New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-05-09
FOES OF SOUTHERN EDUCATION.

FOES OF SOUTHERN EDUCATION.
The generally friendly interest Of the Southern
newspapers is one OF the encouraging facts TO
he noted in connection with the recent Southern
Educational Conference at Birmingham. Some
attempts have been made in the past to stir up
feeling against the work OF the Southern Edu-
cation Board. That board however. is large
" composed of Southern men. with the interests
of the South and of the white race ut heart
and the Northerners cooperating with them
have had no disposition 10 pose as teachers and
missionaries. but have been merely helpers. and
they have at every point recognized most cord
tally the heroic efforts made by the South for
education OF both races-effOrts which excite
their admiration and ambition TO lend hand
AS the General Education Board, with the help
Of the Southern Education Board-an investi-
eating body-has gone about quietly helping
Southern institutions which were already help
ing themselves. putting up n common school
house in a district where the taxpayers were
struggling or contributing, at Troy. Ala, to
the erection of a State Normal School for white
men and women, the great body OF Southern
people have come TO see in the movement not
invasion or patronage. but merely a friendly
effort for the fulflment of their own aspira-
tions. The sensitivenesS about Northern inter
est in the conference, and the suspicion that
there is some hidden purpose TO put the negro
those who understand the movement objection
is confined 10 the opponents of education and
democracy themselves. The Issue is not be-
tween North and South, between whites and
blacks, but between civilization and barbarism.
This is clear when the character Of the bit
terest warfare what has come 10 be called,
after the president of the conference, the Ogden
movement is considered. II 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 Massachusetts owners Of Southern mills
TO fight child labor laws now impels them 10
keep the poor whites OF the South i'm ignorance
These cotton mills and iron mills, machine
shops and furniture factories which are spring
ing 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 poverty and ignorance in the
isolated rural districts. 1t is for them that
men like Dabney and MeIver, who are promi-
nent in this movement have been especially
concerned. 1t is for them, above all Others that
local taxation for public schools has been urged
and friendly contributions 10 school funds have
been made Some of these manufacturers-we
do not believe they are numerically strong
scent higher wages and shorter hours in the
education Of this class. They do not want uni
versal education, even OF whites They have
established cotton mills in the South because
they can get cheap labor and work IL long hours
without much limitation as TO conditions and
the uplifting Of the class from which that labor
is drawn does not suit them Hence their tears.
Another kind of opposition is that which de-
sires 10 perpetuate aristOcratic government in
the South 1t is perhaps best voiced by "The
Charleston News and Courier" which says:
Universal education means universal suffrage,
land universal suffrage means absolute destruc-
"tiOn of the South" No doubt this opinion is
sincerely held 1t is the expression Of an hon
est view of political problem not like the
other an expression OF mercenary greed. This
opinion is founded on a correct, If narrow under
standing OF the movement. 1t is effort of
characterization, and il cannot stop short of
training and uplifting the whole citizenship,
white and black. If there be those who want
10 keep any class, either white or black in pow
erty and ignorance, the instinct is unerring
which leads them into opposition 10 the move
ment. But otherwise II need have no enemies.
IL is poor compliment 10 the white race 10 say
that IL cannot maintain its supremacy over
trained negroes, that TO rule il must have brutes
10 rule over. Moreover, enlightened South
ern men like the late DIR. Curry and Bishop
Galloway and a hundred others have preached,
the safety of white civilization depends on max
ing the negro into an intelligent, law-abdng,
industrious. moral, skilled member of the com
nunity. He is in the community for its veal
woe lie will drag it toward barbarism or
rise in ii TO civilization Some men may think
they can preserve ordered AnglO-SaXon liberty
on the basis of keeping half the population per
manently degraded. They naturally oppose
anything looking even ultimately to universal
education. But certainly the great mass of the
Southern people agree with Governor Montague
when he says: 81 do not believe that ignorance
remedy for any wrong Or a cure any
ill that may affiict the body polite"