The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-01-16


State to do for the citizen only that
which the citizen cannot do for him
self. The best type OF man is the self
developed man. | am deeply interest.
ed In the beginning. Like the acorn
shaken from the twig by the passing
breeze, II falls into the dust below, and
while IL c~ontains within its little she'll
the germ Of the great oak, 1t remains
an acorn still, until the rain falls and
moistens the earth, the l~ife-giving rays
OF the sur pierce its mould, and, burst
ing open the door of Its prison cell,
the stimulating air fans its folded
leaves TO life, II a its infant head
to the light and sends forth its rami
flying roots to gather material with
which 10 build the giant Of the forest.
A few years OF cultivation and direc-
ton and il will care for itself. So 1t
Is with the sturdy boys and girls Of
the rural districts of Mississippi. They
need only the sunlight of an opportu-
nifty to awaken sleeping genius-one
draught from the Pierian spring will
create a thirst for knowledge that will
remove mountains OF obstacles to graf
ify it. But without that opportunity
without the whetted thirst for
knowledge-the glorious possibilities
Of that mind would never be devil
oped.
How many a rustic Milton has passed
by
Sitting the speeches. longings of his
heart
In unremitting drudgery and care?
How many a vulgar Cato has COM
PEELED
His energies, no longer tameless then,
To mould a pin or fabricate a nail?
How many a Newton whose passive
Those mighty spheres that gem in
fnity
We're only specks of tinsel fixed in
heaven
To light the midnight of his native
town
all because Of the want Of opportu.
nity-the necessary climate to germi-
nate the seed Of genius which had
fallen in the sterile dust of adversely?
Yes. by fellow citizens, the frs duty
of the State is to provide schools
improved facilities for the instruction
of the masses in the rudiments of an
eduCation-especially those OF her citi-
zens who live in the country districts.
The city schools are good enough. I'm
til that can be done, until the children
living away from the towns and cities
in the backwoods are given the same
opportunity to acquire q common
school education that is enjoyed by the
children resident in the city. let us not
establish any more institutions for
higher education than those we al
ready have.
Thus far what | have said on the
subject of education has been with ref
erenCe solely TO the white children.
What shall we do with the negro?
Certainly the education suited to the
white child does not suit the negro.
This has been demonstrated by forty
years of experience, and the eXpendi-
ture in the Southern States of nearly
three hundred millions of dollars. 1t
was natural. and quite reasonable, i'm
mediately after the civil war, espe-
cially by those who had made but 4 su-
| pericial study Of the negro, to expect
| that freedom, equal educational facili.
ties and the example of the white man,
would have the effect of improving his
morals and make a better man Of him
generally. But it has not, ! am sorry
to say. As a race, he is deteriOrating
morally every day. Time has demon
strated that he is more criminal as a
free man than as a slave, that he Is
increasing in criminality with fearful
rapidly, being one.third more crimi.
nal in 1890 than he was in 1880. The
| startling facts revealed by the census
show that those who can read and
write are more criminal than the illit-
crates, which is true of no other ele.
ment of our population. ! am advised
that the minimum illiteracy among
the negroes Is found in New England,
where it is twenty-one and seven
tenths per cent: the maximum is
found in the black belt-Louisiana,
Mississippi and South Carolina-there
it is sixty.fve and seven-tenths per
cent. And yet the negro in New Eng
land Is four and 0ne-half times more
criminal, hundred for hundred, than
he is in the black belt. In the South,
Mississippi particularly, ! know he is
growing worse cry year. You can
scarcely pick up a newspaper whose
pages are not blackened with this az.
count of an uncomfortable crime com
mitted by a negro brute. and this
crime, | want to impress upon you, is
but the manifestation of the negro's
aspiration for social equality. encour-
aged largely by the character of free
education in vogue, which the State
is levying tribute upon the white PEG.
pie to maintain. The better class OF
negroes are not responsible for this
terrible condition, or for the criminal
tendency Of their race. Nor do | wish
to be understood as c%ensuring them
for it. | am not censuring anybody.
nor am | inspired by i'll will for the
negro, but | am simply calling atten'
ton to a most unfortunate and unen.
durable condition Of affairs, What
shall be done about it? Surely some,
thing must be done. The white people
of Mississippi cannot sit idly by with
out making an effort at least to arrest
this destructive tendency. The State,
for many years, at great expense to
the tax payers, has maintained a sys'
TEN of negro education, which has pre-.
duced disappointing results, and | am
opposed to the perpetuation of that
system. My WI idea is that the char
acter of education for the negro ought
to be changed. If, after forty years of
earnest effort and the expenditure OF
fabulous sums of money to educate his
head, We have only succeeded in max
ing a criminal out Of him and impair
ing his usefulness and efficiency as a
laborer, wisdom would suggest that we
make another experiment, and see il
We cannot improve him by educating
his hand and his heart. There must
be a moral substratum upon which tl
! huild or ypu cannot make n desirable