The Grenada sentinel., 1906-01-06


when / speak of the government edu~
| eating its children / wish 1t under
stood that / do not mean it is the duty
| or the hope of the State to give every
boy and girl techr ioal education 'or
a course at college. That is practical
! ly impossible. We have colleges and
universities which the State must main
! tain, and maintain properly, but the
| first, the paramount duty of the State.
is to provide means for giving instruc-,
| tions, at least in the rudimentary
branches. to those children whose pc
| culiar environment and impecunious
| to get it any other way. If the state
| will place at the door of all of her chill
| dren an opportunity to obtain even
| common school education, such as is
| given in the best graded public schools,
! she will have done well. l want to
| impress this truth as / see it: 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 gOvernment-supp university
| erly laid, and there is any merit in the
| child, 1t will complete the superstruc-
| ture without governmental aid. 1t
| 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 1T falls into the
dust below, and while it contains with
| in it's little shell the germ of the great
oak, 1t remains an acorn still, until the
| rain falls and mOistens the earth, the
life-g giving rays Of the sun pierce its
! mold, and, bursting open the door or its
prison cell, the stimulating air fans its
| folded leaves to life, 1T rears its 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 an opportu-
nifty to awaken the sleeping genius.
one draught from the Pierian spring
will create thirst for knowledge that
will remove mountains of obstacles 10
crafty 1t. But without that oppor-
! tunity. without the whetted thirst for
knowledge. the glorious possibilities of
| that mind would never be developed.
How many rustic Milton has passed
Sitting the speechless longings Of his
heart
In unremitting drudgery and care!
How many 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 lghty spheres that gem infinity
Were only specks of tinsel fixed in
To light the. midnight of his native
town
all because OF the want or opportunity
the necessary climate to germnate
the seeds of genius which had fallen in
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 rudiments of an educa-
ton, especially those of her citizens
who live in the country districts. The
that can be done, until the children liv-
ing away from the towns and cities in
the backwoodS are given the same op-
p0rtunity to acquire a common scho0i
education that is enjoyed by the chill
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
reference 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 superficial study of the ne
gro, to expect that freedom, equal edu-
cational 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, / 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 The startling facts re-
vealed by the census show that those
who can read and write are more crimf-
nal than the illiterate, which is true of
no other element of our population. 1
am advised that the minimum of illite-
racy among the negroes is found in
New England, where it is 21.7 per cent:
the maximum is found in the black
belt-Louisiana, Mississippi and South
Carolina-there 1t is 65.7 per cent. And
yet the negro in New England is four
and one-half times more criminal. hun
dred for hundred, than he Is in the
black belt In the South, Mississippi
worse every year. You can scarcely
pick up a newspaper whose pages are
not blackened with an account of an
unmentonable crime committed by a
negro brute, and this crime 1 want to
impress upon you, is but the manifesto
tfon of the negro's aspiration for social
equality. encouraged largely by. the
character of free education in vogue,
which the State is levying tribute uDOn
the white people to maintain. The
better class of negroes are not respon-
sible for this terrible condition, or for
the criminal tendency of their race
Nor do wish to be understood as CEN
Suring them for it. / am not cenSuring
anybody, nor am 7 inspired by il1will
for the negro, but am 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
ernment 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
manufacturing enterprises, telephone
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.
l commend for your consideration the
enactment of laws bringing about 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 laws and ample
provision for the possible emers ency.
/ submit for your consideration the fol-
lowing suggestions: