The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-24

Richmond, Va, April 23.-Presi-
dent ogden called the conference for
education in the South to order to-
day. The attendance was very large.
The first business was reports on field
work. Joseph B. Graham of Alabama
made the first report, showing the ex-
tent of the advancement in legislation
and individual effort for education IN
his state. By comparison with its past
history, he said, Alabama enters the
new century we'll equipped education
ally.
DR.. Charles w. Dabney of the Uni
versity of Tennessee gave some inter
esting statistics, among them the fol-
lowing:
The amount expended for schools per
capita for children between the ages
of five and twenty is in Tennessee,
$2.32; in Kentucky, 50 80; Texas, s.. 63;
Minnesota, 1888; Michigan. $3.50;
Ohio, 1894; New York, s1O.91 Colo
RADIO, $11.11 California. SIG. "A; Massa-
chusetts. S17.79.
Massachusetts pays thus nearly eight
times as much for the common school
education of each of her children as
does Tennessee. One of the great
needs in the South, he said, was men
and money to do more missionary work
among poor and more isolated popu-
lations. The people in one-half of the
counties of the South are probably not
able to support any kind of a decent
school, even if they knew how to do
So"
Reports were also made by DR.. Fritz
zell of Hampton, Va, DR.. Edwin A.
Alderman of Louisiana, and DIR. Nc
liver of North Carolina. All were en-
couraging. DR.. Frizzell made the posi-
tive statement that Virginia was not
a state in which i1literacy increased
faster than population. DR.. Alderman
described the educational campaign
methods of Louisiana, and DR.. Nc
liver gave an account of three systems
for advancing education in his state.
1t seemed to be the opinion that North
Carolina made a better showing than
any of the other states reported upon.
St. Clair McKelway of the Brooklyn
Eagle, made an address on North and
South" in which he said:
''The sons will preserve and magnify
the fame of their fathers, but they
will not foster or fight over again
their feuds, since the fathers them>
selves, an illustrious and a pathetical-
ly thinning band, long ago renowned
rancor and dissolved differences. Let
what people that may elect to do 9TH
eIwise, the effectives, both of the
North and of the South, believe in fac
tories quite as much as in PantheOnS,
ir energy more than in inquests, and
in schoolhouses more than in graves.
A spent quarrel, not of our making
and not of yours, shall not be revived
nor reworked to do the unmaking of
either of US. We will honor as chill
dren their parents, the Survivors of
the struggle between the states.
Better a decade of love and of
peace than cycle of the mutilations
and of the memories of civil war.
With us the tide of truth and of
manhood has risen higher among the
people than among the managing poll
ticians. There has been a manifest
and an overwhelming revolt against
the lowering conception of public in
telligence by beaten bosses, by mis-
leading leaders, by discounted dema-
gogues and by stranded cracks.
II might run the gamut of all ques-
tions by which, since the war, South
and North have been at times divided,
and by which they have been divided
within parties as well as between them.
My object, however, will have been ac-
complished If 1 have suggested to the
friends with whom 1 came and to the
friends that we have made here, the
fact that we all really agree rather
than actually differ on matters of vivid
and vital concern to our common
wealths and to our republic. Too lit
tie of our argument argues. Too lit
tie of our debate debates. Too much
of our contention'is about names rath-
er than about things. Too much of
our controversy is around terms rather
than around truth. Too much of our
talk is for victory rather than for We
racity.
Reform in these respects must be
inductive rather than direct. 1t must
begin with the chief sinners, our
statesmen and our journalists. We
must import into our writings and into
our speeches more of candor and less
of passion. We must make our words
purposely plain rather than deliberately