November 30, 1910.
THE ELON COLLEGE WEEKLY.
3
THE WEEKLY DIRECTORY.
Burlington (N. C.) Business Houses.
Buy Dry Goods from B. A. Sellars & Sons.
See Burlington Hardware Co. for Plumb
ing.
Get your Photographs at Anglin’s Studio.
B. A. Sellars & Sons for Clothing and
Gents’ Furnishings.
See Dr. Morrow when in need of Dental
Work.
Real Estate, Insurance and Loans, Ala
mance Insurance & Real Estate Co.
Barber Shop, Brannoek & Matkins.
Dr. J. H. Brooks, Dental Surgeon.
See Freeman Drug Co. for Drugs.
Elon College, N C.
For an Education go to Elon College.
Gibsonville, N. C.
Dr. G. E. Jordan, M. D.
High Point, N. C.
People’s House Furnishing Co
Greensboro, N. C.
Pierce Stamp Works for stamps.
Hotel HuflSne.
Burtnar Furniture Co., for furniture.
dren of proper age. It is true that in
certain northern States compulsory edu
cation has proved a success, to a certain
degree, but this is due to the fact that
these States aie more thickly populated
aiul means have been provided by which
children can be conveyed to the school-
houses. Also, these states have a better
financial situation. Not content with our
present educational system, not content
with present progress, with past accom
plishments and with future progress, our
opponents would pass a law compelling
our State to become tyrannical along ed
ucational lines. All that is now possible
for North Carolina to accomplish along
educational lines is to perfect the State’s
school system and if allowed to work it
out in a natural and practical way, and
within a reasonable time, she will ott'er
the best possible educational facilities.
An argument for the affirmative in which
the advantage of knowledge over igno
rance is set forth and the decrease in
illiteracy under the reign of compulso
ry education is shown.
By Mr. G. G. Holland.
Education has been a problem for ages:
but compulsory education in the United
States is of comparatively recent oiigin.
A gi’eat deal of the education, even in
States that have no compulsory educa
tional laws, is compulsory, the parents
compelling the children to attend school.
This, we grant, not to be so satisfactory
as education obtained by the free will of
every one thus to be educated. But the
question before us is this: Is it better to
force children to go to school, thereby
causing them to learn some things by
repetition if not by study, than to allow
them to glow up in perfect illiteiacy?
Our judgments answer the question. Now
the question we have is whether North
Carolina should adopt, right now, com
pulsory education laws. Knowledge is
power, we claim, and the pen is mightier
than the sword. If these things are true,
and who will not grant them? then what
stands in the way of our State passing
laws looking to tliis end? A man in this
age is not judged by what he is, but by
what he can do. and before he can do
anything he must possess a certain
amount of education.
A few statistics will suffice to prov?
the advantages of compulsory education.
In thirteen States not having compulsoiy
education the percentage of illiteracy is
25.5. and the percentage of illiteracy in
thirty-two States having compulsory ed
ucation is only 6.5. What, then, does this
shO'W? We are alarmed to find North
Carolina among those States not having
compulsory education and still more cha
grined to find the percentage of illiteracy
in the Old North State, the State near
and dear to us, is 29.4. Gentlemen, does
this not indicate that a ladical change
should be made in our educational law’s?
Germany, the nation of universities and
scholars, has very strict compulsory edu
cation laws. The percentage of illiteracy
in (Germany is about one out of every
1,000, and we have just shown that the
percentage of illiterates in States not
having compulsory education is one out
of e\erv four. Sweden has compulsory
education. A comparison of her stand
ing ainiy with ours is as follows:—Per
centage of illiterates in the army of Swe
den is one out of every 1,250, and in the
United States one out of every 10.
The negative will argue that compulso
ry education will snatch bread from the
mouths of widows, and rob mothers of
their support. We beg or you to remem
ber that the respective child labor laws
of the different States prohibit children
up to a ceitaiii age from working, and if
they can’t work, then there is absolutely
no reason why they shouldn’t go to school,
and those who will not go of their own
accord, should be made to attend school
a certain number of months for a certain
number of years.
An argument for the negative based on
comparisons of what we are now doing
for the schooling of our children with
what Massachusetts is doing as to the
rate of taxation, and in which statis
tics as to North Carolina schools are
given.
By Mr. R. H. McCauley.
In this discussion my colleague has
shown you that the theory of compulsory
education is inconsistent with the spirit
of American social and political institu
tions, that it is a violation of the rights
of personal liberty, and that it would
tend to turn our American democracy in
to despotism. My opponents have repre
sented a theory which I believe we have
successfully answered. Under any cir
cumstances, however, their theory is of
no real value unless it is practicable. So
to substantiate our own position, I intend
to prove that North Carolina should not
enact a compulsory education law, be
cause all that is possible at present is be
ing done to perfect the State’s school
system, and that if allowed to work ont
in a natural way and within a reasonable
time North Carolina will offer the best
possible educational faciities, but the
cannot now accommi.nlate her total school
population, and if education were made
compulsory the effoit to accommodate all
children of school age, which this act
would necessitate, would involve an in
crease in ta.xation which the tax-payers
of the State could not and would not bear.
This would prejudice them against the
State’s school system and being, conse
quently, a hindrance rather than a help
to the cause of education.
North Carolina has not yet reached a
hiirh state of economical development.
The rural districts are sparsely settled,
the towns are few and far between, the
State as a whole is comparatively pover
ty-stricken because her resources were
swe{)t away by a teirible civil war from
which she has never fully recovered. Be-^
cause of this fact North Carolina was
at no distant time in the past ashamed of
her educational record. But now that is
changtd. A movement begun some years
ago, has been carried on so vigorously,
and especially so in the past eight years,
that our educational progress during this
time will compare favoiably with that of
any State or nation. Since 1884 the in
crease in the average daily attendance of
the public schools has been 112,000; the
average school term has been increased
55 per c?nt. and there has been a decrease
in the number of illiterates of 20 percent.
In 1900-7 375 rural school houses were
built, while the increase in the expendi
tures of that year over the preceding year
was .$2,000,000. Here figures are only
illustratixe of the desire for education,
which has taken hold of North Carolina.
The people have begun to realize that ed-
ucatiwi is essential to the highest success,
to the fullest enjoyment of life. The peo
ple of this grand old State are now thor
oughly awake to the value of education
and are making a record of advancement
of which no State would be ashamed.
Within a generation they have transform
ed North Carolina from its state of neg
lect of education to one of the most pro
gressive states educationally of the Union.
Under adverse circumstances North Car
olinians have done as much along educa
tional lines as they could have been rea
sonably expected to do under the most
favorable conditions. And yet what they
have done is only a beginning of what
they expect to do. They must have time,
however, in which to complete this work
already begun and now being earned on
with such eamestiiess and thoroughness.
If the people of the State are allowed
to carry' this work on in a natural way, at
a reasonable rate and are allowed to fin
ish it in a reasonable time we will be able
to look back upon our educational pro
gress with satisfaction and to refer other
states to our school system as a model
after which they may pattern theirs.
At the present time, however, our school
system is far from perfect. While we are
justly ])roud of the progr.iss we have al
ready made we can admit that there is
still loom for improvement. Thus the
last annual report of the State Supt. of
Education shows while the total school
population of the entire State is 710,000
it has been possible so far to provide
only ten thousand teachers, and 7,500
school houses, 410 districts having only
log houses, while 419 have none at alL
With present attendance houses and
t achers are taxed to their utmost. And
yet it is projwsed that the State enact a
law compelling every child of school age
in North Carolina to attend school. Not
content, as my colleague has said, with
the present rate of development of our
school system, not content with the recoid
of the past, the progress of the present,
or the prospect of the future, our oppo
nents wish to pass a law compelling the
people to do that which that they have
been eager to do, and will do as soon as
the necessary provisions are made.
But suppose education is made compul
sory before the State is able to accommo
date those whom such a law would affect.
Every teacHer in the State ow^uld be
obliged to instruct an average of 71 pu
pils and every school house would have
to accommodate 94 pupils. To you who
aie not so intimately acquainted with
school life, it is necessaiy to say that
it is impracticable for eviery teacher to
give adequate instruction to 71 pupils,
if they are all in the same grade. When,
however, this number includes all grades
from first to tenth with from 25 to 30
diflj^rent classes, the task is so enormously
increased as to make its accomplishment
impossible. Equally impossible, too, is
the accommodation of an average of 94
pupils in each school house. Many of the
school houses in our towns can accommo
date only 100 pupils while the lural
schools can seldom accommodate 50.
The fact, then, that there has been no
j)rovisions made for the one third of our
school jiopulation accounts for its ab
sence from school. The people of North
Carolina want their children to go to
school, but they are not so neglectful
of their children’s health as to make
tlilem walk from 3 to 5 miles to school,
sit in a p(K>rly heated and poorly ventila
ted house all day and then walk another
3 or 5 miles back home. Nor when the
school houses are comfortable and well
furnished are the childnen themselves
willing to stay in school all day merely
for the privilege of having there a form
of recitations of 10 to 15 minutes each.
And not only do we contend that under
present conditions,'the State is unable to
accommodate all her children of school
age, but we contend, too, that if a com
pulsory education law were passed and
effort made to bring onr school system up
to the state of (efficiency which the law
would require, this effort would involve an
increase in taxes which the State is not
able to bear. Already it is deeply in debt
biecause of the expenditures made for ed
ucation in the past. Cities, towns and
rural districts have, in many cases issued
bonds and borrowed money in order to
build and equip their buildings; the special
taxes often being insufficient to pay in-
teriest on those debts and the current ex
penses of the schools. The people are,
however, determined against retrogression
and are struggling along under these bur
dens with no thought except of ultimate
success. True the total amount raised in
Dr. J. H. Brooks.
DENT-AL .SURGEON
Office Over Foster’s Shoe Store
BURLINGTON, N. C.
LINEN MARKING OUTFITS:
Name Stamp, Indelible Ink and Pad,
40c. Postpaid on receipt of price.
PIERCE STAMP WORKS,
Greensboro, N. C.
■ ( -I
HOTEL HUFFINE
Near Passenger Station
Greensboro, N. C.
Rates $2 up. Cafe in connection.
R. M. MORROW,
Siirgeoii Dentist,
MORROW BUILDING,
Comer Front and Main Streets,
BURLINGTON, N. C.