The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-21
SPEECH OF VARDEMAN SAYS EDUCATION OF NEGRO IS
 A FAILURE. Vigorous Views Expressed in His Inaugural Address by the New Governor of Mississippi-Re-
 commendation.

Birmingham, Jan. 19.-(Special.)-A spe- cial to The Birmingham News from Jackson. Miss, says:
 With brief and simple ceremony to-day Major James K. Vardaman- was inaugu- rated as Governor of Mississippi and is now actively in the discharge of the du- ties of the office.
 At 11:S0 o'clock a procession formed in front of the executive mansion. compos- ed of committees from the two houses of the Legislature. a citizens committee, and State officials. preceded by a squad of mounted police. The procession nov ed up Congress street to the new Capitol building, the inaugural party dismount- ed and ascended the steps, passing di- rectly to the House chamber, where the two branches of the Legislature were in joint session.
 The inaugural was opened with prayer by Dr. J. s. Reaves of Greenwood at the conclusion of which the new governor was introduced to the assembly by Speak CT E. N. Thomas.
 Governor Vardaman declared that the growing tendency of the negro to com init criminal assault on white women Is nothing more or less than the manifesto ton of the racial desire for social equal ity. In strong and unmeasured terms he declared that education is the curse of the negro race, and urged the Legisla- ture to enact an amendment to the con stitution that will place the distribution of the common school fund solely with in the power of the Legislature
 This Is the essence of the platform on which Governor Vardaman was elected in the State campaign last summer. and his utterances this afternoon on the ne gro problem arc even stronger than any of his views previously expressed on tKe subject. In part. he said:
 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 expenditure in the Southern States of nearly 3O0O00,000 It was natural and quite reasonable imme- liately after the Civil War. especially by those who had made but a superficial study of the negro. to expect that free lom. equal educational facilities and the example of the white man, would have the effect of improving his morals, and make a better man of him generally. But it has not. I am sorry to say. As q race he is deterioratng morally every day. Time has demonstrated that he is more criminal as a free man than as a slave, that he is increasing in Criminality with frightful rapidity. being one-third more
 
 The startling facts revealed by the census show that those who can read and write are more criminal than the H. Iterates, which is true of no other ele- ment of our population 1 am advised that the minimum lliteracy among the negroes is found in New England. where it is 21.7 per cent. The maximum is found in the black belt-Louisana, Mis- sissippi and South Carolina where 1t Is '5.1 per cent. And vet the negro in New England is four and onc-half times moro criminal, hundred for hundred, than he IS in the black belt. In the South, Mis- sisslppi particularly, I know he is grow ing worse every year. You can scarcely pick up a newspaper whose pages are not hlackened with the account of an un- , montiOnahle crime committed by negro brute and this crime, l want to impress upon you. is but the manifestation of the negro's aspiration for social equality, en- couraged largely by the character of free
 .duCation in vogue. which the State IS levying tribute upon the white people to
 naintain.
 The better class of negroes arc not re- sponsible for this terrible condition, or for the criminal tendency of their race. Nor do l wish to be understood as cen surfing them for it. l am not censur!rg lnybody. nor am I inspired by i'll will for the negro, but I am simply calling attention to a most unfortunate and un- endurable condition of affairs. What shall be done about it? Surely something must be done. The white people of Mis- sissippi cannot sit idly by without mak- ing an effort at least to arrest this de- structive tendency. The State for many years at great expense to the tax pay CTS. has maintained a system of negro education, which has produced d!sap- pointing results. and I am opposed to the perpetuation of that system. My own idea is that the character of education for the negro ought to be changed If.