The National tribune., 1883-03-08
A Great Educational Problem.

| A Great Educational Problem.
Among the more important measures
which failed of action by the Forty seventh
Congress was the bill introduced by Repre-
sentative Sherwin, of Illinois, to appropriate
annually, out of the funds in the United
States Treasury, for five successive years,
ten millions of dollars, to aid in the support
Of free common schools, the money so appro-
priated to be divided among the several
States and Territories in proportion to the
illiteracy Of their inhabitants but with the
limitation that no State or Territory shall
receive q greater sum than that appropriated
out of its own revenue for school purposes.
! Whether or not the bill in its original form
was calculated to accomplish the desired
object is perhaps an open question, but mas
much as the propriety of the General Gov
ernment engaging directly in the work of
education, hitherto confined to, States and
municipalities, is likely to be leading issue
in the next Congress, it may not be unproft-
able to consider briefly the causes which
have led to the agitation of this subject.
| The starting point appears to have been
the fact disclosed by the last census, that
Notwithstanding the vast sums that have
been expended in the support of our common
school system one-eight of the people of the
United States are totally illiterate, and sew
enteen per cent. Of all persons over ten years
of age do not know how to write. Taking
this fact as the basis of inquiry, it appears
that the high acreage % illiteracy is almost
wholly due to the preponderance of igno-
rance in the southern States. All the north
ern and western States show percentage
of illiteracy below the general average and
the percentage in the border States is only
slightly above it, while forty per cent. of all
classes, white and black, in the old slave
States-Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louis
lana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Virginia-are illfferates. Ex-
Guiding the white population, the degree of
illteracy in these States is still greater,
ranging from seventy to eighty per cent,
while the showing in Tennessee, Texas, Ar
kansas, and Kentucky is but little if any
better. Out of colored population, over
ten years Old of 3,447,17 in these twelve
States, 1851 ,662 are illiterate; and out of q
total population of 9,991, 1852 blacks and
whites, over ten years of age, 339 ,2O4 are
illiterate. To show the bearing which this
prevalence of illiteracy in the South has
upon the interests of the Nation at large, it
is only necessary to say that 1854 ,974
voters, or nearly thirty-three per cent of the
entire voting population, are unable to read
the ballots which they deposit. AS Repre-
sentative Sherwin says the question is in
this phase one of national importance, since
when men come up and deposit their ballots
for Presidential electors it affects Illinois as
much as South Carolina if the ballot is not
intelligent and honest.
Granting all this-and the facts cannot
be disputed question arises whether it
is the fault of the States themselves or the
General Government that there is such O
dangerous preponderance Of illiteracy in the
South. Statistics tend to prove that, con-
trary to general belief, the States them
selves, in proportion to their means, have
done all that can reasonably be expected
Of them for the support of public schools.
Thus, while New Jersey, with nearly the
same population as Alabama, spends more
than five times as much as the latter for
school purposes, the latter's taxable basis is
only One-fifth rs large as the formers. In
proportion to her means, Alabama, therefore,
does as much rs New Jersey to educate her
illiterates. To ask her to do more is neither
just nor reasonable Yet the fact remains
that the amount which Alabama and her
sister States devote to the support of schools
ments of the prevailing illiteraey, and the
alternative is presented to the Government
of permitting this illiteracy, with all its at
tendant dangers, to go on unchecked, or of
helping the South to rid itself of the incubus
1t is contended on the one hand that educa-
tion is the business of the State and not of
the general Government and that the effect
of extending National aid to the common
schools of the South will simply be to re-
move the incentive to self-exertion on the
part Of the South; but, On the other hand, it
is urged that in emancipating the slaves the
general Government imposed greater edu-
cational burden upon the South than it
could fairly be expected to bear. and that it
should now take part of the burden on its