The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-02-18
The Good of Negro Education.

VI 'peISOllS WHO are OppOSeu " IlISs
education Of negroes is that education
instead of helping the negro tends to:
the promotion of crime: In an able
address at the Hampton Institute
meeting in New York, last Friday
night. Booker T. Washington showed.
to quote the words .of the New York
Tribune, that the negro not only
takes advantage of every opportunity
for education offered him, but that he
himself contributes to the full meas
ure of his power to the education of
his fellows and turns to good use
morally and industrially: the learning
that&he is able to secure Mr.. Wash
ington showed that while but 1921,
per capita. is spent on the: negro child
of the south for education, .$20.52 is
spent in New ;. York and $22.35 in
Massachusetts, on white children. Yet
the, .illiteracy of the negroes has been
decreased SIS: per cent since the civil
war and now a larger. proportion of
them than Of the people of Spain can
read and write. Mr.. Washington said:
Not. q 5single graduate,,sof the. Hampton
l.
be found, to-day in any Jail or state peni-
Tertiary After making careful Inquiry,
cannot find a half dozen cases of a man or
woman 7Whoa has completed a full course
ef"educa ton in any of our reputable lnsti-
buttons like Hampton, Tuskegee, Fisk or
atlanta who are in prisons. Tho records
of the south show that 90 per cent of the
co1ttred people in prison are without knowl-
ledge Of. trades and 81 per cent are 1lhter-
ate. This statement alone disproVes the
assertion that the negro grows in crime as
e1ucation increases: If the negro at 1.-The
north is more criminal than his brother
at the south, it is because the north. with
holds; from him the opportunity for" en-
ployment which the south. gives: 1t issnot
the educated; negro who has been guilty
Iof or even charged with , crime ;ln. the
sou tn; 1T, is, asa rule; 1.-The tOnei who has
a mere $smatteringe of education or is in
total ignorance. ,EsF. :,7t.f";a sisfis
q, Followers Of Governor Vardaman,
of Mississippi, swill, find little comfort
rim thegnrep1ies>o:M Washington re
Eceived from questions directed to: 1876
1.representative White men 81 fhe South.
Some Of the questions and a summary
4 ofs4fpeir answers are as follows: 49,
I HAS Education made the Negro, l.: a more
useful citizen? = ~. - :" .
7 'AIIsTer-Yes. 121; no, a.; unans Wefed, u
Has It made him more economical and
Fmersa Inclined to acquire wealthaaia>
/. ..Apswer-Yes. 90; no. a; una answered, "A
Does i, make him a more VALUABLE work
lam a ns uoespecally where skill AND thought
are required? @aH2s$ -.
Fd5 HnsWser-Yes,, 1872: no. .: unanswered. 2
lorSAIas education. improved the morals OF
the black race? = = q ra4c.;s ..::a.
prs 1s1lswer-Yes e7;no. 20; unanswered 10
Has it, made his. religion less emotiona
fARdv more practical? -. ~ i ,.~-.
/ Answer-Yes, lO1; no, 1e; unanswered
E39. aa:t Ee5--- $500, -. ;E::U4E:
sf,z Hs. it, as rule. the ignorant or the edu
Gated who commit crime? 49, ssr.t e
Answer-Ignorant,~11 educated, 8; un-
Unanswered, III. :. - :>.a:',...= ,,@=
tscDoess crime. grow less, as education in
bcreases; among the colored peoples?
! ..zApswer--Yes, 1902; no, 10; unanswered
15-s: ~; 80. So e...5 - 80. -,
is the moral growth of the negro equa
to his mental growth? - w.. ,,,@.,.,:
:, .:Answer-Yes, $50 no, As; unanswered, 35
After such a showing as that it
would be thought that none, not even
in. the south, would dare to argue that
education does not improve the negro
l.. r.