Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-27
EDUCATION AT THE SOUTH.
What DIR. Mayo, OF Boston, Says About
1t and what He is Doing to
Advance II.
He Thinks Congress should Give Liber
ally and Encourage the Progress
i've Southern Teachers.

The matter OF national aid to education in
the various States, according TO their per-
centage of illiteracy, is attracting very gen.
eral and most favorable attention throughout
the entire country.
DR.. Mayo, of Boston, who is expected here
the last of this week, among other leading
educators has spoken in favor of the move
ment before the committee in Congress.
Among other things the doctor urged upon
the committee that we should remember
that the Southern people have never been so
accustomed to taxation we have; that
wealth in the South is not distributed, but
is in the hands of few; and that nine men
out of ten never had the opportunity of see
ing a frst-class graded school. They look
at what they have and say, ''this thing don't
pay for taxation" Let there once be put in
the Sonth good schools and they will form
most valuable object lessons that cannot fail
in time to carry conviction and gain liberal
support. Higher education in the South is
wATER-LoGGED.
The academies, owing to the poverty of
the people, are loaded TO the waters edge by
free pupils. All these institutions are full,
but at least one-third Of their pupils are
supported by funds begged by the principals
from various quarters.
The country districts are the worst off, In
many cases the children are obliged to walk
two or three miles to reach a school. 1t is
easy for us at the North to say that these
people ought to make sacrifices and build up
their school system as we have done and not
call upon us to keep their schools for them.
They are making sacrifices TO an extent we
at the North know nothing about, and we
have no right to expect that they should
suffer that complete abnegation and go into
bankruptcy which would be required to once
put their schools on a good footing.
The common salary OF a male teacher in
the South is S25 month, of a female
teacher S24 Out of this they must board
themselves. The doctor said that consider
ing the wages paid and other disadvantages
suffered he did not know where TO find a
more earnest, devoted set of young men and
women than are these Southern common
school teachers.
The men who are here from the South ask
ing national aid for education, he says, are
progressive, selfsacri6cing, working, pray
Jog men, entitled TO be heard. In conclu-
sion he said:
ETrst-What we do for these people should
be done at once. While we are deliberat-
ing generation is passing the school age
growing up in ignorance to leave their mark
upon the nation.
Secona-We ought to do liberal thing,
so that the results can be seen at once. A
million dollars distributed among this great
population would count for little. Ten
million dollars for five years would do much
more than smaller sum for a much greater
number of years. The governor of Missouri
has just said: "Parsimony for education
means prodigality Tor crime" There never
was truer sentence uttered.
NEEDLES FEARS
There are some who are troubled with
fears that if Congress should appropriate
money for this purpose it would be squan-
dered-disappear in mysterious way with
out accomplishing the end for which it was
intended. DR.. Mayo said in reply that he
had spent much time with the leading edu-
Gators, State superintendent and school
officials of the South, and had carefully ex-
amined their books, and he does not believe
that any funds in the United States are at
present administered more conscientiously
and with a greater desire to make the moet
possible of them, than is the school fund of
the South. He sees no reason why a little
government aid should change the whole
character of these men.
Representative Money, of Mississippi,
asked DIR. Mayo which one of the various
bills he preferred, but the doctor begged to
be excused from expressing a preference.
He spoke Of some points in the Teller bill,
which he had recently examined, as cal
culated to insure wise use of the funds.
This bill provides that 'the secretary of the
interior, the secretary OF the Smithsonian In
stitute, and the commissioner OF education
shall compose the Board of Public Educa-
ton. The board shall perform such duties
as shall be imposed on it by law. That the
board shall appoint competent person to
act as secretary thereof, whose duty it shall
be to keep a record of the proceedings OF the
board and perform such other duties as shall
be required by said board, and who shall be
removable at the pleasure of said board"
On Tuesday DIR. Mayo gave an exceedingly
interesting parlor talk to a number OF in
fuential Washington ladies, at Mrs. General
Ketchum's. He spoke of the educational
needs of the women of the South in most
pathetic and eloquent manner. In conclu-
sion he said there was danger that the ed
ucstional appropriation would fail for want
of urging, or due expression to Congress of
the desires OF the people, and he hoped that
the ladies of Washington would unite in a
petition 10 Congress to aid in lifting this
weight of ignorance from womauhood.