The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-11-29
What OF the Poor White Boy !!
4ItlGntn Constitution.


mics at home!
The poor white boy? What an in
spiration of genius swells within him,
repressed by ignorance and restrained
by environment. The son OF man
who owned slaves, he tills the field in
sodden despair, while the son Of the
man who blacked his boots is pursu-
ing the royal chase Of learning within
college walls fortified by millions in
endowment. A teacher is needed in
the neighborhood-hc is imported
from more favored land \ cotton
mill is erected-his little sisters and
brothers may do the menial work fora
triAe in pay, but the superintendent,
the engineer, the experts in colorlng
and in pattern making, must come
from Massachusetts or from England.
An iron foundry is cstablishcd-thc
men who command from S. to $40 a
day are brought from Rhode Island or
from Pennsylvania, while the little
boy who carries water to the hands
may be the only born Georgian on the
payroll. The nearby town puts in an
electric plant-with the order for it
went a requisition for men who un-
derstand how to run the machine. A
linotype is ordered by the local news
paper-New York is ordered upon to
ship an operator as we'll. Is it any
wonder, then, that seeing his chance
of preferment swept away, the poor
white boy turns sullenly to his hoe,
and for the first time understands
what Markham meant when he de-
scribed the man
{" y dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not, and never
hopes,
Stolid and stunned, brother to the
ox!''
God pity the poor white boy who is
thus doomed to serfdom while the
son of his masters slave has his face
set toward the rising sun, and to whom
the great secrets of art and nature arc
being opened. Hampton institute,
with an endowment of S742, 900 and
real estate as much more, appeals to
Northern and even Southern philan-
thropy for as much more. From the
walls of this institution Tuskcgcc has
grown, and now between the two the
negro is learning theuse Of the hand
as we'll as brain. The soil and its
component parts; the smelling and
the amalgamation Of the metals; the
varied secrets of chemistry; the con-
troll of steam and Of electricity-all
arc brought near to him. The scholar,
no matter how black he may be, will
be the master workman; the ignorant
man, no matter how clear the'white-
ness of his skin, will only be the help
er-glad to get that. This is the
picture which, as it reverses itself to
the eye Of the white boy, makes him
strike mis- hoe into the earth with We
nomous wrath and logged resignation.
Men abroad contribute to negro educa-
tion, because the negro is poor; men
at home deny liberal State aid to
higher education; it would cost a little
money.
Hear the story from Hampton In
stitute-s1, ,342, 900 on hand-s1, ,000,
900 more coming in-Clarke Univer-
sity in Atlanta, over 81 100000 in its
varied departments; Atlanta Univer-
,sity s1,OOO,0OO with chronological
courses. AS in Atlanta, SO it is else
where. The poor white boy looks in
quiringly around. The State techno-
logical school has just closed its doors
against young white memo room
and the room which is here was made
possible by generous stranger.
Shame that Georgia should keep her
sons in ignorance; that the escape
from it should be through the munili-
cence of stranger--but thanks to the
man who was broadminded enough to
suggest to US the line of duty. All
over Georgia, while such young men
as described exist, there are those
who fight higher education, and who
cannot understand that leaders must
be moulded simultaneously with the
file which fills the public schools.
These men seem to be willing that ex-
perts should be imported, while our
own young men are to be relegatcd to
the furrow.
To-day Germany stands as the cen
trail manufacturing and art creating
nation of Europe. One hundred years
ago there was not more godforsaken
spot of ground than that @hicn COM
poses the present territory of the