The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1905-06-01


that was great education. They also learned
that in war it is the brains behind the bayoucts
and the kind OF man behind the gun" that wins
battles by land and sea. And it finally dawned
upon them that the one thing in this world that
can not be upset is the upper side of modern
Christian Civilizations civilization then repre-
scented by the three million American men in arms
for the preservation of a Union founded on q
pledge OF "the lives the fortunes and the sacred
honor OF their own great grandiathers and grand
mothers.
There was also not a little schooling in letters
going on in the Southern army heard Of an
entire regiment that during winter encampment
in South Carolina learned to read met as the
acting President OF a Southern State university,
man who, in great prison camp on Chesapeake
Bay, through an entire season with large num-
Der OF the prisoners went TO school, and was
there fitted for college" In 1860 the whole
South woke up to the idea that unless something
was done at once great multitude of its children,
from FIVE to ten, would be compelled to Join the
army Of iliterates.
Also new contingent. FIVE millions OF freed
men, was now added to the plain people OF the
South; declared and for ten years by the most
hazardous experience in history raised 20 the
under leaders not always from the North, welding
the government Of eleven great American common
wealths.
Then the North and the Nation came 10 the
rescue and during the ten years Of so-called re-
construction established ia every
Reconstruction State. for the first time, the Amer
o,. ,e s,noo lean common school for the whole
to the South. people realizing after eighty years
- -.
OF course the system was crude absurdly elab-
crate and expensive for the then poverty stricken
and demoralized South: in some States attempt.
ing the impossibity Of schooling the races to-
gether But. with all these drawbacks including
the splendid work done among the negroes and
poorer whites under the protection Of the army
during the war. it probably by 1870 had taught
two millions OF children TO read. had set many
thousand Southern young men and women to
teaching school, and had created in the upper
strata OF both races a demand Tor universal edu-
cation that no body OF public men dared to refuse
Whatever may have been the mistakes and The
injury 10 the South during this reconstruction
period that fundamental work Of establishing Tor
the first time the American common school Tor
century before declared BY every great Southern
statesman absolutely necessary to republican in
stitutions. entities the North. the negro citizen
who always voted for education. and the nation 10
the everlasting gratitude Of the whole Southern
people.
Then il was first realized that the greatest
gain to every Southern State by the war was the
emancipation OF the plain white Southern people
from their old position OF the past seventy FIVE
years. First came the opportunity, hitherto only
gained by leaving the South and taking up new
lands IN the West, 10 obtain homes in the
best lands OF their own States. Thousands OF the
great plantations were divided and the farmers
hitherto confined TO the less fertile uplands and
the mountain country. swarned down and made
themselves at home" The number Of farms in
fourteen States bad increased 100000 from 1890
TO 1000 During the past forty years prob
ably more than a million Young men from
the leading families OF the South with thousands
OF young women, have moved on TO the North
west, the Pacific coast and the greater cities Of
the Northeast There iSno longer any class in
any such position of influence in any Southern
State as the slave-holding aristocracy Of fifty
years ago. This, itself has been a movement Of
incalculable importance TO the plain white people
vastly increasing and diversifying the products
OF the land; opening the mines; telling the for
ests, and introducing them to every grade OF man
ufacuring industry.
But even more important has been the estab-
lishment OF the entire American system OF com.
mon school education that, in forty years. has
loosened the Southern home purse to the extent
of several hundred millions OF dollars; including
to-day 100000 white children and youth: in
every considerable city offering free education TO
every child; having brought from the North prob
ably more than hundred millions Of dollars invested
in schools with a Croun OF Southern henefactnrs