The evening times., 1899-05-08
shar,-sightcd Economy

The Alabama Legislature is discussing
a plan which may be described in the
homely ld-fashioned phrase as penny
wise and pound foolish" 1t is proposed
that henceforth the school funds derived
from real estate held by white men shall
be devoted to the maintenance OF white
schools. and these derived from property
held by colored men shall be the only
support of the colored schools. Hereto
fore. ii is said. the school funds have
been divided equally, but the census shows
that whereas the number of white chill
dren in the State is 3S5.000 and that OF
co!ored children 2s6.000. the number CT
white teachers is exactly double that OF
colored teachers. The ratio of illiteracy
among the colored people of the State
is greater than in any other except Louis
lana 1t is argued by the advocates Of the
new plan that the colcred race has no right
to schools which its labor does not sup
port, and that the white people of Ala
bama need all the money they can spare
for the education of their own children.
This is. in effect. a return to the old
fashioned system of private schools, In
which the rich mans son was well edu-
Gated and the poor boy had no education
until he was able to earn it. 1t means in
creased illiteracy among the negroes, and
where there is iliiteracy there is crime.
History has proved that over and over
again \ people at certain low state
OF intellectual and moral development
may be content for some generations to
confine their ambitions to manual labor,
but this condition is not a lasting enc.
There is always a percentage, sometimes
a small one. Of men who are above their
fellows in intelligence and capacity, and
if these are given no education or mental
training to counteract the effect of their
own emotions and untaught reasonings,
all the moral influence in the world will
not keep some of them from becoming
criminals. and very dangerous, ambitious
and skillful criminals at that. 1t is with
the human race just as it is with email
boy-the way TO keep him out OF mischief
is to give him something harmless to do.
This is true even Of a highly developed
class of citizens. An idle aristocracy, or
one without high ideals. degenerates very
quickly. The half-grown human being.
that is. the ignorant man. must also have
ambition and some prospect of attaining
his goal. or he also degenerates. and costs
the State more in the end than he would
If he had been trained and helped to make
the most of himself.
The negro race does not need lawyers,
preachers, and politicians SO badly as it
needs intelligent farmers and mechanics;
but in this age of the world there can be
little effective intelligence in any field of
labor without at least primary training.
The culture of the average American must
come through books and papers, and the
school must train the individual to demand
and use them. This school question in Ala
bama does not concern the negro any more
than it does the white man. When hordes
Of ignorant Irish, and Hungarian. and
Polish. and Russian peasants are dumped
into Northern cities they cannot be left
without education, or even with the edu-
cation of their own land and language;
they must be taught all that the ma
tive American can teach, or they will
become dangerous members of society.
Some of these immigrants are accustomed
to conditions as poverty stricken and de-
graded as those which prevail in the Black
Belt. and some of them have criminal ten
denotes created by wrong conditions in
the past Some have the same idea which
the negroes had just after emancipation
that this is free country and they can
do exactly as they choose. The problem OF
assimilation in these cases is complicated
by difference Of religion, Of language, and
of traditions. While, even with the best
educational facilities, the results in some
places has not been pleasant, and some |
times the native American has suffered,
there is no doubt at all that IL these i'm
migrants and their children had been de-
MED equality of opportunity there would |
have been horrible state of things. Edu
cation. training, patience, Justice, are the |
only medicines for ignorance and degrada- |
ton.