Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-01-24

however, 80 many colored people. TIE
cotton belt, or southeast, is the portion
OF the state occupied by the
blacks. But whether in Nortt
or South Texas, the fund is dis
tributed strictly according to the ratio O.
the colored to the white pupils. For
Worth pays the same to the teachers o
the colored pupils as she does to The
teachers of the white. The principal ant
assistants Of the colored schools ere 81
colored. The principal is native TeXsi
and 3 well-educated man. We also pa
the women the same salary paid the mel
for the same service, whether as princi-
pals or assistants.
The nation must help Us develop thi!
fsir and well founded system. l know
our Senators have voted against the
proposition, but wherever our people IN
derstsnd the Blair Federal Aid Bill they
are for 1t, and il it could be discussed
before the people generally they woult
be unanimous In its support. Persons
engaged in educational matters-thos,
acquainted with the bill and the needs O.
the schools-favor it. The superintend
eDts Of the cities and the public school.
teachers all over the state, with the few
est exceptions, favor it.
| | might say here that the Teachers
Ascension OF Texas, in q large conven-
| ton, has Endorsed this bill.
Ii universal suffrage is BASED upoI
universal education, upon intelligence
upon the ability of the voter to read the
! name of his choice upou the selected
ballot, there is a great crying necessity
for national relief. It must be given al
once. Illiteracy is increasing at fear
fal rate, even among the white citiz Ems Of
Texas.
That is q proposition was not myself
prepared to hear, especially as we had
heard here so much Of the ability and the
actual fact of Texas educating her people
and needing no help.
Mr.. Reagan-The statement is simply
not true.
Mr.. Blair-I do not know. He says
"illiteracy is increasing at fearful rate,
even among the white citiz ems Of Texas"
He proceeds:
1850 there were only II, sos illiterate
white voters, but In 1880 there were
SO, 0S5. There you have the startling in
crease of illiterscv among the white
voting Texans of 80 per cent. The col
ored illiterates numbered 1926 voters in
1870, and sc. 600 in 1880, an increase OF
26 per cent. :
But am not willing to pass this large
increase in illiterate voters ia Texas
without explsinipg how it is that my
state should have gained in this downward
movement so rapidly. Some CT these
voters are from ola Virginia, some from
the Carolinas, from Georgia, and not q
few from Alabama, Mississippi and Louis
isns. This increase in illiteracy in the
voting population has not been con-
fined alone to the states mentioned. The
fact IS that, with the exception OF little
Delaware, the increase OF illiterate
voters in the south from 1870 to 1880
amounted to 1851. In this "down-
ward" race it is little singular that the
white and colorei have kept so close to-
gether, but it shows that the education
needed is not wholly for "the brother in
black"
1t may be Justly asked, why should
there be such au increase in the white
illiteracy7 1t IS simply because these
voters are the sons II the fathers who
laid down their lives, sacrificed their all,
in the unhappy struggle for what they
believed to be right. Their children,
daughters as well as sons, were without
school facilities. They really had no
time to go to school,, but, with their
mothers At home, were struggling for
something to est.
The census OF 1880 shows that there are
in Kentucky, above the sge of twenty-one,
of white women who eau not write %
per cent and in North Carolina there are
SO ( per cent. of white women who can
not write. II in the death OF these fathers
and mothers illiteracy should cease we
should have hope for the republic; but
upon investigation 1t will be found thst
illiteracy is not only increasing, but that
1t is an Inheritance that multiI lies with
each succeeding year.
Under the provisions of the Blair bill,
were it TO become law, Connecticut,
Maine, Massachusetts,, New Hampshire,
New Jersey. New York, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, and Vermont, with popu
lation of IL, 1924 ,322, would receive S.
099 $50, or "a cents per capita. Texas
With population by the same census Of
only l, 59l, 749, could receive 50 Il per
cspits, or ten times as much as these
great states. That shows our dissd-
vantage.
OUR DISADVANTAGE.
Little Alabama would receive sever
teen times as much as those states. Cal
ifornia, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana,
Kansas, Michigan. Minnesota, Missouri,
Nabrasks, Ohio, Wisconsin and Oregon,
with population of Is, 462, 1928 would re-
ceive S4.486,S60. or "a cents per capita.
Georgia, with 8 population OF 1912, $50,
would receive So. 042, $50, or nearly 81
per capits, nearly seventeen times as
much as sill these great states.
WHY'S this? Simply because Georgia aas
seventeen times as much iliiterscy as all
this vast territory, teeming With millions
CT happy people who received their led
eral aid in grants Of land from Virginia
and the general government for school
purposes. Need more be said upon the
NECESSITY" of this aid?
Our southern states are positively do
ing sll they csp, and are doing more pro-
portionately than the favored states OF
the north, more according TO their means
than the foremost states Of this Union.
For instance North Carolina paid school
taxes in 1880 upon Sl60, 900 600 taxable
property. She realiz 100000, 81 to
every S400 Massachusetts, paid the same
year upon 81, coo, 900, 900. and the school
tax amounted to 100000. or 81 to
every $500 of taxable property. Inst is.l
North Carolina pays for school purposes
as much ad valorem as Msssaonusetasi b.
with this terrible drawbsck-her popu is-s