The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-27


 welcome. Irritating facts appear. De- lirious statistics emerge. Shall we oppose strength to strengh? Shall we accept or decline the issue presented? Shall we De overcome of evil or shall we overcome evil with good? The best inspirations or life are born of the stern command or duty. The golden age of peace and good will, consequent upon universal wisdom is far away but here and there in many places throughout this sparsely settled land, from far away Appalachian hills from factory towns, from rural town ships. from firesides fields and shops IS coming the demand for larger knowledge Thus like the ringing of silver bells at evening comes the hopeful harmony that shall make the yoke of service easy and the burden of effort light as we help Tel low Americans 10 the liberty that is the child of knowledge.
 Broad Policy.
 While the conference is exceedingly simple. it's membership voluntary and unconditional, it's policy broad and hber- al, 1t should, because of its powerful in fluence, be considered very seriously. In very actual sense 1t Is a dynamo and storage battery, unseen but potent, lm- parting power to many official insutu- tional and individual agencies that work ing in sympathy and harmony are cre-
 
 people at large and generally improved educational conditions
 Quite appropriate 1t is to notice that this conference Is very strong because of it's very slight constitutional basis and extremely simple official life Truly of 1t may be said, the letter killeth but the spirit maketh alive With no creed but that of social service, with no condi- ton of fellowship save that 'whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, with no small detail to distract from devotion to an object so evidently grand as to require no argument to any noble mind; it's simplicity Is wisdom It's weakness. strength. While l make eX- planatory statements as to the rationale of the conference I make no argument for its right to exist. Such argument would but feed wilfully blind prejudice and thus would defeat itself
 "The question is frequently asked, Why should there be a conference for education in the south9 It Is assumed that the absence of sectional educational organizations in the east north or west implies that this one in the south Is su- perfluous. It is an open question: not germane to our present purpose, whether the country would not be helped by other conferences similar in character to thls' Detailed discussion. past and to come' based upon ascertalned and proven facts indicates a very special and unique de- mand for this conference.
 The Original Suggestion.
 Credit for the original suggestion that created the conference belongs to a New England clergyman, the inspiration came from the Lake Mohonk Indian confer ence The quick approval, cordial re- sponse and personal cooperation from many southern statesmen, clergymen and educators is spontaneous evidence that the demand had basis in fact.
 "The Rt. Rev. Thomas U. Dudley the Protestant Episcopal bishop of Ken lucky, was the first president, and the Hon. J. L. M Curry of Alabama was his successor. The Hon. William l.. Will son, president and members of the faeul- ty of Washington and Lee university; professors from the University of Vir- ginia, representatives from various insti- tutions for both races, principally in Nlr- ginia and North Carolina, with few northern friends, made up the earlier membej ship. The executive work need ed for the creation of the conference was performed by Dr. Frissell, but 1t is quite likely that its survival of the Capon Springs period was entirely due to the earnestness. frankness, comprehensive grasp of conditions, and masterful pre- sentation of facts z by pr. Curry and President w. l.. Wilson. A few of the hearers were so deeply impressed that when the crisis of changed conditions appeared 1t was resolved by certain per sons that the conference must live-and , it has 1ivea without the aid of an incu- bator.
 Our Earlier Lessons.
 From these great leaders our earlier lessons were learned. They were men of plain speech. We would hardly dare fol- low in their train with description of Iilliteracy. the limited facilities for popu lar education, the educational apathy or a large portion of the people, the small public resources and the consequent in- tellectual decline. Equally frank were they in stating the causes of the cond- tions-slavery, the poverty resulting from the sacrifices of war. the disinte- grafton consequent upon reconstruction measures which General Armstrong has epitomized a bridge of wood over a river of fire. the exacting demands of economic reorganization the universal strain of labor for livelihood; the various questions presented by the presence of two races under peculiar conditions, strangely separated but euriously united in the same civilization.
 "The emphatic statements in the first conversations of conditions and causes lead clearly to the conclusion that this conference for education was called into eAlSltHCe by lHe tlttus Ol d oiluabph pN- culiar to the south.
 Dudley, Wilson and Curry no longer appear in the meetings of the conference. We reverently pronounce their names in a minor key as we take up the move ment to the measured echo of their for ward march. Our lines of inspiration run backward to these men. The vitality of their testimony inspires further investi- gation and the accumulation of facts de- velops a field so broad and a need so great that we may respectfully question whether they ever comprehended the lm- mense proportions of the case now being so rapidly revealed.
 Field for Study.
 "The conditions of education in the south have furnished a field for interest ing study to many educators. The dis cussions of this conference and the ad- ministration of the two boards have evolved a spirit of investigation. Great service has been rendered not only by the secretaries and some members of the boards, but also by presidents and pro- fessors in the universities, by governors and educational executives in various states. The great original sources of in- forma ton are the United States census and the reports of the United States bu- reau of education. But the knowledge derived from these great storehouses of statistics Is made luminous, popular and instructive through the painstaking work of the aforesaid trained observers whose artistic faculties of analysis and combi- nation transmute dry facts into living pictures, artists whose arithmetcal pig ments are wrought into compositions that touch the heart strings of all who