The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-05-15
party were again transferred to the
Titania. Allan declined to give his
opinion of the cause of the accident.
Negro Education.
.dbherille Press md Banner.

.dtberiHc Press and Banner.
Public education in the South is de:
parture from the old plan which gave
South Carolina the highest stand in point
of an educated citizenship. Under re-
construction and the moral force of the
Government at Washington, together
with desire on our part To conciiate
Northern sentiment, we were induced TO
adopt the new plan, which, it was con-
tended, would cure all the ills with which
we were afflicted. The Press and Banner
partook of this sentiment and for years
cheerfully supported the tax for public
education, but upon more mature refec-
tiop, and after having had an opportuni.
ty Of observing results, we have come to
the conclusion that all public education
is wrong is principle and demoralizing
in its effects. No sophistry or false
reasoning can ever convince US that the
industrious and selfdenying citizen
should be taxed to educate the children
Of indolent and immoral parents. 1t is
delusion and snare to suppose that
education affects the morals of citizen
education is negative force which
may be used for good or for evil, as the
individual may be inclined.
Ali morality, culture and true religion
is based on material prosperity. While
there are noble exceptions to the general
rule, in individual cases, yet it is abso-
lutely certain that no people ever attain
ed any creditable degree of morality who
did not possess some of the comforts of
life, and who did not live in comfortable
houses
1t is physical impossibility to expect
morality, decency OF refinement where a
large family occupy a house of only one
room, and where only the scantest sup
ply of even the necessaries of life are to
be found. The condition of the negro
will not improve as long as one large
family or two small families occupy one
room-for cooking, eating, sittingj;sleep.
ing-in sickness and in health:
The negro, before he can rise above his
present level, must live in better houses
and must have something of the comforts
of life for his children. They must at
the freside, be taught those most impor.
tant lessons, which his white neighbor
impresses upon his children.
The mere ability to read newspaper
in an unintelligible way and the art OF
signing ones name to note in a me-
chanical manner will never supply the
more important lessons of morality and
self.respect which must be taught by the
mother at the freside, and which must be
maintained by the independence and
manhood Of the father.
The negro must learn the value OF
time, and must learn to work six days in
the week. One reason the white man Of
this country is richer than the colored
man is to be attributed to the fact that
the former works more than the latter.
Hundreds of colored men are to be found
every Saturday in the various towns and
at the different depots, even in the bust
est months of the year. No man, white
or black, can prosper who has to neglect
his business one day in the week to go to
preaching, and then has an excuse for
going to town every Saturday.
Public education has turned the heads
of the negroes, and nine. tenths of them
to-day believe that the ability to read
and write is of first Importance. This
fact has done much to retard the progress
of the negro. The ability to merely read
and write is of very little practical use
to the great mass of bread winners, but q
good house, decent furniture, and re-
spectacle clothing is Of ten thousand
times more value to them. People who
live in good houses, we'll filled with nice
furniture, aud who wear good clothing
will always command the respect of their
fellows, whether they have education OF
not. The man who lives in q house
which is not fit for a horse stable, can
never expect his children to stand the
peers of those who live in better houses
and observe the decencies of life, no mat
ter how much book. learning they may
have.
Then we say, it is an injustice to the
negro to take his children from the farm
to school before a good home and decent
furniture are secured. A good dwelling
house, with separate comfortable rooms
for the children is of first importance,
then furniture, then education, and then,
to crown the whole, that morality, which
is begotten of independence and self.
respect, and that Christianity which has
for its foundation an intelligent convic.
ton of right and wrong.
1t requires time to bring the colored
race to our standard. They need SYM
metrical development, as the white race
have. The abnormal development of the
intellect while the morals are neglected
is not worth the cost. The public schools
are demoralizing our own people and
teaching the negroes that they are men
dicants and paupers. They should, on
the contrary, be self.reliant and should
assert their manhood in securing houses,
furniture and education by their own
commendable exertion and wholesome
economy.