The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-04-21

! ,ba unlettered negro and placed in tie
s FEDERAL Constitution an article requiring
tra south to give the negroes public
schools Il such schools were opened FOR
~ EDUCATION Of their own children. Tie
South was forced to accept those amend
reDts before It was received back into
ire Union. often with bitterness Of spir-
y and with doubt as to its wisdom the
south has taken from its poverty more
than fifty million dollars for negro
education. The North has given a few
hundred thousand dollars TO negro
schools here and there. First it was OF
Zen given into the hands Of men who
white man. Mucn of ii was wasted.
some Of il, as in Tuskeegee. Hampton,
Shaw. St. Augustine. Livingstone, Ben
! nett and other negro schools has been
wisely used. L.atterly the disposition has
been to pile it up nearly all in Booker
Washington's model negro school, which
cannot reach the whole negro population,
instead Of more wisely strengthening one
or two strong schools in each State.
The Northern men of wealth, generous
with their money, have poured millions
into the treasures of Northern white
colleges. already rich. Except at Nash
VILE. where Vanderbilt gave a million TO
establish q great university. no great
-. -, 49, 49,, -. Nr1,+I1r, -
to a Southern institution. These institu-
lions have done a work that is a marvel
when their incomes are considered and
contrasted with those of Northern insti-
tutions. Men like George Foster Peabody
have seen and felt that Southern i%nstitu-
tions can do more for education with
small gifts than any in the country and
have established chairs and given money
to their better equipment. 1t will bear
fruit an hundred fold. The Boards have
helped to impart that instruction and Sc
cure these gifts.
There is no occasion for any alarm
about these Education Boards. The
SOUTHERN ptOpIG NtICOiIIe ~ lIlC1 S0l
and cooperation of the Northern mem
bers, but in no sense depend
upon them for money or direction. The
suggestion hat they will undermine
race question, or anything else is SO alb
surd as to merit no consideration. They
would not if they could; they could
not if they would. The men
who are upon these Boards have no
| spirit except one of earnest desire to help
the South in a work more difficult than
was ever in history imposed upon any
section impoverished by war. They do
not desire to dictate or to lecture. They
wish to work upon a common platform
with Southern men for the betterment
of man through education. They know
they have much to learn. They are learn
ing. They recognize that the Southern
people have lone vastly more than cold
ciate the difficulties in the way. They
are ready to aid, not in any sense Of
patroniz4ng, but as men owing a COM
mon duty In a great cause.
Their position was we'll and correctly
stated by that fair-minded and broad
! guaged New Yorker, VIM. Wallace But
trick, the executive head Of the General
Educational Board in his address in the
Senate Chamber, in Raleigh, in Novem-
Der, 1902. He said:
I'VE have not for a moment cOntem-
plated an independent campaign for edu-
ing Northern teachers at the South, or
o. ~propagating Northern ideas at the
South; quite the contrary, we believe that
the teachers of the South must be the
people of the South, and that your schools
must be organized and maintained by you
In harmony With your institutions and
tradition; in fact, we have conceived of
ourselves simply as silent partners in
the great important movement"
We accept at its face value this declar-
alton made by an honest and patriotic
man. With such men upon such a plat
form, all Southern men sincerely inter
ested in better public schools, can stand
gladly and without misgivings or qucs-
tioning the sincerity of their motives.
DON'T LIKE FRANCHISE TAX.
TJA ~ 4 Hnacti+,@; - &C., +Io4 +Ia