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4 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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months ^ ^ " Bo Six months Three months - 5o The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong department* of special value to the home and the farm. Agents warted «t every postofficfc. Liberal com- mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we nave are .1. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough and C. T. Tates. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling repre- sentatlvea If O TICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paiier changed, be sure to mention your old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mall. Address all orders and notioes for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta. Ga. 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