The Tupelo journal., 1906-01-12

will write the laws of the land. But
when l speak OF the government edu-
eating its children l wish 1T UNDER
stood that l do not mean 1t is the duty
or the hope of the State to give every
boy and girl a technical education or
a course at college. That is practical
ly impossible. w have colleges and
universities which the State must main
tain, and maintain properly. but the
is to provide means for giving instruc-
tons, at least in the rudimentary
branches. to those children whose PEI
culiar environment and i~mpecunious
condition render it impossible for them
to get it any other a If the state
will place at the door of all Of her chill
dren an opportunity to obtain even a
common school education. such as Is
given in the best graded public schools,
she will have done well. I want to
impress this truth as l see 1t: That
1T is of much more Importance to start
the child on the road to an education
to lay the foundation in a well-directed
common school-than 1t is to finish 1t
in a ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS university
or college. If the foundation be prop
erly laid, and there is any merit in the
child, 1T will complete the superstruc-
ture without governmental aid. It
should be the policy of the State to do
citizen cannot do for himself. The best
type of man is the self-developed man.
| am deeply interested in the beginning.
Like the acorn shaken from the twig
by the passing breeze It falls into the
dust below, and while 1t contains with
in its little shell the germ of the great
oak, 1t remain an acorn still. until the
rain falls and moistens the earth, the
Ife-giving rays of the sun pierce Its
mold, and, bursting open the door of it's
prison cell, the stimulating air fans its
folded leaves to life, it rears it's infant
head to the light and sends forth its
ramifying roots to gather material with
which to build the giant of the forest.
A few years of cultivation and direction
with the sturdy boys and girls of the
rural districts Of Mississippi. They
need only the sunlight of a n opportu-
nifty to awaken the sleeping genius,
one draught from the Pierian spring
will create a thirst for knowledge that
will remove mountains of obstacles to
crafty it.. But without that oppor-
tunity, without the wnetted thirst for
knowledge, the glorious possibilities of
that min would never be developed.
How many a rustic Milton has passed
Sitting the speechless longings of his
heart
In unremitting drudgery and care!
How many a vulgar Cato has compelled
His energies, no longer tameless then,
To mold a pin or fabricate a nail!
How many a Newton to whose passive
ken
Those mighty spheres that gem infinity
Were only specks Of tinsel fixed in
heaven
To light the midnight Of his native
all because of the want of opportunity
the necessary climate to germinate
the sterile dust of adversely. Yes, my
fellow citizens, the first duty of the
State is to provide schools, improved
facilities for the instruction of the
masses in the rI1dimaptS of an pdnca-
ton, especially those of her citizens
who live in the country districts. The
city schools are good enough Until
that can be done, until the children liv-
ing away from the towns and cities in
the backwoods are given the same op-
portunity to acquire a common school
dren resident in the city, let US not es-
tablish any more institutions for high
er education than those we already
have. Thus far what l have said on
the subject of education has been with
reerence solely to the white children.
What shall we do with the negro? Ger
tainly the education suited to the white
child does not suit the negro. This has
been demonstrated by forty years of
experience, and the expenditure in the
Southern States of nearly three hundred
millions of dollars. 1t was natural and
quite reasonable, Immediately after the
civil war, especially by those who had
made but a superficial study of the ne
gro, to expect that freedom, equal edu-
c%ational facilities and the example. and
precept of the white men, would have
the effect of improving his morals and
make a better man of him generally.
But 1T has not, I am sorry to say. AS
a race he is deteriorating morally every
day. Time, has demonstrated that he is
more criminal as a free man than as
a slave, that he is increasing in crimi-
nality with fearful rapidity, being one
third more criminal in 1890 than he
was in 1880. h startling facts re-
vealed by the census show hat those
who can read and write are more crimi-
nal than the illiterate, which is true of
no other element of our population. I
am advised hat the minimum of illite-
racy among the negroes is found in
the maximum is found in the black
belt-Louisiana, Mississippi and South
Carolina-there it is 65.7 per cent. And
yet the negro in New England Is four
dred for hundred. than he is in the
black belt. In the South, Mississippi
particularly, I know he is growing
worse every year; You can scarcely
not blackened with an account of an
uncomfortable crime committed by a
negro brute, and his crime I want to
impress upon you. is but the manifesta-
tion OF the negro's aspiration for social
equality. encouraged largely by the
character of free education in vogue,
which the State is levying. tribute upon
the white people to maintain. The
better class of negroes are not respon-
sibIe for this terrible condition. or for
the criminal tendency of their race.
suring them for it.. I am not ~censuring
anybody, nor am I inspired bv i1l-wi1
for the negro, but I I'M simply calling
attention to a most unfortunate and
uncomfortable condition of affairs"
Taxation.
There is no question in which the
people are so universally interested as
the question of taxation. 1t is the one
thing which affects every class of the
people. Placing the burdens of gov
eminent upon all men and forms of
property alike in the proportion that
they are able to bear it, it is the great
desideratum in government: Money,
notes and similar forms of property
should be taxed and made to bear its
part Of the expense of maintaining the
government. Railroads, the great
and telegraph lines and similar forms
Of property, should be taxed upon their
| real values and worth in the market.
just as the farmers home is taxed.
/ commend for your consideration the
| enactment of laws bringing o that
result.
Public Health and Quarantine.
The invasion of the State by yellow
fever last summer and the probable re-
currence of the disease next summer
renders it necessary for tn protection
of the people from this dread malady
that the Legislature should make some
changes in existing avs and ample
provision for the possible
l submit for your consideration the fol-
lowing suggestions:
First-Invest the State Board of
Health, or some similar organization,
with plenary power to regulate and
control by rules promulgated, all in
fected localities.
r Second-Empower the Governor, act
ing in conjunction with the health au-
thorities, to use the State militia as
4, ~ ,,tinn ~, ride