The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-08-22
ETCHINGS FROM
CURRENT TOPICS

pref. John Bach A1clMasters has com-
pleted his Revised Patriotic School His
tory of the Uns.ed States. for Young
Americans" and it has been accepted by
the committee of the Grand Army of the
Republic, which was appointed at the last
convention to examine the work. The
proof-eheets have been sent to the pub
fishers, and by the autumn this history
will be in use nthe public schools of the
north. prof. NcMaster is the same writer
will be in use in the public schools of the
United States, made the surprising state
ment that during colonial days in the
southern states education was almost
wholly neglected, but nowhere to such an
extent as in South Carolina" This has
been shown by we'll posted men and wo-
men to be a gross misstatement of facts
and libel upon a people of unusual Gull
ture 1T is certainly time that the charge
of ignorance and illi-eracy against south
ernerz as a class should cease. These
statements seem to POSSES commercial
value and are encouraged by those un-
familIar with the conditions that existed
in the south previous to the civil war.
The gentlemen of the old south were
thoroughly educated; they had the high
est. educational advantages afforded by
this country and Europe, and they were
graduates of their own and foreign uni
versqties. Their lives of leisure, made
possible by fortunate financial conditions,
were conducive to the widest reading, and
their homes were filled with books Sc
1scted with care and intelligence by gen.
creations of cultivated men and women
In no part of the world were the better
classes more thoroughly educa ted than
In that portion Of the United Sta es which
lies sou-h of Mason and Dixon's line.
The lower classes, as a whole, previous
to the war, were Indifferent to educa-
tional advantages, and this condition OF
things was not confned to any section.
The public school system fiourished ear
lier and for time better at the north
than ait The SOUTH owing to more closely
settled country and larger percentage
Of plain peopla There existed for long
time a very absurd prejudice against free
or public schools in the minds or many
sodrbherners. This is rapidly passing
away. and the public schools in the south
are prospecting in the most gratifying
way. The people of the south are daily
becoming better informed, and with an
educational test for suffrage in every
state, we shall soon find the humble5t
citizens ambitious to acquire at least q
parliamentary knowledge of books.
Alabama needs a constitutional con-
vention at the earliest possible date, and
in this off year. this year when politics
sluinbers, no greater service can be ac-
complished for the commonwealth than
,t,,5r Of for
this convention. All questions which af-
feet the foundations of government must
be approached with caution, patience and
a willingness to bear with opposition
until opposition becomes acquiescence. 1t
Is necessary to remember that many
are prejudiced against constitutional
convention because unfamiliar with the
boundless good which will come to the
state from changes of laws and enact
ments that have been outgrown years
ago by the progressive people of Alaba-
ma.
An educational test for the voters of
Alabama will do more to create desire
for an education than all The essays and
homlies on this important subject could
possibly accomplish. Alabama men are
natural voters, they like to vote and
have been known to vote often and well
and they never permit a small matter
like lack of education to interfere with
the sovereign right of the ballot. If they
cannot vote without knowing how to
write and read, why they will at once
be enrolled upon the books of the nearest
school, for vote they must and will. Ala
bama must have g. constitutional conven-
ton, when the next legislature convenes.
BALL.