The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-08
MAKE BETTER NEGROES
EDUCATION THE REMEDY FOR
 ASSAULTS AND VIOLENCE.
Duty of the Nation and, Not. of the South Alone to Lift the Race from Its Depth of Ignorance-No Need for the Negro
 University!

Raymond Patterson in Washington Post.
 Apparently the only way to prevent all Hanger of negro domination in the South Is to educate, educate, educate.
 I am quite we'll aware of the fact that this statement will be scoffed at by South ern men quite generally. They take the position that the negro is so near a saw age he cannot be bettered. and they hon esf1y believe the slightest tinge of educa- tfon not only destroys the usefulness or the negro as a laborer but inJures nim morally and makes him menace to the community. Herein the South IS mani festly not alive to the situation. iti den- cient in its own civilization. It is haif century behind the great prosperous States of the North in it's eaucnuonRi methods. The little red school house, unr- fortunately, lis not familiar sight m the country districts of the Southern States. Every one knows that the negroes are hopeiessly ignorant at the present time; not everybody is aware of the fact that the means of education for white children hs well, in the purely agricultural dis tricts of the South. are such as would create a scandal In Massacnnsetts, or Tn New York, or in Iowa.
 Throughout the length and breadth of khe South there is crying neeu of awak- ened and enlightened public opinion. on the subject of education. The white peo- ple have been so backward in educating
 
 them to say that education of the negro Is worse thanssuperfiuous, .s
 Taking one consideration with another, I have found that the Southern people undoubtedly treat the negro with great fairness, in view of the things they have had to submit to from the changed con- ditions growing out of the war. They are much more lenient to the negro in regard to his petty faults than Northern people but, on the other hand, they seem to be- tray selfish interest in keeping the ne- gro as far below the white race as pos sible. It is rare thing when one can lind a Southern man or woman who is earnestly engaged in benefiting the color ed people from a mental standpoint. They look after his house, try to teach him to be economical, give. him better clothes. look after his food, and. in a queer kind of way, supervise his morals, but they will not educate him, and it seems impos- sible to teach Southern men and women that the education which will convert an Ignorant and frequently criminal immi- grant from Southeast Europe into good citizen will in the course of time d the game thing for the negro.
 Task a National One.
 I do not expect to convert Southern peo- ple to the education theory. There is a chance, however, for awakening public sentiment in the North on this subject and, from all can learn, after travelling D good many thousand miles through the Eouth, there is a necessity for move ment on the part of the whole nation to- ward the uplifting and education of the negro race.
 If the negro is lazy. idle, childish, filthy, mprudent and grossly immoral-and i am fully prepared to admit all that--it is be- pause of his ignorance of the ways of the world, and that ignorance can he rem edied only by the blessing of common bchool education. I believe that an in- Festigation of so-called cases of assaults hpon women by negroes will develop, in pine cases out of ten, that the negro guilty of the terrible crime Is generally Sxtremely black and almost invariably ignorant. have yet to hear of an au- Ehenticated case where a really educated begro, whofhad been thrown into close kontact wifA Educated white people, had been guilty of the new and horrible crime with which the negro race Is now so gen. brally charged.
 There is not a single Southern State where half of the negroes can read and EriteG The percentage Of ilfiteraty among lhe negroes varies from P. in Louisiana, bo 50 in Florida. According to the census hgures there are in the United States to- Jay 2s5S, ,72O negroes, over 10 years of age,