Foster's Daily Democrat

Secretary Wilson, who is with the presidential party in the south, made a speech in Savannah in which he gave the young men of the south some practical advice a little out of the ordinary academic run. The young farmer of the south, he said, should study soils rather than dead languages; he should learn of the plants rather than of the classics, and how to feed animals rather than how to compete in belles lettres. The study of the moisture of the soil, he said, will pay better than the study of oratory; barnyard poultry offer greater rewards than the county office, the mutton sheep pay better than state heroes, while the promise of a dairy cow brings more happiness than a congressional career. This way of putting the thing as if intellectual culture was opposed to practical work is hardly fair, although it has a fine flavor. The men of this country who have been the most respected and the most influential raised cows and studied the dead languages, too; they could hold the plow or hold senates spellbound. They raised crops and they raised the flag.

It never occurred to them that the farmer could not be an orator or that he must give up belles lettres because he made himself acquainted with the soil. The best worker in our day, even in the field, is the man who is the best student.