The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-01

the 5000 students enrolled in the princi
pal Southern States only about 200 are
women.
Many of the States established their
universities or State colleges for men
nearly a hundred years ago, and after
century's development along the line of
masculine tastes and needs, those in au-
thority seem to think that if. without
modifying the courses of study in the
slig htest. they decide to admit women.
it is mark of great generosity and pro-
gress.
The chief religious denominations have
established their colleges for men. and in
many cases have literally endowed them.
but most of their funds raised for the
education of women stand today, monu-
ments of brick and mortar without en-
dowment and with nothing to remind one
of their source except their labels
What the State did in the name of pa
triotism and craftsmanship and what the
religious denominations, following the
States example, did in the name of re-
ligion, men and women of wealth, who
were possessed with the laudable ambi-
ton to help educate the people of their
country. have done in the name of phi
lanthropy.
And so the discrimination against wo-
men in college education was begun, con-
tinued, but, / regret to say, not ended
1t bgan in the idea that the masses did
not need liberal education. but only
few educated leaders. That idea has long
since passed away. The discrimination
was continued because of our conserva-
tism and because of the selfshness or
short ightedness of men who make the
appropriations and direct the use of en-
dowment funds. 1t is also due to the
silence of educated and influential wo-
men who ought to have spoken out long
ago. Whether their silence has been due
to their unselfish generosity to their
brothers, or 70 their ignorance of the dis
elimination against their sex, or to their
contentment with the conditions so long
as they themselves could maintain their
leadership among their sex, / do not un-
dertake to decide. But the significant
fact remains that until very recently the
money given to education by women in
the South has been given as rule to in
stitutions for men. There have been
hardly enough exceptions to this rule to
prove it,
1t is a noteworthy fact in this connec-
ton that the largest gift to the cause of
education by an American woman, and
made within the past few years, is accom-
panied by a condition limiting the num-
Der of women who shall share in it's
benefits, though the number of men is not
limited.
l once tried TO inuepce a woman a
widow who wished to bequeath a few
thousands to education, to give it to an
institution for the education Of women
She took the matter under careful and
conscientious consideration and in few
days told me that she had decided to use
her money to aid in the education of
boys and men, that her husband was u
man. No harm would come of such gen.
erosity If men should adopt the principle
of reciprocity, and make all their educa-
tional donations to womens colleges on
the ground that their wives, daughters
and sisters are women.
Next to the Improvement of the general
public school system the best field for
educational investment in the South is
the high school and college education of
the white woman iii the country.
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