The gold leaf., 1903-04-23

Another SIander Nailed.
Atlanta Constitution.

hLldutd
The New York Mail and Express con-
tinues TO display considerable interest in
Southern affairs-and it has as little com
prehension OF them as ever.
Discussing the subject of education in
the South the Mail and Express declares
| that the disgrace Of wholesale litter
acy" in this section SHOULD somehow be
ended"
AS might be surmised, the education of
| the negro is the burden of its wall and
on that point it says
The negroes themselves are doing
what they can for their own education,
but it is not much that they can do. SO
far as they are able to serve themselves,
| they are apt to strive for the higher edu-
cation brfore they get the lower, and thus
to miss both. They need guidance, and
| they need primary and industrial schools
very much"
The above is followed with statement
| to the effect that the white people of the
South are not only doing nothing for the
| education of the negro, but have done
nothing great for their own race for the
past thirty years" The Mail and Ex-
| press then says:
''No Peabody and Slater funds, no
heavy contributions from individual mil
| liOnaires, can ever really redeem the
| South. The people there must tax them
! selves for their own peoples education
more heavily than they are doing. The
| Southern Education Board is engaged in
| squirting them up to a sense OF the neces-
| sity of such effort, and in doing so it is
performing a work which will some day
net the South heavily in every sort of ad-
vantage"
There is just one line in the Nail and
| Express editorial which contains any
truth or common sense, and that is this
NO people were ever really educated
by another people"
| 1t should have occurred to the Mail
and Express to make another, and much
more forceful application of that point
but it did not. Itdid not occur to it that
by the same process of reasoning no peo-
pie were ever really taught by another
people how to manage their own affairs.
Here, for instance, is paper, published
a thousand miles away, seeking to solve
a problem that is as foreign to it as New
IOrk's municipal affairs are to the peo-
pie of London And it shows just about
as much understanding of the subject as
the average Englishman does of America,
when he supposes that New York city is
in danger of being inundated by the Miss
issippi, or that bear shooting is good in
Battery park.
But they keep hammering away at it..
And this is where the mischief is done
They mean well, no doubt-but they
know nothing about their subject. They
undertake to solve something before tax
ing the trouble to really inform them
selves as to the conditions that actually
exist.
The trend of the Mail and Express edi-
tOrial, for instance, is to show that the
white people of the South are neglecting
the negro, while the negro himself is do
ing all in his power to secure an educa-
ton. Just the reverse of this proposition
| is true, as every one who is at all llfamiliar
| with the situation knows.
Let us take Georgia to illustrate with,
and what Georgia is doing practically
every other Southern state is doing:
The value of all property in Georgia,
as returned for taxation for 1902, is
$467 $40, $40 OF this the negroes own
$15 1SS, ,O69-Or about one-thirtieth.
The total revenues of the state from
taxes levied on this property was -, 49,
211 .O5-of which the negroes paid one
thirtieth, or Approximately $4,000.
Here, then, we have figures on which to
base an estimate as to what Southern
people are doing for the education of the
negro alone.
The amount of money spent by the
people of Georgia on public schools (in-
cluding local systems) is - ,061 ,663.63
for the year 1901, as taken from the an
nual report of the state commissioner OF
education.
The total enrolment was 5O2 ,SS7. OF
ln,i fo1 IIy,in hn r
259,9S4 were white and 1906 were
negroes.
Sc that it will be seen while the negroes
pay only one-thirtieth of the states ex
penses-ouly one thirtieth of the cost OF
running these schools-the enrolment OF
negro pupils is only $4,000 behind that
of white pupils Nearly as many negroes
as whites are being educated in the com
. mon schools of Georgia-and the white
, people are paying $50 for it where the
negroes pay 81.
, These are the facts, and they ought tt
give the Mail and Express a better under
standing of it's subjects. They prove con
clusively that the white people OF th'
South are taxing themselves to educat
another people as no people ever taxet
S themselves befOre-that they are reall,
doing all they can to educate the negro
: while the negro is doing comparativel.
nothing.
Georgia is today spending nearly one
hall of her state revenues on public edu
cation-and with that money she is edu
eating nearly as many negroes as whites
while the negroes themselves are payin,
only one -thirtieth of the cost thereof.
But the Southern people do not be
grudge the negro this aid. They do in
sist however, that he be let alone-or, a
n least. that the truth be told about wha
e they are doing.