The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-20

been deposited if 1t had not been for oul
 pank. We are holding conferences to en. courage people to save their money ane showing them the value of the bank as
 means to this end. The bank has greau,
 assisted colored people to go Into business I Dr. Murray of Cannon Seminary, At.
 ianta, said: "There is danger that oui
 men get above their business. We teacf
 them that they are to do the hard pas
 toral work down among the poor people Il The students do street preaching and
 work In the siums of Atlanta"
 Miss Showers of Hampton Institute told or the work ct Hampton among the cnii.
 dfen. through the Whittier School and out 4 among the families. They teach them gardening and sewing.
 Dr. Dickernnan spoke of his visit tc
 srhofieid School, at Aiken. s. C., whert
 ne had brought to his notice the loss to
 the oolored people by the passing away Q! the old c0lored mammies. He felt that her place must be supplied by the trained nurse. The first nurse training school started in the South was in 1891. The number has grown rapidly since then. There are now more than 50, about p Tor colored people. There is great demand for coiored nurses. The colored physicians need thens and they are called for by white physicians.
 Mir. Pomeroy of Peace Haven School, Blackvilie, s. C.. asked if 1t would not be wise to teach in the class room short | course in nurse-training.
 J.sW. Ovletrea, of Hartman, Tenn, said
 they had made special improvements along the line of homes and the church. As result many neat colored homes have been built along a nice street. Be- fore these people were crowded together in what was called "darktown." Our choir goes to help in the churches. Mir. s. L. Williams of Chicago told Of the establishment of frst-class nurse' training school in Chicago for training coiored nurses. These nurses are em- ployed by the best and richest families of the West at good salaries. He spoke of his inspiration by the Conference and his desire to help in the work at the South.
 Richard Potts of Notasulga told of the Improvement they had made by adopting q better kind of agriculture. one man, by subsoiling. having raised a bale Of cot ton to the acre.
 Professor HiIi of Centerville, Ala. spoke of the struggle there to start a school. /They had S6 acres of land. They have lately built six-room house by giving a mortgage on 6 mule. This has since been paid and the mule redeemed. Three families have bought land, adjoin- ing the school grounds. and are building homes. The school runs eight months.
 The following report was given by Rev. E. D. Hubbard of Laurel, Miss:
 Laurel had in 1890 population of not more than 300. About 50 per cent of that number was colored. Today Laurel has d population of 6.500.. 30 per cent of which are colored. Four years ago there was not more than ten colored men who paid their taxes and owned their homes. To- day more than POO own their own homes and are legal voters Our people are ad- vancing educationally. morally and relig- iously. We have four churches, all Of which are decent houses, one separate district school, which lasts eight months in the year, with four teachers. As a whole. the colored people of the Laurel vicinity are on the upward move"
 After long and earnest discussion, the Committee on Resolutions made the fol- lowing report. which was unanimously adopted: .-4
 The Workers Conference congratutates the South and the nation upon the progress made in negro education. Since 1880 $1O6, ,0O0.000 have been expended in the former slave States upon negro public schools. And as result less than 46 per cent of the negro popula- ton is illiterate today. Moreover. to cite only two cases, the Georgia negro ownA property assessed at over $16, .OOO and the Virginia negro property assessed at more than S17. 900; this notable pro- gress in civilization is incontestably due in large part to negro education.
 The improving economic condition of the negro means great increase in the negro school taxes. Thus, in the nine counties that constitute middle Florida
 (sometimes called the Florida black belt1' the State Superintendent shows that the total paid for negro schools. without the white citizens paying one cent, was $2S.- SS4 and the total cost of negro schools over S4,500 less. ''Without discussing the American principle that 1t is the duty of all property to educate every. citizen as a means of protection to the State and with no reference to what taxes that citizen may pay" says Superintendent sheats, 'it Is the purpose of this para graph to show that the backwardness Of education of the white people is in no degree due to the presence of the negroes but that the presence of the negroes has actually been contributing. to the sus- tenance of the white schools" The steady advance of the negro population in the essentials of civilized life is at once an evidence and a Justification of the increasing respect in which the negro's striving is held by the substantial white people of the South.
 
 cumstances, 1t must not be forgotten that the provision for the negro educa- ton Is sadly and dangerously inadequate. In the States of Virginia, North Caro- lima, South Carolina, Georgia, Floridas Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mis- sissippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, | in these thirteen States the average at- tndance of negroes during 1900 was only 3S per cent of the number of negroes of school age.
 In rrder to imprive the character of negro schools, local taxation must be I greatly increased; teachers must be bet ter educated, better trained and better paid; and every effort must be made by | the school to purify and tnvigorate the home life, and to connect the classroom l more and more closely with the life anu labor of the community.
 Finally, the school should arouse among negroes more wholesome public opinion.-a public opinion that shall
 set a premium upon the good and law abiding, and a ban upon the bad and lawbreaking. The upright negro should l>be every whit as eager to lessen negro crime as the upright white man to put an end to white lawlessness In matters
 of right and justice good black men and good white men should promptly stand
 together for the common interest.
 good white men should promptly stand
 SoHcitude for Negro Education is so-
 licitude for the welfare and progress oi
 the south and the country.
 | R. c. Bruce. D. H. Webster.