The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-09-08
The SOUTH AND IT'S
GREAT PROBLEM,
EDUCATION
Dr.. Alderman Declares It a
Dues ton of Life and
Death.
IHE SOUTH FULLY AWAKE
And We Realize Beeply That no Civil
ization Can Grow Great in
Poverty.
NE SOUTH FULLY AWAKE
OPERATION AND ORGANIZATION
Need Of Pierpont Morgan in The Educational
World. The Progress Made In The South.
Aycock's Great Work. Gener-
osily 10 the Negro.

The current number of the outlook
cont aims an article on Education in the
soath" by DR.. Edwin A. Alderman, former
president Of the University of North
Carolina, that contains much good for
thought and much matured wisdom upon
the most important question now before
the Southern people. We make room for
these extracts:
Some things ought, by this time, to
be tolerably fixed in the consciousness Of
need not call, therefore, for lengthy ex-
position or argument. Education in
democracies is not a question of philan-
thropy or expediency, but OF life and
death AS democracy has not yet proven
it's right to exist as the ultimate form OF
government. neither has craftsmanship
evolved even tolerably wise system OF
universal education. Many Of the prob
lens OF the South are also the problems
of the North and the East. Educational
systems, it should be understood, are
forced upon people by the pressure of real
or apparent social needs. and are not
superimposed by mere individual intelli-
gence or will
1.-THE quality OF no people in history
has ever been more grimly tested than
the quality of the Southern people from
1860 to 1880. which period might be de-
scribed as the period of war and SUBJ
mersion. ! shall not dwell upon it here.
Its heroisms stir my blood. it's sufferings
touch my heart, its achievements arouse
my pride. The first vivid recollection Of
a. eli; ~ ! he mi
face Of General Lee in 1869, and hence
the shadows of this time Of anarchy, of
poverty and prejudice Of the world dark
ened the days Of my childhood. The bur-
den upon the men Of the time was to
maintain racial integrity, to establish
new institutions for strange new needs,
to find q clue to modern economic sys-
TENS, to earn bread for their children
and the children of their slaves, and.
hardest of all. to conquer pride and to
keep their spirits sweet and unspoiled.
Defeat and disaster could not destroy
their English consciousness and their in
flexible purpose to rule their own local
affairs. Let us forgive them any lack
of philosophical insight or academic view
points, as we must forgive our brethren
of the North some tragic laundering and
cient praise Of these men, molding in un-
quiet times a new life, to say that fifteen
years after the war had ceased we found
ourselves living In a new world of friend
~ feeling, of waning intolerance, of ed
vocational desire. and of marvellous ma
terial prosperity.
From 1880 until now has been the
period of awakening and achievement.
nxxl h< n.atI hnC ot Iac
it's probation as member Of the modern
world. Southern people have taken deep
ly to heart the conviction that no civili-
zation can grow great In poverty. The
Southern boy now reaching up into life
has many other ambitions besides states
manship. He wants to know how to build
bridges. to manufacture raw material, to
set up machinery. to organize industry.
to exploit material resources. and in gen
eral to get money together. This is the
most deeply rooted idea in the Southern
mind today.
s'rhe colleges OF the churches have been
the objects Of great sacrifice and heroism.
Some of them, 1t must be frankly con-
fessed, have no reson to exist save that
OF denominational pride but a goodly
number Of them are great forces for good,
manned by scholars, and are sending out
yearly well-trained men into Southern
life. Private philanthropy, almost I'M
known in ante-bellum days, and still
timid. has endowed a few institutions.
like Vanderbilt University, Tulane Uni
versity, Newcomb College, department
OF Tulane; Converse College and Trinity
College In North Carolina. Only three OF
these were endowed by people of South
ern birth, and their endowments are SO
small that they still need most of the
equipment necessary to great universe
tics
Lastly. and greatest of all, system
of public schools for whites and blacks
supported by public taxation. and this
means largely taxation of the whites, has
been established in every Southern COM
munity. and Is being slowly strengthened
under 'stupendous difficulties. The move
ment received It's first impulse In the