The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-05-24
THE PEABODY FUND
Proposition to Wind Up the
Affairs of the Trust.
ScARBOROUGH'S LETTER
He Writes, 1T Would be Moth
ing Less Than a Calamity"

The Splendid Gift of George Peabody
to the Cause of Education in the
South--Great Work it Has Done in
North Carolina Shall the Work
Cease?
Mr.. John c. Scarborough, Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, received
Yesterday letter from DR.. j. L. NJ.
Curry, General Agent of the Peabody
Fund. ON a subject that deeply
concerns the educational welfare of
the South.
When George Peabody, the million
aire and philanthropist, made his mag
nifcent gift to education in the South
ern States he made the proyiso that, at
the end of thirty years, if the trustees
should so decide, the trust might be
ended and the books closed, the fund
to be distributed among such educa-
tional institutions as the Board or
Trustees might select, not less than
two-thirds~ of the amount to go 10
schools in the Southern States.
This period of thirty years rs just now
coming to a close. At recent meet
ing OF the Board of Trustees of the
Fund a committee was appointed to
determine whether the Trust shall be
closed or shall continue to be conduc-
ted ON the present basis of manage
ment.
The committee viii soon report, and
DR.. Curry has written Mr.. Scarborough
10 ask his views on the question. DIR.
Curry writes: Il, myself, have very
decided views upon the question
:. Mr.. Scarborough replied as follows:
MY Dear Sir:-I note your request
for my opinion as to whether the
trust peabody FUND.- should be
wound up now, or whether it would be
better under General Agent to con-
tinue the present mode of manage
ment.' You did not give me your judg-
ment as TO the matter. | am glad you
did not. for the reason that it causes
me to feel less reserved in giving you
my Judgment on the matter.
Il need not take much space in ex-
pressing my opinion. To my mind what
ought to be done is so clear as to need
no argument. When | look back over
the years since January, 1877, when |
hrst came into this Office and took its
work upon my hands and heart, | find
so much of what little Maj. Finger and
/ have been able to accomplish for an
old and staid population like North
Carolina population-native and TO the
manor born, conservative to such an
extent as to amount to radical-conSery-
atism-so much of this, j say, which
could not have been accomplished for
public education without the aid of the
Peabody Fund and the methods of ad.
ministering the same established by
the Board of Trustees of the fund-all
on a plan of stimulatiye encourage
ment to our people for self-actiyity
and self-help. The States which are
the benefciaries of the fund need the
aid of the Board and the General Agent
az stimulators and advisers as much
as they need the money as stimulant.
We need, too, to keep the memory of
Mr.. Peabody, our benefactor in the
time of our sorest need, fresh and
green in our minds and hearts. His
name among us remembered by our
people, old and young, black and white
is benediction upon us and great
stimulant to high and noble endeavor
in building up public education. The
existence of the Board of Trustees of
his great gift to us and the coming
among US of the Agent of his gift to
utip us, OQI
energies, will do more to keep his name
and service to us, in our minds and
upon our hearts than can possibly be-
done by any distribution of the fund
which can be made by closing the
trust, and balancing the books forever.
1T would be an unspeakable calam
ity to close the Trust and stop the work
of the Board of Trustees and it's Gen
eral Agent in our behalf
The story of how Mr.. Peabody came
to make this munifcent gift to the
world is said to run thus: Peabody
was a man of enormous wealth and
philanthropic inclination. AS the war
was closing he was urged time and
again by anti-slayery advocates and
synpathizers TO do something for the
newly freed and ignorant negroes.
These urgings put him to thinking on
the matter. He did not stop where his
advisers ended These negroes, he
reasoned, were property, and the white
people of the South sustained the loss
of 100000 of them ait $500 each, a
total loss of a billion and half of
dollars. This loss was added to the
expense of devastating war that had
resulted disastrously to the white peo-
pie of the South. He reasoned that
'pheSe Wn1be people, Impoverished as
they were, needed help quite as much
as did the negroes. And so, when he
made his splendid gift for education
in the South in the broad spirit of a
noble mind he stipulated that it should
be used as the need required, for both
races. And on these broad lines have
the affairs of the Trust always been
administered.
Soon after the close of the war Pea
body announced the benefaction and
himself appointed a Board of Trustees
for the fund Among the members of
the board were General u. s. Grant,
and Hon William A. Graham, of North
Carolina There were sixteen trus-
tees who took charge of the fund in
February, 1867 Mr.. Peabody appoint
ed his personal friend, the noted edu-
Gator, DIR. Barney Sears, president Of
Brown University, general agent OF The