The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-10-12
MIR. CCON-S INJURY TO THE
OUT

baked theories With a lot Of So-caUef
statistics, recently made a Statement
that justified the Northern papers il
saying that the white people Of The
South were compelling the negroes t.
pay for educating their own chiIdre,
and also to help educate the White
children in the public schools. Her.
is what Mr.. Coon says he said at At.
lanta:
L presented facts showing what i:
now being spent on negro public
schools in the South, how much tht
negro contributes to his own school.
from actual taxes paid, how much he
WOuld be due from indirect taxes or
corporate property, not listed as white
or black, and also what his schools
should justly receive from the perma.
nent school funds of the severa.
Southern States. / showed from fic.
ures which the State superintendent
will hardly dare attempt to refute
that. if the school funds Of NOrtI
Carolina were divided on the race
basis, Inc ncgro would likely .e,
S429,193 instead of $4O2, 65S. tie
amount he is now actually receiving
This was the Whole point Of my At
lanta speech
From Mr.. Coon's version of wha-
he did say, the only deduction is that
the negroes pay S429,197 for public
schools, that only S4O2,65 is spen1
on negro public schools, leaving over
$4,000 paid by the negroes in North
Carolina that is used in educating
white children in the public schools
The New York Evening Post, the In
dianaDOlis News, and other Northern
papers understood MIR. Coon's figures
to make that deduction-indeed nc
other deduction could be made from
his statement
It was only after these papers be
gan to use Mr.. CoOn's So-called stats
tics to convey an unjust impression
about the South hat The NeWS and
Observer obtained the statement from
the office of the State Superintendent
The United States Commissioner OF
Education had this matter called to
his attention through a publication
in the Los Angeles, California, Times
That paper said:
"A pamphlet just issued by the
committee of twelve for the advance
ment of the interests Of the Negro
1 az. III III ~ SS ~
the neglect of the G ucatiOn of the
Negro in the South.
The eleven Southern States spend
about $4,000, 600 a year on educa-
ton, which is about three times as
much as Iowa, about two-thirds OF
what New York spends, and prac-
tically that expended by Pennsylva-
MIA.
"On this money Il per cent is ex-
--la1 90 49, Of Tho A-nrrn
yet 40 per cen of the children Of
school age in the. eleven states are
COlOred.
Nor is that all. The Negroes OF
the South not only pay all of the
HttOOl taxes consumed in educating
their own children, but they a a
part of the expenses Of the schools
for the white children. In Virginia
$4S9.22S was expended last year on
the schools for Negroes. The Ne
groes paid school taxes amounting to
SJ07,3O5. In North Carolina the ex-
pense of the schools for Negroes was
SAO2.65S, and the Negroes paid $429,-
1877 school taxes. In Georgia the Ne
sroes paid school taxes amounting to
set7.S52. and there was expended on
their schools %$5O6.110. A Xix ratio
IS said to exist in the other States
Commissioner Brown sent the e.
tract from the California p to
Hon. J. d. Eggleston, State Superln-
tendent of Public Schools of Virginia,
and Mr.. Eggleston, after thorough
Investigation, makes an answer foT
his State that will settle the preten-
sion that the negro pays anything like
the amount spent on the public school
for his race. Elsewhere the inqulry
and the reply Of Mr.. Eggleston are
printed. The men of the South who
have led for progressive educational
policies are our State superintendent
of Schools. Often in the face of OPP
position, they have stood for fairness
and kindness to the negro and what