The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-27

census
 Now, I do not hesitate to affirm that the United States census shows unmis- takably exactly the opposlte-that educa- ton has decreased crime. careful study of the exact figures will show that the proportion of negro criminals from the H. lterate class has been forty per cent larger than from the class which has had school training. And when we consider further that 1t Is naturally and notorious
 y easier to convict poor negro of any crime than a white man who has inhuen- tial friends and well paid counsel, the strength of the statement Is Irresistible and unansweTable.
 Joel Chandler Harris.
 Joel Chandler Harris the distinguished author and political philosopher, and whose interpretation of the southern ne- gro has given him world wide and im- l mortal fame in recent article in the Sat urday Evening Post, gives this emphatic testimony:
 ," orhe idle and criminal classes among l them make a great show in the police 1 court records, but right here in Atlanta, | the reputable and decent negroes far out number those who are on the lists of the police as new or old offenders. l am l bound to conclude from what l see about me, and from what l know of the race 1 elsewhere. that the negro notwithstand- | ing the late start he has made In civil l izaton and enlightenment, is capable Of making himself a usefm member of the 1 community In which he lives and moves, | and that he Is becoming more and more 1 desrous of conforming to all the laws | that have been enacted for the protec- 1 lion of society
 "The Hon. w NJ. Cox of Mississippi,
 prominent in the political councils of his l state, for years a leading figure In our state legislature, and q scholar has given l i Is Judgment on this question, which per l fectly accords with his own observations. l He says
 When I consider all the circum- stances of the case, the negros weak
 ness. his utter lack of preparation for l freedom and citizenship and the multi tudlnous temptations to disorder and
 wrong-doing which have assailed him, l the wonder to me is, not that he has done so ill, but that he has done so
 well. No other race in the world would
 have borne itself with so much of pa-
 tience, docilty, and submisslveness. It is true that many grave crimes have been committed by negroes, and these have l sorely taxed the patience of the white people of the south. l do not blink l at their enormity, and l know that they must be sternly repressed and terribly avenged. But l insist that the entire race 1 is not chargeable with these exceptional crimes, and that the overwhelming ma 1 jorty of the race are peaceable, inoffen- i sive and submissive to whatever the 1 superior race sees fit to put upon them. | Their crimes are not the fruit of the l little fearing their schools afford them. 1 They are the results of brutish instincts and propentities which they have not been taught to regulate and restrain
 And m this scheme for their education a constructive statesmanship suggests that proper training be provided for those who may become the teachers and wise leaders of their people.
 "The true theory of negro education in the south has been admirably stated in these words: The rudments of an ed- ucation for all, industrial training for | the many. and a college course for the talented few The thirty thousand negro public schools of the south, on which seven and one-half million dollars are expended annually and for which we l have spent $l25. .000, ,000 since 1870, must he supplied with competent teachers of that l