The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-04-28

Carolina is in most respects identical
with that in other Southern States. The
conditions in one Southern State IS the
condition in all. Therefore. l shall con-
fine my remarks to North Carolina. With
2 Ie" notifications or additions, IL viii
Apply equally to every Southern State.
There have been four obstacles to odu-
cational progress in North Carolina:
!. he negro, -enfranchised against the
protest OF the people who were forced
against their VIII TO pay tax TO educate
him..
:. Poverty grinding poverty, follow
ing war and reconstruction, such as this
generation knows not OF.
j. The lack of qualified teachers AM
the lack Of inducement to capable men
and women to become teachers.
4. High mountain ranges and numcr-
Gus water courses in the West where
people live far apart and where
compact school districts are impossible.
and great pocosins or swamps in portions
OF the East which present the same bar
r!ers TO consolidation in many parts of
the coast region that the mountain
ranges present in the West.
These four obstacles: but the greatest
Of these has been, is now. and must be,
at least IN this generation, the negro.
lie mas been the lion in the path, the
ever present and often insurmountable
obstacle to public education. There are
those who assert that many opponents Of
taxation for public education on other
grounds use the expenditure Of money for
negro education as Il pretext, and that if
no share of public money went to cdu-
eating the negro they would still oppose
taxes Tor public education. That may be
true with some. But the naked truth is
that much Of the money from taxation
Il had almost said the bulk Of ito
that has gone to negro education has
been given against the Judgment Of South
eTn taxpayers. Here, where We are
ceking to get at the real facts so thar
the best results may follow, there is no
need to look at things except just as
they are-to paint the picture as it real
~ is-Warts, freckles and all.
Is it surprising that the Southern peo-
pie, in the ashes OF a poverty that pride
largely concealed from the world, resent
ed the acknowledgements Of their slaves?
IS 1t surprising that they cried out
against being taxed to educate the chill
dren of negroes, newly freed, whcn
the losses of war sent tneir own chill
dren, unused to manual work, into the
IiNlio " VtlIOl Tie COdISeSL ldDOTS +.
When Jealous women from the North,
with the missionary instinct to uplift the
negro, came South and themselves taught
the negroes and, in some cases, mingled
with them upon terms of social equality
do you wonder that the Southern
people felt that these teachers had conc
South to put the bottom rail on top?
And when, in some instances, their teach
ing seemed at first to produce among
some of the more vicious young negroes
Il vicious attitude, do you wonder at
hostility to negro education = ,4le South?
When the statement is published upon
the authority of leading teachers that the
census reports show the negro to be four
and-a-half times more crimina in New
England, where the negroes are better
educated, than in the black belt, where
illiteracy is greatest, is it a matter Of
aStOnishment that men declare today
that negro education is a failure /?
The marvel of it all is-not that many
Southern people cried out against paying
taxes to educate negroes, believing that
it did them no good, but that not
withstanding their utter disbelief il
its good results or in their Skepticism Of
its value, they nave gone on year after
year, spending more and more money to
educate the negro children. Do you say:
They deserve no credit, they did it be-
cause the new constitutions required that
there should be no discrimination" That
is largely true, but it must never &c
forgotten that all over the South before
1860 good women had taught slaves to
read and write, SO that, when emancipa-
ton came. there were not a few negroes
who had been, in IN educational sense,
made tit for suffrage. The Southerncrs
believed then-they believe now-they al
ways will believe with Henry Ward
Beecher: eve should make tho negro
worthy first before giving him Suffrage
TourGee's hind-sight, better than his fore
sight, caused him to prove that in the
contrary policy pursued the attempt was
to make bricks without straw. There
are many Southern people who believe
thoroughly in educating the negro, and
believe that it helps him and the Whole
country, and their unselfish efforts ii
his behalf are beyond all praise. There
are thousands and tens of thousands who
do not believe in it at all, and who
are frank to say that, in their judgment,
1t does nobody any good. There are
Others. who seeing examples of negroes
that have been helped by educa-
ton, and being surrounded by 1e-
grocs whose sm2ttering Of education h2S
done them harm, arc nalllnS between Two
opinions. There are othcTs-and in this
class | believe most Of the thoughtful
people OF the South are to be found who
feel that. whatever may be the result,
they dare not shut the door of hope and
opportunity which education may open
to any people anywhcrc-the negro II
tho South, the Indian in the West. the
Filipino in Manila. They do not expect
of education that it viii change the negro
rapidly. They know to the contrary
They hope-they bclieve-they trust-that
eventually it Will prove beneficial, be
cause they have faith that light and
knowledge viii surely bless wherever
they abound. The eloquent Southern
Methodist bishop, George T. Pierce, re
garded by Toombs as the most eloquent
Of Georgians, was once asked if he be
lievcd that the heather would be savet
if the Christians refused to send the
gospel to them. 1T Is not a question &c
you, my friend replied the bishop
whether the heather will be saved if yol
90 not help to send them the gospel