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

six months as editor o. the AIlanti
Monthly. he was talking to a southern
friend who was visiting him, and he said
substantially: These people in Boston
mean the best educated ones
are densely ignorant about the South
They know all about South Africa, China
and the Philippines; they have travelled
in almost every country; they speal
half a dozen languages; they are broad
minded. c~lear-headed and study almost
every question with no desire but TO get
at the truth. But when it comes to the
South-Why they are densely ignorant
about even it's geography, its history.
and they do not remotely guess at its
thoughts, its aims, it's purposes. In
every practical VI China is nearer TO
them than North Carolina"
This writer, thinking of the Ignorance
, OF true knowledge thus depicted, seriously
thought Of starting a subscription and
an agitation TO raise money to send mis-
s~ionaries to Darkest Boston. But before
that could be carried into execution, the
Southern Educational Board was organ
lied, then the General Education Board
started upon its big work, and while lit
tie impression has been made on Darkest
Boston. gradually the ignorant educated
Of the North are learning something
about the South. What have those
Boards taught them? They have had
their ear, Northern people will read
about anything anywhere to which Rock
e~feller VIII give a million dollars and
for the furtherance of which
Ogden will charter Il train and carry it
loaded throughout the entire South. The
problem of which Mr.. Page spoke was to
get the ear of those folks. What an in
dividual could not do these Boards have
done. The North is interested in the work
that is being planned, in the work tina:
is being executed. What have these
Boards taught the Northern people?
/. That the South-or large portions
of it-pays more money for public educa-
erty than Observation-Disclosures it pays
his often out of it's poverty.
2. That the South, skeptical or disbeliey-
ing in the value of educating the negro,
spends millions of dollars for negro
schools, that since 1874 the State of North
Carolina alone has spent $ $3.50, 1904 upon
negro education, nearly all of which has
been paid by the white people.
VN,o4 49, Meath -no-o;I~r r. do
great things for negro education, has
wasted most of the money sent South fer
that purpose, and in some instances it has
done more harm than good, and that if it
wishes to do anything in the South fer
education it must work in cooperation
! with the constituted educational author
tiles of the Southern States.
4. That the Southern people are real
friends Of the negro, and that if the negro
question is ever solved it must be work
ed out in the South, with the co-opera-
ton and kindly help of the North, ami
mated by the spirit of Henry Grady's
great Boston speech.
5. That it is the duty Of the North tc
help the South in the great work it has
in hand, with sympathy, with patient
helpfulness, with money. If every dollar
of the public schoo money spent for
negroes paid by whites had been en-
ployed only for the education Of white
children, the public school houses in the
South would be as good as those in other
sections Of the country.
6. That the difference between the
Northern method and the South
, ern method Of negro education is
that the North began educating
the negro at the top, spending no
money on the negro except for higher
education and big college buildings. The
natural consequence was that in many
instances the negro was educated down
wards. The South's method has been to
begin at the bottom by building small
school houses all over the rural country,
teaching him to read, write, work and
be honest. The natural result of such
education has been to educate him up
ward. 1t is we'll that these Northern
people are finally coming to see that the
South's method is the true one and ready
to help advance il.
These are some of the lessons that
these Boards have taught. Some people
have had the false idea that the most
important work Of the Boards was to
help the South. That is a mistake.
Their most important work has been tc
educate the North-to learn them the
truth about the South and its real spirit
and real purposes. What are the frs
fruits of the lessons taught? Here are
some that these Boards have helped tt
produce:
/. Grover Cleveland, a careful SUDDEN
of all that transpires, tells the Northern
people that the future Of the negro de,
ponds upon himself and-(not upon North
ern bloody-shirt wavers who nave lied t,
him ever since they freed him to politi
cally enslave Southern Democrats an
got caught in their own trap)-'"upon tn