His work as editor and writer was merely one expression of the enthusiasms that occupied his mind.

From 1900 until 1913, when he left for England, life meant for him mainly an effort to spread the democratic ideal, as he conceived it; concretely it represented a constant campaign for improving the fundamental opportunities and the everyday social advantages of the masses.
II Inevitably the condition of the people in his own homeland enlisted Page's sympathy, for he had learned of their necessities at first hand.
The need of education had powerfully impressed him even as a boy.

At twenty-three he began writing articles for the Raleigh _Observer_, and practically all of them were pleas for the education of the Southern child.

His subsequent activities of this kind, as editor of the _State Chronicle_, have already been described.

The American from other parts of the country is rather shocked when he first learns of the backwardness of education in the South a generation ago.