The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-28
MIR. MURPHY RESIGNS
TO BE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF SOUTHERN EDUCATION BOARD.

His oface Will Be in Montgomery.
 His Letter to the vestry of St. Johns and Statement of His
 ! Plans for Future Work.
 At a called meeting of the Vestry or St. Johns Church, held last night at the chapel, the Rev. Edgar Gardner Murphy l tender ed his resignation as tho rector or the parish. Mir. Murphy has accepted l the position of Executive Secretary or l the Southern Education Board created 1 by the Southern Educational Conference | which met last year at Winston-Salem, | North Carolina. Mir. Murphy stated | that his office would be in Montgomery. The other Southern men associated with 1 MT. Murphy in the work of the Board are Dr. Edward A. Alderman. President l of Tulane University. New Orleans, La; Dr. Charles R. Dabney. President or the | University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Tenn; pr. H. B. Frissell, principal Of l Hampton Institute, for twenty years resident of Virginia; Dr. Charles D. Nc. | Iyer, President of the North Carolina ! State Normal College for Women at | Greensboro, N. C.. and Dr. J. l.. M. Curry, ex-Confederate soldier statesman and author. ex-minister of the United | States to Spain, and easily the most commanding figure among Southern edu- | cators.
 | The other members of the Board are Mir. Robert c. ogden, chairman; MT. | George Foster Peabody, native or II Georgia and now a member of the firm of Spencer, Trask & Co.,. N. r.. treasu- Ter; Mir. William H. Baldwin, Jr., for II some years a resident of the South, now President of the Long Island Railroad; TN. D,,Af rtaly ufeD- -Eran m Baptist of Albany, New York; Dr. Albert Shaw. editor of the Review of Reviews and Mir. Walter H. Page. native of North Carolina. now editor of The Worlds Work, N. Y. The Executive work of the Board is in the hands of its Southern representatives, Messrs Curry, Frissell. Dabney. Alderman and Murphy.
 Said MT. Murphy yesterday. in speak ing of the subject: Three things should be borne in mind, in connection with the work of the Southern Education Board
 In the first place, 1t is the outgrowth of an annual Conference on Southern sol , for the discussion of white education and the executive organization of the Board represents the sympathetic recog' milton of the leadership of the Southern
 man. Nothing could have been liner than the attitude of the Northern mer who have been interested in this move ment. They have simply said: You have shown us that the South is trying heroically to deal not only with the negro but with great unprivileged masses of its white population. You understand your own people and your own problems, as we do not. This work is therefore yours. Take it and do it. In so far as we can help you. we are at your service. We have no desire to meddle or to inter- fere. If you will take the helm, we will stand by you, not as Northerners, but as fellow citizens of a common country.
 Tn the second place" said Mir. Mur- phy, fit should be remembered that the work of this Board is going to stand for education in it's broadest sense. We are not going to ignore the negro, for the education of the negro is now the official and established policy of every Southern State. But every emphasis will be laid upon white education as well. We are to labor in cordial sympathy with the heroic local agencies already at work There is nothing nobler in all history than the record of the Southern States on the subject of education since the close of the Civil War. Our first work will be the encouragement and the sup port of home influences. We shall spend |, the sum of $So000 simply in the task of administration during the next two years
 Each State has its own educational machinery, and its own educational pOUcleS. we small not go where we are not wanted, we shall not come into con- fict with local and established plans. Where we are wanted. we shall come
 and where we are asked to aid we shall
 aid. We wish, above all things, to come to the support of those who are work ing so nobly to deepen and extend the popular interest in education We wish
 every child in Alabama, and in all the South, to have just as good a chance in l chi nf
 earth.
 "We shall not ourselves give money
 directly to educational institutions. That
 part of this movement will perhaps be
 cared for very soon in another way. But
 I do wish to do all in my power to in'
 terest the whole country in the South
 as a field for educational investments.
 There Is no reason why the South
 should not welcome such assistance. The , South Is contributing to the general pros c perity of the country. Large returns
 are being gathered from Southern prop - critics. If the South, both directly and
 indirectly, is contributing to the general prosperity of the nation, there is nc 6 reason why the South. like the West
 should not share in that prosperity. The = West has been receiving millions of dol
 lars annually for the upbuilding of its great educational institutions. The r South has thus far received compara- lively little. As pointed out the other l day by Dr. Dabney, the President of the , University of Tennessee, the sum of $19,' 100000 was contributed in this country tc ) educational institutions during the single
 year of 1900. but of this total amount only a little more than S1. 900 came into
 the Southern States for the education oi
 both races. That Is to say a little lesi
 than per cent of the total gifts wen
 to 6 per cent. of the population This
 says Dr. Dabney. Is not right. Th'
 justice of this claim is largely recognized
 at the East Hundreds of thousands o
 dollars are available, I believe. for th' educational situation in the South if thi situation can be made clear to those wht
 are in control of the great financial inter
 ests of this country.
 But I am not thinking solely of wha
 Northern men should do. I am thinking
 of our country as a whole for I know that there are men fin the South alst
 who ought to share something of theil prosperity with the great masses of thu . people. There are no boys and girls any
 where in the world who are more worthy of an education and of the very bes