The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-11-26
The Thinkers.
THE EXACT FACTS: SCHOOL ILLITERACY;
POPULATION STATISTICS.

6h6 86aG1S61OS III 6u0 O0u5u5
of 1900, in regard to the voting pop
ulation, %illiteraoY, nativity and mill
tary strength of North Carolina.
One will find use for a knowledge of
these statistics every now and then
for ten years; and 50 we set them
forth here with the injunction to
the reader to cut them out and put
them where they will be handy.
There are in North Carolina 753,
826 children of school age, that is
from five to twenty years of age, in
elusive. Of these 753, 376 are native
born, only 45O being foreign born !;
400, 782 are white, and 263,044 are
colored-this including $500 In
dams, Chinese and Japanese.
The party in power, and all the
people, under the Constitution and
the will of the Most High are under
solemn obligations to provide ample
school facilities for every one of
these 753, 1926 children. At present
but little more than one dollar is
provided for the education Of each
of them. But from sixty to one
hundred dollars is expended by the
State, having been taken in part
from the fathers of these needy chill
dren, upon far more able men and
women in far less necessary higher
schools. One of these days our State
will wake up to the truth of this
fact. When they do they will need
no urging, but much restraining.
The average man reads it now as in
a dream.
There are 1851 males of school
age, of whom 247, 912 are white
There are SIG, 2I5 females in the
same class, of whom 242,423 r
white.
There are AT, SIS mon in North
Carolina o than tx entY-ODeyears
of age. Of these 294, 92O can read
and write, and 1872, 658 cannot. 68 1874
negro men are illiterate and 60, 131
can read and write. There are 5 ,474
white men who cannot read and
write, and there are 234, 789 white
men who can.
More than half the negro men r
illiterate-and are therefore disquali-
tied for the ballot. And there are
more than SO, 1000 white in North
Carolina who cannot read and write
There are probably as many white
women.
If sixty years Of our present free
school work and more than a cen
fury of She State University have
left US with more than 100, 900 white
men and women full grown who can
not read and white, surely some.
thing is wrong Surely if after so
long, 100, 900 are left illiterate, have
we not good cause II say that unless
something miraculous is done for
she free schools right away, by the
year 1908 many a white boy will be
Northumberland will either be
turned away from the ballot or
allowed to vote by frAud-whioh
God forbid
There are 326, POP male of military
age Cbetween Is and 45 years., of
whom 90, 691 are coIored. We could
raise a grand army to defend us
against a foreign enemy can we not
raise ore to defend our children and
our State from ignorance and the
oppres sion that 1t breeds?
The percentage' are as follows
Percentage of children of school age,
white native born 64.6, foreign born
OIL; colored 35. Of military age,
males, So per cent r white, 81 COL
ored. OF voting age, 50 per cent.
are white, 81 are colored. OF illtt
crate males of voting age 10 per
cent. are white, five per cent. are
whites of foreign birth, and So per
cent. are colored. Fifty. eight per
cent. of the Indians in North Caro-
lima are illiterate. Only six-tenths
of one per cent-six in n thou
sand-men of voting age in North
Carolina are foreign Eleven per
cent. of these are i~lliterate
Only q few facts need to be reit-
Grated in view of these fgures: Q)
that there r mor than 100, 900 illit-
crate white men and women in North
Carolina, and as many oolored that
there are $4,000 children of school
age in North Carolina, that many of
them r not in school; that only a
little more than a dollar each is ap-