The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-10

series of great conferences for education, l held in the south, has helped fo quicken and energize public sentiment and hv it's wise and generous donations has served l to popuarize the spirit of Che common school and to stimulate the practical and essential doctrine of self-help With the exception of the liberal assistance of these two boards the south for twenty years. almost single handed and alone. has wres- tied with the problem of her white Hit eraey The results, however are far 1 from discouraging. In 1880 the eleven states of the south recorded 227 per cent of their native white population as Hit crate In 1900 this had been reduced to 12.2 per cent-a reduction of 105 in twenty years.
 In the mountainous regions of the Vir- ginias, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and the northern parts of Georgia and Alabama-an area contlnnetal in it's isoa- tion as well as in it's dimensions, with a white population of more than three mill lions of the purest and sturdiest Anglo Saxon stock, there are found today two hundred thousand male illiterates of voting age. This army of illiterates oc- cupying the mountain solitudes of Appa- lachian America, are behind, as MT. Mur- phy tells us, not because they are degen- crates, but because they are the un- started" They constitute what Dr. Frost has fttingly described as our eontem- porary ancestors '-the belated contingent in the onward march of American citi- zenship The cry of the white children of the mountains today is a call to the chivalry and the statesmanship not alone of the south, but of the entire nation as fell
 Difficulties to Be Met.
 The question of school organization and maintenance in the south is rendered more difficult because the population is so largely agricultural and so thinly dis tributed over large areas, with poor roads and inadequate facilities for reaching in- dustrial or commercial centers Eighty per cent of the population live in rural communities. The average rural county has eighteen children to the square mite eleven white and seven black. The census shows that 20 per cent of the children of school age in the United States live in cities with a population of 25,O00 or over. In the south only per cent of the ehil- dren of school age live in cities of that class. The development of the rural school thus becomes the most important requirement. in southern education. The needs of the rural south are today en- listing the earnest attention of our best thinkers. How to organize our rural communities so as to provide for every child the opportunity to get an elemen- tary education, and to secure for that community a higher degree of economic cated problem. The obstacles in the way of it's early accomplishment include sparsity of population, geographical bar riers, and a limited school fund, together with the apathy of the adult population. The pressing need of the agricultural south is the consolidated industrial school, which shall become the center of the in- dustrial social and civil life of the com munity
 Of the schools in the cities of the south little need be said As a rule they will compare favorably with those of other sections. The souths sorest needs lie in her rural communities. Her country schools in the main, are unorganized and unrelated, maintained for an av ge session of four or five months, tausi hy teachers whose average salary is S25 or 80 per month, in school buildings that cost upon an average less than $500 each. The average county superintendent is incompetent, because the nominal salary will not justify compentency. The equip ment of the average rural school is meager, and usually consists of what the mental and financial ability Of the teacher can provide. Outside of the cities and larger towns of the south, there are few high schools and the passa ge from the rural elementary school to the college or university is fraught with extreme diff ficulty. Only 62 per cent of the children of school age are given even these mea- ger opportunities and the school life of the average citizen in most of the south ern states is only about two and one-half years.
 To Provide Remedies.
 These facts indicate the specific needs of our southern schools and in every state there is today an organized movement