Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-01-21
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GOV. JAMES X. vARDAMAN.

! 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 speechless 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 pin or fabricate nail?
| How many a Newton whose passive
ken
Those mighty spheres that gem in
fnity
Were 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 Gust of adversely? ?
| Yes, by fellow citizens, the first 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 a common
school education that is enjoyed by the
children resident in the city, let us not
! hfi=h inCfitVffonc fn-
| 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 su-
perfcial study of the negro. to expect
that freedom, equal educational facili-
ties and the example of the white man,
would have the effect CT improving his
morals and make a better man of him
generally But il 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
free man than as slave, that he is
increasing in criminality with fearful
rapidity, being one-third more crimi-
nal in 1890 than he was in 1885, 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-
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
ii is sixty.fire ard seyen-tenths per
cent. And yet h Ilagro in New Eng
land is fot.. AM sEse-half times more
criminal, Kindred for hundred than
he is in Ia, black belt. In the South.
Mississippi particularly, | know he Is
growing worse every year. You can
scarcely pick up a newspaper whose
pages are not blackened with the &C
count of an unmentionable crime COM
mitted by 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 peo
pie to maintain. The better class OF