New-York tribune., 1902-05-25
SALVATION OF THE SOUTH
TO BE WROUGHT OUT BY MEANS OF
EDUCATION-NEGRO STILL IN IN
TELLECTUAL INFANCY.

There is every indication that the best ele-
ment Of the South understands more clearly now
than ever before that the salvation Of the South
must be worked out by means of education.
This means is inextricably bound up with the
industrial development of the States south OF
Mason and Dixon's line. The natural resources
Of these States practically nnlitless. and are
only just beginning 10 be thoroughly under
stood. For many years agriculture has been
practically the sole dependence in the South.
but millions of dollars have been. lost to other
portions of the country. and especially to the
North, because the South was unable to manu-
iacture her own great material cotton. In
the year 1900-'0l the Southern States grew over
ten million bales of cotton. but the great bulk
Of it sent North to be manufactured.
Southern economists have long realized that
when the South could build and equip her
cotton mills and handle her own raw material
her industrial future would become secure be-
yond all peradventure But they have also now
come to see that this cannot be until the negroes
and the uneducated whites have been trained
up to the status of skilled operatives. What is
true Of the cotton industry is largely true of
the other manufacturing industries of the
South. And this is one reason why public in
terest all over the South has been turning of
late so pointedly in the direction of technical
education and manual training for the many
citizens of the South. both black and white. who
at present have only the capacity for such train
ing. Several schools having these ends in view
have sprung up in the last ten years. and in
the last few years the result became apparent
in the large investments made in cotton mills in
the Southern states. These investments,
couraged by legislation in several States. are
still going All along the lines of the various
Southern railways the traveller sees mills.
Little manufacturing settlements are gathering
about them, and the signs OF the Industrial
growth are many.
The distinction of affects almost every
public question in the South much as
IT did, and the most optimistic can scarcely look
forward to a time when this VIII cease to be the
case. II is idle to shut ones eyes to the fact
that the large majority of Southern men OF in
telligence and standing look with disfavor upon
the higher education OF the black man. II you
ask them their reasons they will reply frankly
that in the vast majority of cases it results in
making him forget his place" IF you pursue
this phrase TO its ultimate meaning in the mind
of those who use it. you Will find that 1t voices
the fear that the negro will get more education
than he is able TO digest. that hs will conceive
exaggerated ideas OF his own importance that
he will become conceited. insolent and self-im-
portant.
Said a Southern lawyer who happened into
town while the recent Conference for Education
IN the South was going on at Athens. Ga: You
people are running the niger. Once he was
good servant although he could neither read
nor write Now you have educated him until
ne can commit forgery"
Nobody fail TO see that there is a danger
of giving the negroes as a mass more education
than their mental digestion can properly attend
10. That the colored man was unfit TO exercise
the privileges OF citizenship when they were so
suddenly acquired is truism. His training
had been far from the kind best adapted TO MT
him for the suffrage. He has been gradually
decreasing his unfitness for this great right in
the forty years that have passed since he be-
came free. but no reasonable observer will say
that he is yet trained up 10 high level
Of citizenship. Yet he has made no mean prog
ress. despite the fact that for many years his
training conducted in the face OF general
hostility all over the South.
In one OF the several able scholarly and sym
pathetic addresses which he delivered recently
in various cities of the South, while on the trip
with Robert &. Ogdens party Dr. Felix Adler
referred to the negro as the representative of
a child race. The expression Is apt indeed,
and It ought 70 bear home the truth of the prop
that Of the child individual. ought TO begin at
the bottom. In slavery days the negro was
trained take no thought for the morrow
Habits of thrift. self-eare. prudence and fore
thought were never dreamed of by him. His
present master or the ones that should come
after were responsible for his care. They would
see that he had enough 20 eat and wear and a
place TO sleep IN. The negro lived from hand to
mouth. and he was not even called upon to pro-
vide what carried by his hand to his mouth.
So IL comes that his greatest need to-day Is
training in these most elemental essentials for
happy and useful life. He needs TO be trained
how 70 help himself. 70 take thought for his
own future. He does take thought for II. TO be
sure, but he scarcely knows how 10 do it, and
he certainly does not know how do il In the
most economical and thrifty way. he Is still.
for the most part tiller of the soil. and he
ought to be encoura ged to remain So One of
the chief complaints that the South has against
him is that he is beginning 20 abandon the coun-
try for the city. He does this because. with the
slender knowledge Of agriculture he possesses.
he is unable TO make a comfortable living and
a decent home in the country.
For these reasons it seems 10 those who have
given most attention TO this most engroSsing
and vital problem that the men who do the most
real and lasting good 10 the negro will be those
who teach him these elemental things OF life
which, in the training OF his forefathers were
so entirely neglected. The real beuefactors of
the negro will be those who teach him how to
TIL the soil scientifically, how to rotate his crops
so that the soil he tills will be enriched by the
tilling, and not IMPOVERISHED 10 the point OF
actual barrenness. In his ignorance the negro
has fairly ruined thousands OF acres of what
once amazingly fruitful land. He has re-
planted the same land with cotton. cotton cot
ton, year after year until there is neither cot
ton nor anything else of value left in IL. He has
merely scratched the soil, not ploughinS II prop
erly He has taken everything from il and put
nothing back, and IL the rains came and washed
II awav he merely bemoaned his fate without
knowing how to protect the soil by adequate
drainage.
The various schools that have been established
in the South for the benefit of the negro in the
last twenty years have taken this problem 10
heart, and they are wisely insisting upon II more
and more from year to year At Tuskegee, Call
houn and Hampton the negro is taught scientific
farming. He is taught more than that-taught
habits OF thrift. decency and industry. He IS
taught how to build a comfortable and sanitary
cabin where his family may live in civilized
fashion and not like beasts Of the field. He Is
taught what President Alderman of Tulane
University, calls "seif-respect without cockness.