The semi-weekly messenger., 1904-05-17

State the Richmond News-Leader
and others enthusiastically endorse
the scheme. For our part we share
the widespread feeling Of aversion to
the efforts of these philanthropists
who have invaded the southland to tell
us how we ought to manage our edu-
cationaI interests. We cannot but feel
that the welcome they have received
in this section is due to the desire to
get hold Of some OF the millions they
are able to tap But the south is rich
now, and getting richer, and ought to
be able to educate its own people"
The Manufacturers Record of Bal
timore, commenting on the ability of
the south to carry on her educational
plan and ON the evils Of looking for
outside aid says:
The plea is made that the south Is
poor, and cannot afford to educate its
own people. This is false. With a
| population of about 25,00O,ooo the
wealth of the south is just about the
same, 5000 O00, 900. as was the wealth
OF the entire country, with its 0.000, 900
people, in 1860. The south is abund-
antly able to educate its children.
whites and blacks, and the best educa-
tional work which it can possibly do is
| TO awaken it's own people to this fact
| tion or aid. That in itself would be an
| education, and every effort to get mon
ey from other sections to do what we
should learn to do ourselves is a fatal
blunder-a blunder which drives one
more nail into the coffin of southern
self-reliance and independence. That
So many southern men and southern
| institutions are willing to be recipients
of such charity or to be led by such
outside philanthropists Is one of the
saddest signs of the times. and is
proof of the demoralizing effect of the
policy carried out on a comparatively
small scale with the best intentions
during the last twenty years"
Commenting on the above the Char
lotte Observer says, and we agree with
it:
TT is quite true that the south is able
to educate it's own people, but suppos-
ing that it were not? 1t were far pct
that they grow UP in ignorance than
that they be educated by the charity
of strangers. The Raleigh Post sub
mits some highly jHdicious comments
upon the above quotation, and we beg
leave to consent to the following:
"'No indeed, the south-supposinS
other states to be as well off as North
Cardinals not too poor to give her
own children an education. No south
ern state or community should permit
itself to be placed in the position of
mendicant. The self-reliance of our
people, already demonstrated, should
be encouraged and cultivated. We
have gone far enough to establish
good beginning. Let us take care of
our own and go forward with a self
respecting sense of independence.
The Washington Post. which is more
thoroughly acquainted with conditions
at the south than any other paper
north of the Potomac river and better
understands the feelings and senti-
ments of the people. has this to say
of the opposition to the Ogden move
ment:
I'VE fully realize and share the feel
ings of those southerners who WISH
that Mr.. Ogden and his party would
confine these very admirable energies TO
their own immediate neighborhoods.
Leaving aside the consideration that
thousands of illiterate Savages are to
be found in and about New York city,
among whom local humanitarians and
doctrinaries could labor to great local
advantage, there remains the impor-
tant and as yet unsettled question
whether a high school education-as
the saying goes-is in fact the panacea
for all our social ills. Apparently Mr..
Ogden and his associates believe this,
but in that case the SouthernerS have
q reasonably fair warrant for asking
them why they do not apply the rem
edy at home and prove their case De-
fore they undertake to invade the
south
The New York Tribune says the op-
position to the Ogden movement comes
from the northern CAPITALISTS who have
| invested in southern mills and who
desire to retard the cause of education
| in order that they may continue to
secure cheap white labor. Here is
what it says, to which no one, ac-
! auainted with the conditions will Is'y
any attention:
| This is clear when the character
| of the bitterest warfare on what mas
| come to be called, after the pres1denf
| of the conference, the Ogden move
| ment is considered. 1t is found in organs
of the new manufacturing interests OF
| the south, and these interests are
| largely controlled by northern capital.
| The same greed which aroused MaSsa-
| cusetts owners of southern mills TO
| fight child labor laws now 1mpeis them
| to keep the poor whites Of the south In
| ignorance. These cotton mllis anu
iron mills machine shops and furn1-
ture factories which are springing up
| like mushrooms in the southern states
| do not for the most part employ negro
| labor Their workers are the white
people who have hitherto lived in pow
erty and ignorance in the isolated rural
| districts. 1t is for them that men like
Dabney and McIver, VINO are prominent
! in this movement, have been especially
concerned. 1t is for them above all
| others, that local taxation for puollc
schools has been urged and frlend'y
| contributions to school funds have Deen
| made. Some of these manufacturers
we do not believe tney are numsrl-
| cally strong-scent higher wages anc
shorter hours in the education OF TINS
class. They do not want universal
education, even of whites. They have
| established cotton mills in the south
| because they can get cheap iaoor anu
| work If long hours without much lim-