The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-24
AIMS AND PURPOSES OF
EDUCATORS CONVENTION.
Committee Seeks to Awaken Inter-
est in the Jacksonville Meeting.

Committee Seeks to Awaken Inter-
est in the jacksonville Meeting.
Washington, Dec. ga report cal
culated to awaken interest in the
forthcoming meeting of the Southern
Educational Association at Jackson
Vile, Fla. has just been issued by
the Committee on aims and Pur-
poses" of the association. The report
disclaims the existence of the associ-
alton as due to sectional sentiment,
but" it adds, there is a community
of interest in educational matters in
the Southern states such as belongs to
no other group of states in the Ameri-
can Union"
The impoverishment Of the endowed
and private schools and the passing
from the educational system which met
the needs of the white citizens in for
mer days to a system of schools sup
ported by the people and framed to
meet the needs of all citizens and the
demands of the twentieth century,
have rendered necessary educational
changes radical as to principles and
revolutionary as to methods
THE acknowledgment of the ne
groes," the report says, added to the
citizenship of these states a generation
ago an unexamDled burden of Hitter
acy, the mode of relief from which it
is our duty to determine and to accom-
plish.
''The effort to provide rural schools
in any sense worthy of the need has
disclosed, from the Appalachian noun
tain section to the pine woods of Geor-
gia, Florida and Mississippi, and even
in the rich delta of the Mississippi, diff
ficulties, affecting primarily the devel-
opment of the schools for the white
race, to which is added the enormous
burden of responsibility entailed upon
the white race by the presence of the
negro, and the necessity for preventing
his degradation and helping him to
better and more useful life.
1.-The conditions. named have marked
the section in which we live with a
degree of illiteracy that is appalling
The South holds "a per cent. of the ma
tive white population of the country
and GA per cent of the native white
illiterates Of the country. To this is
added the enormous and dangerous
burden of negro illiteracy."
While the association heartily an
preciates the interest and sympathy
of philanthropists everywhere, the re-
port says, "the problems confronting
us are too complex to be easily un-
derstood by study at a distance, too
delicate for unsympathetic handling
and too great for anything less than
united effort to be effective in their
solution.
I'm dealing with the municipal
schools, graded schools, high schools
and college work, as to coordination
and methods, we need to know at
once what can and what cannot be
carried out under our conditions.
And when we have strengthened
our faith and hope by mutual coun-
sci regarding the work of education
for the white race we need to look
we'll to that other work for which,
whether we wish it or not, we are held
responsible to the world and to our
posterity-the training of the negro
race.
"To study and discuss the problems
and policies with which we, who live
and work in the Southern states. arc
concerned, to compare the experiences
of each so that they may be profit
able to all, to investigate conditions
and needs peculiar to our own section
and to encourage each other in these
efforts are the aims of the Southern
Educational Association.
However widely the educational
needs of the South may differ from
those OF other sections they are still,
in an important sense national needs
and must be considered in the light OF
national ideals and in the spirit OF
that broad patriotism which regards
sectional problems as vital elements
in the life of the nation"
The report is signed by j. II. Phil
lips. Birmingham, Ala; Charles d.
McIver, Greensboro, ~. c.. and r.
y. Fulton OF the University OF Mis-
sissippL