The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-01-04
A NEW SYSTEM IS PROPOSED
Compulsory Education by Local Option and Gradual
Extension.
BY JOHN WILDER JENKINS.


perable.
1t would be we'll to speak frankly One
of these is the negro. Thousands o.
good people do not believe the grea
mass of the negroes are capable o
utilizing instruction in books and the
finer things of life They do not believe
that much of an education aids the ne
gro to perform the duties in his sphere
of service. They are kept in constant
fear of the political domination of the
negro, which they will never permit
as long as Gods sun shines. Many OF
the Constitutional amendments that
limit the suffrage and insure the whites
political safety are based on educational
qualifications. And if these are removed
they fear it will open the Pandora
box of negro rule and let loose again the
horde of evils that have just been sub
dued after generation of blood and
toll and struggle. Whether it be RICH
or wrong. the South is not yet ready
for the education of all the negroes.
MUST HAVE PEOPLES SUPPORT.
In the second place Thoughtful men
realize the impossbility of enforcing a
compulsory law in any State as a whole
They realize that the greater portion
of none of these States is yet prepared
for such a measure. Therefore. if en-.
acted, the law would be costly expert
ment, would be evaded disregarded and
soon repealed. And the revulsion would
set back the cause of education for q
generation. That is the reason a large
number of men who are ardently in favor
of the education OF both races-of all the
people-do not believe compulsory educa
ton in the South is practicable
For years in my native State of North
Carolina / have studied conditions as
they exist; have discussed the problem
with educators and business men, with
manufacturers and parents and men who
are giving their lives for the good of
the people. l believe there must be some
practical and efficient solution, and have
brooded over it and searched for it for
years.
LOCAL-OPTION SYSTEM.
After ALL l believe the solution lies
in the application of the principle of local
option. l remember in my childhood that
every farmer in all the broad expanse
of North Carolina had to fence in every
acre of his fields to keep out the stock
of his neighbor; when the lean. lank
COW and the razor-back hog ran wild
along every road in the country, seek
ing an opening to break into a cornfeId
or potato patch; when every field had
to be guarded as by moat and wall and
the strangers cattle ranged the country
like piratical foragers. After a while
some men who saw how foolish it was
for every man to fence his farm against
his neighbor proposed that instead the
few COWS and hogs be fenced in The
opposition to this innovation among a
large part of the population was intense
The "one-gallus' element was thorough
ly awakened to this invasion of rights
and the demagogue politicians pictured
1t as the oppression of the poor by the
rich. limiting darkly at the starvation of
thousands of the impecunious when their
razor-back pigs and mulley cows could
no longer feed on the crops of Others.
1t was found impossible to enforce
general law at first. A law to annlv RI
the State at large would have almost
created revolution. So the Legisla-
ture passed an act applying to a num-
Der or townships where a large proper
tlon OF the people favored fencing in the
cattle rather than the crops 1t also
allowed any township that so desired to
vote on the question and if majority
so voted the law would apply to the town
ship. The movement began modestly.
but as soon as it's great advantages were
seen it spread rapidly until within a
decade most of the State was covered
by the ''No Fence" laws Such move
ments do not go backward, and the man
who would now advocate a return to the
old system would be regarded as a con-
summate fool.
A PRACTICAL METHOD.
Would it not be entirely practical in
this gradual way to convert a State to