New-York tribune., 1908-03-17
MIR. TAFT IN BROOKLYN.
Continued from first page.

a
can be cut out without great inconvenience. So
cia disturbance and suffering more or less con-
tinued. Therefore the taking away from the
Southern saveowners the 100000 negroes who
had been under the Constitution their property,
and the making of them freemen as they were,
without preparation for the responsibilities OF
freedom, change so radical and social
wrench SO violent that ii must have been ac-
companied by temporary evils which for a time
clouded the great beneficence of the change.
In the first place the five million free men who
but lately had been chattels were 95 per cent
OF them entirely illiterate They had never
been trained to self support or self-help. They
were dependent on others for what they We're,
for what they ate. for what they did They
were living in country which had been devas-
tated by war and in which their former mas
tiers were themselves in state of destitution
and hopelessness naturally embittered by the
awful sufferings and trials of four years war
and the humiliation of defeat.
Under such circumstances the future of the
negro though he had attained the nestimable
boon of freedom. seemed dark indeed. 1t was
true that in the trials of the Civil War there
had been made clear qualities in the race which
gave promise for the future. Under the infiu-
ence of their surroundings as slaves they had
long embraced the Christian religion. and though
illiterate they could not but feel the influence OF
the civilization in which they lived.
FIDELITY OF NEGROES IN WARTIME.
In the history of all the peoples of the earth
there is uniform story of absolute fdel-
ity to trust than that which was exhibited by
the negroes of the South toward the families of
their masters when the men were gone to the
war and none but the women and children were
left at home Though these black trustees of
the hearth and home were, Of course, moved
deeply in sympathy with the enemies OF their
masters engaged in death struggle for their
freedom. they never for moment faltered in
their duty of guardianship and protection
So. too the other side, the negroes who
were enlisted in the for the Union and the
abolition of slavery manifested courageous
and warlike spirit and Willingness to die for
their country and their flag which entitled them
share in the benefits of common citizen
ship. 1t is necessary to mention these clrcum-
IFS In nrhnr IN
marvellous progress that has been made out OF
the gloom, darkness and confusion that pre-
vailed at the time of the adoption OF the Thlr-
teenth Amendment.
The national government. appreciating in
some degree the hopelessnesS of the southern
negroes after the war, organized the Freedman
Bureau. in order that primary education might
be given to these illiterate people in starting
them on the way to meet the responsibilities of
freedom.
In the of five years upward of 1000
schools. with 1900 teachers and 100000 pupils.
million black children We're taught to read and
write, and, the general government expended
S6.?W,oW- In looking back one ventures to
think that the general government did not ap
preciate highly as it might have done the
Importance of appropriatng more money and
more energy to the education of the negro.
The general government had itself become
sponsible for his emancipation. and it would
seem that by direct expenditure of money and
means ii should have attended to the removal
of those obstacles which stood in the way of the
progress of the negro race, a national matter.
Ultimately. the education of the negro left
to the state initiation and to private generosity.
CREDIT DUE TO SOUTH.
Whatever may be said of the reconstruction
government of the south it is to their credit
that laws were enacted instituting systems of
education for the negro Still more noteworthy
is the fact that since 1880 and the passing of
the political influence of the negro in the South.
in the face of bitter feeling against him which
at times seems on the surface to have swept
across that section. there has been spent by the
Southern States in support of negro schools
sum exceeding S10J, 100000.
In the year 1900 million coiored youths
attended public schools, and in the thirty five
years between 1855 and 1900 the illiteracy, which
had been 90 per cent, was reduced to Al per cent,
and to-day it is not much more than 40 per cent
of the total negro population of school age. OF
course, this leaves very large percentage of
iiteracy still in the cOlored and is
indication that much remains to be done in the
matter of general education among them; but
when we consider the hostile elements that
there were in the South for years after the war,
when consider the destitution of the South
itself and the difficulties that ii had in busi-
ness and industrial progress. we must admit that
the achievements for the education of the negro
reflect credit both upon the Southern white
man and the Southern negro.
1t shows on the one hand the intense desire of
the negro for education, yearning that mani
tests itself in thousand different ways and
is pathetic in every manifestation, and on the
other the appreciation of the white man that
the negro IS necessary part of Southern civil
iZati0n, and that the one method Of relieving his
community from the burden of ignorance and
crime and social retrogression is the institution
OF a thorough system of education for the black
man and his children.
MUCH REMAINS TO BE DONE
But while great progress has been made in the
reduction of the illiteracy of the Negro race
much remains to be done. The Southern negro
schools in the country are by no means what
they ought to be in many states, and the negro
children are denied in many rural communities
more than one or two or three months educa-
ton during the year.
hoped will =
revenues of the Southern states, in their present
prosperity. permit larger appropriations to bene-
fit the schools. and there is room here. too, for
the adding to the many generous funds-the
Slater. the Peabody. and the Jeannes funds for
the promotion of general education in the South
The removal of flliteracy-that is the primary
education-is Indispensable in the uplifting of
any race. Secondary and university education
are not so Indispensable, but they are of the
highest advantage in the instruction of the lead
of the race and of that small proportion of
professional men that the general education and
industrial progress of the race makes useful
But the real advancement of an illiterate peo-
pie is not shown by the presence of few uni
Versties among them, for there many coun-
tries-and the Philippines are one-in which
the universities are older than our own, but in
which the density OF the ignorance of the COM
the most courageous friends of that people.
The Fourteenth Amendment secured the negro
against any state legislation state action
which might deprive him of his right to life.
liberty and property-that is. of his right to pur-
sue happiness. 1t gave him protection against
any effort on the part of the states to deprive
him of equality Of opportunity in improving his
condition by self-help, and it is under this
amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment af-
fecting his political rights, that should prop
erly consider the far reaching influence of the
educa tion initiated by General Armstrong in the
experiment of Hampton Institute.
BIRTH OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.
Industrial education as such by which I mean
the teaching Of trades and occupations in
schools public private, is said to have had It's
inception in France but it had great progress,
in IA