The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1885-10-16
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
Rev. DIR. A. ID. MayO-.The Well known
Friend of Southern Education--Speak>.

five wears, has spent the school months of
each season in journeying in the cause of
education through fifteen of the Southern
States, where he has carefully studied the
schools of every grade for both races while
in operation, has published the results of
his observations.
The question which Mr. Mayo finds.
now forces itself upon the consideration
of the u.try is: What can the nation
and the Northern people do for the South
at school! That the South needs help in
the work of educating its children is shown
in the simple statement that there are
now, in sixteen Southern states, 1 0oo- 900
white and nearly 1000, 900 colored chill
dren and youth Of school age, of whom
not e-third can be said to be i'll any ef-
fective school. Seventy per cent of the
negroes over ten years OF age are IllIterate,
and in North Carolina nearly one third of
the whites are in the same condition.
The South has taken III hand the work 0
educat ng its own people, but the burden
is greater than it can carry. 1t needs
help, and, without that help, the work
will not be done and thousands of chill
dren will grow up in ignorance,
The time to help a people, says Mr.
Mayo, sis when it begins to help itself
Even with the South not yet aroused to
its own highest interest and duty in this
respect, every consideration of public pol
lev Of enlightened self-interest, and ma
tional prosperity would demand that the
people of the North and the National Coy
ernment should come to the rescue and
help i'll the work. But, now that the South
is awakened with IA mighty motion through
all Is vast areas, conscious of its own
great need, and, through its representa-
tives in tn Government, makes its desires
and interests known, every motive of pa
triotism, OF philanthropy, of Christian fel-
lowship comes in to enforce the Obllga-
ton" What the South has already done
for itself is described by Mr.. Mayo in terms
of highest commendation. That its peo-
pie are not sitting idly by, with hands
folded. depending on the National Gov
,rnment to do for them what they can do
iii part for themselves is made very mani
fest. They have accomplished wonders,
but they cannot accomplish lGr2Sslbll-
ties The testimony of this intelligent
and impartial observer is as follows:
II undertake to say that no people in
human history has made an eff1 rt so re-
markable, all circumstances oonSidered, as
the people of the South during the past
fifteen years, in what they have already
done for the school ng of tn ir children.
In many of their cities the public schools
will compare favOrably with those Of other
parts of the country. Their reviving col
leges and academies are mainly In the
hands of able and devoted teachers. Their
schools for girls are improving, and there
is a great deal of interest in the higher ed
ucation of women. Their teachers, as
body, are doing more good work for less
pay than any class of their profession in
our country and not unfrequently are
making sacrifices which amount to also
lutte heroism in their devotion to their
work. | have just come from the State
of South Carolina where | have seen the
largest audience rooms in a score of her
principle towns and cities crowded with
their best people to listen to addresses on
public education And, generally, there
is no topic of public speech or private con-
versation that now seems more generally
interesting and even electric, through
great portions of these States, than this.
Last year the Southern States paid no less
than $17 900, 600 for the education of their
children and youth of both races; proba-
bly, five or six millions for the schooling of
people who were held as property twenty
five years ago. And when one has seen the
actual condition of the Southern people,
as | have witnessed it, he can understand
that $17, 100000 down there represent
countless millions in our wealthy, prosper
Gus and powerful North
Mr.. Mayo suggests four ways in which
the people of the North can contribute to
the success of general education in the
South. First by the effort to obtain from
the General Government a generous z ant
for national aid to elementary education,
which, for limited time, under wise ad
ministration, shall help the people to es-
| tablish the common school in every dis
trict. Second by generous and judicious
donations of money like those of Peabody,
the Vanderbilt family, COrcoran and
others, ''for the building up of secondary
and collegiate schools for white and col
Ored students" the one limitation being
| that cit is better to strengthen a good in
stitution already on the ground than tc
| experiment in new enterprises. Third,
by encouragement and help in the train
| ing Of teachers in normal schools, insti-
tutes and good educational reading, and
for all sorts Of common schools. Fourth,
in the organization of industrial schools
of several kinds, such as schools of house
keeping, agriculture and mechanics, in re-
gard to which it is truly observed
''The most serious disability of the South
in it's material development is uneducated
and unskilled labor, and its futu power
and glory IN this direction must all pass
through the school house door.
1t is not wise, says Mr.. Mayo, to encour
age sporadic and intermittent efforts tt
train special classes, by Northern mission
aries, save in exceptional cases. The reason
is given as follows:
I'm general terms, one hundred dollar:
| given to the public school authorities il
any Southern locality, under suitable con
ditions, will do more for the elevation O.
the colored; ;and and poorer white children
than twice the sum invested in sending {
stranger to open a rival school in th'
place
Had Il Dreadful Cough.
and raised a considerable amount OF bloot
and matter: besides, | was very thin; ant
so weak | could scarcely go about tn
house. This was the case of man will
consumption arising from liver complaint
He recovered his health completely by tn
use of DR.. Pierce's Golden Medical Dis
covery.r Thousands of others bear slml
lar testimony.
Maple Leaves.
! T. B. ALDRICH.
October turned my naples leaves to gold:
The most are gone now; here ana there on