The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-25
SOUTHERN EDUCATION
 IN ITS NATIONAL ASPECT

The tolfoWlng are the closing para graphs of an address entitled The Task of the South recently delivered by Rev E. G. Murphy before the faculty and students of Washington and Lee Univer- sity, Lexington, Virginia Copies of the complete address may be obtained from the office of the Executive Secretary, P. Q. Box 347 Montgomery, Ala
 The speaker, after dwelling fully upon the subject of negro education, then cited the statistics as to the illiteracy of the rural white population. There are 217 counties in our whole country in which EO per cent or more of the native white men of voting age are illiterate. Of these counties PIP are in the Southern states Of our countrys native white population of ten years of age and over, inc South contains 24 per cent; but of the native white illiterates of ten years nf age and over the Southern States con tain 6i per cent. After dwelling upon Inc striking and heroic progress of the South, MT. Murphy continued:
 The reading of the figures as to South ern iliteracy is not cheering diversion. And vet it were folly to assume that we can aid the South by the exercise Of a blind affection which would blink or con ceal the facts Those facts are not taken from the tale of an enemy; they are taken from the reports of our own super tntendents of public instruction, they form part of our local, as we'll as a part oI our national records. The first duty Of the physician who would apply a remedy lies in a sympathetic, but fearless diagnosis The first duty of wise edu- catonal statesmanship Is a clear and un- flinching perception of the situation. There Is no disgrace in our illiterscy It Is duo to historic and formidable forces. There would he every disgrace, however. In policy which would now perpetuate it 1..- .o1. foA aNe indifference upon the husks of d fiatter- ing and senseless optimism
 l have said that we must educate. When l say we" I mean that we must count all of our people within the fel- lowship of responsibility. Within the partnership of obligation, the great masses of our white people should hold the first place of initiative. dignity, and service. No man can go to them with aims. To rouse them to see their duty. their duty to their children. to themselves and to their country, and then to help them see how bravely and how well they themselves can perform this duty-we have here a. I have already said, the funds mental and distinctive element in the policy of the Southern Education Board.
 The Principle of Cooperation.
 But tho principle of initiative must be supplemented by tho principle of co- operation. It is an established principle m every form or commercial, TeIiBlUuS UT educational effort. No man, North or south. shares any privilege of this life for which he has paid all the cost How many of us who go to church have paid our full share of the cost of what we get? How many men. in business refuse to be benefited by policies and facilities of the community which, In their value, are out of all proportion to what these men have paid? Who goes to college North or South and really pays. in full, for all he there receives? He may pay what is asked or charged. but what Is asked or charged is a small element of the cost of what he gets The man who goes to Yale or Harvard University. the young woman who goes to Vassar-is directly the beneficiary of buildings and endow- ments which philanthropy has given. and which express the enduring truth that the education of our children, whether the children of the rich or of the poor. repre- sents a great task of collective consecra- ton. the task of society and Of humanity
 Who shall tell me. therefore. that the principle of cooperation may be accept cd by the sons of wealth but that 1t may not he accepted by the children of the poor? Surely. if any children in our land may lay rightful and honorable claim upon the generous interest Of all our countrymen. these are the children or our rural South The children of peo- pie isolated from the busy life of trade, often thinlv settled upon undeveloped lands, they yet represent an uncorrupted stock, full of native Nlgor ana ndtlNe WI It is a noble wealth which awaits us in their capaciti and faculties. The South $ intense preOCcupation with the problem of the ncgro has largely shut these peo- ple out from the care ard the provisions of the State. For this preoccupation ana for it's unfortunate results, our whole country has been responsible.
 A National Responsibility,
 The Federal government freed the slaves but the Federal government spent little indeed in fitting them to use their free dom well Hundreds of thousands of ig- uorant negro men were introduced 10 the suffrage without any Introduction into the capacity for its exercise, and the South-defeated. impoverished, desolate- was forced to assume the task of proNid- ing for the education of two populations out of the poverty of one.
 The very hypothesis of intervention Tn behalf of the negro was that the condl, ton of the black man was the care ana responsibility not of q secuon nut or me whole country. The very essence of the theory of emancipation was that the status, of the black man was the charge of tho nation. Yet the issue of enamel nation left the negro. in his helplessness' st inc threshold of the South. The South with peculiar heroism, has risen to that responsibility For ono dollar contributed for his education hy philanthropy from inc North four dollars have been contrib uted through taxation from the South. The negro has shared this burden, but his vast numbers his great needs and ms ing; productive capacity have necessarily rcdured the amount which the South ,nuid cXpcnd upon her white children.