The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-11-16
NATIONAL AID TO FREE SCHOOLS.
DR.. Curry Makes a Strong Appeal to
the People to Favor the Pro.
posed Measure.
Published by request il.

Iuoilsheu py request.
My official position as Genera
Agent of the Peabody Education
Fund, conjoined TO my Southern
birth, residence and sympathies
must be my apology for the appar
cnt presumption of this appeal.
Prior to 1867 there was not any
general or efficient public school sys
tenn in the South Before the wal
Academies and Colleges for both
sexes were numerous and did excel
lent work, but no adequate provis
ion was made for the education of the
masses.
In the Southern States, excluding
Delaware, Maryland and Missouri
the school population, from six four
teen years, according to the latest
and most trustworthy returns, fur
nished to me from the Bureau of Ed
ucation, is 4,02S,775. The enrolment
is 1920, 40I. The school term at the
South in the State schools will not
average eighty days, while that at
the West and the North is probably
double. The teaching in the rural
districts is often of an inferior quail
ity-what might reasonably be ex-
pected from poorlypaid teachers,
employed for three or four months
in the year. The annual school ex-
penditure in these States is over 3d.
100000.
BY the census of 1880, 5000, 900 OF
the 100000 of children of school
age did not attend school.
Ofthe school population ofthe South,
nearly half are not in school. Over
six and a quarter millions of our en-
tire population could not write their
names. Two millions oflegal voters,
of whom 100000 were white and L.
100000 were colored. could not write.
This test of intelligence is so decep-
tive that, while one-lifth of the vot-
ers could not write at all it is proba-
BILE that two-fifths were so imperfect
ly educated as to be unable to read
intelligently a newspaper or the Bible.
The illiterate voters in the South
were l,363,SS4 or over one third
COS per cent of illerate voters were
negroes and 30.2 per cent whites.
In North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana
more than half the voters cannot
read their ballots.
The maintenance of our public
schools has been complicated and
made more onerous by the race ques.
tion, which, whatever fanaticism or
partisanship or gross ignorance may
say, is the most fearful problem that
our civilization has encountered.
There is no discrimination against
schools for negroes in any of the
Southern States. The length of the
school year is the same for both
races. DR.. Owens, of Roger Will
liams College, in Nashville, an in
stitution for negroes, says: "rhe
South has acted nobly in dividing
the public funds and providing good
buildings" The Southern States,
on whose territory the war between
the States was waged, and which
came out of the terrible struggle
crushed and reduced to poverty,
have paid nearly or quite $50, 100000
for the education Of the negroes, and
Gen. Armstrong the able principal
of the Hampton School, who com
manded a brigade of colorcd troops,
says: southern taxpayers are do
ing more than any others for the ne
gro by maintaining 10000 free col
ored schools at an annual cost of
over 100000. # OF every
500 paid in Southern taxation,
$9l.5o are paid by white people"
These negroes with their inheri-
ted tendencies of superstition and
their long, dreary history of ignor-
ance, thriftlessness and slavery, are
entitled to education-to fullest
moral and intellectual development
III as human beings, with indi-
vidaal responsibility and immortal
souls, for whom Christ died, and (2)
as citizens and voters in represen-
tative republic.
1t is narrow view of the subject
to confne it to negroes. Senator
Blair in a recent address, says:
"The distress of our own blood is
greater than that Of the colored
race The restitution of the means
Of education among white children
is appalling. Northern charity to
the amount of over fifteen millions
of dollars has been concentrated upon
negro children.
The States cannot rid themselves
Of the obligation to sustain free
schools. That is one of the func-
tions of free government, and can
not safely be dispensed with or
evaded General education was new
er accomplished except under gov
eminent revenues. Instead of doing
to diminish the sense of
the obligation of the Southern States
to sustain an adequate system of free
schools, l should much prefer to
make it more real. The South, in
stead of deserving criticism or cen
sure for admission of duty, deserves,
rather, the commentator for what
she has attempted and achieved. No
chapter in her history is more bril-
liant than this, or more merits CRATE
full recognition. OF the $4,000, 900
paid out for public schools every
year by the whole country, the South
expends about $16,000,00O, or one
fifth, while her taxable property does
not come near that proportion of the
aggregate taxable property. A. D.
Mayo, of Massachusetts, as familiar
as any man in the Union with the
school work of the South, has often
written of the grandeur and patriot
ism of the sacrifices of the South in
in this direction. mo similar class
of people in the Old or New World
has accomplished so much in time
so short, against obstacles SO formid-
able" Under her peculiar condi-
tions, with rural, agricultural and
sparse population, without recupera-
ton from the impoverishment and
exhaustion CT the war, with a non
tax paying, unskilled, immigration