Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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J OUR SC I PAPER N I PROF. WILI-J Who Is Responsible??Who Is responsible for our ill-equlp^ed high schools, with their short inefficient course of study, their lack of teachers to do the work, and the relatively small number of pupils therein? The answer is, the superintendents and principals, the people, and the colleges. The superintendents and principals are rightly looked to by the people for leadership in building up the high schools. They are large.y rv nonsible for the educational ldeais m pVlieir communities, and the attitude of the people toward high schools. If the course of study Is overcrowded with subjects, or is scrappy in its material, they alone are responsible. Many a high school without a map, a chart, a globe, or any other accessary apparatus, might have at least a few such things bought with the money spent on called commencement, baccalaureate addresses, invitations, programs, rule books, etc. Moreover, many a boy and many a girl not in the high school would be there, if they ha 1 only a few encouraging words snoken to them. It is to he feared that the public high school teacher is not always mindful of the pupils who are out of school but ought to be In school. Finally, many a high schoo? is running in a rut, because the principal is running in one. The people are emphatically to blame for not supporting their high schools. They put neither their money nor their children in them. Throughout the State, in places easily pointed out, are high schools scarcely worthy of the name, but which might be made within five years to rank righ, if the people in those places were only willing to use a little common sense business sagacity. Why a sensible man will refuse to help his home high school by patronizing it, but Instead will help to maintain one away from home by sending his children there, is one of the strangest things in life. He gets no better advantages for his own children, and refuses to help his neighbor at home who is unable to send his children from home. Hence the home high schools lags or dies. It costs today $250 to send a pupil a year to school away from home. Why will four men thoroughly familiar with (he laws of business cooperation take their sons and daughters from their own high school, to send them away at an expense of $1,000 a year? Why will they not put even half that money in the home school, thereby keeping their money and thtir children at home, and at the same time when the chil dren need parental attention? Holly Hill had last year a good two-year high school taught hy one teacher. The school had 13 pupiis in the 8th grade, and 5 In the 9ln. This year the people attempted to organize a high school with two teachers and 2 5 pupils. This would entitle the school to enough State aid to employ the second teacher at $50 a month. The undertaking had to be abandoned, because the live pupils in last year's 9th grade could not be held in the school, most of them going off?to college. Ridgeway last year asked State aid for her high school, received $410, and barely had the required number of pupils. The school had 14 pupils in the 8th grade, and 12 Jn the 9th. This year six of those pupils have been sent away from Ridgeway to school. The place Is paying $990 for two high school i*. teachers, and is asking the State to J TJ pay part of that, while the school at this writing has not enrolled the required 25 pupils. Jonesville had last year 14 pupns In the 9th grade, and 9 in the 10th. Seven of those pupils have this season been sent to college and two to preparatory schools, and the home school opened with 9 pupils in the 9th grade, and 6 In the 10th, and an effort of the principal to add the 11 In grade was defeated. These nine pupils away from home will cost the people of that community over $2,000 this year, yet they are today paying their own three high school < teachers a combined salary of $1,775 V* and getting part of that from tho State. Can these people expect to maintain a high school? Of course the entire community must not bo held responsible for this folly, an the pupils unable to go off to school must not be forgot. Central is struggling to establish a high school; it needs money and pupils, yet three of her last year's high school pupils were sent away this season. llatesburg attempted vo add the 11th grade this year, but four of last, year's five pupils In the 10th grade left for college, and the effort was defeated. Anderson, one of the four places last year with a four-year public j high school, has had to abandon its 11th grade, ahthough 12 of her last year's 10th grade are off at college, Five from the 9th grade and seven from the 8th grade are?at college! Thest' 24 pupils are costing the pcoj pie of Anderson $6,000 this year; this year Anderson is paying hei entire high school teaching forct less than $4,000. Niney-Six added the 11th gra.j HOOLsl"""""""! ?. 10. | 1AM H. HAND. | this year, kept 5 pupils out of last year's 10th grade, sent 9 out of the same grade to college, and pays two high school teachers this year $1,3G0! These nine pupils, with one from the 9th grade, at college, w?.i this year cost the people of that town more than they are spending on their entire school from the llrst grade up. The people of Pendleton, Seneca, Union, Woodruff, and numbers of other places are impoverishing theii high school in the same way. What is the trouble? The people are still blinded by that fundamental error that the function of the high school is to prepare students for college. Nine-tenths of the pupils who 110'*h the 7th grade never see the doors of a college. True, in addition to the subjects necessary to college entrance, we have added to the trn ditional course a large number of side-dishes, so to speak. These sidedishes are nothing but relishes, to be tasted occasionally. The people and the principals have put no meat> course parallel to that single one which lends straight to the college door. The people by their own short-sightedness and unwilllngnec>s to learn, stand and see their 'own strong and sturdy sons step out of the schoolroom at the end of tne 8th grade, because those sons have found that their parents and teachers have put nothing in the high school except nourishment for the college candidate. Is the reader beginning to see wherein the colleges are responsible for the unsatisfactory high school conditions? Every college in South Carolina, State, denomination nn i private, is doing high school work in its college course. This statement needs no proof; the high schoos are not doing the work, and it must he done in the colleges, if done at all. Formerly, and not so long ago, the colleges were all but helpless in this matter?they had to take he raw unprepared material, or close their doors against deserving boys and girls unable to get the proper preparation. I have already argued that the high schools are not yet ready to furnish properly prepared students to the colleges. The line of demarcation between high school territory and college terriivv can not lie definitely fixed, yet with respect to the aige of the puiiil and to a majority of the subjects of study involved there is already considerable unity of opinion. Taking into careful consideration the actual conditions which exist, let the college set a reasonable number of high schools units (not grammar school units) as the minimum for entrance. A standard three-year high school ought to do 12 units of work. Since most of our high schools are three-year schools, that standard ought not to he unreasonable. (A standard of years cannjt hp opf nn* ovn*?ir " i1j uuu RiiuwH nuii me term tenth grade is not definite as to what is accomplished; besides, some schools run nine months, some eight, and a few only seven.) First, let each college make its entrance requirements definite?let its standard he high or low,'as It j choose, but let it be definite. Second, let the college live up 10 its published uniformity, but all can be honest in these standards. After all, it is a question of morals, and if a college should stand for anything it should stand for unswerving rectitude. It is just as responsible for a college as a body corporate to advertise one standard and act on another, as it would be for one of its professors to promise one thing and do another. The popular min I come to look upon the publish^ 1 entrance requirements of colleges as fakes. With a college catalog befo e you giving its entrance requirements In * -11 111 i^uriimi, iUitiueiiictiic^, ijHiiii, aun History, at a standard which the average school of ten grades is failing to reach, and you know it, your mind is likely to he disturbed when you know that the same college is taking pupils from Oth grades, and occasionally from 8th grades. What are the facts? With fully twenty high schools yet to hear from, I have the names of 1 f?4 pupils whc have entered college this season from Oth grades, and .16 pupils from 8tli grades. Those students reported a? entering the preparatory departmenl ol a college, were of course, not in eluded. Every college in the State and several outside, are reported as sharing the spoils. It is hard tc rofnnptlo hnon fo of a i ty^vin-1 iv> mvov v>v/ iu i (ii/in n itn iiiv. constant wail of the colleges for bet ter prepared students, and with h< perennial announcements about hav ing raised standards. If a colleg< after ten or twelve years of standard raising in canvassing for 9th grad? pupils, and taking 8th grado ones what must the standard have beei when it began raising? The college canvasser says, "Sen< i us your 9th grade pup.i; our col lege professors can teach him Lath , and mathematics better than you i 10th grade teacher can." Perhap so; but is he ready to admit tha his so-called college has gone int high school business? Is he read r to admit that his students who ar 5 really prepared to do college woi must sit idle in the classroom, whU is equipped professor makes daily e< HAVE BIG PULL WITH THE REPUBLICAN POSTOFFICE AUTHORITIES. Postofllce on Rockefeller's llarony Kept Running While Poor Man's Postolliee is Closed. You can't beat the Rockefeller pull with the Roosevelt government, says a dispatch from Utica, New York. The dispatch goes on to say: "My Dear Senator," writes the Standard Oil messenger boy, and like magic disagreeable little features of proposed legislation are eliminated. The latest servant of the "peepul to hot foot to the assistance of Amercan's richest family is Postmaster General Von L. Meyer. No one has been kind enough to "swipe" the secret correspondence in this latest Standard Oil scandal, but p'raps the messenger boy's epistle to the postmaster general read something like this: "My Dear General: At your earliest convenience please have the postofllce at Derrick, N. Y., closed, and the postofllce at Ray Pond, N. Y., continued. Mr. William Rockefeller's friends and servants would be greatly inconvenienced if there were no postofllce at Ray Pond, Derrick is not Important. "This will be greatly appreciated and if we can reciprocate it will be our pleasure. Yours sincerely, -JOHN I). ARCHBOLD." Ring! Rang! That sound conies from the closing doors of the little Derrick ofllce. William Rockefeller owns a hunting park in the Adirondacks of 52.000 acres. Ray Pond is the station. Armed guards are employed the year around to keep trespassers from entering the sacred precincts of the enormous estate. Persons who have dared to fish in the Rockefeller rivers or climb the Rockefeller mountains have been arrested and fined. William Rockefeller has spent less than one month at this estate during the nine years that he has owned P. Rut his children go there and fish from streams stocked by the state, and shoot deer that are driven or lured into the park by the Rockefeller guards. The lust of possession is the only explanation that h*s been made of Rockefeller's reason for holding the great nonproducing tract which he never sees, but is mainly used by servants in his employ. Derrick is seven miles from Ray t IV .1 I.. 1..1 II- 1 ? ? ?f> - ... rumi, iiinaDiii'u oy zts Famines. u seems that tho postal aothortties decided that either the postofflce at Derrick or the one at Day Pond would have to be discontinued. At Day Pond there is one family?that of William Rockefeller. And, of course, the 28 families of Derrick got the worst of the new deal. There is indignation among them. They must now go to Bay Pond for their mail. How to do that and not be fined for trespass is a puzzle they have not yet solved. To reach the Day Pond postofflce they have either to step on Rockefeller land or wa'k down tho track of Rockefeller's New York Central railroad. In either case armed guards or railroad detectives might ketch 'em. The penalty for trespass is $25 and costs. Derrick's people have petltioaej the postmaster general to reopen their postofflce. All this hue and cry about prosperity returning is being raised by the Republican educational bureaj| at Chicago and New York, and is ali balderdash. cursions down Into high school territory for the benefit of the 9th grade fellows? The basic question s, Where does the pupil start on entering college? If he comes from the 9th grade, or second high scnocl year, how much college work has ho done at the end of four years? If a 10th grade pupil enters the Sophomore class, how much college work has he had at graduation? The evil genius which dominates our colleges is greed for numbers Hoards of trustees, faculties, and the people are all under the magic' spell. There is no objection whatever to numbers in the colleges, if their presence Is not bought with a price. The constant cry is, "Send us more students; make room for more students; look at the students being turned away from the college doors." The public mind in its hysterical moments fails to grasp ch . significance of the plainest facts. For instance, the college enrollment in South Carolina last year was more than one-third the high school en roiiment. What is the significance of this fact? Again, Wlnthrop Col* "n had this year 1047 applicatns * for admission* 520 wore admitted; 1 527 were refused. President Johnson reports that fully 3 00 of those * refused were not prepared to enter Wlnthrop at all. Clemson had 1,047 u applications for admission. 7}. ? were admitted; 24C refused. Presi* dent Mell reports that 206 appli1 cants failed on account of examlna? tlon. The other colleges have sirr.l v lar experiences. Tho cry should he (> for better high schools better patronlfced. 0 . WILLIAM H. HAND. University of South Carolina. CONDITIONS IMPliOVING. President Finley of the Southern Snys ltuhincns In Imprivtag. President Finley of thq Southern Railway company, who has just returned to Washington from an inspection trip over the lines of the system, found evidences of improvement in business conditions and of a general disposition on the part of business men throughout the South to take a hopeful view of the future. Speaking of the information he had gathered on his trip, Mr. Finley sold: "Prices for pig iron are firmer. Southern furnaces, as a rule, have sold their product up to the end of the year, and the increasing number of inquiries for iron warrant the expectation that orders will soon laplaced for business during the com-1 ing year. "Lumber is more active than for some months past. Especially is this true of the grades shipped in box cars. Tne present demand will be augmented by increased rcquireinen's from railways, principally for car rorairs, as some of the railways are contracting with car companies for some of their heavier repair work. "One of the most encouraging signs of reviving industrial activity is the increasing movement of steam coal to industrial centers. The unusually warm weather of the present fall is retarding tlie movement of domestic coal. "The cotton crop Is early, and the fibre is moving to market in larger volume than at this time last yea", although, as a result of the stagnation which has prevailed in the cotton goods market, prices are lower tnan a year ago. The demand for cotton seed products is good and thev are moving freely. "The domestic market for cotton goods shows indications of gradual Improvement. Owing to the accumulations of large stocks and to other causes affecting that market, there is at present little demand for cotton goods in northern China. Aside from tills, the export demand Is fairly good, and those mills interested in the north of China trade are looking forward hopefully to a renewal of sales for that market. "Grain traffic into the South?especially corn?is'light. This is due in part, to the relatively high price of corn and the low price of cotton and in part to the fact that at this season of the year the South is consuming its own grain. "Merchandise stocks which had been permitted to run low during the business depression tire being replenished conservatively Retail trade in the cities is good, hut as a result of the low price of cotton and of a disposition of the part of retailers to buy cautiously for the present, jobbing trade is still somewhat restricted. "While some lines of business have not yet shown as much improvement as might be wished, I believe that conditions generally are decidedly better than at any time since the beginning of the business depres slon a year ago, and that we haw reason to look forward to a gradual return to a higher level of prosperity." HOW INDIANA VOTED. Democrat* Electa All State Officer* and legislature. A radical change In Indiana's representation In the national Hou.'.c of Representatives was the most striking feature of Tuesday's elecj tion. The latest 'unofficial returns, incomplete, give the Democratic oarty ll members and the Republicans 2. This is a gain of seven members for the Democrats. Win. H. Taft carried the State for President by about 8,000. Thomas R. Marshall and the entire Democratic State ticket are elected by a plurality of about 15,000. As the returns come in Marshall's plurality increases, while the vote on the Republican national ticket decreases. The State Legislature Is Democratic, which means that a Democratic successor to Senator James A. Hominway will be chosen. In this connection the name of John W. Kern Is mentioned. Republican State Chairman Goodrich admits that the Republicans lack two votes of having a majority of the State Legislature on joint ballot. GEORGIA IN DISGRACE. If What the Republicans Claim Is Really True. The Georgia Republican campaign committee Wednesday gave out the following: "indication now point to a Ilryan majority of five thousand or less. Tne state gave Parker thirty-seven thousand in 1904. We claim a local victory of the campaign, as the fight was made without outside aid of money or speakers and with tho negro not voting. Had the negro registered, the vote cast in the state would have given Taft a niajorl / over all. It was a white man's flge.t and the result makes Georgia the battleground in 1912. People are generally pleased over the election of s Taft." One can not Judge of a man's importance by the number of badge! on his coat. HUNTING LICENSE l>llOrOSKI> BY THK AUDI'BON SOCIKTY FOB THK Protection of the (iuino aiul Other Birds in the State of South Carolina. It almost goes without saying th.it if birds, game and llsh are worth preserving, (hen they must bo intelligently looked after, and to do this entails expense. How shall this expense he met? The question has been agitated for a long time, an 1 the not result is that all States and countries that are preserving game have adopted the license system. None has ever tried it and abandoned it. '1 his universal experience ought to weigh mightily in determining a Slate's policy. Fortunately for South Carolina game protection is undertaken at a lime when tho State lias the hcnchi of observing the operation of this license system, as it has operated in other States, and can profit by their experience with abundant opportunity for improving on tlptr systems. There is no need of long and costly experiment. Outside of what has been done at the North and in the West, many Southern States have adopted tlie plan of putting a license on him tin* Among these are Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Ixniisiana, Texas, ami Arkansas. In these t he conditions are fairly similar to the conditions in South Carolina, and in Mississippi they are almost exactly the same. The plan, as proposed by the Audubon Society of i^outh Carolina, will be carried out in this wise. Upon passage of an Act by the (Jeneral Assembly a number of books will be issued and sent out to the Clerks of Court. These books will contain each 100 licenses with stubs attached, both being numbered. With each book will go 100 tnetai tags in a box, similarly numbered. A warden will be appointed for each county, whose duty will be to eollect these licenses. The license will cost $1.00 and be good for one year The warden will be required to furnish bond to the Clerk of Court, to he approved by him, In the sum ol $500. Having taken the oath and furnished the required bonds the warden will proceed to collect the license, failure to pay which will he punished by fine of from $10 to $125, or corresponding imprisonment. The warden will he compensated by 25 per cent of what he collects, or 25 cents on the dollar. This will furnish employment for good men at remunerative rates while they are at work, that is for several mnnllto ^ ii .vi'cir. vm i urnis'iing the hunter with his license the warden will also furnish a metal tag on the front of the gun stocK, the size and shape of the tag being changed each year as that any warden may he able to toll at a glance whether any tag is o\t of date. The money so collected shad he transmitted by the Clerk, less such remuneration as shall he allowed tint ofllcer for his work, to the State Treasurer and placed to the credit of the "(lame Protection Fund." Any amount over and above what is required for the enforcement of the law may he turned into the School Fund by the Legislature. The wardens collecting this license are not to he confused with the regular warden force, which is charged with the enforcement of the law These regular wardens will be put or salary and their expenses paid while in discharge of their duty. Tf people will reflect on the pres out. condition of affairs and '"hi vast and permanent benefits are to b< derived from sucn onK.Mvation o the State's resources there can he n* doubt that that license will heconn tiw end receive the support of tin leoplo, t<>t In the list analysis i is the people who are the sufferer ? nder toe present va.-tiful practice The whole body ot the people wil be the Miners nude* the c:ir?,igre? o' der. Within a few years South Car ojina would again be stocked witl pa me and fish and the onormou: losses now inflicted on the crou: by Insect ravages would be cu down, thus adding in another waj far greater benefits to the State am Its people than any amount of fjairu and flsh could add, I he plan i thus frankly outlined, for there i no reason for concealing anythinj from the people; it is their cause nn< there Is no greater before the peoph of Amfrlnn Some time since I had occasi ?i to call attention to the fact, oftei commented on by the world's think era, that here in America democratis on trial and that trial will r.o be he determined by any of the pt litical parties now battling for si premacy. The issue Is before .h court of the ages, and tho answc is in tho womb of time. In old times the king, advUc by the educated priest, preserved h game, his fish and his forests. H had these things with their res n i Jng benefits in great ahundanc ' Never once did royalty let go ai of these valued and precious prero atives until royalty erased to ha1 i jurisdiction. ii Now the people have succeeded this country, at least to all the pri\ Y I leges and prerogatives of royalty. They have, and may continue co have forever, all that made kingship attractive. The resources of the world's greatest continent are their*, "to have and to hold. As they conserve those things (use them wisely and not wastefully), so may they continue to possess and enjoy them Hut If they continue to waste these royal possessions, then the heritage of the fathers will shortly cease to exist, and too late the people will find that royal prerogatives may be possessed for any length of time on'/ by wise foresight and prudent use, nomocracy Is. therefore, on trial. It is the overshadowing Issue before every party, the final question in every Slate. It Is the hop? of the Audubon toclety that men in charge of the State's affairs, having devolved on them the solemn responsibility of caring for the State's w ifare and of conserving Its resources may discharge that responsibility like men. The clamor of the Idle, the heedless and the vicious, should not bo permitted to obscure this fact. There is not an argument that has aver been framed or that can bo framed to Justify the waste of resources. One generation has no moral right, to destroy what of right belongs to all generations. It should be the ambition of every man t.? leave the State in as good condition as he found it, to say the least. Wherefore, with two years' practical experience in an untried field, the Audubon Society of South Carolina, chartered by the (leneral Assembly of the State, and composed of the State's citizens, llnds that the system of hunting licenses, In general use throughout this and other countries, is the best way to raise revenue for the protection of birds game and fish; the host way to give proper protection to property, the best way to ensure the perpetuity of the bird, fish ami game supply of the St tit e for the use of Ms citizen*, and so recommends t<> 11?.? i Assembly. A lit tin rolled ion will show that the Society seeks nothing for Itself. The money eollertod dons not go to the Audubon Society, and never can. The Society is supported by its members, and intends to spend every dollar it can collect from these members in educating the people to the value of bird life to the world. Having a serious public duty and responsibility laid on it by the OSoneral Assembly, it has sought to measure up to both duty and responsibility. The gainer will be tho State, and, therefore, all its people. The man who Is killing the game and catching the fish ought to bo required to contribute something towards preserving these things, and tiie amount required Is very small?so small that any man that can afford the luxury of hunting and fishing can afford to pay it. In order that such work of enforcing tho laws might ho carried on without embarrnssemont to tho Society, at its annual meeting last week tho Audubon Society recommended the appointment of a (Inmo and Fish Commissioner, who shall have charge of enforcing the law*, ids pay to come from tho (lame Protection Fund, and bo no tax on tho State Treasury. i no society recommend that tho Commisloner be nominated by tho Audubon Society and appointed by the (jovernor, by and with the ad1 vice and consent of the Senate, thus ' furnishing every needed check and keeping the work absolutely divorced from politics. Every citizen of the State should ! give the matter his serious attention " and roe that it is acted on by his Representatives in the General As1 sembly. The Audubon Society, without money and with limited powers, and with mixed and confusing laws to 1 handle, has shown what can be 3 done. South Carolina is revolutionf ized already; It merely remains for 3 the people to reap the reward, to 3 secure the fruit of that work for themselves and their children hence' forth and forevermore. K JAMES HENRY RICE, JR.. Secretary. I 1 WHAT CAUSED THEIR DEATH? , Mysterious Death of Three People ill Washington City. t Washington, Nov. G.?Overcome * by the fumes of a gas of unknown ' origin, three persons of the family s of Clarence L. Bremerman, a stes nographer in the library of Congress, ? were asphyxated in their home, 1,30!) I -st street, Northwest, this city today. o The dead are: Mrs. lleba Cutts u Bremerman, 3 4 years old; Cutt Bren merman. IS months old, her son, and \frt ! i , , ,, Pnthoplno ni>omoi<?wfl?< y 5 8 years old, her mother-in-law. When Bremerinan returned home this evening ho noticed his Infant son apparently asleep in a crib in 0 the dining room. Ho called to his r wife, and received no reply, went into the kitchen, where he found his <1 wife and mother lying dead on the if floor. Bremerinan detected a strong odor of gas, but was unable to locate - its source. e. The coroner, the police and a numiy her of physicians who were called *- In, were unable to determine the fO exact nature of the deadly fumes. An autopsy ovor the body of the in villager woman will be held tomor'i row.