The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-24
THE ATHENS CONFERENCE.

Oo'ioiihi Injecting THAT mas ever Deen held
in the South. The conferences that have
preceded it have been of great interest
and value and have set the influences in
motion that have resulted in the past
year in the organization of an Educa-
tional Board, with large means, inter-
ested in helping in the education of the
Southern children. 1t is understood that
since the Winston Salem conference, Mr.
Rockefeller has given one million dollars
to the Board to be used to advance public
education in the South. That money, and
other sums that will be given, is to be
employed to assist those communities
that vote local tax. One of the plans
outlined by the Board was put in opera
ton recently at Greensboro. The people
of that city gave $4,000 to help the rural
districts to build better school houses.
This Educational Board duplicated the
amount They will follow the general
idea of helping those communities that
show disposition to help themselves,
but lack the means to make the neces-
sary progress in providing school houses
and larger school income at the same
time. The Peabody fund helped Raleigh.
Charlotte, Goldsboro and the other lar
ger towns establish their graded schools.
This Board proposes to do the same thing
on larger scale in helping the smaller
cities, and particularly the rural dis
tricts
The men who are behind this move
+ ent have no Interior purpose. They rec
csnize the fact that for thirty years the
Southern taxpayers have had burden
for the education of their own children
and the children of the newly enfran-
chised negroes. They know that with this
burden, the Southern taxpayer could not
provide long term schools with sufficient
teachers. They are willing to help in this
good work not in the spirit of pauper-
izing the South, but in the desire to as
sist in the great work the Southern edu-
Gators and the Southern people are doing
with small means. They do not come
with ready-maie plans, seeking to die
tate methods. Their spirit is in harmony
with the best Southern sentiment and
they seek to Cooperate with the South
ern educational leaders IN the new edu-
cational revival that is giving a new i'm
petus to public education in the South.
North Carolina will be well represented
in the conference. The Governor, State
Superintendent of Schools Joyner and
Congressman Small will represent the
official side of the State, and most of the
situations will be present.
Raleigh would be glad to entertain the
conference at its.nex session.
A staff correspondent of the Baltimore
Sun, writing from New York, throws
light upon the work and the men who
are at the head of it. We quote:
John D. Rockefeller's gift of 81 ,OOO 900
TO the cause of education in the South,
the beginning. There may be another
million in sight from the same source,
if other wealthy men do their share and
contribute as literally for educa ton in
the Southern States as they have for the
same purpose in the North; and there
are indications that other millionaires
will join in the movement.
This gift which means so much to
| ha ic i,,
money, 81 600, 900, was given outright, and
as it was put today, Not as an endow-
ment of which the income only is to be
spent, but as a fund to be used outright
as the General Educational Board sees
fit
",This is to be the beginning of more
general education in Tle South, and Mr..
Rockefeller said at the time the gift was
made: i hope this is to become the chan
mel through which many large benefac-
tons will go tc hasten the obliteration
of illiteracy.
Those interested today told just how
the money was given. 1t was given to
The General Education Board, and this
board Will disperse the funds as it sees
fit, in connection with the executive COM
mittee OF the Southern Educational Con-
l6IeHCe w uSelS thursday DIT AI0e0S,
Ga. The members of the General Board
of Education are W. H. Baldwin, Jr.,
chairman; George Foster Peabody, treas
urer; Rev. Wallace Buttrick, secretary
and executive officer and j. l.. NJ. Cur
ny, Frederick T. Gates, Daniel c. Gill
ian, Morris K. Jessup, Walter H. Page
and Albert Shaw
John Rockefeller Jr., is said to be
partly responsible for his fathers great
interest in the cause of education in the
South, but Booker T. Washington is also
said to have been influential in the mat
ter.
Young Mr.. Rockefeller did not go
South with the large party headed by
R, c. Ogden, which left this city Mon
day afternoon TO visit the various edu-
cation centers in the South and to at
tend the educational conference in
Athens He left the city tonight, and
ii is believed he will join the party at
enc of the Southern institutions. Young
Mr.. Rockefeller had become greatly in
terested in the South and its develop
ment, and urged his father, so it is said
to look over the Southern States and
their needs before making any large gifts
elsewhere. His father at once empow
cred him to look into the matter and