The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-05
Adverse Conditions in South.

Nersal education rom reaching tull iful- ton: first the too small proportion of school time in the year; secondly, the too early arrest of education; th.rdly iin- sleillful teaching: and, fourthly, the in- adequate variety and range of the aecessi- ble instruction. The American states in which slavery recently prevailed illus trate all these hlndrances. In them for both whites and blacks the school time is too short. a large proportion Of the children leave school at too early an age; well trained teachers are lacking, and the range and variety of accessible in struction are too small. Hence large proportion of both the white race and the black race in the south are in uroent need of better facilities for education.
 "The southern states have a heavy and peculiar burden to bear in respect to public education. They have to provide two separate sets of schools, one for white children and one for colored chil- dren-a burden which no other part of the country has to bear. The rising pros perity of these states will doubtless en- able them gradually to improve their scale of expenditure on public instruc- tion, hut the uplifting of the two races through education ought not to await that slow process. Through the beneticent method of private endowment, aided by ndllD1dl dllu Sldlt grants lWO NOiiHPiSt7 ous institutions for promoting the indus trial efficiency and the moral elevation of the eolored people of the south have been successfully established and main tained-one at Hampton. the other at Tuskegee-but the method of private en- dowment which has been so fruitful in the northern states is too slow to meet the present exigencles of the southern states indeed, it has proved too slow to meet the exigencies of the western states There should be at least one such 1nsti- tuition as Tuskegee' in each of the south ern states, and in my judgment the na- tional government. through whose action slavery was abolished, should take hand In the establishment of these new Tuskegees. The land grant colleges in the southern states are now used only for whites Wherever throughout the country there are communities of colored people so populous that separate schools must be maintained for them the na- tiona government should give aid to the states in founding and maintaining sepa- rate industrial and normal schools compe- tent to send out an adequate number of trained farmers, mechanics, miners, teachers and nurses The government which can afford to spend eight millions of dollars on one battleship, and to build a heflet of the short-lived monsters. and whose annual expenditure is more than a fleet of the short-lived monsters, and eager to help the southern states to lift up not only the black race on which it forced a sudden liberty, but the white race too. which had long suffered deeply from the concomitant evils of African slavery.
 "The national bounty for education through and in the several states now goes almost completely to one race; It ought to go to both races. The southern states need have no more hesitation Tn accepting this new national bounty than they had in accepting the bounty of 1862 and it's subsequent enlargements. The prompt improvement of education at the south ls a high national interest, quite so broad and comprehensive as the na- tional intrest in uniform quarantine, or in interstate commerce, or in forestry or irrigation.
 Law and Respect for Law.
 The next eiviHzng agency I wish to mention is law and the respect for law. Legislation is primarily formulated. ethi- cal convention: that is it embodies and preserves agreed-upon and customary morality Hence, one of the best things that can be said of any people is that it is abiding, or in other words, that
 1t respects, obeys, and maintains the law Under any government which values and protects the liberty of the individual and also the rights of society, law IS the great conserving power It holds fast that which is good. It steadies the whole advancing movement of society, protects both labor and capital, and holds the balance between individualism and col lectivism Therefore, to say that given population is law-abiding is to say that 1t is securely progressive, and that It means to found Its progress on justice. On the other hand, to say that given population is not law-abding Is to say that the people do not respect their own ethical or moral agreements, that they do not hold fast to the good which out of their own experience they have em- bodied in public legislation. eare and honesty in making laws and fidelity in observing laws are essential attributes of a civilized people and 1t Is Impossible for any people to give clearer proof that they are losing ground in the race for civilization than by becoming careless, insincere. or unjust in making their own laws. or reckless in dsregarding or breaking them.
 Old Idea of Development.
 The old idea of racial development which still fingers in the world was that the rise of one race in civilization
 
 cline Or extermination of another race, or of other races. If Rome rose, it was by the conquest and depression of one prov ince after another--east, west, north and south If Russia be rising in the scale of civilization 1t must crush out Chinese civilization. or at least Japanese. That was the old idea. If the white race in the southern states is to be made wealthy and potent it must keep down the black race Again, the old idea. Slowly the new idea gains ground, that two. races side by side, or even intermingled on the same territory, may rise together in the scale of civilization, may dwell together with cooperative good will, and both improve steadily in productiveness and in righteousness. If two different races oc- cupy contiguous territory. 1t is for the interest of each that the other should make progressive gains in all the elements of civilization. If two races occupy the same territory, 1t is likewise for the in- terest of each that both should side by side improve and become more efficient and more righteous It Is not the interest of either that the other should decline in racial value or in industrial efficiency.
 Tn these southern states a. series of events for which the present generation has no responsibility. has placed side by side in the same territory two races of very different qualities and histories. The republic desires and believes that all competent men within it's limits should enjoy political equality the tests of com petence being the same for all races. Of