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

/ there are $4,000 more illiterate women
| than illiterate men, and in the South Gen.
/ trail States the excess is 121 ,000 This
| large excess of illiteraey, 1000, is not
| due entirely as some may conclude, to
the great illiteracy among negro women
| In North Carolina, for instance, where
| the white female population is only 10000
more than the white male population, the
| census gives $4,000 more white female
| illiterates than white male illiterates.
| The excess of white female illiterates in
| Tennessee is also about 20, 000 In Vir-
ginia the excess of female illiterates is
not quite so great. In the Southern
States there are nearly 100, 900 more white
female illiterates than white male ILL
terates, and the total number of female
illiterates in the South is 2275, 900. Just
| think OF 2,275,00O possible illiterate
| mothers.
Considering the intelligence of our citi-
| zenship in generations to follow us, We
could better afford to have five illiterate
| men than one illiterate mother, and the
census figures quoted are simply appall-
ing.
Moreover, nearly all the Southern
! States are showing a purpose to put
constitutional amendments adopting an
educational requirement for suffrage.
The general purpose of elevating and dig
nifying citizenship every one must en-
dorse, but l realize that its tendency will
be toward a still greater inequality in
| the education of the sexes. If it were
practicable, an educa tional qualification
for matrimony would be worth more to
L o;t; An IN fhan raI
qualification for suffrage.
Let il be remembered too, that 2net-
withstanding all our progress in the
higher education of women during the
past twenty-five years, the odds are still
most decidedly in favor of their brothers.
| 1t was my privilege recently to visit
man yof the leading educational institu-
tions in this country, especially those
| institutions exclusively for women or
those to which women are admitted. In
none of the colleges for women did there
appear to be such opportunities as are
offered in the collegiate department of
the Johns Hopkins University, or of CO.
lumbia or of Harvard. In none of them
did l see such libraries as can be seen
in many of the smaller State and de-
nominational colleges and universities for
men.
Everywhere you can find ambitious
young women desiring to secure admis
sion to colleges for men, but you have yet
to find the ambitious man who is suffer
ing in his mind because he would not be
allowed 20 become a student at a We
mems college. A young woman once told
me that she belived in co-education be-
cause men would have the best for them
selves, and the only way for woman to
get it would be to go to their colleges.
| do not believe that the great body of
men and the great body of women need
identically the same college education,
but it is no longer a debatable PROPOSE
tion that, whatever may be their respec-
tive needs women ought not to find it
mere difficult than their brothers to Sc
cure the best and most thorough train
inc.
Let consider for moment whoNs re-
sponsible for the discrimination against
wome min the matter OF education We
must bear in mind that liberal culture
was not always considered necessary or
even desirable for the average, man. The
State desired educated leaders and the
State colleges were created to supply
statesmen. The church desired educated
leaders and the UNCONVENTIONAL colleges
were created to supply churchmen. AS it
was impossible for woman to be a
stateman or churchman, she was natur-
ally overlooked in the educational scheme
both of the church and of the State.
Legislatures made appropriations to
sustain State colleges, and large endow-
ments were raised for denominational
colleges, SO that the quality of the edu-
cation given to men became much better
| than it could otherwise have become,
and at the same time less expensive TO
| the Individual.
Finally men began to seek education
| no THAT they might become leaders in the
State and in the church, but first of all.
| that they might be strong men; so that
| today seeing man at college is no indi-
cation that he expects to be a preacher
or a politician.
The old idea, however, has had a seri-
GUS effect upon the educational opportu-
mites of women, and it is only within the
| past few decades that States and church
| es seem to have realized even in the
| slightest degree, their obligation to make
| appropriations and raise endowment
| funds for the liberal culture of their
| daughters. Indeed at this time there is
| net in all the South great endowed col
| lege for the education of women-unless
we count the Sophie Newcomb, which is a
| par of Tulane University.
| We have some well endowed colleges
! for men of the white race, and others for
| me nand women of the colored race, but
| by some strange blindness those agen
| cies which have done so much for the
! liberal educa ton of white men, negro
| men, and negro women, have generally
either ignored entirely or have trifled
with the great question OF the education
of the women Of the white race.
| The Federal Government has estab-
| lished it's agricultural and mechanical
| colleges in the various States, but so
| masculine in their name and work have
| they been that, where women had permis-
| sion to enter them, only few have de-
| sired to take the courses of study offered.
l have statistics fro mthirty- three Of
| these colleges, and of the 10000 students
| enrolled only about 5000 are women Of
| BLOOD HISTORY