing well what he set his hand to. THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HAVE J tried Dr. Muns' Pile and Eczema ' Ointment, every one delighted. | Creech Drug Co., Smithfield, N. C. j STRAYED FROM MY PLACE about one week ago one red bar row hog weighing about 120 pounds. Reward for his return. R. B. Allen, Smithfield, R. F. D. No. 1. THE SOUTHERN RAJ LWAY COMPAMY ? r ? i An Ambition and a Record 'pHF, needs of the South are identical with the needs of the Southern Railway: the growth and success of one means the upbuilding of the other. The Southern Railway asks no favors ? no special privilege not accorded to others. I The ambition of the Southern Railway Company is to see thai unity of interest that is born of co-operation between the public and 1 the railroads; to see perfected that fair and frank policy in the manage ment of railroads which invites the confidence of governmental agencies; to realize that liberality of treatment which will enable it to obtain the additional capital needed for the acquisition of better and 'enlarged facilities incident to the demand for increased and better !" service; and, finally? Yo take its niche In the body politic of the South alongside of other grrat industries, with no more, but with equal liberties, equal rights and equal opportunities. " The Southern Serves the South." ' ' Mr. Reader, Do You Buy or Borrow The Herald? -r- ? - Flies Breed Rcc3 Devil Lye in FiltH Eats Filth Kill the Cause Germ-carrying flies bring disease direct to your home from the privy and outhouse. They wipe their germ laden feet on your food, bathe in the baby's milk and leave many forms of sickness ? then come the doctor's bills ? and you know what that means. Flies carry on their feet filth and the germs of typhoid fever, malaria, consumption ? perhaps iofantile paralysis and other dread diseases. . Re&DeVil Tye? Destroys The Fly Eggs SPRINKLE RED DEVIL LYE FREELY once or twice a week in your privy or outhouse. You can't use too much. It will clean up these places, remove the foul odor and stop fly-eggs from hatching. DEVIL LYE /? almo mint ply mrondarfttl for making ? oap, conditioning hogm mnd making compoat for toHlllmor. ?tart Using RED DEVIL LYB Now, Baforo Fly Season Bt|ini SEND POSTAL FOR FREE BOOKLET Wm. Schleld Mfg. Co., OI6 N. second St., ST. LOUIS. MO. RED DEVIL IYE la Sold Uy All Oroe?r*.
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.)
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July 13, 1917, edition 1
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