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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1913.
A Menace to the South’s
Most Vital Interests
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
i
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NOETK POESTTH ST.
Entered i£t the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter ot
the Second Class.
JAMES j£. CJRAY,
President and Editor.
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Reductions in Parcel Post Rates.
The public at large and merchants especially will
welcome the announcement that there is to he an ap
preciable reduction, effective August the fifteenth,
In parcel post rates. The present scale of charges
within so-called “local" zones is five cents for the
first pound and one cent for each additional pound;
and the maximum weight allowed is eleven pounds.
The new rate for “ local” zones will be five cents for
the first pound and one cent for each additional two
pounds; at the same time the maximum weight will
be increased to twenty pounds. For the second zone,
which comprizes territory within a hundred-and fifty
mile radius, the present charges are six cents for the
first pound and four cents for every additional pound.
This rate will be lowered under the new order to five
cents for the first pound and one cent for each addi
tional pound; and in this zone also a maximum
weight of twenty pounds to the parcel will be ac
cepted.
These reductions in charges and increases in al
lowable weight will greatly extend-the usefulness of
the parcel post service. Though limited, for the
present, to the first two zones, it is believed that
eventually they will be applied to the country as a
whole and will also he followed by other concessions
and advantages. The present postal administration
is working earnestly and effectively to make the
parcel post continually cheaper and more available
for the people’s daily needs. The recent addition of
the cash-on-delivery system and the order permit
ting the use of ordinary instead of special stamps on
parcels for mail are distinct conveniences that will
at once benefit the nubile and upbuild the patronage
of the parcel post.
The growth of the new service has been more
rapid and extensive than its heartiest advocates coul-
have hoped for. The volume and variety of parcels
have steadily increased from month to month, there
by adding considerably to the postofflee revenue.
Mercantile houses have been enabled to cover a
wider field of business; trade has been quickened
and broadened, to the benefit of the customer as well
as the dealer. Rural districts <-re awakening to the
rich opportunity afforded them by the parcel post.
Farmers and truck growers are establishing direct
and economical connections with city patrons, a cir
cumstance which i. time will Inevitably reduce the
cost of living. Such Improvements as the Postmaster
General and his assistants have already made and
purpose to effect in the immediate future will render
the service still more popular and beneficial.
The currency bill will come In time to make our
Christmas purchaser easier.
The Mexican Situation.
There is no occasion for surprise in the reports
from Mexico forecasting an early collapse of the
Huerta regime. It has been evident for months past
that the provisional government was trembling on
its treacherous foundations. The most it could hope
for was a precarious tenure until the election next
autumn when a new administration might be estab
lished by means -t least nominally fair and consti
tutional. But now, it seems, the revolutionary
forces are oversweeping every barrier; apparently it
is but a matter of weeks or perhaps days when even
his spurious title to power will be wrested from
Huerta. ,
The provisional president essayed to be a dicta
tor but evidently -e lacks the qualities of which suc
cessful dictators are made. That he was a gifted
soldier, no one could doubt; and he was also un
scrupulous and as regards sheer doggedness of will,
unbending. It was predicted, when he seized the
presidency, that he wquld soon have the rebellion
under heel. That very ruthlessness with which he
was credited was regarded by some as a virtue which
would scourge tae country back to peace.
But there was little or nothing in Huerta to com
mand popular confidence or support. His own fol
lowers knew the dishonorable paths by which he
tatr risen to power. The, world condemned the
■daughter of Madero as inhuman and uncivilized. The
now administration lacked moral strength to begin
with and it was unable to muster pnysical strength
tp go on with.
The army bec-me first indifferent and then, in
many instances, openly hostile t& the provisional
president. Troops sent out to put djwn an uprising
would go over ho >ily to the rebels In these cir
cumstances it was inevitable that the Huerta regime
would eventually fall.
The wisdom of the United States’ policy in de-.
dining to recognize so flimsy a pretense to govern
ment is now manifest. Such recognition could not
have bolstered up a regime that lacked the first
elements of stability. It would merely have proved
embarrassing to our own country.. What the imme-
tiate future of Mexico may be is beyond prediction.
One thing, however, is certain; the Wilson admin
istration has done well thus far to pursue a neutral
end waiting policy toward Mexican affairs.
Editor The Journal:
Being very much interested in the proposed legis
lation against future trading in cotton, and observing
the sensible lines that have appeared in your editorial
columns against this ill-advised Clarke amendment to
the tariff bill, I am taking the liberty of addressing
this communication to you, that you may know the
disfavor in which it is held among the men who are
closer perhaps than any other to a real knowledge of
what functions a cotton exchange consists. Being a
member of the spot firm of J. S. Chipley & Co., at
Greenwood, S. C.. and having' no official connection
whatever with any cotton exchange, these views, if
they contain any truths, should meet with considera
tion at the hands of those who would tear down an in
stitution which renders so much real service to the
business world. There is scarcely a spot dealer in the
whole south who does not hold similar views.
It would be superfluous to dwell upon the wisdom
of that economy which, in the light of future needs,
quickens and expands production of today. No intelli
gent mind will dispute that it is wholly desirable that
commerce be granted every facility for ascertaining
the requirements of the future in order to prepare wise
ly for its coming. But in spite of these accepted princi
ples, the commercial world Is astonished to hear the
highest legislative body in these United States serious
ly discussing the passage of a law designed to impede
and hamper these very forces of supply and demand.
The cotton exchanges, where from the four corners of
the globe gather the agents of supply and demand, are
to the producers and consumers of cotton what a bu
reau of information is to the stranger in a great city.
It is here that a buyer, perhaps in a distant corner
of the eastern hemisphere, makes known his desire to
purchase cotton by an order to his broker. And
quickly comes the news, to every part of the cotton
producing section. Where the keen eye of the farmer
and buyer is ever on the alert to detect the least sign
of an advance in the future market or for encourage
ment to hold tighter in the former’s ease and to bid
higher in the latter’s. No matter how distant from
the cotton fields or inaccessible the buyer, if he be
within reach of telegraph or telephone, he is in effect
brought to the very door of the cotton grower through
the modern method of future trading.
With the elimination of future trading the manufac
turer will turn to a few of the largest cotton houses
for their suppply of cotton. The buyer of moderate or
small resources, no longer having open to him the
hedge protection furnished by the exchanges, will not
offer sufficient safety in the mind of the manufac
turer against violent fluctuations in price and conse
quently the farmer will have been deprived of a large
body of buyers of his product. In the hands of a few
large buyers it takes no profound thinker; to conclude
that It will not result in raising the price of cotton.
Those senators who are defending the Clarke amend
ment advance the argument that fully one hundred and
forty million bales are traded in upon the exchanges
annually, and that of these Ymly about fourteen million
.are contracts of that character known as “’hedge” trad
ing. And that if all other trading is driven away by
this tax the government would still receive the sub
stantial sum of seven million into its treasury. And
the boldness of their argument is the more surprising
when it Is considered upon whose shoulders the bur
den will fall. To any one who is familiar with the
modern method of distributing the cotton crop there
can be no doubt as to whose lot the payment of this
tax will fall. The cotton merchant, having upon his
books no orders for the immediate delivery of all the
grades he Is compelled to buy from the plantations,
seeks safety from a decline In 'price by selling tha
number of bales corresponding to that on hand to some
one through the exchanges who is willing to assume
the risk of a decline. But since to do so is to become
indebted to the government by the amount of the tax,
he very naturally will deduct this tax from his pur
chase price to the farmer. It is either this or he
must, resort t'o the protection afforded,in discounting
in price, at the time of purchase, both the tax as well
as any probable decline before the cotton can be sold
to the mill. It Is just as well to note here that the
European spinner, being aware of the tax imposed upon
his American competitor, will reduce his offers for cot
ton a point just above the equivalent in price to this ■
tax and it seems fairly certain that less money on
each bale sold would reach the producer as a result.
The manufacturer receiving an offer for the future
delivery of cloth, discovers that he is unable to avoid
the payment .of this tax on such contracts, since the
cotton merchant to whom he turns to secure raw ma
terial in the quantity corresponding to his sale of
cloth, will be compelled to add to his price for cotton
a sufficient amount to cover this kind of trade. Thus
we have two great industries of the southern states
singled out as objects of an unwise and unjust tax
amounting to what its advocates admit as seven piil-
lion of dollars.
But there are many other phases of the cotton in
dustry which will be affected if this amendment is en
acted into law. To tax and thus dissuade the agents
of supply and demand as they meet upon the ex
changes for the purpose of adjusting and keeping in
the highest state of efficiency the machinery of com
merce, is little short of suicidal. To do so Is to les
sen the demand for both cotton and cloth. The priv
ilege of contracting with reliable merchants for the
future delivery of cotton is in effect the extension of
that mill’s power to produce. Ail the capital hereto
fore occupied in carrying the actual cotton preparatory
to being spun into cloth may now be released and de
voted in other directions. There should be as small a
storage charge on cloth as possible before leaving the
mill in order to keep down the price of clothing for
humanity. This item of expense cannot be avoided un
less the privilege to contract for the future delivery
of cloth is open to the spinner. But when in this
manner the machinery of cotton distribution is In a
highly efficient condition, humanity is served in the
most economical way. ,
With the imposition of this tax the spinner of this
country will be placed at a serious disadvantage with
his competitor across the water. For he must either
continue to compete with him in the customary way
which has heretofore involved the future trading prin
ciple or be content to accept whatever business the
foreigner sees fit to decline.
There has been much abuse directed at the specula
tor, but there is no denying that he is of much value
to the farmer at times. All cotton students know that
the spinner has great respect for the intelligent spec
ulator. And it is upon this gentleman that they keep
a wary eye. He is their natural enemy and constant
ly acts as a lash to an otherwise reluctant willingness
to buy. Without him the farmer would be at the mer
cy of the spinner. It is oftentimes argued that the
speculator uses the exchanges as a weapon in beating
down the price of cotton. The speculator does only
what he observes the planter doing and the refusal
of the planter to part with his cotton meets with the
immediate assistance of the speculator in forcing the
spinner to pay more. Yours very respectfully,
M. S. CHIPLEY.
An Open Letter
To Vincent Astor
By
Dr. Frank
Crane
At the beginning I apologize for using your name.
I do not like personalities. Your name appears at the
head of this article for two reasons. P'irst, the
family to which you belong has
become well known on account of
its persistent policy in real es
tate. and I have a real estate sug
gestion to make.
Second, you have recently come
into the control of large wealth,
and in a measure every wealthy
man is a public official, with du
ties toward the people, duties
which, from all I hear, you are
disposed to acknowledge frankly
and discharge to the best of vour
ability.
This is my suggestion to you:
There are two normal, who'
some things a rich man can do \"
with his money: First, use it to make the greatest
possible number of human beings healthy, prosperous,
and happy; and, second, to perpetuate and distin
guish his own name and personality to succeeding
generations.
My suggestion is that you accomplish both these
ends by establishing GARDEN SUBURBS.
Tf you look into the matter I am sure you will
find such experiments as those in England, at Letch-
worth, Bournville. Gldea Park, Ruislip Manor, Kneb-
worth, Port Sunlight and Hampstead, and at many
towns in Germany, full of inspiration.
It needs no argument to convince you that a major
part of the misery of our country comes from the
overcrowding of cities, and that the people would be
healthier and happier if they could be lured far
enough into the country to have their own homes.
All around your own city of New York there is
plenty of acreage property that could be bought up
and sold to people of small means.
This would help people to help themselves, which is
the truest charity.
It ^ould encourage early marriage and large fami
lies. It is difficult to bring up children in dark and
cramped city flats.
All around the crowded metropolis you could erect
another metropolis of happy homes.
Such GARDEN SUBURBS could be so managed
that the title to the land and the government of the
community should rest in the people themselves, while
providing the promoter with reasonable profits.
Suburbs are already growing, but the better class
of .them are only for the well-to-do or the upper middle
grad© of people. It is the wage-workers who most
need homes of beauty, need to own their homes, and
take a pride in citizenship.
I am sure that if you created a circle of beautiful
home towns all around New York your example would
be followed in other cities, and the name of Astor
would be identifed with one of the most magnificent
movements of the twentieth century.
William Morris wrote in 1881:
"As I sit at my work at home, which is at Ham
mersmith, close to the river, I often hear some of
that ruffianism go past the window of which a good
deal has been said in the papers of Mate. As I hear
the yells and shrieks and all the degradation cast on
the glorious tongue of Shakespeare and Milton as I
see the brutal, reckless faces and figures go past me,
it rouses the recklessness and brutality in me also,
and fierce wrath takes possession of me, till I re
member that it was my good luck only of being born
respectable and rich that has put me on this side of
the window among delightful books and lovely works
of art, and not on the other side, in the empty street,
the drink-steeped liquor shops, the foul and degraded
lodgings. I know by my own feelings and desires
what these men want, what would have saved them
from this lowest depth of savagery: employment which
would foster their self-respect and win the praise and
sympathy of their fellows, and dwellings which they
could come to with pleasure, surroundings which would
soothe and elevate them; reasonable labor, reasonable
rest.”
What Would You Do?
(International Magazine.)
Some time ago a man was “knocking” Andrew Car
negie for “the crazy idea of putting up all those libra
ries,” and finally for lack of something else to say, 1
asked him casually: “Well, what would you do if
you had 300 millions dumped into your lap?”
He gulped once or twice, went into a sort of trance,
and finally said:' “Why, I’d—I’d—why, blamed ’f I
know”—and then we talked about something else.
Since then the subject has crossed my mind many
times, and I am not sure that the proper solution is
any nearer. If you ask the question of ten of your
friends, you will at first get a funny answer from
each of them:
“Buy me a yacnt and travel all the time”—“Build
the finest home in the country”—“Buy all the pork
and beans in the world and throw them to the fishes,”
etc., these being a few of the actual answers given
me. Afterward, on reflection, each one will really try
to say what he would do, but the human mind finds it
difficult to comprehend such an amount, or even the
interest on it, which at 5 per cent would be 15 million
dollars yearly.
Poor Roads and Rotten Potatoes.
The blighting effect of poorly built or poorly kept
highways on agricultural profits is described in a
particularly striking manner in a recent statement
from the Federal office of public roads. Where bad
roads prevail, we are told, the farms must move
his crops, not when prices are favorable and the de
mand for his products is ripe, but when weather
conditions will permit; and in many localities of
this kind he finds it impossible to move them at all.
As a result vast quantities of food or industrial sup
plies are either sacrificed at ridiculously low prices
or remain on the larm unused.
“Excessive fluctuations in market prices are
seldom due to overproduction,” the statement
asserts. “They frequently take place in regions
where the local production does not equal the
consumption. There are counties rich in agri
cultural posibilities, burdened with bad roads,
where the annual incoming shipments of food
exceed the outgoing shipments in the ratio of
four to one. Many such counties, with improved
roads, not only become self-supporting, but would
ship products to other markets.”
The fact is many counties that are now importers
could be made exporters by means of well-constructed
and well-maintained system of roads. It is related
that a farmer in Sullivan county, Tenn., a few miles
from Bristol had a hundred bushels of Irish potatoes
which he wished to market during the winter
months. But because of had roads he was unable to
haul the potatoes to town and, so, they rotted in his
cellar. Yet, at that very time potatoes were selling
in Bristol for a dollar and forty cents a bushel; and
a Bristol merchant is quoted as saying that in the
course of the winter “as many as ten carloads of
farm produce, including wheat, potatoes and other
supplies, were shipped in daily to feed not Bristol
but the adjacent territory.”
What is more costly than poor roads? What is
more profitable than good roads?
Japan has paused long enough to watch the Chi
nese fireworks display to forget us for a time.
—- -_^-F
'OUAJTRY
a a T1ME.LTY
UML TOPICS
Conducted 8rjius.UHJrti.Txyi
BRAVE M’S. CARNEGIE!
The story of Mr. Apdrew Carnegie’s life reads like
romance, and most extraordinary romance at that.
He was born in the humblest of Scottish homes,
his father “being a weaver by occupation, and a labor
agitator by reputation,” according to one of his ac
cepted biographers. His uncle was a mob leader in
this Scottish town of Dumferneline; at one time jailed
for inflammatory talk.
Andrew was born in 1835, seventy-eight years ago.
but it was in the year 1848 that his father decided
to cross the Atlantic ocean to seek better wages in
Pittsburg with his wife and*two children, Andy, aged
thirteen, and Tom, only six.
It required forty-nine days to make the trip in a
slow-going schooner, and the family finally found a
cheap home in “Barefoot square, Slabtown, Allegheny,
Pennsylvania.”
The father found work in a cotton mill. Andrew
went to work in the same place as a “bobbin boy” at
weekly wages of $1.20. only 20 cents per day, and
“find” himself. His thrifty mother took in washing
and bound boots for a shoemaker named Phipps who
lived next door. Phipps had a son named Harry, and
there was begun one of the greatest partnerships ever
realized in the United States.
At nineteen he attracted the notice of Colonel
Tiiomas A. Scott, one of the greatest men of Pennsyl
vania sixty-odd years ago.
It was Colonel Scott’s friendship that gave Mr. Car
negie his real start, for he was his private secretary
and favorite in the office.
With the large (?) salary of $50 a month, he began
to buy shares in various companies, and from 1855
to 1S65 he was said to be the ^‘most active little com
mercial butterfly” that remained with the Pennsylva
nia railroad service.
About the close of the war. in 1864, he entered the
iron aqd steel business of Pennsylvania, and then the
shrewd little Scotch capitalist came into his own.
After he begun to manufacture iroiy axles, steel
rails and iron bridges his fortune doubled and quad
rupled by leaps and bounds. I must not forget to
mention President J. Edgar Thomson, who became a
great friend of the Carnegies, and after whom they
named the mammoth Edgar Thomson Steel works, at
Bessemer, near Pittsburg.
I can well remember Colonel J. Edgar Thomson,
who was in Georgia at various times during the build
ing of the Georgia railroad in the early 40’s. I have
vivid recollection of one time when he dined *&,t my
father’s house in Decatur, along with several civil
engineers, alike interested in thdl enterprise. He had
a grand face and the manners of ;r lord. To have such
a friend as Hon. J. Edgar Thomson was good fortune
indeed.
After Mr. Carnegie had means at his command he
entered upon a thorough course of education under
tutors.
He resolutely devoted both time and morfey to ob
tain it. He knew that study was the stepping stone
to genuine success. He understood the value of an ed
ucation obtained in this way. And yet he knew that
honest labor was a better means for.real success than
a title, for he is upon record as saying, “I would much
prefer that my niece should marry an honest working
man than a worthless duke.”
His brother ^Tom seems to have been as real and
sterling a character as Andy, for his credit was un
limited and his word everywhere as good as his bond.
He was not so restlessly ambitious as his brother,
but he was the very soul of integrity and blessed with
sound business sense. All of the -partners were self-
made men. All of the five, including Miller, Phipps
and Kloman, were born poor and had to struggle. They
never had a dollar they had, not earned. They had no
social standing in Pittsburg during the 60’s. It is not
a story of luck, although they were helped by the
friendship of wealthier men. But these five men made
the name in commercial progress that now distin
guishes the Smoky City, and those f’ive men were the
makers of Pittsburg’s wealth. t ,
I have been thus careful to gather facts in regard
to Mr. Carnegie’s career, for the encouragement of oth
er poor struggling boys. It is a worthy object lesson.
It is these struggles that make real manhood. Such
efforts are bound to tell.
And yet, the “Steel Emperor,” Andrew Carnegie,
is only five feet and three inches tall and only weighs
as much as four feet of one of his first-class steel
rails.
• * •
HOW LITTLE WE KNOW OF OUB OWN COUNTRY.
The thousands of Americans who go abroad to tour
Europe, Africa and Asia, and who spend millions of
dollars every year to support hotels, cafes and guides
abroad, are, as a rule, densely ignorant of their own
country, and yet we have within a few miles of Florida
the interesting Bahama island, the Greater Antilles,
comprising Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Porto Rico, and
further along, the Lesser Antilles, that are wonderful,
not only in themselves, but in their individual history.
A few years ago a terrible convulsion of nature
overwhelmed the island of Martinique of which we
knew precious little except that Empress Josephine,
first wife of Napoleon, was born there.
And in my old age I have become interested in the
island of Barbados, from whence some of my fore
fathers come in I--*, and settled in Maryland and Vir
ginia. It is and has always been a small island and
nearest to the old world, and has been a British pos
session for two centuries. If Columbus had reached
Barbados, before he discovered St. Salvador, then
South . America would have been in the limelight ot
glorious progress, for Barbados is much nearer to
South America than is St. Salvador to the coast of
Florida.
The English governor has his official residence in
Barbados, because it is a thrifty little island, and also
its capital, Bridgetown, which is built on the road
stead of Carlisle bay. There are many well endowed
institutions of learning, among them Codington col
lege, which is a branch of Durham university, Eng
land. It population in 1895 was nearly 200,000, while
its entire area is only 100,400 acres. One hundred
thousand acres are under elaborate cultivation, and its
exports in 1893 were large, nearly six million dollars
In value. Hurricanes are the scourge of Barbados,
fn 1780 a hurricane destroyed 4,326 persons, with im
mense loss in property. Being a shrewd and clever
people, they seem to know how to recuperate with
rapdiity. The climate is”'grand in winter. The fre
quency of these hurricanes influenced the early Eng
lish and Spanish settlers (for Spain had first posses
sion and gave it up) to emigrate to the settled portion
of North America, particularly to Maryland, which had
been donated to the Calverts, Lord Baltimore, and his
successors.
These emigrants bought land with Calvert titles,
but subdivisions were many. Every plantation had its
particular name, and when a sale was made in Mary
land the name was recorded along with the price and
number of acres.
If I had cash to spare I certainly would tour the
island of Barbados, which is likely to become a sort
of gateway to the Panama canal after the canal is
opened!*
The Bahamas wore Columbus’ earliest discovery,
and belonged to Spam until 1873, when the British title
was ratified or established.
W? who lived through the Civil war can remember
a good deal that was said about Nassau, for it was
the station from which blockade runners made a start
for southern ports in the Bahama islands.
After the Revolutionary war, and the Tory element
in the United States felt uncomfortable, a great maqy
of them settled in these Bahama islands.
Both the islands her e mentioned are going to loom
up as soon as traffic is begun through the Panama ca
nal. The interest will deepen and the ancient history
of all these islands will be in demand. Both the
Great and Little Antilles will loom up as valuable sec
tions because the ships must go by and through on
their trips to Panama.
THE NEW RURAL SCHOOL
I. A RADICAL EXPERIMENT.
BY FREDERIC J* HASKIN.
A school without school books, without classes, *
without grades, without ^examinations, without punish
ments; a school where the children may not only whis
per but may talk aloud, where
there is neither reading nor
writing nor arithmetic by such
names, where the pupils never
work but always play—sue!) is
the rural school at Rock Hill, S. C.
• • •
To school children it may seem
to be only a bit of heaven by
chance transferred to earth, but
to educators and pedagogs it is
intensely interesting because it
appears to be a successful exper
iment pointing the way to the so
lution of the vexing problem of
how to improve rural schools. It
- is hardly necessary to say that in
this school the pupils do learn the three R’s, even when
they think they are playing and not studying. What
Is more important is that they also learn how to grow
cotton and corn and beans and tomatoes; how to cook,
how to sew, how to buy and sell, how to enjoy their
lives and how to make homes happy.
• •
This experimental school has been as successful as
it is radical in its departure from conventional ideas
of what a school should be, and of how it should be
conducted. It was not conceived in an effort to sup
port some one's pedagogic theory, for it is quite inno
cent of a theory. It was designed as an attempt to ^
remedy the shortcomings of the ordinary rural school*
especially in the south.
• e e
Between the ■*. otomao and the Mississippi rivers
there are, in round numbers, 60,000 rural schools. Forty
thousand of these are of the one-room, one-teacher
type. Seldom does one of these rural schools grow.
The trustees, generally conservative farmers, usually
employ a young woman teacher—the cheaper the bet
ter. More often than not she comes from a distant
community. Her interest is but* temporary and too oft«£
has none but the money inspiration. The school usual
ly lasts but four, sometimes six, months. Such chil
dren as may be spared from house or field work are
sent to the school. Next session a new teacher Is em
ployed, the work is begun as before, and the school
has no chance to grow.
• • •
Many of these 40,000 one-room schools are housed In
miserable shacks and huts unfit for swine. Few of
them even remotely approach a sanitary ideal. Most,
of them are positively centers of infection for hook
worm disease, for tuberculosis, and on occasion* for ep
idemic diseases.
• • • m i
Many of the children who go to them hope to get
away from the country and into the city as soon as
ever they can grow up; others have no ambition at
all. Only the exceptional child is content to build his
,hope upon improving his condition on tne farm. Until
recently none of these schools so much as attempted
to give any instruction that would be of practical ben
efit on the farm, or in the farm home. The few that
did make the attempt did it in such a fashion as to
make of the fascinating mystery of plant growth as
dull a tale as ever was six times six is thirty-six. The
Boys' Corn clubs and Girls’ Tomato clubs have changed
this in hundreds of communities, but much is yet left
to be done.
• • •
The dreamers who dreamed Rock Hill school first
endeavored to see clearly what the farmer must do
all his life long, and what the farmer’s wife must do
all her life long. Then they resolved to make a school
regardless of conveniio or tradition that would train
the farmer children for their future work, and train
them not only to do that work well but to have joy in
it. And they saw, too, the awful loneliness of the
farm, that thing that drives farmers’ wives to insani
ty. and they resolved that this school should train
children how to amuse themselves, how to find enjoy
ment in the society of others, of themselves and of
books.
As this school experiment was to be made not to
determine a laboratory theory, but to be of use in
practical, everyday life, the utmost care was taken in
the initial steps.
• • •
First of all. It wai evident that the school trustees
would not be willing or able greatly t 0 Increase the
amount of money to be spent on a school session, so
It was decided to retain the one-teacher Idea. The
problem then was how to enable one teacher to make
her school a live and vital factor In the community life.
• • •
The.Peabody hoard on November 2, 1910, appropri
ated the money for the project. As It was a new ex
periment It was decided that the appropriation should
be liberal, but yet not beyond the bounds of any school
district. The sum of $600 was set aside to do ths
work. A home was found for the new school on the
edge of the campus of Winthrop college at Rock Hill.
It was an old farm house, lately used by the college
carpenter, but just such a house as might be found or
easily constructed in any country district. The three
rooms of the ground floor were utilized, and there waa
a veranda or gallery running all around the house—a
valuable part of the plant as It later developed. With
the house was a tract of land to serve as a garden
with enough yard for a generous playground. On one
side was the college, on the other the open country.
• • m
At first the children were not farm children. They
came from the home of cotton mill operatives in the
nearby mill town, but they were all from country fam
ilies who but lately had left the farm for the mill. Thera
were also a few children from the families of the col
lege faculty. That was for only the first short term,
from March to July, 1911.
... ,
When the time came to open the school again In
the fall the trustees from a rural district came In of,
their own motion and asked If they might send their
children to the new school, saying they would take the
money they usually had paid to a teacher for a four-
months’ school and pay a driver who would bring the
children to the school In the morning and take them
home at night. The proposition, welcome as it was to
those who would experiment on rural children, was ac
cepted and proved to ue so successful that still anoth
er district asked to do the same thing. But this would
have destroyed the one-teacher Idea, and It was de
clined. The result Is that not one but dozens of school
districts are now planning to follow in the "new way.”
. V .
The school was born In the brain of Dr. A. P. Bour-
land, secretary of the Conference for education In the
South. When the time came he received valuable help
and suggestions from W. K. Tate, tne state supervisor
of rural schools for South Carolina. They decided to
place the experiment school at Winthrop college, where
it could have the friendly care of President D. B. John
son and others of me faculty.
...
All of these men recognized that In blazing new
paths they must .needs have a hardy pioneer, and their
searched carefully for a teacher to whom to entrust the
experiment. Their choice happily fell upon Mrs. Hetty
B.' Browne, then a teacher In the city schools of Spar
tanburg.
• • •
They talked with Mrs. Browne, discussed with her
the familiar shortcomings of the rural school, went
over their plans in a general way—a discussion of the
essentials of teaching by the senses—and left the mat
ter to her. It was as If they had written on a bit of
paper! “There never was before in the whole world:
such a thing as a school. You have the first aohooL
You have the pupils. Lst them learn.”. I