The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-10

President of a Southern college, "to
tasks Of those of us who would uplift
the negro infinitely harder"
How radical is the revolution which has
taken place in the South in half a century
In 1853 no man was permitted to teach
that any negro, however educated and
competent, had right to vote; now no
man will be permitted to teach that any
negro, however ignorant and incompe-
tent, has the right to vote! We confess
to considerable degree of curiosity to
know who this unnamed President of a
Southern college is. We doubt his ability
to enforce the prohibition. At all events,
we shall take the risk
Suffrage is not a right, it is a preroga-
tive: it is not a privilege it is a duty.
He who cannot govern himself has no
right to govern others: and he who lacks
either the intelligence to understand the
truth or the will to follow it lacks the
power to govern himself, and therefore
has not the right to help govern his neigh
4 Dor. Suffrage ought to be conditional;
but the condition of suffrage ought to be,
not class, caste, or race, but character.
Suffrage oughC to be, not race suffrage,
but manhood suffrage; and manhood suf-
| frage means manhood first and suffrage
afterwards. The educated leaders among
the colored people do not object to this
principle; they do not object to the dis
reimbursement of the ignorant and incom-
petent negro. They object, and they have
a right to object. to laws which pretend to
do one thing and do another, which re-
quire the voters to understand the Consti-
tuition, but are so administered as to de-
mand of the negro a knowledge of consti-
tutional law such as few white men pos
sess, which profess to exclude ignorance
and admit it freely if it is white.
But universal education will eventually
bring with it universal suffrage: and no
suffrage will long remain universal unless
it is based on universal education. Knowl-
edge is power and the ballot without
knowledge is not power. The attempt to
give political power without first giving
political intelligence always fails. Out Of
| the direst evils some good springs The
| South learned in the reconstruction period
that universal suffrage does not bring with
| 1T universal liberty; the North is more
slowly learning the same lesson. Some
criticism may be brought against the re-
cent laws in the South restricting the suf-
frage; very serious criticism against their
unfair administration in some localities
But the purpose to limit the suffrage to
men who by a technical test can prove
their intelligence, or by moderate prop
ertY qualification give some evidence of
possessing the fundamental virtues of tenn
perance, industry, and thrift, is wholly
praiseworthy, provided it is so administer
ed as to be in fact as well as in letter
manhood. not race. test. This educa-
tional revival involves a good hope of a
sound political revival because it is an
endeavor to give to all, black and white
alike, that intelligence and that virtue
which always ought to be the prerequisite
for governing others, as they are the ne
cessary conditions for self government
| III. This educational revival is also a
revival of the home. It is by no mere
accident. it is by necessary law, that the
agitation for the abolition of child labor
accompanies the agitation for child edu-
| cation. The right of the child to be pro-
tected from the greed of employers or the
carelessness and indifference of parents is
indistinguishable from his right to an ade-
quate education. The child cannot at the
same time be in the factory making money
school being made an intelligent and vir-
tuous citizen. The educational movement
means that we are beginning to see more
clearly that cheap goods are costly when
we sacrifice men and women in order to
make them; that a law to protect children
IS more important than tariff to protect
manufacturers; that the wealth of State
depends upon its homes far more than
upon It's factories: and that if we have
forbidden the sale of slaves to the cotton
fields only to allow the sale of children to
the cotton-mills, we have small cause to
congratulate ourselves on our progress
The Southern Educational Conference in
dicates an appreciation of the home as the
beginning and the end the foundation and
the capstone, of American civilization.
/, ". Thus this educational revival is a
revival of religion. If ignorance is the
mother of superstition. intelligence is the
handmaid of rengion. Education and re-
! ligion seek the same end. The school
house and the church are partners in
common enterprise. 1t is the common
place of the normal school and the teach
ers institute to say that the end of educa
ton and so the object of the school is the
/ development OF character. And what is
the end of religion? What the object of
! the Church?
/ And he gave some. apostles; and
some, prophets and some, evangelists;
/ and some. pastors and teachers:
| till we all come unto a perfect man
/ hood, unto the measure of the stature
OF the fullness of Christ.
No one could have attended the recent
meetings of the Southern Educational Con
terence without perceiving that this char
acter-building was the common chord from
which every theme started and to which
every theme at last returned Whether the
topic was common school education or uni
versity education, the rural school or the
city school, agriculture, mechanic arts. or
literature, as there was on the one hand no
call for catechisms or creeds. no sugges.
ton even of denominational divisions. so
there was on the other hand constantly
manifest as part of the subconscious
thought of the Conference, reappearing
every now and then in explicit statement
the idea that the end of education always
is and always must be the making of men