The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-24
INTEREST AWAKENED
AIMS or EDUCATIONAL AssOCrA-
 TON SET OUT.
Report Signed by Dr. Phillips of Birm- ingham and Others Tells of SOuth's Needs and It's
 Dangers.

Washington, Dec. 23.-A- report call culated to awaken interest in the forthcoming meeting of the Southern Educational Association at Jackson vile. Fla, has just been issued by the committee on Aims and Purposes" of the Association. The report disclaims the existence of the association Is due to sectional sentiment, but" 1t adds, there is a community of interest In educational matters in the Southern States such as belongs to no other group of State in the American Union. The impoverishment of the endowed and private schools and the passing from the educational system which met the needs of the white citizens and the demands of the twentieth century have rendered necessary educational changes as to principles and revoiu- tioiary as to methods"
 "Tbe enfranchisement of the negroes the report says, added to the citizen ship of these States a generation again an unexampled burden of illiteracy the mode of relief from which 1t Is our duty to determine and to accom- plish.
 "The effort to provide rural schools in any sense worthy of the need mas disclosed. from the Appalachian Noun thin section to the pine woods of Georgia, Florida and Mississippi and even in the rich Delta of the Missis- stppi. difficulties that are almost the despair of those who know what ef- ficient school management means.
 ITO these difficulties, affecting pri- marily the development of the schools for the white race by the presence of the negro and the necessity for pre- venting his degradation and helping him to a better and more useful life.
 "The conditions named have marked the section in which we live with degree of illiteracy that is appalling. The South holds 24 per cent of the native white population or the coun- trv and 64 per cent of the native white illiterates of the country. To this is added the enormous and dangerous burden of negro illiteracy."
 While the association heartily appre- ciates the interest and sympathy Of philanthropists everywhere. the report says the problems confronting the educators are too complex to be easily by study at a distance. too delicate for unsympathetic handling and too great for anything less than united effort to be effective in their solution.
 Tn dealing WItH tho huh.S'P.'' schools. graded schools, high schools and college work as to coordination and methods we need to know at once what can and what cannot be cerried out under our conditions
 And when we have strengthened our faith and hope by mutual counsel re- gardjne the work of education for the wbite races. we need to look well to that other work for which, whether we wish 1t or not we are held respohslpie to the world and our posterity-the training of the negroes also.
 ."ro study and discuss the problems .ra nolicies with which we who live and work in the Southern States are concerned. to compare the experiences oT each SO that they may be prontaole to oil to investigate conditions and weeds neculiar to our own section ana tn encouraRe each other in these ef- forts are the aims of the southern Educational Association.
 "Howeyer widely the educationai rosds of the South may diner rom thosa of other sections. they are sun ,r an important sense national needs
 d r,ust he considered in the light or
 nt,onal ideals and in the spirit of that broad patriotism which regards sec tionaI problems as vital elements III the life of the nation. o,-u The report Is signed by J. F. Phil Iips. Birmingham, Ala; Charles IL. Mc Iver Greensboro. N: c. and F. b. Due- ion. of the University of Mlssissippi'