The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-16
MRS. MoRRIssETTE REPLIES
 TO JOHN RRlsBEN WALKER.

" JOHN BRlSBEN WHE
 Mrs Kate Hutcheson Morrissette' in a recent article in the Montgomery Ausei7 tiser. deserves unstinted applause TOT her brilliant defense of the south, whlch asein has been misrepresented by Johh DiisDen Walker Of the Cosmopolitan.
 In a communication from an Alabama club woman, a request Is made to re- produce Mrs Morrissette's article Ill tnese columns, and while space forolos using the article in full. several extracts are given:
 Women's clubs in the south, who are primarily devoted to the cause or eouca- tion. are astounded at the inaecuracy ot the statements regarding this section re- peated by MT. Brisben Walker in an ar ticle, The Education of the World, In the World s Fair edition of the Cosmopol- itan. Every southern woman who reaos 1t regrets its spirit as does every true friend Of the south.
 To be brief and definite, to waste no words in a natural resentment or an un- natural forgiveness, let It at once pc | said that MT. Walker found Tn corner and not in a prominent place at the eA- 1 position a chart of educational statistics.
 
 says so He disagreed with those who, he says, gave as an excuse for it's obscure position that it might hurt our south l ern friends" and declares T desire 10 hurt them, and proceeds to put some or 1 the contents of the chart as prominently before the public as Is possible for him to do in the pages of his magazine.
 He did not verify an item-and pub fishes to his reader3 that Alabam expends | per capita for education 5S cents. 1 Inquiry of the state department Of ed- ucation in Alabama would have enabled him to correct if he wished, the figures | according to the census of children be- 1 tween the ages of and q Alabama ex- pended last year per capita s1.31, and, ac- cord1ng to average attendance $4.41. These l figures are raised the present year to $l.45 for the former, and over $5 for the latter
 He would most likely have been told further that the state gives over half her income to public schools, as great a l proportion as any state in the Union. To this information could have been added the intelligence that the state has recently so amended her constitution that counties may vote special tax for schools. Had persistence pushed the in quiry into why this had not been done before, he might have learned that the struggle would naturally be long and arduous to persuade a legislative body to grant local tax when such leglsla- tion meant the grant to hordes of ne- groes of the right to vote that the prop erty of white people should educate black children to whom the state had already been both just and generous
 The measure of a mans duty Is his ability; a like standard applies to the state. It Is safe to say that in proportion to their wealth every southern state is giving to education as much as is given by any other state in the Union Dr. Me Iver has put it luminously for North Carolina, in saying Back of each child in North Carolina Is only $337, while back of the Michigan child Is $19s6, and of the New York child Is s2261." E. G. Murphy Is authority for the statement that on each $100 of real and personal property in Arkansas in 1890 was expended P. 8 cents, PA cents in Mississippi, over against 20.5 cents in New York and 30.9 cents in Penn sylvania; and that the assessed value of property in New York and Pennsylvania in 1870 was greater than in the whole south.
 All know how figures lie," and that the most mendacious figures are statis- tics which leave out the circumstances and environment of case. A fair and just idea of what every southern state is doing for education compared to other states would be to compare her propor- tion of appropriation out of her Income to similar proportion in each one of the other states. That such an estimate could not be obtained by application at the state department Is one of the proofs of how quietly I. w. Hill is going about his duty undisturbed by few misinformed cavillers and critics
 Had MT. Walker been acquainted with the latest authoritative expression on ed ucation in the south, "rhe Present south,' by E. G. Murphy the exposition chart would not have misled him. Twice in the book Is correctly stated-perhaps oftener-Alabama's per capita appropri- ation. Corrective, too. of his spirit in Hurting us, he would have found there that the south Invites, whether in jour- malism or elsewhere, a criticism national in the exacting nobility of It's ideals national in its moral vigor. national also in its intelligent and constructive sym pathy the large-tempered under standing of all the lovers of mankind and of all the wise befrienders of the state." He would have been reminded There is no disgrace In our illiteracy It Is due to historic and formidable forces"
 
 just fifty years old, having been inau- gurated In 1854. At a tender age 1t was Interrupted by the war of '61-65, while the reconstruction that followed the war as- sassinated or openly murdered every de- partment of state. Recreated in 1870, with 100000 negroes injected Into our statis- tics, who, in matters of education and of food and living were mostly parasites the burden was resolutely undertaken by white men-a little over half supporting the system for the whole. True, northern philanthropy has contributed to negro schools. but flor every dollar so contrib uted four dollars of southern taxation has been expended To this statement MT Murphy adds that besides education the south Is giving him more-'the opportu- nity to earn his bread, and opportunity denied him by other sections"
 It Is a cause of thankful joy that very seldom now is manifested anywhere any but spirit of respect for the south. or sympathy with her. Her emergence into prosperity, after years of fiery trial. Is but one more illustration of the survival of the Attest through those solicitudes and ministrations which ever help the Attest to survive. The ethical ideals of America repudiated the warning strife of factions and sections. and substitute social pro- cess which makes for righteousness and civilization in that it binds us closer ,n national life.