The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-29

and that the euu~oNoN He5Ao VI pun
white meant a spoiled laborer. His re-
oily to all this was: Ignorance is no
remedy for anything" II the State has
right TO live at all it has a right to
educate. Education is a great national
Investment.
And so. that solemn, majestic thing,
called public opinion, got born and "a
few men as earnest as death became
somewhat what we call a movement, and
the movement. led by this splendid fig
IRE. wherein was blended the grace and
charm of the old-tme with vigor and
freedom of the new became a crusade,
and Young scholars had their imagina-
lions touched by 1t and their creative in
stincts awakened by it, and the preach
ers saw their way clear to push it along.
and the politicians, ever sensitive to the
lightest wind of popular desire, felt it's
stirring in the air. Above it all, and
encrgizing it all, stood this strong
gifted. earnest mani had thought to
say old man. but there was never any
suggestion of age to me about DR.. Curry
He met youth on its own ground and
asked no impulse for impulse,
strength for strength, heart for heart
1
sense faded from his sight, he saw that
supremest good of lifo-an honest bit of
creative work well done and bearing
fruit. At the moment of the establish
ment of the Peabody Fund, 1t should be
remembered that not single Southern
State had a system of free public schools.
The angry gusts of war had blown out
all the lights burning in their ancient
seats of learning, save in the University
of Virginia alone which burned steadily
on, giving light and heat to the dark
ness and GOODNESS of the still land.
Only in a few cities were to be found
the semblance Of a public school sys-
tenn There were no normal or indus
trial schools. The Peabody Fund came
into the field of helpfulness, and during
period of thirty years, under the wise
administration of great American citi-
zens and directed by the energy and in
sight of Barnas Sears and j. l.. M. Cur
ry, expended, in stimulating ways, them
selves, the sum of $2,47S,527.13 No more
impressive evidence of the influence of
this fund and of the monumental work of
Curry and Sears can be found than in
a plain recital of these facts
today there is public system of schools
more or less complete. To bring this to
pass a war-stricken region has expended
165 millions of dollars. Normal and In
dustrial schools for both races, sustained
by general and local taxation, exist in
every State. Thirty great institutions
of higher learning have been revived or
established. Five thousand Southern
boys are studying chronological subjects
where ten studied them in 1873. Prac-
tically all cities or towns of three thou
sand population maintain q school sys-
tenn from which boys and girls may pass
to college. The percentage of illiteracy
for the white race in the twelve South
ern States has been reduced from 25
Per cent. to 16 per cent, and of the
colored 81 per cent to 81 per cent And
greater than all this, a generous and
triumphant public sentiment has been
aroused that will make these perform
ances seem feeble in another decade.
Can 1t be claimed that ever before in
the history of the Republic so much good
was accomplished as has been accom-
plished by the expenditure of this ST.
ATS, 527.13 plus the heart and brain of
men like Curry and Sears and their col
leagues and followers?
1t was given to Curry to see Southern
governors from Montague to Heard,
holding educational mass meetings and
to know the time, when, if a responsible
man lived, who opposed the idea of pub
lie education he, at least, had learned
the trick of holding his tongue. He had
watched and tended the growth of a con-
,t1l Oh,
pathy for and interest in the plain man.
and he could not fail to see the oncom-
ing of greater efficiency and exactitude
Of thinking and more scientific interest
in all social phenomena.
The most vivid impression l always
received of DR.. Curry was his intense and
complete Americanism. He had believed
in his youth, in the ethics, at least, of
He did not change that be-
lief in his old age Calhoun was second
only TO Aristotle in his regard and yet
he was the most ardent American / have
ever personally known. The flag stirred
his highest eloquence, the great ,un-
rended nation, with its needs its dreams,
its perils, its ideals, appealed to him
like nothing else on earth. His was the
first voice to declare that there was no
place for HeIot in our American sys-
tenn and that the negro must be trained
for life in this nation. He was
among the first to urge common sense
as against sentimentality in the educa-
ton of the negro. He denounced We
hemcntly the proposition to divide taxes
for educational purposes on the basis of
race as un-American, undemocratic, I'M
Christian, unwse He, it was who first
pointed out that the strategic point of
the whole educational battle was the I'M
taught white man and his child. He was
the first to thunder out to colleges and
universities that education was one
whole thing and that the colleges and
universities must come out of their isola-
tion, and, under the operation of the
principle of the "noblesse Oblige" lead
the fight for the education of all the
people. He made the world know some
thing of the courage and patience and
self-reliance of the Southern struggle
for self-realization, and he made the
world believe that there was strength
and purpose enough in thu people to
solve their own problems with justice
and wisdom In the discharge of all
these duties of the pioneer and the pro-