The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-05
BY ARTHUR T. TOWNSEND.

prominent educationists share it,
DR.. A. D. Mayo. one of the principal
officials of the United States Bureau
of Education. wrote the following
striking words in the 1902 report of
the bureau:
1T must never be forgotten that of
all modern peoples the people of the
least dependent on what can be learn
ed from books and taught through the
agency of schools for the develop
ment of the national character: for
the very form of government. the or
der of society, the conditions and OPP
portunities of industrial life, and the
experience in public affairs gained by
all classes of white people in the
United States during the long Colonial
times and over a century of national
life had, from the first, been in them
selves a university more stimulating.
disciplinary, and inspiring than had
ever before existed"
The schools of the North.
The schools of the North. as WI.
know them to-day in all their essen
tlal features. came into being through
the great educational revival from
1880 to 1850, of which the great
apostles were Horace Mann and
Henry Barnard. This revival to a
large extent adjusted the school sys-
tenn TO the rapidly expanding needs of
the Northern States. In one state
after another, homogeneous sys-
TENS of public education were per-
fected which covered all the needs of
the ambitious youth. alike in the old
time district schools of the rural Sec
ton, and in the new graded schools
in the cities, right up TO the academic
and industrial universities maintained
by the state or by private corpora
tons.
In the main the people ranged
themselves enthusiastically on the
side of public education. The pro-
vision of more and better schools was
thoroughly Democratic work all
over the Northern States, just as it is
day all over the Union. But there
were exceptions. AS recently as 1868
there were twenty-four districts in
Pennsylvania which refused to estab-
fish schools at the public expense, and
coercion was necessary to bring them
into line with the rest of the state
In 1876 an English educationist, who
came to America to investigate the
school system, said that he found sew
eral places up North where public
education was still looked upon as the
invention of the Evil One; but they
were remote places to which news Of
the outer world seldom penetrated.
and in which the people were still
voting for Gen. Jackson"
Southern Schools Before the War.
Down South, before the war. there
were several first-class institutions for
higher education, such as the famous
University of Virginia. Some of the
states maintained common schools"
but, broadly speaking, the South had
only built the top story Of Jefferson's
noble fabric.
Educational activities were, of
course, much crippled both North and
South during the war, for the expendi-
ture upon them was reduced to a min
imum by the terrible drain of military
expenses. Nevertheless, they were kept
going. even in the territories ravaged
by the contending armies. The COL
leges and schools in the Southern
States remained in session right up to
the collapse of the Confederacy, and
schools were established in the prison
camps on both sides. In North Caro-
lima over $4,000 children were kept in
school until the final occupation of the
state by Gen. Shermans army.
While the war was in progress
thoughtful men in the South perceived