 
It has been insinuated by those who have a mistaken idea about The Archive that our Professor of English is a member of the Editorial Staff. A statement of fact will do no injury to any one. The Archive is published by the two Literary Societies and edited by different members taken from these societies. Furthermore, each staff of editors is responsible for whatever may appear in their department. Our Professor of English is only Censor, and according to the true acceptation of this term, his sole duty is to decide whether a composition shall be admitted to The Archive’s columns, just as England at one time had a censor to examine every manuscript before it could go to press. Please remember that deciding whether an article shall be published is not writing that article. A month or so ago Prof. W. F. Tillett, of Vanderbilt University, through the columns of the Christian Advocate, suggested that a conference of Southern Methodist educators be held at Nashville in the spring. The Professor’s suggestion has met with hearty approval from all of the most prominent Methodist educators throughout the South. This is a step in the right direction. No church can expect to prosper that neglects educational work. Such a conference is well calculated to arouse enthusiasm among the various educators who attend, and give an impetus to the cause of higher education throughout the bounds of the Southern Methodist Church. It is to be hoped that plans will be devised the good effects of which will be felt for years to come. So long as the Southern Methodist Church fosters her educational institutions, so long does she foster a powerful element of success. Prof. Tillett’s article has the right ring, and deserves a careful perusal on the part of Southern Methodists. This is an era of invectives against the capitalist, an age in which Capital and Labor are fighting their greatest battle. The Communists of France, the Socialists and infidels of Germany, the Agnostics of England and the Anarchists of America are agitating in the beer saloon and around the billiard table one of the greatest reformations, as they term it, the world has yet witnessed. They hate the capitalist, and at the very same time are making capitalists out of the rumsellers. The great question of to-day is to solve the problem of Capital versus Labor. It is a sad fact that the restless mass of laborers instead of benefiting themselves by their agitation are giving power to the capitalist every day of their lives by their dissipation. But more than this, the iniquity of the fathers will descend upon their ignorant children, and degraded labor will be the result. Petitions for prohibition in the District of Columbia are being sent to Congress from all parts of the country. These petitions will probably receive very little attention from the Congressmen, yet they show that some of the citizens of the Union are dissatisfied with the customs in vogue at Washington. Of late years it has gained an unenviable reputation for the profligacy, intemperance and debauchery, in almost every form, that is carried on within its limits. The Capital of a Christian country should most assuredly be otherwise. The city should undergo a reformation, and a good prohibitory law would be a very good method by which to bring about this reformation. The intemperance among members of Congress is startling. The legislators of a country, above all men, should keep their brains free from the influence of intoxicants. No man is fit to make laws when his mind is clouded by liquor. It would be a glorious triumph for the grand principles of prohibition if a prohibitory law could be passed for the District of Columbia. Rev. J. B. Bobbitt has recently issued a circular calling upon Superintendents to organize a Trinity College Sunday School Endowment Fund, the object of which is to arouse among the young an interest in education and to keep the subject continually before the minds of the people at large. All collections taken on the first Sunday in every month are to go to the Endowment Fund. A little from every pupil will make a large amount, and still no parent will feel it very burdensome. Every citizen who is a friend of education, culture and refinement ought to give liberally for the endowment of institutions of learning. Do not hoard up money for your children. Not only are they sometimes injured by receiving a fortune, but very often ruined by the expectation of it. The myths tell of a miser of old for whose soul the Tartarian gods could not find within their domain a sufficient punishment, who thereupon decided that the most severe penalty would be to send him back to earth and there let him see how lavishly his children spent his money. The ignorance of the majority of young men about the national government is really astonishing. Young men who have had more than ordinary educational advantages, and have considerable general information, often exhibit an entire lack of knowledge of the Constitution and in fact of everything pertaining to the general government. How few young men ever read the Constitution and study its meaning! Yet these same young men will soon be invested with all the rights, powers and privileges of American citizenship, if they have not been already. How can such young men vote intelligently, when they have scarcely any knowledge of the nature of the government under which they live? How can the most sanguine patriot expect a good government to continue to exist when the average voter is so ignorant of politics? This is the reason why lawyers hold most of the responsible offices—they are, as a rule, the only men who study politics. Farmers will assemble in a political convention, and nominate a lawyer for some high office, and before they leave the hall in which they have met, will commence a tirade of abuse because the lawyers hold all the offices, while the honest, hard working farmer is denied such privileges. The farmers are themselves generally to blame, as the majority of them are too ignorant of the requisites to get their rights. A copy of the Constitution should be in every home where there is any degree of intelligence, and the best political newspapers should be taken. In fact, every high school and college should have a competent teacher to instruct the rising generation of young men in the Science of Government. The voters of the future will then be more intelligent than they have been in the past. Dr. H. B. Battle, Director of the Experiment Station, has recently made a report of his analysis of various brands of fertilizers used by North Carolina farmers. This report also states that the relative commercial value of fertilizing ingredients has been considerably reduced. An ammoniated fertilizer valued at $22.00 last season will be valued at $20.65 this season. This is good for the farmers. The Experiment Station is certainly of great benefit to the Agricultural classes. It is not proposed to interfere with the Endowment Fund by soliciting subscriptions for the New Building; but an effort is being made to raise money for this purpose by concerts, lectures, etc. |
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